Troubleshooting Your Content Strategy
Learn about common problems that can affect your content strategy and simple solutions you can implement to overcome these.
Content strategy is the planning, development, and management of content. It involves creating a clear plan for the types of content you will create, how it will be organized and stored, and how it will be promoted and distributed.
A well-executed content strategy is essential for engaging your audience, building trust, and helping your business achieve its goals.
However, there are many common problems that can negatively impact your content strategy. From not having a clear target audience to poor search engine optimization (SEO) to insufficient promotion and distribution of content, these issues can affect your content strategy and your ability to create and distribute content effectively.
In this article, we will explore common problems that can impact your content strategy and provide solutions for addressing them. By troubleshooting your content strategy, you can create and distribute content that resonates with your audience and helps you achieve your goals.
This article is part of our Content Troubleshooting Guide where we help you identify and fix content-related problems in your business.
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Common Problems That Can Impact Your Content Strategy And Solutions
Has your business developed a content strategy yet?
If the answer is “no,” then see our lesson on how to develop a content strategy for your business.
If the answer is “yes,” then use the list below to identify and troubleshoot common problems that can affect your content strategy:
1. Not Setting Specific Goals And Objectives
Without clear goals, it is difficult to know what you are trying to achieve with your content or how to track your progress.
Solution: Set SMART goals and objectives
Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals and objectives helps to guide your content creation efforts and measure their success.
By setting clear goals, you can focus your efforts on creating content that helps you achieve them and track your progress along the way.
2. Not Having A Clear Understanding Of Your Target Audience
Without a defined audience, it is difficult to create content that resonates with anyone and achieves the desired results.
Solution: Define your target audience and determine their needs and preferences
Having a clear understanding of who your target audience is and what their needs and preferences are is essential for creating effective content.
By taking the time to get to know your audience, you can create content that addresses their specific needs and interests, which can lead to higher engagement and better results.
3. Poor Organization And Storage Of Content
Having a well-organized system for storing and managing your content is crucial for maintaining efficiency and ensuring that your content is easily accessible.
Poor organization can lead to lost or misplaced content, which can be time-consuming and frustrating to deal with.
Solution: Use a CMS to organize and store your content
Using a content management system (CMS) can help you organize and store your content in a central location, making it easier to find and access.
A CMS can also help you manage multiple users, track changes to your content, and keep your content organized using tags and categories.
4. Lack Of High-Quality Content
Poor-quality content can turn off your audience and damage your reputation.
Solution: Create high-quality content that follows best practices and utilizes media
Creating high-quality content is essential for engaging your audience and building trust.
By following best practices and utilizing media such as images, videos, and infographics, you can create more engaging and effective content that resonates with your audience.
For additional information and help in this area, see these sections of the course:
- Content Planning
- Content Research
- Content Research Tools
- Content Production
- Content Production Tools
5. Poor Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Poor SEO can make it difficult for people to discover your content, resulting in lower traffic and engagement.
Solution: Optimize your content for SEO by using keywords and following best practices
Optimizing your content for search engines is an important aspect of content strategy because it helps your content rank higher in search engine results.
By using relevant keywords and following SEO best practices, you can improve your search engine visibility and increase the chances of your content being seen by your target audience.
For additional information and help in this area, see this lesson: Content SEO.
6. Difficulty Creating A Cohesive Content Marketing Plan
Without a cohesive plan, your business may struggle to create content that aligns with your overall marketing goals.
Solution: Develop a content marketing plan that outlines your business’s goals, target audience, and the type of content that will be created.
Use this plan as a guide for all your content creation and marketing efforts.
7. Insufficient Promotion And Distribution Of Content
Without sufficient promotion, it can be challenging to get your content seen by the right people.
Solution: Promote your content through social media, email marketing, influencer marketing, and guest blogging
Promoting and distributing your content is crucial for reaching a wider audience and increasing engagement.
By utilizing social media, email marketing, influencer marketing, and guest blogging, you can reach a larger audience and get your content seen by the right people.
For additional information and help in this area, see our module on Content Promotion and our section on Content Promotion Tools.
8. Lack Of Analysis And Improvement
Without ongoing analysis and improvement, it can be difficult to know what is and isn’t working, and you may miss out on opportunities to optimize your content and achieve better results.
Solution: Analyze the performance of your content and use the data to improve it
Analyzing the performance of your content and using the data to improve it is an important aspect of content strategy.
By tracking content metrics such as views, clicks, and engagement, you can measure content performance, identify what is and isn’t working, and make changes to optimize your content and achieve better results.
Ongoing analysis and improvement can help you continually improve your content and achieve your goals.
9. Inconsistent Tone And Branding
Having an inconsistent tone or brand voice can be confusing and off-putting to your audience.
Developing a consistent brand voice can be difficult, especially if your business does not have a clear understanding of its brand identity and messaging.
Solution: Create a brand voice and messaging guide
Create a brand voice and messaging guide that outlines the key elements of the brand’s personality, tone, and messaging, and use this guide to ensure consistency across all content.
Maintaining a consistent tone and branding across all of your content is important for creating a cohesive and professional image.
By keeping your tone and branding consistent, you can create a more cohesive experience for your audience and build trust.
See this section for more details: How To Create A Brand Voice And Messaging Guide.
10. Lack Of Resources
Having insufficient resources, such as time, budget, or personnel, can make it difficult to execute your content strategy effectively.
Without the necessary resources, it may be challenging to create high-quality content, promote it effectively, or analyze and improve it.
Solution: Allocate sufficient resources (e.g., time, budget, personnel) for your content strategy
Allocating the necessary resources can help you create high-quality content, promote it effectively, and analyze and improve it on an ongoing basis.
For additional information and help in this area, see our lesson on Digital Business Setups.
11. Ineffective Collaboration And Communication Within The Team
Without good communication, it can be difficult to coordinate efforts and ensure that all team members are on the same page.
Solution: Foster effective collaboration and communication within your team
Effective collaboration and communication within your content team and other departments is essential for creating and executing a successful content strategy.
By fostering good communication and collaboration, you can ensure that all team members are on the same page and working towards a common goal.
12. Not Staying Up-To-Date With Industry Trends And Best Practices
If you are not keeping up with the latest trends and best practices, your content may become outdated or irrelevant, which can negatively impact your content strategy.
Solution: Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices
Staying up-to-date with industry trends and best practices is crucial for creating relevant and effective content.
By keeping up with the latest trends and best practices, you can create content that is timely and relevant to your audience.
13. Not Adjusting Your Strategy Based On Changes In Your Industry Or Audience
If you don’t stay up-to-date with changes in your industry or audience, your content may no longer be relevant or effective, which can negatively impact your strategy.
Solution: Adjust your strategy based on changes in your industry or audience
Your industry and audience are constantly evolving, and it is important to adjust your content strategy accordingly.
By staying up-to-date with changes in your industry or audience, you can create content that remains relevant and effective.
14. Not Being Able To Measure The Success Of Your Content
Without the ability to measure the success of your content, it is difficult to know how well your strategy is performing and what areas need improvement.
Solution: Implement tools and processes for measuring the success of your content
Measuring the success of your content is an important aspect of content strategy because it helps you understand what is and isn’t working.
By implementing tools and processes for tracking metrics such as views, clicks, and engagement, you can gain valuable insights into the performance of your content and make improvements.
15. Lack Of A Clear Content Creation Process
Without a clear process, it may be difficult to create content efficiently or maintain a consistent tone and branding.
Solution: Develop a clear content creation process
Having a clear content creation process in place helps to ensure efficiency and consistency in your content creation efforts.
By outlining the steps for creating, approving, and publishing content, you can streamline your content creation process and ensure that all team members are on the same page.
For additional information and help in this area, see these sections of the course:
16. Not Having A Content Governance Plan
Without a content governance plan, it may be challenging to maintain quality control and consistency in your content.
Solution: Create a content governance plan to ensure quality control and consistency.
A content governance plan outlines the roles and responsibilities of team members, the process for creating and approving content, and the standards for quality and consistency.
By having a content governance plan in place, you can ensure that your content is of high quality and consistent with your brand guidelines.
If you are still experiencing content-related issues after going through the items listed above, try troubleshooting your content plan.
Your Content Strategy Is The Key To Your Content Success
Troubleshooting your content strategy is an important step for ensuring that you are creating and distributing effective content.
By identifying common problems and implementing solutions, you can create a content strategy that engages your audience, builds trust, and helps you achieve your goals.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different approaches and make adjustments based on the data and feedback you receive. With a little effort and attention, you can create a content strategy that truly resonates with your audience and helps your business achieve its desired results.
Refer to the Content Troubleshooting Guide if you experience other issues or problems with your content strategy.
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Image: Frustrated Blogger
