Organic traffic remains one of the most powerful methods for driving traffic, and it’s full of bright, shiny promises. Pageviews in the hundreds of thousands {millions, even!}, social media followings that worship your brand, and email lists so long they resemble a CVS receipt.
Sounds fancy, right?
Except often, the reality is a bit less glamorous. There’s nothing worse than putting a ton of time, energy, and thought into a content marketing plan that doesn’t seem to yield results. And when your top website visitor is your mom, you can start wondering where you went wrong.
So what do you do when it feels like your well-laid plans are falling flat?
Give your content marketing plan time to succeed
The first, and most important factor, is often the hardest. Time.
Organic traffic, unlike paid traffic, takes time to build. And that can be incredibly frustrating for those of us who were ready, like yesterday, to see our numbers bump up. But trust us, it’s important to stick it out.
Giving your content time to gain traffic is important. There is so much content out there that it’s difficult to expect a one-off blog post or carefully crafted email campaign to rise to the top immediately. It’s less about creating a single stellar piece of content and more about creating consistently good content.
I know, I know. Telling you to “keep waiting” sounds like a terrible solution. But you know what’s worse? Trashing a perfectly viable strategy out of impatience.
Before you start changing everything, give your current content marketing plan a little time to take root. We recommend around 90-days, at least, but that may stretch longer if you’re putting out content less frequently.
Look for holes in your existing strategy
Please, put out the match. We’re trying not to burn everything down here. If your current strategy seems lackluster, take an in-depth look at your existing strategy.
If your focus is on, for example, bringing in search engine optimized (SEO) traffic, did you go into that goal with a plan? Did you do keyword research, plan out your posts, and put the right benchmarks in place, look for backlink opportunities? {If not, or if you have NO idea what we’re talking about, we highly recommend you check out Meg Casebolt over at Megabolt Digital for all things SEO.}
If you decided to focus on a content marketing plan that revolves around social traffic, are you posting consistently, keeping up with the latest algorithms, developing authentic relationships {keyword: authentic}, and not spamming people’s feeds?
Often, when your plan isn’t working, it’s because your strategy has a hole in it. It may be something you missed, or it could be that it isn’t being fully executed. Regardless, go back to the original plan of attack, take a look, and fill in the gaps.
Revisit your brand voice
When you’re trying to stand out from the millions of others who offer similar services to yours, your words matter. This is deeper than SEO — this is about conversation. Does your content engage your audience? Does it evoke emotion, pique curiosity, and answer important questions?
Essentially, is your voice memorable enough to build a relationship with your audience? Do they resonate with the words and phrases you use? Does your content reflect your personality? Many businesses wind up sounding a bit like robots, which makes it hard to create authentic connection.
If not, you might want to look at how your content is being presented. A strong brand voice will build a bridge between how your audience speaks {and searches}, and how your brand speaks. When you combine the two, you’re able to build a bridge between yourself and your audience and kick off your relationship.
Alright, now that you know where to start, go forth and conquer!