5 reasons why your content is not translating into conversions

While content marketing is all the rage this day and age, it can be difficult and expensive to produce in the long run. Marketers need to be confident of their returns, and that can be an agonising test of luck without certain procedures to fall back on.

If you’re struggling to get the most out of your content and you’re wondering why you aren’t getting more views, here are 5 reasons why you might be underutilising your content and losing precious conversions.

You’re not timing your posts

Photo credit: Sonja Langford

If you’ve ever attended a digital marketing seminar, you’ll realise that one of the most frequently asked questions is, “What’s the best time to post web content?” The answer to that question inevitably ends up every time to be, “it depends”.

Timing your posts is an art. How effective you’ll be depends on the nature of the content, where your consumers spend their time and the channels you go through. These are, of course, highly dependent on your industry and you’ll have to do a lot of testing to get it right.

There are some basic guidelines, and Buffer is probably your best bet to get you started. Buffer automatically schedules content based on data they have gathered from previous posts. You can check out their free optimal timing tool to plot up to 5 optimal points of the day to post your content.

It’s not a guaranteed system, though. You’ll still need to test things out to see if they work. The tool relies on data from your previous posts, so vary your schedule and post regularly for more accurate suggestions.

You’re writing bad headlines

Photo credit: Peter Rukavina

We’re taught never to judge a book by its cover, but every smart marketer and advertiser knows that it is rarely the case. There’s just too much going on in our daily lives to take the time to make seemingly trivial decisions like: “Should I read this?”

Window dressing is essential for your content to fly, even if the text is really good. That means a good cover image which you can learn to acquire here and a solid headline. I’ve written previously about creating headlines and you can check out the step-by-step guide here.

But the really short version is that your headline shouldn’t just be a distillation of your idea, but also involve emotions and speak to your target consumer on a personal level.

You’re not re-posting your content

Photo credit: wm.com

You’re not syndicating content well

You’re producing lacklustre content