You probably spend a good bit of time and effort creating content for your marketing needs, from in store displays to content on your website or social media. But have you really taken the time to analyze your audience and the content they want, or to pay attention to whether or not your current content is even working well? Here are three content marketing mistakes you’re probably making now.

Producing content for the sake of having content

You need to have a plan for your marketing and content and then you need to stick to it. Creating campaigns or content just because you feel like you need more content does you no good. Focus on creating a marketing strategy and then don’t produce content unless it aligns with your strategy.

Not tracking or analyzing your campaigns

If you never take any time to analyze your campaigns, how will you even know if they are working? Measure campaigns based on the goals of your marketing plan. Are you trying to increase sales, grow your client base, or increase engagement? If you don’t know what you want to measure, then you won’t be able to measure it, or to create the right type of content to drive the desired behavior. Decide what your goal is and then pay attention to how you’re doing.

Not knowing your audience

You have to take the time to identify and understand your audience in order to create content that will grab their attention. Once you know your target audience, you’ll be better able to create content that drives your marketing goals. So spend a bit of time testing different formats, study your analytics to see which ones work best, and even ask your existing clients how they would prefer to hear from you. Then create content that meets your clients’ needs.

By taking the time to analyze both your audience and your content, you could be producing much more effective content. Effective content marketing is what will set you up as an industry leader and help you grow your business.

Your customers are not all the same. They have different buying habits, different service preferences, and even different ideas on where and when they want to hear from you. Communicating with your customers based on their preferences allows you to deliver a much more personal message tailored just for them. It can lead to higher open rates on email communications. And when your clients feel like they are getting individual attention and service, it can also lead to increased sales and higher engagement levels. And this is where segmentation comes in. Segmentation is the division of your overall customer list into distinct smaller groups.

What are some benefits of segmenting your email marketing list?

Segmentation allows you to target your message.

Your customers want to feel like you are speaking directly to them about things they find interesting and relevant. Segmenting your email list allows you to be more focused in your messages, and send messages your customers are interested in reading.

Segmentation is a great way to increase sale.

Segmenting your email list means that you’re only sending your customers offers and information that they are truly interested in, but that those customers are more likely to click through and make a purchase. By creating a higher level of engagement, you are generating an increased level of interaction and higher overall sales for no larger investment than regular email marketing.

Segmentation allows you to track your sales.

By segmenting your list and targeting your clients based on their preferences and habits, you will be better able to closely track where your sales come from. By customizing offers and providing unique codes for each group you email, you’ll be able to go back and take a look at what sorts of offers are the most successful and where the bulk of your sales are coming from.

Segmentation allows you to more effectively reward your clients.

You want to reward your clients for supporting your business. But you don’t want to reward them all in the same way. Segmentation allows you to customize your rewards program to match different groups of your client base and their wants and needs.

But how should you segment?

There are several different segments to think about when creating your marketing lists. Consider some of the following groups.

• Buyer Behavior – group your clients based on what they services they typically purchase from your company.
• Last Interaction – group your clients based on their last interaction with your company, including what previous service they had, or what social or email platform they last used.
• Influence Levels – VIP clients or those who have influence in your market.

Once you’ve figured out how you want to segment your list, you can do the segmentation in several different ways. To streamline the process, capture the information you need to segment your list during the email signup process. For groups where you want full control over who gets assigned, make that part of the segmentation process a manual one that takes place behind the scenes. Then you can easily assign clients to the appropriate lists based on their profile.

Your customers aren’t all the same. So make sure your marketing isn’t either. Segmentation allows you to customize your marketing and provides you with valuable tools for evaluating what is working and what you should change moving forward. It’s an effective tool for growing your business and keeping your customers engaged and satisfied.