Recently, I decided to poll business professionals about their greatest content marketing challenges and I got some surprises.
How Often Do You Post Fresh Content to Your Site?
fresh content poll
My very first question was pretty simple: How often do you post fresh content to your site? You know what was surprising? Out of the 109 business owners polled, most didn't know that they needed to post fresh content on their site on a regular basis.
How often should you post?
It is better to post no content than post thin or shabby content that search engines and visitors hate, but if you want to increase your page rank, fresh content is key. The general rule is to post content only when you have good content and do it on a regular basis, whether that be once a month, once a week or once per day. Search engines and people like it when a site is consistent.
website content poll
Do You Ever Think About SEO?
The next question I asked is if they ever thought about SEO. Out of the 137 business professionals that answered, 24% never consider their content and how it affects search engines. 52% think about it all the time and 51% thought about it sometimes.
How Important is SEO?
Umm, well, you want people to find your website, don't you? Unless you use social media 100% for attracting new business or website visitors, then you need SEO optimized content.
What Is Your Biggest Content Posting Problem?
For this question, overwhelmingly, people said they just didn't have time to post. This is what one respondent had to say:
how to have time to post content
The biggest surprise was how many people answered that they didn't even have a website. Back in the early 2000s I would have expected this answer, but today you need a website. No question. A whopping 85% of consumers use the internet to find businesses, according to Yelp. If you don't have a website, chances are, customers will find a competitor that does have a website.
Problems when posting content
How to Get on Top of Content Posting
There were a lot of respondents that had their act together, though. They post fresh, engaging content on a regular basis. Many were able to do this because they hired a freelance writer, like me.
content writer
Others had systems in place that made posting a priority. One respondent said, "It's called keeping on top of things."
Ideal Media
Another solution that none of my respondents had thought of was using syndicated content from providers such as Ideal Media. This way, a business wouldn't need to create content from scratch. They would simply use content provided by other publishers. This takes a lot less time and is much easier to manage than creating brand new content.
So what did I learn from my polls? A lot of people don't think that content marketing should be a big part of their business. That's too bad, since those that actively use content marketing find that they have a steadier stream of customers than those who don't. If you aren't using content marketing, I urge you to start, today. Hey, hire me if you need help.
