underperforming content - different types of content
After investing significant time in crafting compelling blog posts, videos, and social media updates, you might be disappointed to see that your content is not achieving the desired results.

Even though it may prove frustrating, it is vital not to abandon hope just yet. A multitude of strategies is available for optimising your presently underperforming content and converting it into a resounding success.

This article shares 11 tips for optimising your underperforming content. We’ll cover everything from analysing your data to refreshing old content.

1) Analyse Your Data

Look at your website analytics.

Start by identifying which posts or pages that are getting the most traffic.

Once you have deduced which pages achieve the highest performance, it is imperative to scrutinise them to discern the precise factors that contribute to their success. Is it perhaps the structure, the tone, or the aesthetics?

Next, look at the pages with a high bounce rate. A high bounce rate means visitors leave your site after only looking at one page. This could imply that the content you are producing is not captivating enough or fails to meet the expectations of your audience. Dedicate some time to thoroughly examine the content displayed on these pages and identify any sections that could potentially be enhanced.

Finally, look at the pages converting the most visitors into customers. These pages play a role in generating revenue for your business. Do examine the content on these web pages. Are there any prevailing themes or strategies that can be employed in your other content?

2) Review Your Target Audience

Your target audience is the clients or users likely to be interested in your offering (products or services).

Understanding the needs, interests, and pain points is crucial to creating good content that resonates with your users and buyers.

Start by creating a buyer persona. It is a fictional character or representation of your brand or ideal customer.

Next, identify the pain points of your primary audience. What are the challenges that your buyers encounter in their everyday lives? What difficulties do they confront and need to overcome? By gaining a deeper understanding of their frustrations. You can develop informative content that not only addresses their problems but also enhances the quality of their lives.

It’s also essential to identify the interests of your target audience. Which topics capture their attention? What varieties of content do they consume?

Review the needs of your primary audience. What features are most important to them?

3) Conduct Keyword Research

Use keyword research tools to identify keywords and phrases.

These will give you insights into the keyword search volume. It will also provide information about the level of competition for each of your chosen keywords.

When choosing keywords, focus on long-tail keywords specific to your niche. For example, instead of targeting “food,” target the long-tail keyword “favourite food of cats.”

After you have determined your keywords, incorporate them into your content. However, it is important to avoid excessive use of these keywords. Keyword stuffing can hurt your SEO. It will make your content look spammy.

4) Refresh Old Content

As your business evolves and the industry changes, keeping your content up-to-date with new information, updated statistics, and better visuals is essential.

Start by identifying your old content that needs refreshing. Look for content that has outdated information, broken links, or poor visuals.

Next, update your content with new information and statistics. This could include further research, industry trends, or customer insights. Cite your sources and provide links to reputable statistics and/or websites.

This will help to establish your content as authoritative and trustworthy.

underperforming content - image

5) Add Visuals

Begin by selecting the appropriate visual to complement your content.

One effective method of improving the overall quality of your content is by including high-quality images, graphics, videos, and infographics. Including such visual elements can effectively break up lengthy text content and make it more visually appealing for readers.

Infographics are often praised for their ability to present intricate information more easily and comprehensibly.

Videos can be highly effective for showcasing products or services and captivating your target audience.

When choosing visuals, ensure they are high-quality and relevant to your content. Low-quality images or irrelevant visuals can hurt the engagement of your content.

It is important for images to be clear, taken with adequate lighting, and in high resolution.

Infographics should be beautifully crafted and stand out in design and readability.

Videos should be well-produced and engaging.

Add alt tags and descriptions to images and videos.

6) Optimise for Mobile

Make your website responsive and have your content easy to read. A responsive website will adjust the content and layout to fit the device screen.

Use legible font size and avoid long paragraphs of text. Break up your content into concise, bite-size sections, and use subheadings. Use bullet points and numbered lists.

7) Experiment with Different Formats

Different audiences may find varying formats appealing. To better cater to the preferences and interests of your audience, it is important to explore different media formats. These may include videos, podcasts, webinars, and other relevant content options.

By experimenting with diverse formats, you can effectively engage your audience and cater to their preferences. Furthermore, integrating a wide array of content types enables you to connect with individuals who favour various mediums for consuming information. Embracing this approach allows you to provide valuable and compelling material that appeals to a broad range of readers, viewers, or listeners.

One effective strategy to engage your target audience is by developing multimedia content. This could entail producing videos highlighting the benefits of your products or services—organising webinars offering valuable insights to your audience—or launching a podcast exploring industry trends and news.

Once you have identified the different content formats you want to explore, it is time to start creating content in those formats. In order to successfully connect with your intended audience, it is crucial to promote new and engaging content on your website, social media platforms, and other marketing channels. This will help you captivate potential customers and enhance your visibility in a considerate manner.

Observation and thorough analysis of engagement metrics for various formats are integral when implementing format experimentation. This entails evaluating view counts, click rates, sharing instances, and comments received. Utilising this valuable data empowers you to pinpoint the formats that genuinely strike a chord with your specific audience.

8) Collaborate with Others

Through partnerships with other individuals and entities, you can benefit from accessing their audience and expertise. Consequently, this collaboration enables the creation of captivating and highly valuable content that is finely tuned to cater to your target audience.

Guest blogging is a valuable method that enables individuals to foster collaboration with others. This practice involves either crafting a blog post for another website or allowing someone else to contribute a blog post on your own website. By engaging in this mutual exchange, individuals have the opportunity to form meaningful connections and broaden their networks.

When looking for a partner to collaborate on guest blogging, it is important to choose someone who has a similar target audience as yours and can provide valuable expertise.

underperforming content - podcast
Collaborating with others can also be achieved through co-creating content. Engaging in this approach entails teaming up with another business or influential individual to develop content collectively. Opportunities for collaboration can involve hosting a joint webinar producing a podcast episode together or collaboratively designing an infographic that showcases the topic you are collaborating on.

Lastly, it is advisable to contemplate collaborating with other enterprises or influencers for a social media campaign. An effective approach would include the creation of a shared hashtag or the organisation of a collaborative social media contest.

9) Promote Your Content

You can share your website content on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. It is highly recommended to use visually appealing graphics and thought-provoking captions in order to engage your followers and motivate them to explore your website further. By integrating these elements into your content, you can effectively captivate the attention of your audience.

Furthermore, an intriguing caption has the potential to provide a glimpse of what lies ahead on your website. Arousing the web user’s interest and convincing them to explore further.

Utilise paid social media advertisements to efficiently direct your content towards specific target audiences.

Sending a regular newsletter to your email subscribers is something you might want to consider. Whether it is on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis doing this will give them easy access to your latest content simply by including the appropriate links in the newsletter.

Include a compelling subject line and preview text to encourage subscribers to open and engage with your newsletter.

Apart from using social media and email, it is worth considering promoting your content through various other relevant channels. Such channels may include industry forums, online communities, or even traditional media outlets. Additionally, it is advisable to reach out to influencers within your industry for further promotion and exposure.

It is advisable to monitor and assess the impact of your promotional efforts regularly. By doing so, you can fine-tune your content promotion strategy and concentrate on the channels that yield the best results for your business.

10) Use Paid Advertising

You have the ability to tailor your content to particular audiences by using platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or LinkedIn Ads.

Google Ads is a well-regarded paid advertising platform. This platform enables users to create ads that are prominently displayed in search results, specifically targeting chosen keywords. Paid advertising ultimately enhances the flow of visitors to their website.

Another popular paid advertising platform is Facebook Ads. With Facebook Ads, you can target your content to specific demographics, interests, and behaviours.

LinkedIn Ads is another effective paid advertising platform for B2B businesses.

LinkedIn Ads allows you to tailor your content for particular job titles, industries, or company sizes. This approach can effectively connect with decision-makers and drive increased website traffic by using this method.

When utilising paid advertising to promote your content, it is crucial to develop captivating advertisements that entice individuals to click on them and visit your website.

11) Measure Your Results

By monitoring your performance metrics, you can accurately assess the effectiveness of your methods.

This valuable information will empower you to make the necessary adjustments to your strategy in order to achieve better results. Fortunately, there are numerous tools at your disposal that can help you evaluate the performance of your content, including website analytics and social media metrics. These tools can provide valuable insights into the success of your content.

Website analytics, such as the widely used Google Analytics, can be immensely helpful. This powerful tool allows for the tracking of various vital metrics like page views, post performance, bounce rates, and time spent on a particular page. By carefully analysing this valuable data, you can gain insights into which pages and content are generating the most traffic and engagement. Armed with this information, you can then make informed decisions and implement appropriate adjustments to your content strategy.

Social media metrics provide valuable insights into the performance of your content. Most platforms offer users the convenience of accessing basic analytics tools like those that measure engagement reach and impressions.

It is imperative to establish precise objectives and performance indicators in order to effectively evaluate your outcomes. One must, for instance, monitor metrics such as page views and unique visitors in order to enhance web traffic. If your business aims to drive more leads, you should track metrics like form submissions and email sign-ups.

Conclusion

underperforming content - content is king
In summary, improving content that is not performing well requires both time and effort, but the results are definitely worth it.

By carefully analysing your data, understanding your target audience and trying out different formats, you have the capacity to turn your underperforming content into exceptional content.

Do not despair over your content marketing strategy.

Instead, consider implementing these suggestions to enhance your content and achieve more favourable outcomes.

If you require further help

If you want to learn more about why your business has underperforming content on its website, we can help.

Our digital strategy services will allow you to devise a strategy that will help you understand your business better and engage with website users in a more effective way.

Contact us today.