5 DEADLY Content Writing Mistakes Freelancers Should Avoid
People say consistency is key and you believe them.
So you consistently show up and consistently put out content, but you still do not get the reach, engagement or enquiries about your services.
Well today, I'm going to share 5 common mistakes I see a lot of freelancers and content creators make with their content that is preventing them from attracting high paying clients.
When I stopped making these mistakes, I went from attracting random people who just liked my content, whom I call "information seekers", to attracting people who were impacted by my content, whom I call "transformation seekers".
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#1: Creating content for the sole purpose of making a sale.
I totally understand we all want to make sales we all want to grow our businesses, however if you only put out content for the sole purpose of making a sale you will hardly ever make a sale.
Now I'm not saying you shouldn't sell with your content but there is a process, there is a time to sell, there's a time to nurture your leads, and there is a time for you to just build and get engagement from your audience. So you need to avoid sharing or avoid only creating content for the sole purpose of selling.
What you want to do is you want to add value, you want to create content that inspires and educates your audience. You want to create content that brings light to a problem that they might not even know they're facing, or provides a solution to a specific problem that your ideal client is already facing.
Avoid showing up or creating content only to sell. Add value by educating & inspiring your audience. The more you add value, the more you leave an impact, and the more sales you make. So focusing only on content that sells is not really a winning strategy for you because you're going to actually repel a lot of people with that kind of content.
So yes you should sell but you should know exactly when to sell. The most important thing for you to do is to nurture your audience, nurture your leads to the point where they are actually ready to buy. So the more you add value the more you leave an impact the more high ticket sales you are going to get.
#2: Creating content for you and not your ideal client
This is very common especially when you're starting out as a freelancer. You start putting out content based on what you like, based on what you want to talk about which is okay, but as time goes on, you want to make sure that you're putting out content that your ideal clients want, you're putting out content that addresses them addresses some struggles that they have and content that actually helps them get to a specific outcome.
When you start putting out content, what happens is you're gonna start getting feedback with regards to your content and what your audience like and engage with more and create content more on that particular topic or that particular subject.
So your job is to get your cue from your audience and look at your analytics to see what it is that people are engaging with. Also, what you want to do is conduct your research and talk to your ideal clients to see the kind of issues that they have with regards to your niche and your market.
Of course there will be times when you want to talk about specific issues that matter to you, that is okay, but the bulk of your content should address your ideal clients, because once you do that, they're able to understand what it is you can do for them with regards to getting them to a specific outcome or specific result.
#3: No specific goal or purpose for your content
Each specific content piece that you put out needs to have a specific goal and a specific purpose. So you need to ask yourself.
- What is your goal and what is the end result you want from each content you put out?
Your goal for your content really comes from your goal for the month, or your goal for the year, or you go for the week. Without having a goal, it will be so hard for you to measure your results and see where you need to make adjustments if necessary.
So having a specific goal for a specific content piece helps you measure your results, and make corrections when necessary, and it dictates how you actually write out that content and equally dictates the kind of call to action that you use on each content piece.
#4: Using a generic content calendar
If you want to generate inbound leads, if you want people to start asking you about your services, if you want to get more inquiries about your services, you want to get rid of your content calendars, because content calendars do not get you inbound leads. Those content ideas and content calendars do not get you the kind of quality leads that you want and it's simply because they are generic.
What you need to do again is do your research to really understand your ideal clients, what they need, what it is you're looking for when they come to the internet. Once you understand that, then you start creating relevant content for your ideal clients and create your own content calendars that really speaks to the specific issues and helps them get to a specific outcome.
Generic content calendars do not help your ideal clients get to the specific outcome. At best, what they do is get people commenting on your post telling you "I like your post" or giving you generic comments and not heartfelt comments. But if you want more rich engagement from your content with people who really find value in what you're putting out or people who are impacted by the content that you put out, you need to get rid of your generic content calendars and start creating content that is relevant to your ideal client's struggles.
#5: Only "how to" content
This is content that teaches people how to do something. True, that type of content grabs people's attention and builds curiosity but you want to avoid doing that all the time because this kind of content does not build demand for your services.
If you want people to actually reach out to you asking you more about your services, or sign onto your email list, or turn lurkers into quality leads, "how to" content doesn't cut it. The kind of content that converts is content that addresses specific issues your ideal client are facing and content that goes deep rather than wide.
"How to" content is content that a lot of people can go on the internet and pretty much google. It can get you a lot of engagement and the vanity metrics that you want, which is important to an extent. But if you want content that builds demand for your services and converts, and content that gets people asking you more about your services, you want to go deeper into your ideal clients pain points and go into more specifics with regards to your target audience.
Want to generate qualified leads from your content, grab this free guide
Laura
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