Content Marketing Trends To Avoid in 2024 (+ How to Do It)

Do not spend another minute on your content marketing strategy until you hear exactly what you should be avoiding. If you want your content to convert customers and clients. The very first thing you have got to avoid in your content marketing strategy is trying to go viral or chasing virality. I understand that going viral can feel or seem like the ticket to the top, but just because you gain views or subscribers or followers, this does not equate to revenue or sales in your business. I want you to think about if you create a video here on YouTube or over on Instagram, a reel, and it goes viral to, let's say, tens of thousands of people, how many of those people will be the people that will want to buy your course, your digital product, or sign up to work with you? Probably not many, because if you reach that amount of people, it's probably a more general topic and isn't pulling in the exact people who need what you have to offer. What's going to happen is you may go viral, tens of thousands of views, but these views, these people watching your content, commenting on your content, are not going to drive sales to your business. And then what happens is the algorithm starts to assume these are the people that are most likely to watch your content. And so the algorithm, whether it's Instagram or YouTube or TikTok, is going to start pushing your content to more of the people from your viral posts. And these are the people that aren't buying. And this will totally mess up your category in the algorithm. I Learned this in 2023. I had some older videos of mine go viral from like 2021, 20. And it was for general audiences, basically people just starting on YouTube, they don't have a business, they want to be a YouTuber. These videos took off for some reason, summer of 2023, and I saw lots of views and subscribers, but it was not equating to new people on my email list, new clients, more sales. It was just the wrong audience. And then when I would publish a video specific for my audience that I want to attract, the video would fall flat because YouTube would put that video in front of this general audience, and general audience isn't interested in that video because it's more advanced, because my audience is more advanced, like you who have a business or who know you want to scale your business. And so I have taken the last three months to recategorize myself in the algorithm. I'm telling you, it took me over three months deleting over 12 videos and almost a million views to finally get recategorized in the algorithm to get the right people watching my video. So while virality seems like the best track to take, I challenge you to think instead of creating a long lasting brand meaning videos that will be slow and steady consistently driving you the right people, I would way much rather have a video that slowly and steadily gains views instead of one that takes off and then drops off within a week or so. So focus on the content that answers your target audience's pain points. And most of the time this audience isn't going to be beginners. This audience is going to be people who are know they are committed to your niche for ex. My audience knows they want to focus on their business. They know they want to use YouTube in their business and they're not just dabbling their toe. My audience knows they're committed to doing this and they're putting in the work to do it. So I challenge you to think about your content when it comes to your content marketing strategy through the lens of who you really want to watch your content. The next thing you have got to avoid for your content marketing strategy in 2024 is waiting for it to be perfect. Or basically waiting for anything to be perfect. The perfect background, the perf, perfect hair, the perfect makeup, the perfect setup. Until you lose a certain amount of weight, you've just got to show up and do it messy. It doesn't have to be overproduced, it doesn't have to look super professional. It just needs to feel real and make it valuable for your target audience. Listen, there have been times I have not wanted to show up here on YouTube. Things weren't perfect. At one point in time I was in a gross tiny two bedroom apartment. While we were between houses, I had major rosacea flare out where I did not want my skin to be documented on videos. I've even published videos here on my YouTube channel with lipstick on my teeth. But I showed up. I gave value to every single person watching those videos. And you know what? No one really made a big deal about any of that stuff. I may be calling you out right now, but if you are waiting for something to be perfect, I'm going to say you're actually procrastinating. And it may not be time that's holding you back. Maybe it's something mindset set wise that is holding you back. But stop waiting for the stars to align because I'm going to tell you they are never going to align. There is never going to be a perfect time to film. I'm shooting today on a Saturday. It's incredibly windy outside you may be picking up on that, but I gotta show up. I want to create these videos for you. And so while it may not be the perfect time or the perfect weather, I'm here. I challenge you when it comes to your content marketing strategy to create a schedule and set a routine that you can keep up with and your content marketing strategy will pay off. This actually leads me into another thing that you should be avoiding when it comes to your content marketing strategy in 2024, and that is overcomplicating your content. We can actually thank TikTok. I know TikTok may seem like some of our banes of existence or how a lot of us end up wasting our time these days, but thanks to TikTok, more raw, unedited, more organic. I would say type content is now the norm. So you don't need worry about showing up on YouTube with a perfect background or on a sound studio or super fancy video editing. People just want connection. Connection with somebody who feels real and connection with somebody they feel gets them. So while you want to keep your content real and raw, you also want to avoid trying to jam so much into one piece of content. I want you to think when you're creating a piece of content, what is the main goal of that piece of content? So, for example, this video I want to share some of the top mistakes to avoid when it comes to content marketing strategy. I'm not going to go into detail on how to build your content marketing strategy. That's actually going to be in my next video. And I'm not going to talk about some of the biggest trends in content marketing because I've already shared that in a recent video. So I'm just focusing on sharing with you the biggest things you should avoid when creating your content marketing strategy. So what I want you to think about when you're creating your content is make one piece of content super simple, easy to digest, and easy for that viewer to know what they're leaving that video with. While we're on the topic of not overcomplicating things, I also challenge you to not overcomplicate your offers or your funnels. One of the biggest realizations I had midway through the year in 2023 is to simplify the business and what that means for me. I have removed all of the funnels. I probably had about seven different funnels and I had all of these different sequences that fed into each other in these diagrams on how everybody went through my funnels. I completely burned it all down. I now have one lead magnet which is a paid workshop that then leads into my one main offer that I have. Let me show you kind of behind the scenes what this funnel looks like.

So again, you think of, you know, a baking funnel, anything like that. I am feeding my funnel by every.

Single YouTube video that I put out Instagram content.

And I am messing around, playing around, experimenting with Facebook ads this year. So all of that content that is out there, the main purpose, the one thing that I try to get people to go to is my Profit Per View workshop. It is the one lead magnet, the one small offer that I have available I have found for me right now where I am in life and in business and where I want to be, one offer, one funnel makes it better for me. So the goal is, like I said, get everybody from this content into my Profit Per View workshop. I host my Profit Purview workshop and I, I mentioned my coaching program. I have one coaching program that combines two programs that I once had. In 2023, I had a 10K on replay, which is a coaching program teaching business owners how to set up systems and track metrics to get them to consistent 10k months in their business. And I also have the YouTube coaching experience, which is basically teaching business owners how to strategize their YouTube content, how to build their YouTube channel, launch your YouTube channel, and make sure their YouTube channel is sending leads and sales to their business. So again, you can see how simplified this is.

All of my content from my content.

Marketing strategy into Profit Per View and then from there down to my coaching program. Now you can see a lot of people are going to come in from the top of the funnel. They're going to check out Profit Per View. Not everybody is going to say yes to Profit Per View. That's fine. They may continue to subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram and they need some more time to get warmed up. But the people who are serious, the people that are ready to take that next step, step will go to Profit Purview. And again, not everybody who goes from Profit per View or is in Profit Per View going to want to work with me in a coaching program. So that's even less people. This is great because it filters out the people who aren't serious. This filters out, honestly, the best clients possible because I know these clients are serious. Now let's say they went to Profit Purview, they said no to the coaching program, they're going to go into my email sequences or basically my emails. And the goal is to continue providing them content weekly newsletters other different pieces of content to provide value, to continue building that relationship with them so that I can get them to circle on back to maybe attending the profit per view workshop or if they already attended the profit per view workshop, maybe wanting to apply to work with me. I wanted to visually represent what my funnel looks like.

Another thing you want to avoid with your content marketing strategy is not truly knowing your brand. What are your values, what are your opinions, who are you standing for and who are you standing or what are you standing against? You want to think through what do you want to be known for? I was recently listening to a episode of the him and her podcast where Camille Moore was on and she actually walked through this case study of Tiffany's, the jewelry brand. We all think of Tiffany's as luxury, as classic, timeless, right? Well, in 2021, I think 2021, 2022 time period, they were chasing virality. They wanted to go viral and they totally changed the way they were product and they put their diamonds on jeans and like ripped up T shirts and it just missed the mark. Because that's not how we think of Tiffany's, right? We know Tiffany's the brand, Luxury, timeless, classic. And when we see it on jeans and T shirts, that's just not what we want. If we want to buy Tiffany's, right? We want that luxury item. We don't want it to feel like anybody can wearing it. Like it's normalized, right? They didn't stay true to their brand values and Tiffany's actually took a hit and had a lot of criticism about that particular campaign. Now this next one everybody has an opinion on. But when you're first getting started with your business and you're trying to get to that six figure or multiple six figure, you have got to build your personal brand. You need to think about again what you are going to be known for so people can start referring you. This was exactly how I was able to grow my business as quick as I did. Because I came into the game as the YouTube girl. Within in six months, people were talking about me in Facebook groups saying, oh, Trina's the YouTube girl. You have questions. Trina's the YouTube girl. The niche when I started was very male dominated. So immediately I had that connection with women and again, I was one of the only women talking about YouTube who had kids. So I could speak to my audience like I knew them. I understand what it's like to have a sick kid at home or to have kids running around or how to manage being the mom and finding Time to edit videos. Because we can't just say, see ya, I'm gonna go batch 25 videos. Because I have all the time in the world. I actually need to get my kids to bed. I need to feed them lunch. And so when you can think about what makes you stand out, it's okay if other people are doing what you are doing, but if you can build your personal brand so people know exactly what you do and know more about you, that's what's gonna get them to buy from you or work with you. I want you to just think about all of these social media agencies that are out there. What's gonna make one particular social media agen stand out? Or if you're getting started in social media agency or social media work, what's going to make you stand out? Why are people going to want to work with you? There needs to be that connection, that needs to be that relatability. And one person who I think smashes this out the park is Ashlyn Carter of Ashlyn writes there are so many different opportunities for copywriters out there, but she was really able to work with some major heavy hitters in the online marketing space because she was very clear about her personal brand. Brand. She was southern, she was into pop culture. She loved Paris, she loved ballet. She also talked about margaritas and tacos and guacamole. And it made people feel like, oh, I like her. She could be like a friend of mine. I want her to work on my copy. I have that connection with her. So I want you to think this year as you're building out your content marketing strategy, how can you sprinkle more of your personal brand in who you are so people know exactly if you are for them or not? This is another major mistake. I see so many people do when it comes to their content marketing strategy, and it's not being consistent. Now we may go to a summit or to a conference or maybe starting a new year, like right now. And we are super excited about our content and what we have planned and our goals. And so we are ready to pump out content, lots of it. What I don't want you to do though, is get so excited that you pump out so much content that it is impossible to keep up with. I still recommend my clients to publish just one YouTube video a week and they can still see results from that. I am eight years into the game. I have published two videos a week. I have published a video every day in a month. And I have found that my sweet spot is one video a week. And now this is me filming my videos. I do have a video editor and I do have a marketing director who helps me kind of plan out my content, but also track some major metrics and KPIs in my business. And I also have a marketing assistant who is helping me get this content out as well. And I can only really, truly keep up with one YouTube video a week. And we are trying here in the new year to publish daily reels and that's a very hard one for me to do even with the team that I have. But I want you to find a consistent routine. Your audience needs to know what to expect from you and see you showing up at least every single week to stay at the top of their mind. So don't cannonball in if you aren't sure how to swim yet. Just dip your toe. Start with a routine or a schedule that you can manage right now. You can always layer on. Now you just heard me mention about how my marketing director tracks some critical numbers for me and this is a major content marketing mistake. Again, not only do I see my clients do, but I did for far too long in my business. Whether you're not tracking data or you're tracking the wrong data, you want to focus on what is actually working when it comes to your content marketing strategy. Basically, what type of content is a driving traffic to your offer, your lead magnet, your webinar, or b what type of content do you see an increase in sales or signups because of when you are able to track those metrics and see, okay, when I post content around this particular topic topic, we see our email list grow or we see sales increase. You know, that's the kind of content you need to double down on and create more pieces of content around that particular topic because that topic is screaming to your target audience and is what is causing them to convert. Like we talked about earlier, when it comes to virality views, subscribers, followers, likes don't pay the bills, sales and customers do. The other reason why it is so important to track your metrics and see what's actually working when it comes to your content marketing strategy, it's because you could be focusing on a platform that is doing nothing for you. We tested this back in 2022 and we may test this again this year. We posted over on TikTok for about six to eight weeks and we literally saw no traffic to our page, to our website, anywhere from TikTok. What that told me is I can feel relief not trying to be on TikTok because I see traffic from Instagram and YouTube, coming consistently to my pages and actually converting, being on my email list, buying things from me. So if you're trying to be on so many platforms and you're not sure which one you should actually be on, knowing your data will do that. So you're probably thinking, well, how do I even track this data? I believe it is so important to track this data that I hire a Google Analytics expert in my coaching program for all of my clients to have access to. Once I got my Google Analytics set up, I have a dashboard. I check it weekly to see what my traffic looks like, where my traffic is coming from, Is it coming from Instagram, is it coming from YouTube? Did I see a spike in traffic from YouTube that particular week? What did I talk about that week on YouTube to cause that spike? Which content or which platform is converting higher? I may get more traffic from Instagram, but I get more buyers from YouTube and I'm only able to see that when I have my Google Analytics set up up. So one of the very first things that I make sure all of my clients in my coaching program do is listen to Carrie inside of my coaching program, walk through her tutorials on how to set up a Google Analytics dashboard and check in with her. She is accessible through Slack to get questions answered so that every single one of my clients knows exactly what content, what platform is their content marketing strategy driving them, the best results, results based on data and not based on gut feeling. Now, once you have this set up, you could even go as detailed as tracking every single piece of content that you put out. You could post a special link for stories, you could post a special link for reels on your Instagram bio, on every single YouTube video to see what kind of traffic every piece of content drives to your business. I don't go that detailed. I'm just focusing on each platform individually. But it tells you me so much and it allowed me to know. Okay, I can put TikTok on the back burner because it's not really doing anything for me. I did want to tell you if you are interested in working with me and my Google Analytics expert and my coaching program, you can absolutely learn more about this program over@trina little.com forward slash, apply or feel free to email me personally@trina little.com if you've got any questions about that opportunity. We only are able to take a few clients at a time because it is so high touch and we are answering your individual, individual questions and giving you personalized feedback. So just keep that in mind. So what should your content marketing plan actually look like day to Day for 2024? You've heard the trends. You've seen how I created my content calendar. Now it's time to see what my content marketing strategy is for 2024. Check out the video on your screen right now where I'm walking through exactly what I'm doing and the routine I've put in place to make it happen. Click here to watch now.