If you keep up with us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our monthly newsletter, you know by now how important content marketing is to any business’s marketing strategy. But what are the top content marketing mistakes you should avoid?
Based on our years of experience, the following are the top 6 content marketing mistakes businesses can make and some solutions to fix them (or prevent them altogether!).
These points are taken from Founder & CEO Hannah Mizelle’s recent interview with PPC Pitbulls. You can watch the full episode here.
Content Marketing Mistake #1: Writing for Your Boss, Not Your Target Audience.
Have you ever been in a situation where your boss or a c-suite executive pushed hard for you to pursue specific content ideas based on their feelings and wants? If so, you probably noticed that kind of content may not have performed very well with your target audience.
This content marketing mistake happens when business leaders think they know what is best to publish on behalf of their company rather than trusting the marketing team to do what they do best: producing well-researched content with the audience in mind.
It’s important to note that they are probably not doing this maliciously. However, this is an opportunity for marketers to push back and recommend a more strategic approach to content marketing: asking the audience what they want to know.
Here are some ways to combat this mistake:
- Talk to the sales team to learn about common questions or concerns about your product or service
- Survey customers through email and/or social media to see what they want to learn more about
- Conduct competitor and market research to identify gaps in content
- Analyze web and social analytics to determine what typically performs well
Here’s a great example from HubSpot where they survey followers on LinkedIn about their marketing challenges.
Content Marketing Mistake #2: Depending Solely on Organic Marketing Tactics (or Vice Versa).
Did you know the average reach of an organic (un-boosted) Facebook post is around 5%? If you don’t have many Facebook followers, only a few people will see your post. To improve your social media presence, use paid ads or boosts along with your organic strategy.
The key phrase here is “in tandem.” Just like a healthy diet isn’t completely successful without consistent exercise (and vice versa), a social media content strategy isn’t complete without both organic and paid tactics.
When we discuss strategy with our clients, we make sure they understand the value of using both tactics in their marketing. Organic content marketing is a great way to build awareness and nurture potential customers, but it will only get them so far. Paid marketing drives conversions quickly, but it won’t continue to drive traffic to a site when the campaign is complete.
There is a time and a place for both organic and paid marketing — and it’s usually integrated together.
Content Marketing Mistake #3: Getting Stuck in a Content Routine.
Comfort is the enemy of progress, according to American showman P.T. Barnum. While he wasn’t a content marketer (and actually a pretty terrible person), he had a point. When we get too comfortable in our content routines — posting static newsfeed posts a few times per week, sending out the same emails, depending solely on long-form written content — we can miss the mark on what resonates with our audience. And it becomes challenging to pin down what performs best on certain channels.
Google’s ranking algorithm changes thousands of times per year. Instagram’s 2022 algorithm focuses on serving the right content to the right people and favoring profiles that leverage formats like Reels and Stories. Marketing is never static and neither should your content marketing strategy.
Content Marketing Mistake #4: Creating One-and-Done Content.
Reuse, reduce, recycle. That’s not just a slogan for making smarter environmental choices; it’s also a motto we like to use for content marketing. When you create your content strategy, it’s advantageous to create content that can be used over and over again and in different formats.
For example, this blog post you’re reading is recycled from video content. It can (and probably will) be leveraged into a social media graphic like a carousel that reviews all six content marketing mistakes in a visual format.
One piece of content easily turned into three, allowing us to build our content calendar without relying on new content every time. This reduces the burden on our marketing team, so they don’t have to spend more time creating content from scratch.
Now, we understand there will be times you need to create non-evergreen content like trending TikToks, which only have a shelf-life of five to seven days. But you should opt for the majority of your content to be leveraged throughout the entire year.
Recommended reading: 6 Different Ways to Repurpose One Piece of Content
Content Marketing Mistake #5: Trying Everything with No Strategy.
Especially if you’re a small business, trying to leverage every new marketing tool or platform can be a recipe for disaster. In reality, there isn’t a true need for you to be on all of the social media platforms simply because they exist. Instead, it’s important to dedicate time to creating a content strategy to determine which marketing channels you should use because that’s where your customers are.
This content marketing mistake can also lead to digital marketer burnout. Trying to keep up can spread your team too thin over many marketing channels. Instead, marketers should dedicate more time to developing a robust strategy focusing on the key platforms that work for your business.
Remember: it’s okay to only be active on two social media channels!
Content Marketing Mistake #6: Assuming Content Creation Doesn’t Take Much Time or That Anyone Can Do It.
The last content marketing mistake we (unfortunately) see is the assumption that content marketing and creation shouldn’t take long or that anyone with a phone or computer can successfully do it. Oftentimes, clients assume social media is as simple as hitting “post” or that writing a blog post just takes an hour.
In reality, a successful marketing strategy takes time to both research and implement. That’s why we encourage business owners and marketing teams to work with marketing experts who have years of experience and also keep up with the latest trends and innovations in the space.
Avoid Content Marketing Mistakes by Partnering with an Expert.
If any of these content marketing mistakes resonate with you, it may be time to work with an expert. Our team of content marketing specialists would be thrilled to work with your team and help you prevent these mistakes so you’re on the path to success. Book a discovery call to get the conversation started!
