1. Your Content Marketing focusing on the wrong thing
This is a crucial mistake that many brands make when they start their content marketing efforts. Your audience isn’t interested in your products or services—they want to be entertained, educated and inspired. So if you make it all about your product, no one is going to care.
2. There’s no editorial plan
“Create great content,” “build connections with influencers,” “engage with customers,” “do social media.” These are nice-sounding words, but without a coherent editorial strategy behind them, they’ll just become white noise for everyone involved in the process of creating and sharing content online.
3. No one knows what success looks like
If you can’t define what you’re trying to achieve with your content marketing—and what “good” looks like for your business—you won’t be able to recognize great content when you see it.
4. You don’t know what success means for your business
Even if you have a solid understanding of how your audience views the world, and what they want from brands, it’s still difficult to create a straight line from that knowledge to a valuable piece of content. You need to get inside the mind of your audience so you can understand which types of content will excite them, inspire them and provide value in some way.
5. There is no editorial calendar
An editorial calendar is going to save everyone involved in creating and disseminating valuable content a lot of time and headache. Without it, you’re going to jump from one content idea to the next without any regard for what’s currently shooting out of your publishing pipeline.
6. You don’t have a plan for turning readers into raving fans
Content marketing is only half of the equation: The other half is creating a way to turn your “everyday” (and often anonymous) web visitors into loyal and engaged fans who will advocate for your business on their own accord. This requires having a clear plan in place so you can follow up with people after they’ve read what you publish online—so make sure your internal processes are ready before stepping over this threshold with potential customers.
7. There’s no process for creating and evaluating content
This is one of the most common problems with content marketing: Without a process in place, everyone will create and share content in their own way, which will only lead to inconsistency and frustration. And if you can’t measure how well your content is performing, you’ll have no way to know whether it’s worth keeping around or not.
8. You’re not including visuals
We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s especially true when it comes to online content. Not only do visuals help break up large chunks of text, but they also help make your points more memorable.
9. Your headlines suck
Your headline is the first—and maybe only—How To Be Included In Wikipedia thing that someone will see when they come across your content. If it’s not eye-catching, or if it doesn’t accurately reflect the content of the article, you’re going to lose people before they’ve even had a chance to read what you’ve written.
10. You’re not promoting your content enough
If no one knows about the great content you’re publishing, then it’s doomed to fail. You need to be sure to promote your content in every way possible, from social media to email marketing and beyond.
11. Your website sucks
Your website is often the first impression someone has of your business, and if it’s ugly, outdated or difficult to navigate, you’re going to turn people off before they’ve even had a chance to dig deeper.
12. Your website is filled with self-promotion
I’m all for promoting your business, but there’s a way to do it that doesn’t make you look like an obnoxious braggart (and yes, it’s possible). With your website, you should focus more on providing value than on selling yourself.
13. You don’t have any original content
When it comes to content marketing, quantity isn’t nearly as important as quality—in fact, you shouldn’t even think about publishing anything until you’ve crafted something truly valuable to readers.
14. You’re using the same old tactics over and over again
Just copying what other people are doing won’t cut it when it comes to creating successful content marketing. You need to be original, interesting and valuable if you want people to take notice.
15. You’re not targeting the right audience
If you’re not targeting the right audience with your content, it’s going to fall on deaf ears. Make sure you know who your ideal customer is and create content that appeals to them specifically.
16. Your content is irrelevant
If your content doesn’t appeal to your audience, or if it’s not relevant to what they want or need, then it’s not going to do you any good. Take the time to understand what your audience wants before you start publishing anything.
Social media is a powerful tool for content marketers, but it’s only effective if you’re using it in the right way. Make sure you’re utilizing all of the different social media platforms to their fullest potential.
18. You’re not engaging with your audience
If you’re not engaging with your audience, they’ll quickly lose interest. Make sure you’re responding to comments and questions, and doing everything you can to keep the conversation going.
19. You’re not creating enough content
This one is pretty obvious: If you don’t create enough content, you won’t be able to achieve any kind of success with content marketing. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to produce quality content on a regular basis.
20. You’ve given up too soon
This is probably the biggest reason why content marketing fails: People give up too soon. It takes time and effort to see any results from content marketing, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing the success you want right away.
In order for your content marketing strategy to be successful, you need to be sure that you’re doing everything possible to make it work. Avoid these common pitfalls, and you’ll be well on your way to achieving great results.
