Top 10 Mistakes in Content Marketing and How to Avoid Them

Content marketing plays a vital role in SEO and online marketing, but there’s a right and wrong way to do it. Find out which ten content marketing mistakes are made by many marketers and how to avoid them when you are creating your own content marketing strategy.

Content marketing is the backbone of any online marketing strategy. It boosts search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, builds brand awareness, attracts leads, and helps establish your brand as an authority. Content marketing is like treasure trails leading new customers to your business.

But just like any other form of marketing, there are right and wrong ways to do things. Here are ten content marketing mistakes and how to avoid them.

Not Doing Enough Audience Research

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not doing enough audience research. The goal is to create content that appeals to your audience and answers their questions. 

For example, an SEO agency may be targeting businesses that are interested in content marketing but have no idea where to start. Their audience may have lots of questions, like:

• What is content marketing?
• How does content marketing work?
• Is it worth the investment?
• What sort of return will you see?

These are questions that the example SEO agency should be answering in their content to attract their target audience. 

If you don’t understand your audience and their needs, you’re never going to succeed with your content marketing strategy.

Take the time to research your audience and their needs to create relevant content they want to see and read.

Not Setting Goals

To succeed in business, you have to set goals. The same is right for content marketing. You can’t realize the benefits of content marketing if you don’t have goals and direction.

Goals create a purpose for your content and keep your content focused on the right topics. Part of the goal-setting process is to identify key performance indicators (KPIs), which may include visits, page impressions, shares, time spent on a page, etc. Identifying your KPIs will help you create content that achieves your goals. 

Creating Poor Quality Content

Creating content for the sake of creating content is never a good idea. Any content marketing agency will tell you that the biggest mistake you can make is to push poor quality content.

What is poor quality content?

• Brief content that provides no value or is filled with fluff
• Copied content (blatant plagiarism)
• Unoriginal (the same topic has been rehashed dozens of times)
• Content that is stuffed with keywords or is written poorly

To avoid this mistake, focus on creating valuable content that answers your audience’s questions and is created by a team that understands your audience. The Content Marketing Institute provides excellent insight into how to produce quality content. 

Not Having Enough CTAs

All content should have a purpose, whether it’s to get the reader to buy, contact your company, or to sign up for something like a newsletter.

But many people make the mistake of not telling their readers how to take the next step. 

A call to action (CTA) tells the reader exactly what to do:

• Call your business
• Fill out a form
• Sign up for your newsletter
• Buy your product

It’s essential to make sure that you include enough CTAs in your content that readers know what to do next. 

Not Creating a Content Strategy

Another big mistake in content marketing for small businesses is a lack of strategy. Many people create content blindly with absolutely no direction or goal. Without a plan, you’re just creating content for the sake of creating content (another big mistake).

All of your content should have a purpose and be helping you reach your goal. Create a strategy for your posts, your topics, and the type of content you want to create.

Not Diversifying Your Content

Many people wrongly assume that content can only come from blog posts or articles, but it’s essential to offer a diverse range of content. Blogs are great, but videos, infographics and other types of content will help you reach more of your target audience.

Let’s say that you own a treasure hunt business. It’s great to write about the types of excursions you take clients on, but wouldn’t it be even better to show your audience what your adventures look like? Video footage and photos of your tours could appeal to a broader audience and gives everyone the chance to see what their experience may look like.

Ensure that you’re diversifying your content so that you can appeal to more people and stay relevant.

Not Measuring Your Results

When done correctly, content marketing offers a high return on investment (ROI). But many people make the mistake of just assuming their strategy is working. How many new customers are your strategy bringing in? Are you building brand awareness? How can you improve your strategy?

It’s impossible to answer any of these questions if you don’t have a way to measure your results. Make sure that you develop a method for analyzing your results and the right tools for the job.

Not Having a Plan for Content Promotion

The “build it, and they will come” theory doesn’t apply to content marketing. Many people assume that they can create content, and traffic will come flooding in, but you have to promote that content for it to benefit your brand.

Make sure that you develop a content promotion plan, and make sure that you’re promoting your content more than once. Your audience won’t know about your blog posts and other content if you never share it.

Not Updating Old Content

Content doesn’t have to be a one-and-done thing. Blog posts, videos, infographics, and other forms of content can be updated with new data, insights, tips, and additional valuable information.

Many people make the mistake of allowing their content to go stagnant. Refresh old content, mainly if it receives a lot of traffic. 

Not Giving Your Strategy Time to Succeed

Unlike other forms of marketing, which can have instant results, content marketing is a long-term strategy. It can take months and years to build your plan and see results. The process is ongoing, and you will need to tweak your strategy along the way. 

Content marketing is both an art and a science, but with persistence and effort, you will reach your goals. Just be sure to avoid these ten mistakes to avoid setbacks and costly errors.

What mistakes have you made in your content marketing?