8 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

8 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Executive Summary

Only a handful of marketers can hit a home run every time they step
up to bat. Let’s face it, we’ve all had our share of flops. But failures
can be learning experiences; a mistake or misstep can provide
insight into what to avoid in the future. Heinz Marketing’s Matt Heinz
suggests that you not “overthink your content marketing strategy. It’s
more important to have a bias for action and get rolling.” In this online
discussion, Matt gets things rolling by sharing some content marketing
“gotchas” to avoid, and he’s in good company, with input from
Marketing Interactions’ Ardath Albee, Babcock & Jenkins’ Carmen
Hill, The Funnelholic’s Craig Rosenberg, and The Sales Lion’s Marcus
Sheridan. This list of “don’ts” can help you avoid some of the more
common content marketing mistakes these experts have seen (and
perhaps even made themselves!).
Checklist
1. Don’t neglect to do the groundwork.
2. Don’t focus on yourself—focus on the buyer instead.
3. Don’t pitch your product at every stage.
4. Don’t overlook calls to action.
5. Don’t forget that effective content marketing is a two-way
street.
6. Don’t produce content that lacks substance.
7. Don’t treat content marketing as an afterthought.
8. Don’t underestimate the power of various formats.
8 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Don’t neglect to do the groundwork. Before you start any
marketing activity (no matter how strategic or tactical), you
have to know why you’re doing it. What does success look
like? How does this activity translate to immediate or eventual
sales and revenue? (Heinz)
I think the biggest mistake is not doing the foundational, big-
picture work. You have to know whom you’re talking to, what
they need and want to know, and where their interests intersect
with yours. All the other mistakes we make emanate from that
void. (Hill)

2. Don’t focus on yourself—focus on the buyer instead.
I’d argue that marketers who do not build buyer insights
or develop personas will forever revert to content oriented
that’s around products, because that’s what they know best.
Focusing on buyers is a shift to skill sets that takes applied
effort. (Albee)
Think like the end user, not like a business owner. Too many
business owners and marketers are writing more for “their”
way of seeing the world. They talk too much about themselves;
I always like to say it’s a blog, not a brag. Great content
marketing is about education. It’s about teaching. And it’s
about good old-fashioned communication. To be great at
content marketing, the focus has to be about the reader, and
not the company/writer. (Sheridan)
Try as we might, we tend to see things through the lens of our
company, our product, our need to get a bunch of leads in the
pipeline by the end of the quarter, etc. Nobody else cares that
much about us. Our content needs a lot less “we” and a lot
more “you.” (Hill).

3. Don’t pitch your product at every stage. Content
marketers can be overly sales-y at inappropriate times.
Whitepapers and datasheets have their place at the right
point in the sales cycle. In the meantime, give the people
what they want: interesting content that makes their life
better. (Rosenberg)
Too many content programs focus on new features, chestbeating
on company milestones, and otherwise weaving
strong product tie-ins into every new piece of content
created. That content has its place, but your readers
(customers and prospects) will gravitate toward content that
independently provides value. What are your customer’s
issues? What do they need help with, right now? That’s the
content that will spread like wildfire for you. (Heinz)

4. Don’t overlook calls to action. Every content asset should
have a call to action. This does not mean “have a sales rep
call me” (unless this is late stage). It means providing access
to the next step. What would your prospect be interested in
given the content they have just viewed? Build pathways and
tell connected stories that help to build momentum through
the pipe. (Albee)

5. Don’t forget that effective content marketing is a twoway
street. Creating content isn’t enough. To really
accelerate your audience and impact, you must devote time
to responding, commenting, engaging questions and so
on. If you’re just a one-way communication channel, even
with good content, your prospects will go elsewhere for the
interaction they crave. (Heinz)

6. Don’t produce content that lacks substance. Too often,
we focus on platforms, channels and formats, rather than the
substance of the information and the story it supports. At this
year’s SXSW, Audrey Gray of American Express advised that we
put our energy into what we’re making rather than the platform:
“Create content that makes you feel smarter, celebrates human
artistry, or that has with real-world value.” (Hill)
They are afraid to produce gutsy content that actually gives an
opinion. We have too many boring blogs living in the world of
gray, with not enough black-and-white. (Sheridan)

7. Don’t treat content marketing as an afterthought. Content
marketing is not a bolt-on to other marketing efforts. Content
marketing is a practice that integrates all of your content-driven
initiative into a consistent and holistic experience for your
target markets. Or it should be. I see it implemented as an
also-ran with webinars, white paper efforts and social media
run separately. This creates a fragmented experience for your
audience. Content marketing is at its best when it’s used to
pull everything together so that an experience in one channel
makes sense or adds value when the audience switches to
another channel. This is one reason why editorial calendars are
so important. (Albee)
They aren’t relentless in their pursuit of producing great content.
In other words, it’s not a culture of the company, it’s a “If we have
time to write a blog post, let’s try to get it done...” (Sheridan)

8. Don’t underestimate the power of various formats.
Written content may be the core of your content strategy, but
don’t forget video. Or podcasts. Or short, embedded slide
presentations. Or whatever other formats your audience
naturally gravitates toward. (Heinz)
Content is an asset. Using it once and then relegating it to
a resource list page on the corporate website is a shame.
Marketers will benefit tremendously by embracing the Rule of
5. This means that for every piece of content developed, there
should be 5 uses, applications or reinvention options for a
content asset. Turn a webinar into a white paper. Then break
the white paper into a series of articles and blog posts and
connect them via hyperlinks. Take one topic and develop 5
different angles to approach it, creating 5 different formats of
content. (Albee)
In Closing
Good content marketing is an on-going
commitment, not a one-time investment. If
you focus on eliminating these “don’ts” from
your work, you can hit a home run with every
campaign. You will find that quality content
builds upon itself, delivering consistent longterm
engagement and creating brand loyalty
within your customer base.