13 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Every business can benefit from content marketing. In fact, one could argue that almost all marketing and advertising includes content marketing. After all, everything is content – from your website information to the email messages you send, to articles you post on your blog or videos you make.

But, are you creating effective content, or are you just publishing without any thought to the results? Avoiding these content marketing mistakes will help you succeed.

1. Not Planning Your Content Strategy in Advance

You can’t succeed with content marketing if you’re not planning the content you’ll create and why you’re going to create it. Create a content plan and put it in a content calendar so that you can organize and create a process for success.

2. Not Creating Content for Every Stage of Your Buyer’s Journey

Understanding all the steps your buyers go through to make buying decisions is imperative if you want to convert more of your leads and prospects to customers. Content in the awareness state is different than the content you’re going to share with them after they have purchased, for example.

3. Not Creating Content for Every Stage of Your Sales Funnel

Taking the time to create a sales funnel or multiple funnels that narrow down the target for each piece of information you disseminate to them, will ensure the content is more relevant and therefore more actionable to them.

4. Not Incentivizing and Encouraging User-Generated Content

Some of your most valuable content is content created by users. Testimonials, reviews, comments, and even blogs, articles, and social media content will make your viewers feel more accepted and comfortable with your information.

5. Not Setting Up Criteria for Your Content

Don’t just start publishing anything. You want your content to brand your business, send out consistent messaging, and advance your goals. Set up the right format, the right terms, the right message, and keep it consistent.

6. Not Checking Your Metrics

Install Google Analytics and use all the analytic features of the platforms that you use so that you can use your goals and objectives to match different metrics. That’s the only way you know if your assumptions are working.

7. Not Promoting Your Content

If you publish content and don’t promote it like it’s your most prized new product, you’re missing out on the type of traffic you can generate with well-placed content.

8. Not Spending Time Researching

Even if you think you know something, continue to research and learn everything you can about your niche and your audience. The research will help you stay abreast of industry changes, killer technologies, and more.

9. Not Setting Goals and Objectives for the Content You Create

Once you understand what your goals and objectives are, you can create content with a purpose. For example, some content will be designed for making sales, some for getting email list members, and other types for imparting educational information.

10. Not Producing High-Quality Content

Don’t just publish anything just to say you did. It is very tempting to publish any type of content if it has your keywords in it, but you don’t want to bore your audience to death. Instead, only publish content that you’ve taken time to develop and optimize. Check out my Instagram Reels

11. Not Adding a Call to Action to Your Content

While every CTA shouldn’t be a call to buy, every single bit of content you publish should have a call to action. If you’re not sure what to add, ask yourself what you want your audience to do next after consuming that content. That’s your CTA.

12. Not Using Search Engine Optimization

SEO includes both on-page and off-page optimization for keywords so that the search engines can deliver your information to their customers. Focus on titles and headlines, and don’t overstuff with keywords.

13. Not Persevering and Learning

Content marketing is a solution to help you get more traffic and more targeted eyes on your offers, but it doesn’t happen overnight. You need to stick to a plan for a long period of time to see it to fruition.

When you use content marketing the right way, it is very powerful. You will succeed if you know the right way to go about it. Do your research; learn what your audience needs to know; and understand your products, services, and the buying cycle your audience goes through to make their choices. If you do all that, you’ll be successful.

Make sure to check out my YouTube channel for more!

P.S

I put a lot of time and effort into writing these articles. Not because I have to, but because I genuinely want to help small businesses succeed.

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P.p.S

If you like this article, then you'll love this other article I wrote. It's called How to Create More Shareable Content.