14 Content Marketing Mistakes That Will Harm Your ROI
Reading Time: 7 minutes Successful content campaigns can be hard. Here are 14 content marketing mistakes that will undermine your efforts, from neglecting SEO to inconsistent publishing schedules.
By understanding (and avoiding) these pitfalls, you can engage your audience more effectively, and drive better results.
These content marketing mistakes are common across all industries, including professional services (legal, accounting), medical (dental, therapists), travel, and e-commerce (B2C, B2B).
14 Common Content Marketing Mistakes
These are the most common content marketing mistakes we’ve seen. You’ll learn how to avoid each mistake. Let’s begin!
1. Stopping
The biggest reason content marketing fails is because it stops.
Sometimes unreasonable expectations can lead to disappointment. Content marketing is a long game. The real value comes with time, as your set of content becomes a solid resource – and company asset.
While you’ll likely see some early benefits, the real payoff can take a year or more.
How to avoid mistake #1: Set realistic expectations for your content marketing. And don’t stop. Your compelling content will produce results.
2. Random Publishing Schedule
While you don’t have to publish every day, it is a mistake to publish five posts in one week and then nothing for a few months.
Create a schedule you can maintain—and stick to it. Let your readers know what to expect.
A reasonable starting goal is one weekly post published on the same weekday. An editorial calendar will help you plan your content months in advance.
Not knowing what to say can make consistency difficult. Use our fresh post ideas for a steady flow of great things to write about.
How to avoid mistake #2: Create an editorial calendar that defines both what you will publish and when.
3. Not Sharing Enough
No one expects a destination or service to be perfect. If you hold back too much information, your readers will question your honesty.
Tell them about fog and mosquitoes, and timelines and challenges. They are going to find out about it anyway – tell them up front and they’ll respect you for it. But you can go too far…
How to avoid mistake #3: Let them know what to really expect. Share the good and the not-so-good of your offering.
4. Sharing Too Much
While transparency is the best policy, be careful not to share unnecessarily negative information.
Don’t allow your blog, social channels, and email list to become a Debbie Downer. Avoid negative news articles that don’t affect your readers. And be careful with personal opinions on sensitive issues.
On a related note, be careful which staff members you allow to access your social media channels.
How to avoid mistake #4: Only share information that will help clients and prospects succeed.
5. Overlooking Calls to Action
Don’t overlook the goal of your content: to move prospects along the sales pipeline.
Providing a call to action doesn’t necessarily mean having a “Buy Now” button at the bottom of each post. It does mean giving access to the next step.
How to avoid mistake #5: Determine what additional information is needed and provide it. It might be an ebook, video, or link to a tour sales page.
6. Not Publishing Evergreen Content
Evergreen content remains green (or useful) all year long – and often for many years.
Instead of publishing “9 Don’t-Miss Halifax Events in 2024” (which will expire in a few months), why not write “12 Must-Do Halifax Attractions for Families” (which will remain current for many years).
Keeping your blog evergreen helps you build a base of content that becomes more useful each year. For example, this post about evergreen content was published in September 2013, and it is just as relevant today as it was then.
How to avoid mistake #6: Before creating content, ask yourself “Will this post/video still be useful one year from now?” If not, it is probably better as an update on your social channels.
7. Trying to Cover it All
It can be tempting to try to fit everything into one post or video. Not only is this difficult, it isn’t what your readers want.
Generally speaking, buyers are looking for specific information about a product or service. While these can be tied together into a hub post in the future, your readers are best served by covering just one topic per post.
Learn more about writing granular posts.
How to avoid mistake #7: Break each topic down to its simplest form. Cover each topic from several angles – each in separate posts and videos.
8. Poor Post Formatting
Without proper formatting, your content will not be read or shared properly – regardless of how compelling it is.
Post formatting includes things like title length, images, headers, and inbound/outbound links. Write for the web – or the web won’t read it. This means short paragraphs and a clear structure to your content.
How to avoid mistake #8: Learn how to format a blog post. It takes just a few minutes before publishing.
9. Wrong Focus
Remember, your blog is not about your company. It’s about your readers and what they’ll experience.
Readers can tell the difference between content and an advertisement. What’s the difference? Your readers want to consume your content. Advertising? Not so much.
How to avoid mistake #9: Write about flavors and experiences, not your awards and seat capacity. Remember that you want to educate and entertain. When you begin talking about yourself, it’s time to start over.
10. Not Researching Keywords
If you don’t research keywords, you are missing a huge opportunity. While search engine optimization is not the primary reason to create content, search traffic is an important factor in your content marketing plan.
The primary reason to research keywords is to determine what phrases your readers are using to learn about your offering. Using their search terms is the key to receiving more search traffic.
How to avoid mistake #10: When you begin your company blog, take the time to create a blog keyword list. As you blog, keep it up-to-date and add to it.
11. Not Creating Mobile-Friendly Content
This is pretty important. Mobile visits account for 60% of all web visits to our portfolio, compared to under 40% on desktop. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you could be losing up to half your traffic.
But this is just the beginning. If the initial visit fails because of a non-responsive site, your visitor may never visit your site on their desktop either.
With mobile-first indexing, Google indexes your site’s mobile version over the desktop version. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, it could suffer or even fall out of the index altogether.
A lost visitor is a lost opportunity.
How to avoid mistake #11: Go to Google Search Console and check Core Web Vitals > Mobile. You’ll want to see all URLs listed as Good. If not, consider moving your site to WordPress and using a theme like Kadence. This site runs on WordPress and Kadence and has a 100% responsive, mobile-friendly design.
If you need help determining what is preventing your site from being responsive, our technical site audit will diagnose the problem.
12. Not Building an Email List
There is an idea that you shouldn’t start a newsletter until you have an audience. But how will you build an audience without one? You need to start your email list today.
An email newsletter is a great way to help the 99% of your readers who aren’t ready to purchase yet.
An email list creates a sense of community and allows you to communicate directly, and immediately, with your prospects. Then, when they’re ready to purchase, you are the expert.
How to avoid mistake #12: Set up an email list today.
13. Not Promoting Enough
While the content is important, it must be promoted. It isn’t enough to publish and hope.
When you first start publishing, you’ll have no indexed content. This means that search engines aren’t aware that you are publishing – and aren’t even looking. Without promotion, it will be almost impossible to put your content in front of readers.
How to avoid mistake #13: Allow sufficient time to promote your new content. You should also promote old evergreen content on a regular basis.
14. Lack of Planning
Successful content marketing starts with clear objectives. To start, you’ll want to determine just why you are doing this. You’ll want to determine:
- Demographic: Who are you creating content for? The end-user or a reseller? An individual or a company? Where are they located and what do they already know about your industry? What’s preventing them from doing business with you today?
- Objective: Do you want to increase sales, reduce customer service strain, or build your brand? Or maybe a combination of the three?
- Definable Targets: Choose a measurable target. A target of “generate 5 site inquires per day” is much better than “increase leads”.
How to avoid mistake #14: This is easy. Sit down and set specific objectives. Decide who you are creating for, what they need, and what you will accomplish.
So there you have it: 14 common content marketing mistakes – and how to avoid them.
Are you using content marketing in your business? At Storyteller Media, we specialize in the creation of custom content marketing plans. Here’s an overview of our marketing services, including web design, content marketing, and SEO.
