Guest expert blog by Kate Llewellyn
Does your to-do list (either on paper or mentally!) look like this:
- Create content
- Regularly post on social media
- Write blogs
- Record videos
- Make plans
- Do more…and more….and more
The content creation ‘to do list’ is endless and the mind monkeys love to tell you all of the things you SHOULD be doing. However, what’s heart breaking is the amount of marketing that is essentially wasted because of 5 common mistakes that are made.
Let’s unpack each mistake and by identifying them, we can remove them from any content creation you do in the future. Importantly, when we stop making these mistakes, our to-do list gets shorter and our content becomes more effective. Sounds good, right?
Content Marketing Mistake #1 – Not having a purpose
My favourite questions always start with ‘why?’. As a professional content writer, I get requests to write websites, write blogs, write email marketing content, etc.,…but it’s not about the actual content and coverage of the writing that I focus on first, it’s always the why. It’s the purpose of the content. It’s the ‘what is this going to achieve for your business?’ or the ‘how does this fit into your overall marketing plan and business goals?’. It’s the exact ‘WHY do you want me to do this for you?’
So much marketing is ‘easy’ to do. Most of us can throw together a social media post, a quick email or even draft out a new blog – but so often it is time wasted if there isn’t a clear purpose.
What do you want to achieve and why?
The importance of having a purpose gives the added bonus of giving you something to measure when it comes to considering whether a piece of content was effective. Did it fulfil the purpose or the aim you had in mind?
Content Marketing Mistake #2 – Not having a clear audience in mind
Similar to not identifying a purpose, another common content marketing mistake is not really knowing who the content you create is actually for.
You probably know who your ‘ideal client’ is or your target audience generally for your business, but you should take this a step further, niche down when it comes to content marketing.
If you don’t, your content can seem unfocussed. It can ‘fall between stools’ as the saying goes, because you are trying to appeal to everyone and anyone, and actually end up appealing to no one.
With content creation, I believe you can be really specific with your audience. Excellent content is often inspired by a question from a prospective client or a request from a current customer. Answer that question, offer an explanation, create that guide – all based on a specific ‘inspiration’ and aim that content at that actual client or customer. Imagine their level of knowledge and expertise, how well (or not) they know your business and exactly what they need to know – to what breadth or depth.
Your content should have a breadth that an array of people within your ideal target audience ‘range’. This leads me nearly to my next content marketing mistake…
Content Marketing Mistake #3 – Focussing on new customers or audiences
I see so much content from businesses that I know well, work with and buy from that doesn’t really feel like it addresses me. It addresses new customers and audiences.
Now whilst I understand the importance of using content to grow your audience and reach new people, but what about those loyal clients and customers? When was the last time you created content that could entice them to buy from you again or engage with another or additional service?
Content variation is so important and it’s boring being told again and again what I already know.
It’s where segmentation in an email list, for example, is really important or a user journey becomes integral to helping you inspire what different types of content you can create for different audiences and their level of ‘experience’ with you.
Content Marketing Mistake #4 – Always creating new content
We all have so much to do…yet so many small business owners or inexperienced marketers put so much pressure on themselves to create new content all of the time…another new set of social media posts every single week, a new blog post, a new email, a new nurture sequence, a new lead magnet….the list goes on.
You do need to create a certain amount of new content because business and focus changes or needs to adapt, a marketing platform itself could force you to create new, but this should be a small amount of the content you create.
So much of the content you have already created can be repurposed – tweaked and improved (not many of us get our content perfect the first time) and so much can simply be reused. Why? Because we get new audiences and the algorithms of all kinds on social media, search engines and more, mean not ‘everyone in our network sees every piece of content. Even better, if they do, most don’t mind seeing the same thing. It could even be more relevant or meaningful to them the second or third time they see it.
Content Marketing Mistake #5 – Trying to do too much
How effective is every piece of content you create? If you did less, what would happen? Would it dramatically affect your sales? Your number of leads? Your visibility? Your amount of engagement?
I get my clients and Content Club members (my online membership group) to consider both what content they enjoy creating and what content is effective. From this, we can simply work out what is worth doing more of; what they can stop doing; what they need to ‘perfect’ or learn more about; and what they can consider outsourcing. It sounds simplistic but doing more of what you enjoy and what you know works because you are tracking and monitoring it, makes content marketing effective.
However, so much marketing is done without having any sense of its effectiveness with a blind belief that more is simply better…that being on every platform must work…that just creating more and more…will…must lead to sales.
However, I believe in a minimum content commitment – that is identifying the very least you can do to reach your business goals. I believe in quality over quantity, every time.
How to avoid these content marketing mistakes
If you have been creating content for a while, the best way to avoid any of these mistakes is to take the time to really evaluate the content you have. Create an asset bank of what you have. Track some basic analytics. Think qualitatively about what content you feel is working hard for your business and what is not. And then ask that magic question …why?
- Is it because the content didn’t have a clear purpose?
- Is it because the content didn’t have a clear audience?
- Is it because it only focusses on visibility and brand awareness (for new customers)?
- Is it because it is has only had ‘one outing’ and no chance for refinement or seeing the light of day more than once?
- Is it because the quality is poor because you are doing too much and didn’t give it the attention is deserves?
What’s great is that even if you have answered yes to one or more of these things all of these things can be solved.
Download my Six-Step Guide to Making Marketing Simpler – and learn about 3 things to stop doing, so you can do less and 3 things to start doing, to make your content marketing more effective.
BIO
Kate Llewellyn is a content consultant and copywriter who feels strongly about creating powerful long-form content, such as websites, blogs and emails, which works hard for a business.
She launched her business, The Content Consultancy in 2017 and runs The Content Club, an online membership, that supports overwhelmed small business owners to learn more about enjoyable content creation, effective use of the major digital marketing platforms and how to create, plan and distribute content, regularly and consistency, to increase visibility, engagement and sales.
