6 Common Content Marketing Fails (And How To Avoid Them)

Effective content marketing is an incredibly powerful tool, but it can be tough to execute internally. Mastering the technique requires extensive planning from the very beginning, a skilled writing team to execute your strategy, buy-in from the whole team, and integration with other marketing efforts once content is published.

If any one of these steps is mishandled, the entire content creation process can consume a lot of time and resources for little return. Every single piece of content your team creates must have a strategic purpose behind it, must contain high-quality writing, and must be used effectively in your sales and marketing processes.

At Influence & Co., our content goes through a number of different hands in each department, which produces the highest-quality content for both our clients and our blog. We take pride in vetting all topics during our pitch meetings to ensure consistency and relevancy, and we make sure that every article is edited and reviewed at least twice. To some, it may seem excessive, but to us, it’s standard.

When done correctly, content marketing can be highly beneficial to your organization, but when the process is poorly managed, it can quickly become a nightmare.

Content Marketing Fails and How to Avoid Them

Here are six of the most common reasons people fail at content marketing, as well as some steps you can take to avoid them:

1. Too little time committed

Content marketing is a long-term strategy that requires a significant commitment from your team. You won’t become a recognized thought leader overnight, and you won’t build a blog following in one month. Only consistent content creation over time will make your content a success.

The fix: Before investing in content marketing, business leaders need to understand the commitment required to generate real results. Understand the timeline of your content marketing strategy, and set realistic metrics to determine whether it’s going well (and how to improve as you go).

2. No writing expertise

Just typing random thoughts into a blog template isn’t going to get you far. Your content must be high-quality and provide legitimate value to your readers. As search engines get smarter and smarter, they will be able to understand quality writing even more clearly, and online communication skills will only become more valuable.

The fix: Every content marketer must answer a big question before beginning: Should I create content internally, or should I hire externally? Do the research required to answer this question for your situation, and then execute with your overall content strategy in mind. Additionally, make sure you’re hiring the right individuals for your content team, particularly a quality writer.

3. No buy-in from upper management

If the leaders of your organization don’t see the value in what you’re doing, you will never get 100 percent from your team. Once it’s time to utilize your published content, marketing, sales, HR, and customer service can all put it to use. To coordinate this effort and generate the most value from your content marketing efforts, you need buy-in from leadership. Talk to the higher-ups, make sure everyone understands the value, and move forward accordingly.

The fix: Understand what the leaders of your company find important, and tailor your pitch accordingly. If you can appeal to their values while showing them how essential high-quality content creation has become, you can win over the C-suite. (Use this article to guide your efforts.)

4. Published content is underutilized

Once you’re published online, you’re not going to miraculously draw a million visitors to your site. Content is the fuel for your other marketing assets, and it must be used properly to see value from your efforts.

Your marketing team must distribute it, your sales team must reference it and use it in email campaigns, your HR team must incorporate it into the hiring process, and your customer service team must use it to educate your customer base. This coordination requires an active and planned effort, so be aware of this as you create and publish content.

The fix: Create a content leveraging playbook — a checklist for each of your team members to tackle — so you’re ready to go once your content is published. Make the process as simple as possible. House your content on a public portfolio so your entire team can access it at any time (a Google Doc or GetPocket.com will work), and notify pivotal team members when content is published.

5. No content strategy to begin with

There must be a strategy behind every piece of content you create. Ask yourself why you’re developing content. What customer pain point are you addressing?

How does this content fit into your marketing/sales funnel? All of these things must be answered before you start, or your content is doomed to fail.

The fix: Ask yourself the important questions I touched on earlier before you begin creating content. Use these answers to create a content roadmap outlining publications to target with your content (for guest posting), important content categories to create articles around, and a definition of your company’s voice to keep it consistent, no matter who’s writing on your team.

6. Not addressing the right audience

This is a crucial part of your content strategy. When writing, you must understand the publishing platform’s readership and what they will find valuable. If your content doesn’t resonate with those readers specifically, they won’t take action.

The fix: Think through where your content is being published, and understand the pain points a particular readership has. What value will they get from the article you’re creating? Plan how you will address their specific needs in your content.

By reviewing your content marketing processes and making sure you aren’t falling under any of the categories listed above, you’ll solidify your process and increase the value of each piece of content you create.

Content marketing is a powerful tool, but your efforts will not succeed without the necessary elements. It’s important to communicate with your team, have a strategy in place, and accept nothing but high-quality writing.

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Learn how you can be a thought leader in your industry and start making an impact by downloading the "8 Steps to Thought Leadership Through Content Marketing." And if you liked this article, please share it with your network and let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!

Matt Kamp is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Influence & Co., a content marketing firm specializing in helping companies showcase their expertise through thought leadership. Influence & Co.’s clients range from venture-backed startups to Fortune 500 brands.