Five Bad Content Marketing Habits to Leave Behind in 2024
Christopher Walsh Sinka
Sales-Focused Executive Thought Leadership | Bottom-of-Funnel Content Marketing
New year, new you.
New strategies.
New budgets.
New channels.
The new year always gives us a great opportunity to take stock of what we’ve been doing, what’s working, and what isn’t. There’s never a bad time to make a positive change, but the new year gives us license and motivation to take big swings on new ideas.
In my discussions with marketing and communications leaders at tech companies, I often hear some common themes — misconceptions or mistakes in content marketing strategy that are easy to fix or replace. In most cases, they’re simply bad habits.
New year, new you? If that’s true, then let’s all agree on some of the bad habits you can leave behind in favor of more productive, persuasive content in 2024.
1. Ignoring golden distribution channels
Not every content marketing strategy has to be oriented around the company blog.
If your company has tens of thousands of followers on LinkedIn, you should be maximizing that channel. If you bring on a new hire at the executive level who has a massive following on Twitter or YouTube, you should be working with them to create content that plays specifically to that group of people.
Your audience is already hanging out somewhere. Odds are, it will be easier to publish content there and gain a following than to herd them all over to your owned channels. Don’t turn your nose up at someone else’s party just because you weren’t the one who organized it.
2. Optimizing beyond all recognition
We all know what it feels like when we read a piece of content that has been clearly written for search results. Content written for an algorithm is never going to do what you want it to do — persuade the reader to take action.
SEO might help you to outperform the competition in search results, but the rankings themselves can’t be the end that justifies the means. If the end result is something that no human wants to read, you’ve wasted a lot of time, money and effort.
3. Taking your customer’s voice for granted
Your customers are often your most powerful advocates and sales assets. No one disputes this.
But the most common problem I see with customer marketing content is that it takes the customer for granted. “They saw success with our product, so they should want to tell this story.” Well, what’s in it for them? Why should they spend their time and put their reputation on the line to make you look good? They’ve already paid once for the value your company provided — you need to provide more value if you expect them to advocate on your behalf.
The best customer marketing content I’ve seen makes everyone look good in the process. Give your customer contact a piece of content or an opportunity that they can use to elevate their own profile — everybody wins.
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4. Expecting people to care
“We just announced a new product update!”
Why should I care?
“Subscribe to our new newsletter to stay updated about the company!”
Why should I?
“Our CEO participated in a webinar!”
Truly, who cares?
The fact that your company is saying something doesn’t make it interesting by default. Your workplace is undoubtedly one of the most important things in your life — but it’s not the most important thing in your reader’s life. If you want people to care — if you want them to listen to what you have to say — then you absolutely have to provide value. Teach them something. Make them think. Give them a trick they can apply in their work.
Otherwise, don’t bother.
5. Getting bored with a good idea
There is no such thing as an “overnight sensation” in content marketing.
The most common mistake I saw among communications and marketing leaders in 2023? Giving up too early on a good idea.
Yes, you will get sick of your own messaging. You’re up to your eyeballs in company marketing collateral for 40+ hours a week. But you’re not the one buying the product! After spending all of that time and effort developing the right message, do whatever it takes to make sure your audience hears it — even if that means repeating yourself over and over and over. Don’t get bored of your good ideas — stay the course and the results will follow.
New habits for the new year
Here’s the good news: none of these bad habits are difficult to break. You’re not addicted to SEO. There’s nothing stopping you from launching a podcast series on YouTube. You can start moving your content marketing strategy in the right direction today.
Let’s meet back here in 12 months. I want to hear some success stories.
Life & Business Strategist. MBA, MA Psychology, ICF. CEO, Kaspari Life Academy. Host of the Unshakeable People Podcast. Habits & Behaviour Design, Neuroscience. I shape MINDS and build LEADERS.
1 年Looking forward to reading your suggestions! ??
#3 hits home. So many organizations have this "Customers love us, of course they'll share their story." Two opposite things can be true here - 1) customers love you + 2) customers do not want to tell their story - or be able to. Keeping focus on the value your organization brings to customers will help you earn the right to share their successes in a way that brings them to the forefront of their industry as a thought leader in how they utilize your products. It's why your customer could care to share their successes - and honestly, realizing the value that is delivered is more important to your prospects than "what your product does."