We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Content marketing is tough. It requires creativity, careful planning and coordination of many moving pieces. While we could offer countless tips and best practices, if you’re just starting out in content marketing, you might be more interested in learning what not to do.
Here’s our take on the three most important (and commonly made) content marketing mistakes you should avoid:
#1: Not knowing your niche. An unfocused approach to content marketing won’t get you very far. Before you start creating content, you should have a deep understanding of the wants and needs of your target audience, and the unique ways your content can meet those needs. Your niche can be found at the intersection of your business’ area of expertise and your target’s area of interest. Once you find it, stick to it. Create content that fits within a narrowly defined topic area, and create it with your reader in mind.
#2: Failing to give your content a home. Sure, you can share your content on social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, but unless it has its own home, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities and setting yourself up for possible problems in the future. Essentially, when we post to a social network that we don’t own, we give that site complete control over our content. They can change how it appears or delete it entirely at a moment’s notice. On the flipside, when we own our content platform (like a self-hosted WordPress blog) we have complete control over our content and have the assurance of being able to hold on to it forever. By all means, continue to post your content to social networks. Just make sure it also has a permanent home in a blog, website or publication you own.
#3 Being inconsistent. Of all the mistakes we make as content marketers, this one might be the most common, and the most detrimental. It doesn’t matter if you release content once a day, once a week or once a month as long as you’re consistent. Decide on a realistic content schedule in the beginning, and do your best to adhere to it. If you must change things up (posting to your blog two times a week rather than three, for example) give your readers fair warning so they know what to expect.
What other common content marketing mistakes would you add to this list?
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