Top 7 Reasons Content Marketing Fails and How to Overcome the Most Common Obstacles
Content marketing is often an integral part of a brands’ marketing strategy. In fact, content marketing frequently takes the lead, with a more traditional sales-focused advertising message taking the back seat. Even with a focus on content, some brands are missing the mark. So, why are their B2B content marketing services failing, and what can they do about it?
1. No overall strategy
This is a huge mistake. If your brand is scrambling every day for a social media post, or every week to throw together a blog, there’s no overall strategy at play.
Fix it: Make a plan! Don’t leave your content until the last minute. Develop marketing goals and create a plan to reach those goals. Then stick with it. Leveraging an editorial calendar can help you stay on track.
2. Don’t have a defined audience
How do you know who to target and what type of messaging to produce if you don’t have a defined audience? Without an idea of your target audience, your message won’t be customized and you’ll likely lose your customers’ attention.
Fix it: Research and know who you are reaching and what matters to them. Then, create content that speaks to your target. If you have multiple targets, that means you’ll need to have segmented messaging whenever possible to make sure you give your audience a customized experience.
3. Don’t have a defined goal
It’s imperative that you know what goals you want your content to accomplish. Is your brand looking to achieve awareness, lead generation, sales or engagement? These will determine what type of content you create.
Fix it: Create goals so that you know what you want your content to do for you! Make sure your goals fit into your overall brand strategy.
4. No alignment between departments
It can be hard to get everyone on the same page, but it’s important if the content is going to be useful.
Fix it: Work within your teams to know what types of content marketing are needed and how it will help the overall brand goals. Make sure to leverage the other players at your company to help create content, too, especially if thought leadership is part of the strategy.
5. No promotion after development
So, your team has worked insanely hard to strategize, develop and create a fantastic piece of content. Then, you do a single push on your owned channels and that’s the end of it.
Fix it: When you have great content, it is important to put the time and effort behind getting it seen. Promote it multiple times on social, pitch it to media, leverage it in email and newsletters and share it with the sales team so they can forward to their customers.
6. Poor content
Poor content that isn’t authentic, and doesn’t engage, delight or speak to your audience will fail every time. Not only that, but it could end up detracting from your brand.
Fix it: This seems obvious, but—create quality content! This might take more time and effort, but quality content will always be recognized by your audience.
7. No data/analytics
Throwing content out there with no intention or path to tracking performance is a waste of time and resources. You won’t know what’s working and what isn’t.
Fix it: Start tracking your results, see what is getting engagement or what is appealing to your audiences and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Worth it
This might seem like a lot of work, but it’s absolutely worth fixing these items to ensure that your content marketing efforts start producing results.
Connect with one of our content marketing service experts at Beyond Fifteen for help with your content marketing efforts.