8 Biggest Mistakes Content Marketers Make and How to Avoid Them

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Update with new cover from visual brand deck.

And with that let’s get going!

We all make mistakes, it’s part of the human experience, but in today’s presentation I am going to cover some of the most common mistakes that content marketers make, some of the big ones, and then talk about what you can do to avoid them.

Not knowing your audience- today, content is The most powerful way that you can reach your audience but if you don’t know who they are and aren’t able to offer a relevant experience, you’

there is lots of noise out there - buyers are being bombarded by more than 2900 messages per day; they can recognize about 50 and remember maybe four. What makes something recognizable. There isn’t a secret sauce or recipe… but there are some things you can do to be on the right path and one of those is to know your audience.

Take some time out to think about you audience
Who are they?
What do they care about?
How do they talk?

You may already have customer or buyer personas. But if you don’t or you need to revise them, here are some questions you may want to ask

Make it real. Write your persona’s down--share them broadly with your team… this will help ensure consistency of message and tone and make for a better customer experience
An example for a consumer org.

Example for a B2B org.

Content is the glue that holds people’s interest throughout the entire customer lifecycle. It’s the new currency, it’s the value exchange throughout the entire journey- and deeply understanding your audiences helps you develop valuable content for them across the entire customer lifecycle

(58% of the most effective B2C marketers have a documented content marketing strategy). 48-50% of the most effective B2C and B2B marketers have a documented editorial mission statement

B2b 53% of the most effective marketers have a documented content marketing strategy 40% of the least effective marketers have no strategy at all.

Includes repurposing without a strategy

Approximately 80% of Consumer Marketers say they plan to produce more content this year
76% of B2B Marketers plan to produce more content
Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs data

Push bacK on “more”- Is more content going to really move the needle? Repurposing willy nilly falls into this
There are organizational issues– you may be a small team or siloed team and the notion of more is either unfeasible or going to get lost. What can you create and spend your energy doing, distributing etc, that WILL move the needle. Volume is not the answer.

While many marketers report adding budget for content initiatives, many of us still work on lean teams, or siloed global teams.

But this noise has also created a world of information abundance - buyers are more empowered than ever before. And armed with this info, they are forming opinions and drawing conclusions well before they choose to interact with your brand. In fact if you look at some data points, from folks like Forrester, they say that anywhere from 66-90% of a buyers journey is self-directed before they interact with you

Maybe you’re a team of one or two and maybe you’re a large global enterprise. With the focus and investment on content across all organizations– producing content on an island can be a problem.

It isn’t this– sipping mai tais, writing a blog

But more like this. You spend time building content that you think is important and it doesn’t have the impact you want it to. Or, you realize that you are creating duplicate content to another department or team in your organization. Creating a collaborative team is work, and being open is hard because you invite critique and other opinions but at the end of the day it’s what makes a huge difference in the success of content at your organization.

Content and Social Media are a dynamic duo OR in nerdier terms- a true symbiotic relationship where the relationship is mutually beneficial to both parties. A fortuitous circle.

Is your content the fanny pack and overalls outfit? Staying on trend is a critical way to engage your audience.

Be the Madonna of content. Reinvent your look. Go where the buyers are. This is huge when you think about mobile, social media, platforms in the last 2-3 years that have emerged as content distribution and engagement engines that didn’t exist before. It changes the game for content marketers, which is exciting but also really important to stay on top of it.

Sometimes you need to create new content, but not always.
Smart repurposing can serve your content team and social media goals. don't think about traditional content– what is interesting/entertaining/relevant for your audience?

Testing may seem like a luxury, but it is critical to your success
There is no way to incrementally optimize your campaigns without testing
Without testing you are just taking a shot in the dark and hoping it works out
So how do you get started?

WHY is content so important? That’s more than 40%-- and that likely encompasses ALL of your buyers. Today, people everywhere go online for information, research products, and engage with each other and brands. And content is how you engage them throughout the ENTIRE lifecycle

But how are you getting that relevant content in front of your audience?

With the right tools, and team structure you can deliver a personalized relevant message across channels. Marketing Automation is a great way to do this– allowing you to listen to a buyers activities and respond with the next message—across a variety of channels

As organizations invest more in content than ever before there is the need to show the impact of that investment.

So how can you crack that nut and really demonstrate the awesome power of you content?

First step is to understand your metrics early. From writing down your goals in your content strategy and content briefs, you should have some defined goals for each piece you create. Next is taking your metrics to next level. Measure more than early stage metrics—which is where many marketers get caught. Often this means have a tool to help you. Whether that’s marketing automation or google analytics. Here we’ll look at some example metrics from marketo– from early stage progressing to mid stage (where a solution like marketing automation comes into play) to late stage, really your revenue metrics.

This is really important because if you do not have a way to measure impact – it will be nearly impossible to report back on your goals.

Using Marketing Automation like Marketo, it is very easy to look at metrics like I am showing on this slide.

For this Definitive Guide, I can look at early metrics like ‘downloaded’ all the way to pipeline – which ultimately is the most important.

Not just the program touches. When someone gins and opp. Tag your content.