19 content marketing mistakes to avoid

Here’s how it happened. While drinking a much-needed cup of green tea, I decided to write a list. Love a list, me. Inspired by a LinkedIn post I’d read, my idea was to jot down all the content marketing mistakes I’d seen during my years supporting so many different businesses.

I didn’t expect to get beyond six. But in five minutes, I was surprised to count 19 on my list.

That’s when I realised the task in hand; to encourage people like you to stop making business-limiting mistakes that prevent you getting the most from your content marketing budget. Because once you’re aware of these errors and the impact they cause, you can improve your content marketing. A lot.

First, I unpacked seven of these mistakes on LinkedIn. Prompting plenty of discussion, I eventually found time to unpack them all, one by one, right here.

I’ve divided the content marketing mistakes into three groups: strategic mistakes, creation mistakes, and delivery mistakes. So, let’s dig in.

[For context, my focus is written long-form content. That said, most of these mistakes could crop up in other content deliverables too.]

 

Strategic mistakes

#1 Not talking to your customers enough

When people say customer conversations are GOLD, they’re not exaggerating. So, why do so few businesses talk sufficiently to their customers?

Here's the risk: once a customer has bought something your spotlight shifts. Your sales team moves on to new leads while nobody stays in touch with customers. Alternatively, you believe your customers are “too busy” to talk to you. I’ve heard that enough times.

To be clear, I don’t mean conversations to upsell or ask for testimonials. I mean informal chats that build stronger relationships while giving you relevant insight to help attract similar businesses as new customers.

What did they have to research or decide before making their purchase?
How did they do this, what helped most, and who was involved?
What challenges did their purchase help overcome?
How do they value your product or service (and what's the ROI)?
How do they feel about the future of their industry?

Customer insight helps you shape relevant and valuable content pieces. You want to understand WHY your customers chose you and what was happening at the time. Also, HOW they determined that choice and what the future looks like for them now.

This is the gold I’m talking about.

So, if you’re making this mistake, select three customers right now and commit to arranging a brief call with them in the coming weeks. From there, commit to three more. And so on.

 

#2 Not involving your subject matter experts (SMEs) sufficiently

Most businesses are brilliant at what they do. They know their stuff inside out and have often spent decades perfecting their *thing*.

Prospective customers can have little knowledge of your *thing* at the start of their buying journey. They’ve got a problem to overcome, or a goal to achieve, and they’re working out how to do this.

Relying purely on your sales efforts is a mistake, particularly with complex B2B purchases. Prospective customers want to understand the sector they’re buying into so they can make an informed and justified decision.

That’s how excellent content helps them

That’s when you should rely on your SMEs

That’s what many businesses fail to achieve

SMEs are those with the knowledge to help develop your content. They may be senior leaders with decades of experience or specialist colleagues with deep expertise in one area.

If you’re not involving your SMEs, start arranging calls with them (or face-to-face chats), first explaining why their input is so valuable. If their time is tricky to secure, see what planned team calls they’re on or training sessions they’re running. You may be able to record these and draw from them.

 

#3 Planning content around what you know, not what your audience wants to read

This mistake can be the consequence of not talking to your customers sufficiently. Instead, you chat with your internal team and develop a list of the “expertise” you can provide. Everything you feel confident writing about.

From there, you develop a plan, scheduling various topics each month. It’s all ready to tick off as you work through it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a list just like you might. But when it comes to content creation, the topics must align with what your target audience needs and the language they understand. Which is why talking to them remains crucial.

If you simply focus on “what you know”, you could be talking way above their heads and not addressing the challenges and frustrations they’re looking to overcome. In fact, you could miss the opportunity for them to engage with relevant content they see value in.

So, yes, plan your content, create that spreadsheet. But only having understood what your audience wants to read. And be prepared to adjust your plan over time as audience needs change.

 

#4 Missing collaborative opportunities

I once wrote a 12,000-word ‘insight’ report for one of my clients. It involved me interviewing 11 high-level company leaders in their sector. This is a collaboration example on steroids.

Other collaborative content I’ve helped create includes a monthly report with commentary from an independent industry expert and a customer story that involved not only the customer but also comments from the independent consultants they partnered with.

Collaboration provides a massive opportunity to enhance the quality of your content, and yet, many businesses miss out entirely. They continue to focus on using their own knowledge in isolation, instead of looking to incorporate something extra.

Does this sound like your business? Perhaps you feel nobody would want to collaborate with you. Au contraire. Industry specialists, subject matter experts, customers, your suppliers, they’re all happy to get involved because there’s usually something in it for them too.

And your target audience will love the result: stand-out content that provides deeper insight (or guidance) to help them move forward.

So, if you’re making this mistake, take the blinkers off. Think about who you could collaborate with and how it might transform the quality of your content.

 

#5 Planning unrealistic delivery expectations based on your resources

You’ve got a couple of people in your marketing department spinning all the plates. They’re researching, planning, and project managing everything. Having an unrealistic content plan they’re never going to achieve is pointless. It’s exhausting, and frankly, demoralising.

Granted, you can always do more. But what you do has to be achievable given your human and financial resources.

Unrealistic expectations lead to poor quality delivery. Rushed creation that’s poorly thought out and achieves little aside from ticking the box.

Thankfully, there’s another way. A better one.

Look at what you CAN achieve with the resources you have and do it well. Then distribute it thoroughly and repurpose the hell out of it.

If you can afford to involve a content specialist, they’re used to doing this. They can usually guide you while creating some (if not all) of the content pieces – probably faster and more effectively than you would in-house.

So, if you’re trying to achieve too much, take an honest look at your planning. Could you do less and achieve more? And could you hand some of the work over to a specialist?

 

Creation mistakes

#6 Trying to do it all yourself – or expecting marketing to do everything – even when they haven’t got the right skills

You might feel this is similar to mistake #5. It is and it isn’t, so please bear with me.

I’ve heard so many businesses say: “Nobody can understand our product sufficiently to write about it.” That must be why I’ve written about countless SaaS platforms, water technology, bespoke software, fire suppression systems, timber treatment… the list goes on.

Having a complex product or service doesn’t mean you must write everything in-house. Instead, find someone experienced at asking you the right questions to understand what they need about your offer AND your target audience.

Cost is another reason some believe everything should be created in-house. And yes, I’m about to pour cold water on that excuse, too. So, you expect your marketer to write a lengthy article that’ll pack a punch. After all, everyone can write. But just because they’re a marketer doesn’t mean they can write, design, create videos, and whatever else you need. They can have a stab at it, but you may lose a day or so of their productivity while they do.

By hiring the skills when you need them, your marketers get time back to carry out their role while you rely on the specialist to deliver a high-quality job, often in less time. Yeah, there’s a cost. But what’s the cost of draining your marketer’s time? Or the cost of a mediocre job? I’ll leave you to work that out.

So, please don’t make this mistake. Leave your lovely marketers to do what they’re brilliant at and hire the content creation skills you need exactly when you need them.

 

#7 Believing you must keep churning out NEW content

You may be surprised to hear a content writer suggesting you don’t need to create more content. I’m a great believer in businesses doing the right thing, which includes getting the most from your EXISTING content.

Marketers (or business leaders) can get a false target in their heads, such as “we need to create four articles a month” or “we must post on three platforms daily.”

Granted, you need to create content. But you’re not doing it to hit a target, you’re doing it to provide value for your audience and move them closer to purchasing from you. Or, you’re building brand awareness – or whatever marketing goals you have.

What I’m saying is this…

You DON’T need to hit a self-made content delivery target each month

You DO need to create audience-centric content (having understood what they need from you)

You DO need to distribute each piece as wide and as far as you can among your audience – now and in the future

Great quality content is typically ‘evergreen’, meaning you can keep distributing it for months, maybe years. By doing so, you may create less content but achieve more from what you create.

Less is more.

So, if you’re making this mistake, stop and think. Far better to put more time into creating fewer high-quality pieces and committing more effort to distribution. Plus repurposing, for that matter (another content marketing mistake I unpack shortly).

 

#8 Starting with gusto before losing momentum

You’ll have been at one end or the other of this. The marketing team has a great idea, something like “let’s create a regular newsletter”.

They brainstorm what this will look like and eagerly start creating content and building an email template to shape it. They might even put a calendar together – monthly themes and who will deliver what.

All good stuff.

The first few months go well, and their audience (be it existing customers or warm prospects) starts getting used to hearing from them.

Then someone takes annual leave.

Then there’s an event to plan for.

Then an eBook project gets prioritised.

Everyone’s busy doing other stuff and the shine comes off the newsletter. And anyway, the plan is now outdated, and nobody knows where to take it next (or dares to speak up in case it lands on their desk).

The newsletter grinds to an abrupt halt. Radio silence ensues and a good idea is shelved due to poor execution.

What if you’d started more steadily? Perhaps bi-monthly, or a simpler, shorter format first.

What if you’d given others time to support the project?

What if you’d involved external support?

It’s far easier to build momentum for an ongoing content activity if you start small and build. Quietly test and refine, then increase frequency or depth. This can also be the case for publishing blogs, podcasts, and even webinars.

If you’ve fallen foul of this common conundrum before, consider what might have happened if you’d started more slowly and gradually built. Because running like a bull at a gate is never a good idea.

 

#9 Sticking to the same approach and not evolving with new ideas

The status quo always feels safe. I know because I often find myself there. That’s how you’ve always done it, and you know how it works. Or doesn’t work.

And that’s the thing, without trying new things, you’ll never know whether what you’re doing is the best way to achieve your goal or not.

When it comes to creating content, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. You write a 900-word blog article monthly. You write case studies in the same structure (ooh, we’ll say more about that soon). You always send your marketing emails on a Thursday. But what if you did things differently?

You delve into one valuable topic and create a 2,000-word advice article

You try emailing text-only content and ditch the marketing template

You pull sections of your best customer stories into an eBook

With your overall objectives in mind, and knowing where your audience hangs out, I challenge you to come up with a list of new things to try at least once. They may not all work, but without testing and assessing them, you won’t know. Meanwhile, one or two may achieve far more than you expected.

Always keep your eyes open for new ideas, even (especially) when you’re comfortable with what you’re doing now.

 

#10 Creating content on the cheap

Some businesses hold a concerning belief you can simply “knock up” content in whistlestop time.

You do some Googling (or ask ChatGPT), chat a few questions through with colleagues, then type away for an afternoon. Boom! All you need for that week’s content plan is done. Simple as.

Another worrying approach is to believe anyone can pull articles together/interview your customers/create copy for that new eBook (delete as appropriate). Maybe it’s a colleague in the office who likes writing, or someone looking to gain experience. Inexpensive options that *appear* to make sense.

But do they?

Answer this question for me: what’s a new customer worth to you? Consider their initial purchase and lifetime value to you.

The figure may be £10,000. It could be £100,000. Or more.

A quality customer story created by someone with ample experience may put you back up to £1,000. That gives you an asset you can distribute (to endless leads) for years and repurpose in at least 23* ways [read my article about that here].

Would you invest £1,000 to return £10,000? Or more likely somewhere between £50,000 and £100,000? I would.

So, my recommendation is to stop time and cost-cutting. Instead, create fewer, higher-quality content pieces that drive more impact, build trust faster, and contribute to a greater £££ return.

 

#11 Case studies: sticking to the traditional format

This is a hill I’d be happy to die on. Case studies have come a long way in the decades I’ve been involved with creating them. And good job too.

Gone are the days of all that corporate speak and self-promotion: “We used our unrivalled expertise to exceed their expectations.” “The customer welcomed our specialist guidance as we drew on decades of experience…”

At least, this should all be gone.

But some companies believe case studies should still be primarily written in-house with the accounts team providing details about “what we achieved”. They literally use Problem, Solution, Results as headings, and say “we” far too often. As for the lowly customer they’re supposed to be writing about, well, they barely get a look-in. Perhaps they provide a one-sentence comment to wrap the thing up.

Personally, I prefer using the term “customer story” because it more accurately explains what you should be creating. But I’ll accept “case study” if the approach shifts.

Prospective customers want to read what your customers have to say. That doesn’t feel like rocket science to me. They want to understand why they decided to purchase your product and not your competitors’. They want to hear what happened and why this has made a difference to them.

Customer stories (or modern case studies, if you insist) should NOT be about:

Your unrivalled expertise

Your market-leading service

Your highly capable team

They should not even be about your passion for the sector in question. No, they should be a story about your customer’s journey from frustration/challenge/fear to higher productivity/enhanced service/confidence, whatever they were striving to achieve.

If you still cannot see the difference, please see me at the end, and I’ll email you some examples I’ve created for various clients.

 

#12 Believing you must keyword optimise all content

Now, before we go any further, keywords can be important. When you’ve got a website that relies on proven search volume, keywords will be at the front of your mind.

So, this isn’t a case of “love or hate keywords”.

But when you’re creating a series of articles or some fascinating customer stories, please focus on your reader first to create an engaging piece of content.

Not everything has to be written so Google can find it (or ChatGPT these days).

It’s honestly ok – good even - to create great quality content you invite interested humans to read. Those who want to learn and decide their next steps (hopefully with you).

When you over-focus on creating keyword-optimised articles, you may simply shape copy around common keyword phrases and risk samey deliverables that get lost in a sea of ‘optimised’ content.

So, my take is this: focus on understanding your prospective customers and what content would be truly valuable to them. Then create it with them, their language, and their needs in mind. If, while doing so, you realise the piece can naturally involve an in-demand keyword phrase, by all means go ahead.

Just don’t make keyword optimisation your priority objective for quality, long-form content.

 

#13 Adding excessive sales messages to content

Your marketing team has to be firm about the purpose of content marketing. Otherwise, your salespeople and some higher-ups may start shoving endless sales messages into your content, rendering it an entirely different thing.

Typically, content exists to support the sales funnel. It may target the top of the funnel when people are becoming aware of their problem and your product, or it may support further down the funnel when they’re learning more, considering options, and deciding how to go forward.

I’m talking about B2B content here, by the way. When the product is complex and the budget significant, it can take time for prospective customers to be a) ready, b) financially able, and c) sufficiently informed to make a purchasing decision.

Content marketing should nurture them through this process and provide all the help they need. But it doesn’t sell, not directly.

In fact, content littered with sales messages can be very off-putting. In neuroscience terms, it can light up the reader’s amygdala, the part of the brain that prompts a fight or flight response. So, in layman’s terms, they’ll probably abort your content and find a competitor that feels less pushy.

I go back to my point that marketers must fight this cause when others in the company feel an article is the opportunity to sell, or a customer story should list key product benefits, whether the customer mentioned them or not. Of course, a few sales messages will subtly weave in, but keep them to an absolute minimum as you focus on the prize: helping your prospective customer navigate their way from frustration to resolution, believing in your business as their provider.

 

#15 Shoehorning your content into templates

Consistency is important, especially when building trust with your audience. Showing up in the same way, using consistent language, conveying the same messages… yep, yep, yep.

But there are times when it can stifle much-needed creativity and hamper delivery quality.

Templates can be that time.

Companies that involve several writers often create content templates for deliverables like case studies and articles. Many agencies do this for their clients too…

Headline: [max. 18 words, including company name]

Summary: [max. 100 words, highlight the main challenge and how it was overcome, plus the main value gained]

Section 1: [max. 250 words, discuss up to three problems the company had and the business impact]

You know the kind of thing.

And yes, it can help shape consistent pieces of content. Perhaps they need to fit into a format on the website or a branded PDF design.

But templates can leave you unable to convey unique information gathered during calls with customers or subject matter experts. And templates can make your content… well… dull.

So, if you’re a template fan, review how they’re working for you. And ask your writers what they’re cutting or shoehorning to meet your format requirements. You may be surprised.

I’ll just say this. The best and most fascinating customer stories I’ve written never went anywhere near a template. And my client (and their audience) loved them.

 

Delivery mistakes

#16 Distributing it once and only once

This is an incredibly common content marketing mistake that reduces your return on content investment, and quite frankly, wears you down.

Picture the scene: you complete a fabulous customer story. It’s a belter and will relate to so many other prospective clients.

• You publish it on your website
• You post about it on LinkedIn
• You may even create a marketing email to promote it

And then… nothing. It sits on your website, getting as stale as those digestives in your biscuit tin.

Here’s the thing: everyone hasn’t seen it yet. Maybe a handful have read it, but it’s missed the radar for countless others.

In fact, that one story could work much harder for you. So, maybe your distribution plan could look more like this:

• Publish the story on your website
• Create at least three posts around it to use a month apart (using different angles if you can)
• Create a marketing email to promote it (remembering you can reference it in future emails too)
• Create a branded PDF that you can hand out at events, or your salespeople can email after meetings and calls
• Enquire whether any industry publications like using customer stories (this depends on your sector)
• Circulate the story to all your customers
• Circulate the story to your team
• Consider using it to help train new recruits

You get the gist. I even had a client who decided to create a book of stories. One and done is a waste of your content budget. One and continual distribution maximises your return on the investment.

I’ve only talked about customer stories here. Imagine the impact if you took this same approach with your thought leadership articles, whitepapers, reports and more.

 

#17 Gating poor quality content not worth an email address

You’ve probably been there too. You’re invited to download what sounds like a valuable piece of content in return for your email address. It must be good if they’ve gone to that trouble.

None of us like dishing out our contact details willy-nilly. Nobody wants their inbox awash with time-wasting nonsense (any more than we suffer anyway).

You decide this content is worth a punt and pop your email in the box. A few clicks later, you wonder why you bothered…

Being the gatekeeper of this scenario will ultimately damage your business reputation.

Hastily thrown together downloads, samey ‘templates’, or eBooks amounting to a couple of pages. These are not things to gate. And they probably shouldn’t be produced in the first place.

You should ONLY gate a piece of content after serious consideration, and it had better genuinely help your recipients. For example, it may be an in-depth whitepaper offering unique research. Or a series of content pieces (a mini-course, even) that deliver ample value.

Gating should be the exception, not the norm. And NEVER gate something that underdelivers. Your reputation depends on avoiding this mistake.

 

#14 Gating customer stories

Customer stories (and case studies) are things that help your target audience understand the value you deliver. They’re especially helpful when your offer is complex. And who better to tell the stories than your customers. Honestly, you want everyone to read these things.

So why gate them?

Why make your precious audience exchange their email address for information that will help them understand your value better?

We know gating a piece of content reduces the number of people who see it. That’s not a risk you want to take with your customer stories. When showcased and distributed in the right way, they work incredibly hard for your business.

If you’re currently gating your customer stories, please stop immediately. Instead, figure out how to make them more prominent on your website, perhaps showcasing a few on your home page. And keep distributing them via your marketing channels – social media, emails, events, whatever.

I’ve known clients win £££ of business after a lead reads a particularly relevant customer story. So, make them as visible as possible and increase the probability of this happening for your company.

 

#18 Trying to be everywhere instead of embracing the most relevant channels well

“That’s a great idea. Are you doing something on LinkedIn as well? What about TikTok and YouTube? Oh, and don’t forget Facebook!”

“Great, we should also do an email on this, and how about something for that event next week?”

This type of conversation can be a marketer’s nightmare. Everyone wants everything. And why not? You can use all these channels (and more) to publish your content.

But should you?

Because the result can often become a half-arsed effort at everything, with nothing being done particularly well. You compromise quality for reach, and in doing so, your content achieves little.

My advice would be to think carefully about where to focus your distribution. The answer generally depends on your objectives, where your target audience hangs out, and your available resources.  

If you’re a B2B business, LinkedIn is the obvious social media platform. You may also use YouTube, for example, to showcase your videos. Beyond that, maybe you nurture a high-quality email list or contribute to industry publications.

Nobody ever said you must use every audience communication tool available to you. Managing a few well will be far more effective than a scatter gun approach. So, go back to your audience insight and your objectives to sense-check what you should prioritise.

 

#19 Not repurposing content

An article is more than an article. And a report is certainly more than a report. Yet, businesses still miss this point and continually focus on creating new content.

While this is a good thing for me, I also want to ensure you’re getting everything you can from each new piece.

Let’s break down how you might repurpose a report. Let’s say you’ve collated unique data in your sector, presented your case around it and highlighted interesting metrics, then collaborated with an industry expert to add further insight. Here’s what you could do:

• Publish the report on your website
• Create at least three LinkedIn posts to showcase it (one could be a carousel with key findings)
• Pull out three quotes to inspire future posts
• Create a one-page infographic to communicate the report visually
• Record a video Q&A session with the industry expert to discuss the findings (you might be able to create this from the calls you had to prepare the report)
• Draft a press release to distribute the key findings to industry press
• Write an article about the report (perhaps ghostwritten by your CEO, highlighting his thoughts on the topic)
• Get feedback from three customers about the report and use it to inspire posts, a marketing email, or another article

Different people will engage with different material. And sometimes, a repurposed piece of content will reinforce the original message (“read the report”).

By creating a handful of high-quality content pieces and repurposing the socks off them, you’ll soon have a full content calendar for lower investment.

 

You’ve got the list. Now what?

You now understand 19 content marketing mistakes I’ve seen businesses make and the negative impact they can have on nurturing your target audience to build your business. I hope you’ve also gained insight into how you can avoid these mistakes in the future.

Next, try this. Reflect on your current content marketing activities and select three mistakes you know you’re making (because we all are). Now work out what you need to do to remedy them. And when you’re clear, get started.

Ok, there’s just one problem…

While writing this article (and it took a great deal of time), I thought of a 20th mistake. Not wishing to disrupt the title (I always prefer odd numbers), I’ve covered it here as a little bonus for you.

 

#20 Not refreshing older content

It’s not just broken links that can fester on your website, you’re likely to have outdated content too.

Evergreen (lasts for ages) content is a gift, but without keeping it fresh, it can risk your reputation. Again, an example will be useful here.

Let’s say you’ve created a lengthy advice article to help people work out how to specify your type of product. There's a lot of great guidance, and it mostly stands the test of time. But it could become outdated for several reasons:

• The metrics used could change over time
• The research you reference could be superseded
• Your own company advice may change as methods change
• Your spokesperson may no longer work for your company
• You may link to further materials that no longer exist
• Your tone of voice may have shifted

Also, should the article be optimised for keywords, is that still the case, and are these keywords still relevant to you?

Refreshing an older piece of content presents an opportunity to prioritise distributing it again, too. Perhaps it contains updated metrics now that would be helpful to communicate.

So, don’t let your best content pieces go stale. Make sure you review them at least once a year to ensure they’re still the best they can be.

 

Right, I’m definitely done now. Should you have any questions about these mistakes, or should you welcome a quick chat, feel free to email me at anna@cantaloupemarketing.co.uk or book a 20-minute slot in my calendar.