1. You give up too soon

Content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a long game.

You can’t post 3 articles on your blog and then complain that no one is reading your stuff… or commenting or sharing.

The most successful content marketers have been doing it for years, publishing high-quality content that is relevant and valuable to a target audience on a frequent and consistent basis for several years, before becoming that “overnight hit.” morning”.

Once your momentum increases, so will your ROI (return on investment).

Winning Strategy:

focus.

Invest time and energy to produce quality content that is valuable and relevant to a specific audience; introduce yourself frequently and consistently.

If you don’t introduce yourself to your friends, how can you expect them to introduce themselves to you?

Identify one or two formats and channels that cater to your ideal audience, highlight their strengths, and work well for your niche…then get really good at it.

Don’t spread yourself too thin trying to do everything just because everyone else is doing it.

So be ruthless: make the production and promotion of your content a non-negotiable part of your marketing plan.

2. If you build it, they won’t come

Having a website with a blog doesn’t mean your ideal audience knows about it.

Every day 2.7 million blog entries are published. Every minute 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. You get the idea.

The most successful content marketers spend 20% of their time producing content and 80% promoting content.

If you don’t make a consistent effort to get your content in front of the right people, it won’t do you any good.

Neither of us has a right to a hearing. Work to earn their trust and respect.

Winning Strategy:

You probably don’t have a lot of time to promote your content everywhere…or have a team dedicated to that effort.

That’s why it’s critical that you not only know where your audience hangs out, but also be able to write headlines and descriptions that speak to them and make them want to read/hear/see your stuff (ie click).

Identify a few places you can focus your promotional effort and resources, then test and track your results so you can make adjustments to your tactics.

3. You are trapped in your bubble

Simply posting to your blog and trying to attract people can be an uphill battle, especially if you’re working for traffic, don’t have a large list, or the SEO juice of an established site.

Remember, if no one consumes your content, your content is not doing anything for you.

Venture out into the big world…post your content where your ideal audience already goes.

Winning Strategy:

Guest posting is a great way to get in front of a new audience. Be sure to identify blogs that share a similar audience so that when you link back to your site or promote your lead magnet, you’re building a high-quality audience in the process.

You may need to start small and work your way up to larger sites. Go, start somewhere. Don’t doubt yourself, but don’t take the “yeses” for granted.

Owning or republishing your content on platforms like Medium or LinkedIn Pulse is another great way to get your content out there.

There are a few nuances to make sure content on these platforms doesn’t cannibalize the SEO juice of the original content on your website, for example applying a canonical tag, using the “import” feature on Medium, changing the title, and writing an introduction different. etc.

There are some trade-offs and you need to assess where you are with your content marketing and what you want it to do for your business. For example, if you want to get as many views on your content as possible, it may be worth reposting the content on popular platforms, even if those posts rank higher than the original post on your own site.

4. Serve a wall of text

…and make other UX or navel-gazing mistakes.

The goal of content marketing is to get people to consume your content so you can accomplish whatever goals or next steps you want readers to take.

If you present a wall of text riddled with jargon or run-on sentences and zero regard for readability, you’re losing your readers in the salutation.

Winning Strategy:

While your content should express who you are: your values, beliefs, views, and experience, etc. – must take into account the user experience.

Formatting your content correctly will encourage readers to stay on the page while writing short sentences, and avoiding long paragraphs can increase readability and the likelihood that your content will be consumed.

While I’m strongly against “lists” that don’t have depth, that doesn’t mean you can’t use numbering to help give your content clarity and hierarchy.

Breaking your article up into sections and outlining them using subheadings can greatly improve readability while also helping you clarify your own thoughts in the process.

Better communication makes you more convincing. It’s a muscle you can train…and it gets easier.

Poor organization and spelling or grammatical errors are distractions. No matter how good your thoughts are, if they are not communicated carefully, they will undermine your authority and credibility, doing more harm than good.