How many of these content marketing mistakes are you making?

The pressure is often on when it comes to creating content. For many entrepreneurs and business owners, it’s very clear that content creation is non-negotiable. After all, it helps to generate leads, is vital for SEO and is important for all manner of marketing activities from emails to social media.

When the pressure is on, mistakes can happen but, you don’t need to sit and ask yourself why your content is missing the mark despite a jam-packed schedule of writing and distribution. Simply review this list of common mistakes and remove them from your routine to improve your content output.

Mistake #1: You don’t have a set schedule

While you may feel like you’re constantly brainstorming blog post ideas and churning out articles, is your content really consistent? If you lack a documented schedule, it could well be that your updates are actually quite haphazard, with multiple posts some weeks or months then nothing but radio silence.

A lack of a set schedule means that readers don’t know when to expect new content from you. What’s more, you might also then be missing out on key dates in the calendar.

There’s no need to plan out a year at a time. Instead, create a schedule which covers a manageable period for you; such as six to eight weeks. Identify a set day or days for publication and ensure all key calendar dates and events are clearly marked.

Mistake #2: You don’t have metrics for measurement

You know that you need to produce content, but have you ever defined exactly what successful content looks like? Without fixed metrics in place to help you judge whether a piece of content has performed well or hit the mark, you could be missing out on lots of valuable data including insight into what your audience wants to see more of, and what’s using resources unnecessarily.

Depending on your goals, your success metrics might include things like ranking improvements for a certain keyword, a target number of downloads, social media shares or a certain number of links or leads.

Mistake #3: You’re too focused on blogs

Blogs tend to be the default format when thinking about content marketing but, there are other opportunities to hit your marketing goals and deliver on KPIs. For example, are you neglecting your email content because you spend so long writing blog posts for SEO? Could you help your sales team close more leads by also working up assets such as case studies or user guides? Would videos help to drive more social media engagement and increase client retention rates?

Mistake #4: Quality gets edged out by quantity

When there are only so many hours in a day, and the pressure to maintain a high volume of content output is on, quality can sometimes fall by the wayside. As a content writer, you’ll not only need to actually write the content but also come up with interesting, relevant and unique angles. It’s here that quality can suffer on both fronts. If you’re lacking inspiration but have a content quota to hit, turning to a tried-and-tested topic might offer an escape route but, will it really hit the mark when it comes to giving prospects and established audiences useful information and insight?



Marrying quality and quantity is a delicate balancing act but, other members of the team can help here. The customer service team for example could share examples of common questions while the sales team will be a pool of useful insight about prospect problems, concerns and queries. Mine that know-how to help elevate your content game.