5 Reasons Your Content Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

By now, most companies have established that content marketing can deliver results as part of an overall marketing strategy. But are those results what you expected or need to make your marketing numbers? There are some common reasons why your content marketing program might not be working as well as expected:

1. You don’t have a strategy: This is by far the biggest reason that content marketing programs fail. If you have an overall marketing program, your content marketing program should be a part of that. That means establishing content marketing goals to help you meet your company’s business goals, defining your audience including vertical markets, determining how much and what kind of content is possible, defining how you will measure success, and creating a content map that provides all the details you need to succeed.
2. You’re not creating the right content for your buyer’s journey: You need to understand where customers are in their buyer’s journey and tailor content that matches that need with the value proposition your company offers. Both the customer type and the content type should meet your business goals. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to create portfolios of content geared toward each of type of audience and continue to fill in those portfolios over time.
3. You’re not following a content map: Organizations often take a “one size fits all” approach with audience, i.e., thinking that one piece of content is appropriate for all of your audiences and trying to shoehorn in content for each group. Instead, marketers need to take the time and better define their content marketing strategy by including a content map. A content map can help you plot out what content is for top of the funnel prospects (those who are just starting out and need more “awareness” content), which is appropriate for those who are in the consideration stages, and which is right for bottom of the funnel prospects (those close to making a decision/purchase). Without a map, even the most seasoned travelers can get lost, and the same is true with your content. Provide your audience with a clear path to follow, and they will follow it.
4. You’re not sharing your content broadly enough: Content marketing is not a “build it and they will come” effort. You need a strategy for distribution. This can be a social media effort, a company newsletter, or paid marketing opportunity. Creating content without a way to get it to your customers is rarely successful.
5. You focus too much on lead generation. Lead generation should be a goal within every marketer’s plan, but does every piece of content have to generate leads? The answer is usually no. While most of your content should be moving you toward this goal, leave some space for blog posts, videos and other content that shows a different side of the company and its employees—and maybe add some fun to your posts. One example of a company doing this successfully is a service provider which, along with its network and product content, also puts a strong focus on its charitable activities such as helping stock local food pantries and raising money for cancer research. And of course, they disseminate the content through social channels, the company blog and the company newsletter. This more lighthearted look at company workings has helped raise its profile considerably in the industry, not only for sales, but for recruitment as well.

Believe it or not, content marketing can work for every company—if it’s done right. Look for more tips to avoid the biggest content marketing mistakes in an upcoming blog. Can’t wait? Down our new content marketing white paper now.