6 Content Marketing Mistakes You're Making and How to Fix Them

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Content marketing is everywhere—it’s in the newsletters we get in our inboxes, the never-ending scroll of TikTok videos, and the click-worthy articles that fill our social feeds. As viewers, we rarely notice content marketing in action—endlessly consuming it feels natural. Yet, the world’s most successful brands all use consistent content marketing as a powerful vehicle for growth.

Why, you ask? Because content marketing allows brands to connect with their audiences, build trust, and drive more sales—often creating brand loyalists. However, many businesses fail to see success. They set out with the best of intentions, but fall victim to common content marketing strategy mistakes.

Looking to level up your content? Here are the top six content marketing mistakes you’re making, plus how you can fix them.

First, what is content marketing and why does it matter?

Content marketing is a promotional strategy that involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain target audiences. The goal is to drive conversions—whether that’s a purchase, sign-up, donation, or the like—while fostering a deeper relationship with customers.

With a great content marketing strategy in place, brands can establish authority in their industry, build relationships with their audience, and drive marketing or sales goals forward.

The top 6 content marketing mistakes—plus how to fix them

Too often, content marketing strategies fall short. Many businesses waste time creating content that doesn’t drive results by spending their resources mass-producing low-value content, ignoring best practices, and spewing content out to see what sticks.

Here are the top six content marketing mistakes to avoid, and actionable tips to fix them.

Mistake #1: Not knowing your audience

Understanding your audience is critical for building an effective content marketing strategy. If you don’t know your audience, you can’t create content that’s educational, engaging, and inspiring. The best way to move people to act is to speak directly to their frustrations and needs.

How can you better understand your audience? Consider gathering insights by:

Conducting surveys

Exploring your social engagement

Reviewing analytics

By taking the time to gain a deeper understanding of who you’re speaking to, you can create content that’s more targeted, engaging, and memorable.

Mistake #2: Focusing on quantity over quality

Stop focusing your efforts on mass-producing content and start refocusing on creating quality content that’s valuable for the audience. Quality over quantity always wins. Quality content is:

Relevant and engaging. Messaging that speaks directly to the audience's pain points, desires, and needs

Well-researched and accurate. All information presented should be factual and backed up with cited sources

Easy-to-read. Most people are content skimmers or high-speed scrollers. Optimize content for quick readability

Shareable and actionable. Inspire readers to take action by creating content that can solve a problem or improve their lives, with actionable tips or next steps

Visual and interactive. Whether you’re creating a blog, social post, or email, use quality visuals to engage your audience and make content more appealing

Error-free. Before publishing, check for grammatical mistakes and comb through copy to ensure it maintains a consistent tone of voice

Mistake #3: Ignoring SEO best practices

Search engine optimization (SEO) can help more people find your business without costing you the big bucks. The best content marketing incorporates SEO best practices into its strategy. By optimizing content for search, you can improve how your website pages rank against competitors.

You don’t need to be an SEO expert to create content with best practices in mind. Here are easy ways to craft SEO-optimized content marketing:

Use relevant keywords

Write high-quality, easily readable content

Use header tags and meta tags

Use compressed images

Include internal and external links

While implementing SEO principles is important, it’s equally as crucial to maintaining your brand voice and sound human. Avoid keyword stuffing and seek opportunities to humanize your content for higher audience engagement.

Mistake #4: Not promoting content enough

Content promotion is just as important as content creation. You may create exceptional content that has the power to effortlessly convert readers—but without a promotional strategy behind it, no one will ever lay eyes on it.

Consider the different ways you can promote your content across marketing channels. This might include:

Social media

Email newsletters

Blog

Influencer/affiliate marketing

Paid advertising

Mistake #5: Failing to repurpose content

This is perhaps one of the biggest content marketing mistakes businesses make. You poured energy into creating a high-value piece of content, so look for opportunities to expand its shelf-life. If you created a blog post, try transforming the content into a TikTok video, email, Instagram story, or shareable infographic.

Repurposing content can amplify your content marketing impact tenfold while:

Saving time and resources

Reaching new audiences

Improving SEO

Establishing thought leadership

Increasing engagement and conversions

Mistake #6: Avoiding performance metrics

Finally, a common mistake that too many businesses make is failing to measure each piece of content’s success. To develop an effective content marketing strategy and ensure your content is resonating with audiences, in turn moving you closer to your goals, you need to track performance metrics.

Some metrics you might want to track include:

Page views

Engagement rate

Conversion rate

Shares

Backlinks

Your performance will not only provide valuable insights into existing content you’ve shared—it will also inform future content strategies and improve overall content marketing performance.

Avoid mistakes from the start—start growing your business with a content strategist

Now that you know what common content marketing mistakes to avoid, you can start implementing these tips and strategies to grow your business and engage your audience. With an effective content strategy in place, there’s no stopping what you can achieve.

But crafting exceptional content strategies takes time—a resource that can feel scarce for many busy business owners. Save precious time and avoid content marketing mistakes from the start by working with a content strategist.

Content strategists are experts at not only creating content that resonates but also developing strategies to extend its reach and drive you closer to your business goals. Hiring a freelance content strategist can help:

Save you time, resources, and money

Create high-value, engaging content

Boost website traffic

Build connections with your audience

Establish industry authority

Develop a regular cadence of content

Amplify content’s reach with effective strategies

Ready to work with a content strategist? Look no further. Explore my range of content strategy and blog writing services, or

schedule a discovery call