Top Ten Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails

It is better to fail after trying something new, than to fail because you're not even trying.

The definition - content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

It's the opposite of interruption marketing. You create great content that attracts customers and prospects, educates them, and potentially engages them in a conversation with you. 

With that in mind, here are Top Ten reasons why your content marketing strategy fails:

(1) You don't have one - you think fulfillment just means you stick all you've got on that landing page, mini site, or newsletter, and pray something will stick. 

(2) You don't understand the difference between interruption and content marketing - you think that because you have something to sell, you can push it out there and get people to but it because you say so.

(3) Your content does not provide value - the worst offenders will ask for information on customers and prospects to give them something that doesn't really tell them anything new - just to get people in a contact database.

(4) Your in-house experts think it's marketing's job to write it - while we agree that in this day and age marketing professionals need to be in the content business, it's a very bad idea to assume that they need to be proficient in having every kind of conversation, even those where they'd be clearly not the experts.

(5) You think that changing the title to last month's paper will work - this is akin to starting a brand new relationship on the wrong foot. Will your customers believe you next time, after experiencing this kind of stunt?

(6) You invite people in for one topic, then you give them something else entirely - another dangerous assumption is that people don't pay attention. They won't if this is the kind of treatment you reserve for them. It's like starting a conversation with a great opening, and then putting absolutely no substance behind it.

(7) Your call to action is not clear, or you have multiple ones - the main reason why you don't want to do this, of course, is that you won't know what works among the many messages you put out there. When you're focused, things have a way of working out much better for all involved.

(8) You want too much, too soon - there's no relationship and you're already asking your customers and prospects to give you something substantial.

(9) You don't get the whole anticipated and relevant part of it - you think integrated and all matching means you're not interrupting. In other words you missed the whole idea of custom content written specifically to address the needs of the audience you are hoping to engage.

(10) Your content is all about you, not your customer - the surest way to bore someone or to become irrelevant quickly is by not even trying to relate to them.

At the end of the day, you want to reach the people who will buy your products and services. Whether your content marketing strategy is fulfilled through marketing or public relations activities, you should think about providing value and worry less about measuring clicks and hits.

Will your customers and prospects find you on the Web when they're looking for the resources you provide? Will your articles, bylines, white papers, eBooks, blog posts convey that you understand the issues - their issues - at play in the marketplace?

Does your newsletter provide timely, relevant tips, commentary, and information that reveals industry or industry vertical knowledge? Do analysts and third parties crowd around your thought leadership to help amplify what you know?

If the answer is no, those are great places for you to start.

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Beth Harte]

Valeria, this is a great reminder.

I remember seeing this type of thing when websites were new (i.e. not providing value). Marketers would take brochures and place the content (as is) on their new sites. That was years before there were website copy best practices and before customers started asking for something more useful.

Social media is now changing those best practices once again. Perhaps we will being seeing the advent of the "Content Marketing" department within companies that understand...what do you think? Is it a separate department or do marketers just need to change their habits (which will take time, even years perhaps)?

[Rod Gillies]

Good list.

I am in the final throes of sign-off for setting up a best practise advice site for our customers. This will prove a nice little checklist to keep me true to the faith!

[Natanya Anderson]

Content marketing is such a paradigm shift for folks that they have a hard time making all of the necessary changes and sticking with them. This list really helps narrow down the main areas of concern and give those setting-up or running a content marketing program a concrete way to test their work and keep it focused on the audience's needs. Over time they will develop new habits and make that shift, but for the first 90-120 days (at least) every element of a program should be tested against a list like this.

[Susan]

Valeria and Beth, Interesting question. Part of me thinks it may evolve in the following manner. Communicators who understand what is truly needed and know how to evolve with the best practice changes, will lead the way and then marketers will jump on the bandwagon. Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon in that thinking, but it seems that is what has happened/is happening with social media, web sites, etc., in the corporate world today.

[Laura]

In my job search, I find some companies throw "content marketing" in as an afterthought. Though many more don't mention the concept. So a change may indeed be a long process.

Unless, of course, one of them (seriously, any one of them!) hires me and/or someone like me who read smart things like this and keep it at the top of the to-do list.

Keep in mind this is my experience in the current job hunt. And these interviews are with organizations looking for a marketeer to fill in their corp mkt dept. There may be more awareness on the agency side.

[Brian DR1665]

Absolutely agree, Valeria!

It's downright incensing to sign up for multiple newsletters or alerts under different categories, only to be served up the same content between the two. Likewise, providing contact information in order to download a new white paper, only to discover it's the same marketing fluff piece you downloaded last month with a massaged name.

Don't hide the fact that there might not be new content at some point. Keep things honest and transparent. Those are opportunities to be creative in finding fresh ways to inspire conversation among your membership, not trick them into fulfilling your lead campaigns. That's straight playing with fire.

You want to be the resource that empowers individuals in their own lives! Value is nice, but when you EMPOWER someone, they become true believers, evangelists, CHAMPIONS for your cause. Treating them like nameless clicks and leads in order to fulfill your own needs is bad karma. You will never empower anyone if you don't provide that real value.

Is your current project hot because people are on fire to be part of it, or because you're burning everyone that walks through the door?

[Denis]

IMHO company marketing is tought, really tought.

Developing content requires a great investment of time, that many people do not have, and many companies do not want to invest to.

Perhaps because writing content sounds so obvious that marketers/people/whoever think that should be cheap/easy/fast too?

Is so, from this assumption we can see that we (we as the marketers) have to cut corners in the content developemnt, meaning that we will be doing some cut N paste work, that consequently we will hardly put any value and so on until all the strategy collapse.

In a nutshell... i think that point 8 is the key

[Derek Phillips]

Awesome topic and discussion. The old paradigm of "interrupt, repeat" is over. Even TV is having to adjust with the introduction of DVRs.

I would add that your content strategy needs to integrate ALL channels of communication to be successful. You miss amazing potential if your marketing dept. is all conversation and your PR is all push messaging. Or if the two departments have conflicting messages.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Beth - now marketers are putting a ton of faith into SEO, instead. Loading their pages with keywords. I've long maintained that even many bloggers write for Google anymore. I'm in the camp that says marketers need to be more well rounded and part of the business overall. Plus, if you're in marketing and communications, you should be in the valuable content producing business.

@Rod - glad I could be of service. Thank you for stopping by.

@Natanya - I've spent a great deal of time speaking with customers and customer-facing and interacting colleagues throughout my career. There are some preferences and issues that keep coming up over and over. That's what I tried to distill here. It's good to hear you think it's useful.

@Susan - that has been my experience as well. There is also another angle to this conversation, which is the organization and selection of content. I will leave that to another post. Good points, thank you.

@Laura - lack of resources, sometimes lack of support from the business can be a challenge for content marketing. I just started a whole series of posts with interviews from people who are doing interesting work on the agency side. There's a category and there will be a list of conversations on the sidebar, in case you're interested. I'm in corporate marketing, but I don't act as such - never did. I love and respect customers and am deeply passionate about providing value.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Brian - you made my day with this comment. Wow. Thank you. I loved the ending, too. Good content marketing is hard to do. The temptation is to say everything, show everything. It takes discipline, persistence and solid editorial judgment to curate the right amount of information. And it takes practice with your audience. I'm still learning from all of you. You bring up a key point - when you give someone something they value, they can use, they feel empowered and better.

@Denis - time, attention, and energy that are hard to come by between multiple meetings, discussions, project plans, reporting sessions, budget preparations and maintenance, directing work flow, etc. I hear you. Writing good content is probably one of the hardest things one can do. Writing great content that gets results for everyone is the stuff of stars. The Web lives and thrives on content. Some of us have become really picky in what we read. If you can write good and relevant content, you're golden.

@Derek - great addition to the conversation. I work on both advertising, interactive, and PR. Always have. We're starting to see more of that as organizations and customers spend more time online.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Valeria...I love this. Simple and true.

Thanks for spreading the gospel.

[Beirut]

I really enjoyed this article!

All the points you mentioned were both relevant and meaningful. I also loved the way you put them down in a simple straight forward manner which in turn enhances the concept you are talking about!

We discuss similar social media & web marketing related topics on our blog. Feel free to visit ad give us your feedback :)

[Timothy Mahoney]

I say these things to my marketing people ALL the time. good post!

[Dan Erwin]

The creation of new, relevant, creative content is always problematic. It doesn't come easy. After a mere three months of intense content blogging, I've come to agree with David Meerman Scott: Content is King. But, again, far easier said than done.

Dan

[Elizabeth]

Content marketing is so important! These were some good points. Another source for helping you improve your content marketing is the book "Made to Stick." After reading it, my whole team was commonly heard to ask of our messaging or content, "Is it sticky?"
Thanks for the post!

[Hunter Boyle]

I love this post. There seems to be a deep and long-running misconception about how content and marketing can work together. Not sure if it's a carryover from the church & state wall in traditional media, the crossover or merging of roles (e.g., journalism to marcom), any of a dozen other factors, or all of the above.

Whatever the case, success with this type of strategy definitely demands a clear vision of how (and what) it needs to work -- neatly summarized by this list, coincidentally.

[mkedave]

Great points. Like it or not, if you've got a website, satisfactory isn't good enough anymore. Social media made every avid website visitor a contributor and better yet - a critic. The website isn't just about the customer.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Joe - writing content is hard work, as I said in the opening, it's probably better to start and fail a bit, than to never try it in the first place.

@Beirut - thank you for stopping by and asking me out.

@Timothy - I take it you're not in marketing? Or maybe you're talking about your team? Stay creative and contagious.

@Dan - I can attest to that. There are dry spells, moments of insecurity and low feedback. Trying new things helps. As discovering what you're about. Stay with it.

@Elizabeth - got that book when it came out. I should probably reread it periodically though. Good suggestion. I also think that "Sticky" is relative. Context plays a big role in that.

@Hunter - thank you. You're very kind. Writing is not easy. Writing to convey meaning is harder. Meaning that connects and is written to stimulate action takes experience, and sometimes luck, too. There are people who are naturals at it.

@mkedave - true, some prefer to be contributors and have a voice.

[Vince]

Hey Valerie, this is another really great top ten list. Your recommendations and insight is greatly appreciated. I think that the more relevant, higher quality, and well presented content is critically important. It seems so much like common sense, but it's incredible how many people overlook it. You can post this to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/ and then link back to your site. We are looking for top ten lists and our users can track back to your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

[Dale Underwood]

Valerie,
I really like your definition of content marketing and especially point #7 No clear call to action.

As a well known consultant what calls to action on your website work best for your business? When someone wants to engage you as a speaker or consultant, how do they typically do it and is it awkward talking about the cost of services?

Dale

[Beth Harte]

@Beth - now marketers are putting a ton of faith into SEO, instead. Loading their pages with keywords. I've long maintained that even many bloggers write for Google anymore.

Yes...let's not mistake or confuse keyword-loaded, Google written content with good, valuable, usable content. ;-)

[seamus walsh]

Great insights in this post and comments!
With content still king, it's best to know you can’t make crappy content taste like cake no matter how hard you try, so you’d best not start with crap.

Other points I would add to the list:

1. Generic content does not work, you need to address each stakeholder, if you are selling to a CIO, CFO, HR, you need specific content to address their business requirements.

2. People come to you at different stages in their buying life cycle, they could buy in one week, one month, one quarter or one year, you need specific content that editorializes and educates them on your business value and unique differentiation on their time frame not yours.

Thanks!