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10 Reasons Your Content Marketing is Killing You

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: March 2, 2011
Here’s 10…how many do you have?
Here we go…
  1. Selfish content marketing.  People don’t care about you, they care about themselves.  Create content that solves customers’ pain points. Stop talking about yourself, your products, your services.  If you do, make it about your customers.
  2. The back burner. There is no back burner.  If there is content marketing creation or adaptation that is on the back burner, it wasn’t important enough to do in the first place. In the words of Yoda, “Do or do not…there is no try“.
  3. Content Marketing is Killing MeNo point of view. In order to position yourself as an expert in your industry, you need a point of view. Take a stance. Walking the fence is boring and, more importantly, usually doesn’t work.
  4. Lack of push. Is your content taking your customers to new places? Solve your customers’ pain points, and then take them to places they haven’t been to or seen before. That’s thought leadership.
  5. No process. I see it every day. Scenario: Marketing campaign…ads to be placed…then someone asks about the content plan…people scurry about…someone runs out to get the content. Plan upfront to create, repurpose and distribute content. From each content idea, plan for at least five repackaging concepts.
  6. Where’s the call? Each piece of content should have a call to action or behavior you’d like to see.  What would happen if you asked, “Why?” to each piece of content you create?  I’ll tell you what…you’ll either know the call to action or you’ll kill the content (for lack of purpose).
  7. Channel silo. Are you paying attention to one channel at the expense of all the others? It’s okay to have one main channel, like a blog, but you’ll miss the true power of content marketing by not leveraging all available channels – print, mobile, event. Think like a media company…think like a publisher.
  8. Forgetting employees. Employee expertise is the most underutilized content marketing asset.  Your employees give your brand life. Leverage them in the creation and distribution process. Start with the 10% that get it. Show success stories and move on to the rest of your employee base.
  9. One word: Editing. Editing may be the most underrated piece of the content marketing process. Sometimes we as brands don’t understand that the first draft of a piece of content is called a good start.  Enter the editor. Get one or hire one.
  10. Taking yourself too seriously. Please, have some fun with your content. You have two choices with your content…to inform or entertain (hopefully you are doing both). That, if done right, will create engagement and hopefully action.

Is your content marketing killing you? If so, what is your biggest challenge?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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  • Jeff Kryger

    Nice list. I think #5 & #7 are especially true. But both can be solved with a little bit of preparation and planning. And I agree, getting some people on the team who “get it” to help out is key

  • http://www.gogodropship.com/blog Amber

    #10 is a good point. People want to learn, but they also want to be entertained. If you put a little humor and show some personality into your writing, you’re bound to get more readers.

  • http://www.princetonproperties.com Sarah Greenough

    All good points. I agree that a point of view is a must, anyone can be “wishy-washy” but a well thought out stance is hard to come across. Also, leveraging employees is critical – they should act as micro-brands selling our brand as a whole. Nice write up.

  • http://blog.drakeco.com Becky Rasmussen

    Good stuff! Seems like simple things, but sometimes it’s doing the simple things well that really makes you stand out.

    Definitely agree with #6 – a journalism teacher I had called it the “so-what” factor. When someone reads your content, their first question is usually “so what?” and you better have an answer for them.

    • http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

      Love the “so what” comment Becky…good stuff.

  • http://www.danasearcy.com Dana Searcy

    This is a great post! I think all bloggers can learn something from reading this.

  • http://techrealms.net Edward Franklin

    This is a great check list for writing killer content.

  • http://www.billeebrady.com Billee Brady

    Hey Joe,

    Great list you have here my friend! #2 a great one…. The old back burner…. A content killer at the best of times..
    “Do or Do Not, There is No Try” Great quote and so true…

    Thanks,
    Billee Brady

  • http://www.ganforhire.com/ Jason

    Hi Joe,

    Great! Will keep this checklist. Definitely agree with #1- The days of messaging at consumers is long past; it’s time to put away the trumpet, store the drums and trash the loudspeaker, and start focusing on the handshake, the friendly ear, the I’d-like-to-get-to-know-you-better approach.