Content is everything you see online—it could be as simple as an image or an emoji! So, creating online content is not a big deal. The real challenge is creating content for a business purpose and getting it in front of the right audience. That is where a strong content marketing strategy comes into play.
In this post, we will explore some mistakes in content marketing strategy, especially for long-form content (both text-based and multimedia) designed to generate business conversion!
The Evolution of Content Marketing
Today, content marketing is not only limited to written, formatted content; it has become more advanced and flexible with the change in online media consumption trends (PDF-Talker Research). Users often use digital platforms (Social media) to consume their daily media needs, such as news, humour, knowledge bases, etc.
Not only that, but AI is also playing a vital role in today’s digital marketing. AI now delivers personalised content, Ads, and recommendations to individual users based on their moods, behaviours, interests, and preferences. In short—AI knows what users want before they do!
On the other hand, text-based content continues to hold significant value. No matter how popular multimedia content becomes, text-based content remains irreplaceable because of its cost-effectiveness in SEO campaigns. Search engines like Google and Bing still heavily prioritise text-based content because it is easier and cheaper to create, manage, and optimise for SEO purposes than multimedia content.
Creating high-quality text-based content is now easier with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, etc. So, marketers now have an opportunity to drive maximum business conversion using AI.
Before You Promote: Know What & Where
Here are the only things you should consider when placing ads: “where to promote and what to promote”. Although you have all the advanced tools to make your business content more professional and polished, you still need to work on creativity, uniqueness and relevancy.
Technology can only help make your content polished and professional. Still, it is up to you what to create and where to promote.
7 Common Mistakes in Content Marketing Strategy
1. Copying Instead of Being Inspired
I’ve seen many marketers copying content (ideas) from their competitors’ campaigns. Not exactly word-for-word, but overall structure and points. It might generate short-term results, but it is not worth making a brand in the long run.
It’s okay to be inspired by your competitors, but you must also create something fresh to make an identity.
What you can take from your competitors:
- What group of people they are targeting.
- How they highlight their business using their content.
- Channels they are using to publish their content.
- Text-based or multimedia, which type of content they are using.
We shouldn’t forget that content marketing is not only for attracting traffic but also for building a brand and trust among users. After all, users expect something unique and fresh from you (your business, products, services).
2. Lack of Research
You must know your targeted people and their expectations before creating any commercial content. So, it’s better to research your potential customers before creating business content.
Free tools such as Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner will help you better understand your customers’ queries. You can also create and promote surveys to understand your potential customers better.
Don’t run your content marketing campaign with less research.
3. Content Without Business Conversion Power
Engaging content doesn’t always mean having business conversion power until you add something to tell its users what to do next. It might be adding a call to action button or solid information that users want to access more.
Let’s say—if you want to make people sign up for your next business event. Then, you need to put a call-to-action button and some reasonable reasons into your content so that people will love to sign up. Otherwise, your content will remain just engaging content.
It’s true that sometimes you need users to engage in your content (especially in your business blog) to brand your business and increase trust. But, if you want your content to do business for you, you need to put a solid reason into it so that users do what you want them to do.
4. Your Content Is Too Professional
You understand your audience before choosing the tone of your content. You must know their communication style before choosing a formal or casual voice. You can interact with your customers by using social media to understand your customers’ communication style.
Today, all successful marketers acknowledge that the content speaking a customer’s voice is more effective than the content written in a traditional business voice.
You don’t always need to be professional while creating business content. If you are dealing with general users (B2C or C2C models), it’s better to be casual. People relate more to content that speaks their daily life voice than purely formal content. A professional voice is ideal if you are dealing with another business.
This rule applies to both text-based and multimedia content.
5. Using the Wrong Marketing Channels
Choosing a proper marketing channel is also crucial. Many marketing channels are available today, but none are perfectly fit for a specific type of business or goal.
You must select your marketing channels depending on the type of your business’s products/services. Here is an idea for you:
- Meta is best for Business-to-customer type (B2C) marketing. You can use both text-based and multimedia content.
- TikTok is best for Business-to-customer type (B2C) marketing. Only multimedia content performs best.
- Twitter is the best for business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Both text-based and multimedia content.
- LinkedIn is the best for business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Both text-based and multimedia content.
- AdWords is best for B2B and B2C marketing. Text-based to search engine marketing (SEO and paid ads), videos for YouTube and graphics for AdSense-integrated websites.
6. You’re Missing the Hook Points
Hook points are the shortest, eye-catching, motivating and emotionally enriched content that immediately captures the audience’s attention and engages them with your content.
It may be a video thumbnail, video intro, content title, a few first lines of your content, etc.
It’s an essential point for today’s digital content marketing campaign. People usually have very short attention spans online. You must provide some solid and accurate reasons at the beginning of your content so that they stop scrolling and continue with it.
7. Focusing Only on a Single Type of Content
You are making a mistake if you’re considering making only one type of content for your digital marketing campaign, such as text-based or multimedia.
You might need both types of content to maximise your marketing success. As discussed earlier, different marketing channels prioritise different content formats—for instance, platforms like TikTok and YouTube require video content, while Meta and Google Search ads offer both content to promote.
Conclusion
There is no shortage of valuable content online if we think of a common user perspective. As a marketer, you must reach your audience with the right content at the right time. Although AI is helping us to create content that is more polished and user-friendly, you still need to add emotion and genuine value so that people can engage emotionally. This way, you can make your content marketing strategy effective and drive meaningful business actions.
