Five Content Marketing Fails and How to Fix Them

Seventy-eight percent of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing, which means more budget is being designated to content marketing and with that, bigger and better results are expected. But here’s the truth: Success in content marketing is hard. When you hear about hugely successful content marketing campaigns or a company that does it really well, what you don’t hear about is the all the failures it took to get there. Below are some content marketing failures you may experience on the road to success and what you can do to fix them.

FAIL: Using Outdated Personas to Develop Content.

The success of your content depends on its ability to connect with your audience. Are you creating content with your buyers’ pain points, needs and psychology in mind? To create effective content, it’s important to keep your personas current. Buyers needs are constantly changing and to grab your buyers’ attention, you need to address problems, issues or trends they’re dealing with now.



FIX: If you find your content is falling flat and its point of view, subject matter or key messages are based on buyer personas or a messaging document created from personas, enlist the help of your sales team and some friendly customers to help you re-evaluate your personas to ensure your content is relevant to buyers NOW. General rule of thumb is to update buyer personas at least twice a year to keep them fresh, but if your content is not resonating as well as you anticipated, you may need to refresh them more often. Making tweaks to your content based on persona or messaging updates could give your content the relevance it needs to grab your buyers’ attention and keep it.

FAIL: Lack of Original Content or Point of View.

As mentioned in Fail #1, to grab buyers’ attention, you need to stay relevant to what they care about now. Unfortunately, many other marketers know this, which means a lot of content on the same topics flooding the marketplace at the same time. It’s unlikely your/your author’s thoughts on a topic are completely original. However, you can and should have a unique perspective, delivery method or opinion on your topic. Think about your content like you would the remake of a movie or cover of a song – only do it if you can add to or improve on the original.


FIX:If a quick google search reveals multiple results similar to your content, your buyers have probably been exposed to those as well. Brainstorm ways to change the delivery, the format or the perspective to offer a fresh take on the information. Could you turn your whitepaper into a video, your eBook into an interactive game, your video into an infographic? Could you cover your subject in light of new facts, statistics or use cases? Seventy percent of marketers plan on creating more content than they did the year before, so competing for mindshare is only getting more difficult. You’re not going to be the first person to discuss your subject, so be the best.

FAIL: Low Response Rate.

If you’ve validated your content is strong, unique and on point but you’re still getting a lower response rate than you anticipated, the problem could be in the amplification and/or delivery of it. According to Rand Fishkin, founder of online marketing and SEO firm Moz, content amplification falls into three buckets: 1. Broadcast: social media, email, events, etc.; 2. 1:1 Outreach: social media, in person, personal email, etc.; 3. Paid Promotion: PPC, advertising, boosted posts, etc. To optimize response rates, you need to have the right mix of amplification techniques and be targeting the right audience.


FIX: Spend some time analyzing your strategy for each of these buckets to determine if one or all of them are producing a weak response. It could be that you’re using the wrong channels. For example, if your content is intended for a business decision makers and you’re relying heavily on Facebook for your paid promotion and outreach, you could be missing your target audience as Facebook is typically more optimal for consumers. Consider re-allocating your dollars and efforts to LinkedIn, an industry-related community forum, or trade publication. Identifying the best channels and amplification strategy for your content takes trial and error and getting to know your audience really, really well.

FAIL: Lack of Shareability.

The rise of social media has taken the importance of content marketing and its shareability to a new level. Social networking relies on sharing content and consuming content shared by others. For content to be shareable, it needs to be relevant (see Fail #1), compelling (see Fail #2) and easy to share.


FIX: If your content isn’t being shared on social networks, examine how it scores in the three areas above. Make sharing on multiple social networks as easy as possible. Consider shareability when choosing a title (length and descriptiveness), accompanying images (visual content is 40 times more likely to get shared), and preview text (the first 2 – 3 sentences of your content or landing page). Gating your content is going to diminish shareability, so consider creating another “teaser” piece to share on social networks if your content is gated. Optimizing shareability takes practice, brainstorming and lots of tweaking so don’t give up before going through several rounds of edits aiming to increase it.

FAIL: Low Lead Quality.

If your content is based on updated buyer personas and messaging documents and you’re still experiencing low lead quality, it could be due to lack of an effective lead nurturing program or a mistake in bucketing your content into a designated buyer stage. Many marketers make the incorrect assumption that a lead that views a certain type of content is automatically ready to talk to Sales. As a result, Sales sends the leads back to marketing deeming them as “unqualified” or “not Sales-ready”.


FIX: Re-evaluate your content if it’s designated as a “conversion piece” by analyzing what content is downloaded when among won opportunities in your CRM. This will help determine if you’ve correctly identified the buyer stage in which your content likely falls. Just because leads view a webinar doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to go to Sales. If you’re able to spot trends on the mix of content downloaded among won opportunities, use it as a basis for creating a lead nurturing program that produces high-quality leads.


Your content marketing efforts may not produce the ROI you’re expecting or hoping for immediately. Don’t give up. Every success story includes failures. What makes you successful is the bravery to face your failures, evaluate and learn from them, and then fix them. Set expectations for your CEO or board to think long-term. Content marketing is a process. It takes patience, analysis, and hard work to get it right, but if you’re willing to put in the effort, you will reap the benefits.


Pen & Purpose

Is 'Lucky Girl Syndrome' Luck Or Self Awareness?

By Emily Lewis • April 26, 2024
‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ is one of the viral trends on TikTok sweeping the nation. I’m not a TikToker and heard about it much later on a medium more targeted to my (cough - older - cough) demographic - Hoda & Jenna . But it caught my attention because it probably works but for reasons that have nothing to do with luck. What is 'Lucky Girl Syndrome'? The Lucky Girl Syndrome is characterized by an individual's ability to attract seemingly fortuitous outcomes consistently. It’s manifestation in a cuter outfit, complete with pretty TikTokers sharing their amazing results and swearing it will change your life. From winning contests to stumbling upon unexpected opportunities, these women appear to attract luck and claim you can too! How Does It Work? Explanations of how it works center on the power of positive thinking - if you believe you’re lucky, you will be. But is there more to it? It reminds me an exercise I did earlier this year, in which I wrote my own obituary– Donald Miller’s more morbid approach to getting your desired outcomes. ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ and writing your own obituary both challenge you to think about and declare what you want. ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ focuses on believing you’ll get what you want. Donald Miller’s exercise (as part of his 2022 book Hero on a Mission) challenges you to take it a step further and figure out what you want your life to mean- what do you want and why? With his approach, you create 10-year, 5-year, and 1-year goals to ultimately work towards what’s written in your obituary. For both, you need to answer to the question: what do you want? So, is knowing what you want and believing it will happen all you need to get it? Lucky Girl Syndrome says yes because of two psychological factors: 1. Cognitive Biases: Human cognition is susceptible to biases that influence perception and decision-making. Your brain looks for confirmation of what you already believe. But it doesn’t just influence your belief, it influences your actions. If you believe you’re lucky, you seek out opportunities to confirm it. This is often subconscious, so you feel lucky when you get what you want, but it’s really, at least partially, the result of your actions. 2. Reward System Activation: Neurologically, experiences perceived as positive or rewarding trigger the brain's reward system, primarily involving the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine. My friend @mashalyons posted a Jamie Varon quote on Instagram stories, which embodies this “syndrome”: "Find a way to love your life so much that you feel lucky to be you. Like its a privilege just to wake up as yourself. Like you are utterly charmed by your own life. What a beautiful home you've built. What incredible friends you get to text all day. How you spend your time and your life- genius. What fun! What a strong mind you have. What a way you care for yourself and listen to your needs. What great kids or dogs or cats or plants you've raised. Wow, you've got this whole life thing figured out. Or, if not, look at you, trying to figure it out and fight for your joy. How lucky you are that you get to be you." - Jamie Varon Your luck is subjective. If you feel lucky, you are. The Role of Gratitude Believing you are lucky requires gratitude for what you have as much as it requires thinking you’ll get what you want. Gratitude is essential because, it enables: A Positive Mindset: Gratitude shifts your focus from what you lack to what you have. This positive mindset can fuel your motivation, resilience, and satisfaction. Resilience: Gratitude reframes setbacks as opportunities. When you're grateful, you're better equipped to find silver linings in difficult situations and learn from setbacks. Improved Relationships: Gratitude strengthens relationships by fostering a sense of connection and appreciation for others. Being genuinely appreciated helps others feel more connected to you, which increases their desire to help you. Enhanced Mental Health: Gratitude is linked to numerous mental health benefits, including reduced stress, anxiety, and depression - all of which get in the way of feeling lucky. Increased Productivity and Performance: Studies have shown that gratitude correlates with success. When you're grateful for the opportunities, resources, and abilities you have, you're more likely to make the most of them. Grateful individuals tend to be more proactive, creative, and goal-oriented. Better Opportunities: The laws of attraction suggests that like attracts like. When you radiate gratitude, you attract more positive experiences and opportunities into your life. Others are drawn to those who exude positivity and appreciation. Physical Health Benefits: Gratitude has been linked to numerous physical health benefits, including better sleep, stronger immune function, and lower blood pressure. The Role of Knowing What You Want When 'Lucky Girl Syndrome' asserts that if you believe good things will happen to you, they do, it forces you to define “good things”, which does the following: Sets Goals: When you know where you’re going, getting there is much easier. Improves Self-Awareness: Knowing what you want requires self-awareness—understanding your strengths, values, and passions. This adds meaning to your life and helps you understand why you want the things you do. Empowers You: A clear sense of what you want empowers you to take control of getting it. Donald Miller’s obituary exercise encourages you to look at not just what you want, but how you’re going to get there. His approach is ideal for planners, Enneagram 3s , and people with very specific goals. But if that approach doesn’t appeal to you, knowing what you want and believing you will get it enables your subconscious to work towards it. Maybe that's enough. I'm not saying that knowing what you want and believing you'll get it eliminates obstacles, failures, and disappointments. Nor am I arguing that luck has nothing to do with success or good outcomes, a number of studies and books confirm that it does. But how much of a person’s luck is fueled by gratitude, self awareness, and faith?
ChatGPT: Copywriting Comrade or Competition

ChatGPT for Copywriters: Comrade or Competition?

By Emily Lewis • September 20, 2023
Two years ago, I tried the marketing and copywriting AI tool Jasper (at the time branded as Jarvis). I concluded it and similar AI tools weren't worth my time or investment because the output was generic, repetitive and sometimes nonsensical. Then in November 2022, ChatGPT launched and quickly went viral on social media as users shared examples of the impressive ways they were using it. For content creation and copywriting, it was more advanced than any other AI tool I’d seen and free! The AI Copywriting Revolution 🚀 Fast forward to today, AI ( thanks to ChatGPT ) has evolved. It's now the hottest trend in town, with many media outlets predicting AI-tools will revolutionize business practices across every major industry. So, what's behind this meteoric rise in popularity? Let's break it down: Efficiency & Speed: AI tools like GPT-4 have turbocharged the writing process. A first draft that once took a writer 1-2 hours can now be done in minutes. Consistency: AI tools maintain a consistent tone and style regardless of who is inputting the information. Scalability: Not only do AI-tools enable you to create content in a fraction of the time you could do it manually, they allow you to outsource creating it to anyone that can input information. At least in theory. Top AI Tools for Business & Marketing 🛠️ While I don’t believe copywriting AI tools are a good replacement for a human writer of any skill level, they have drastically improved since 2021, and today’s AI tools are absolutely worth investing in. When coupled with a human, these are my favorite AI writing tools: GPT-4: I used it to generate this post. While I did a lot of editing, it gave me a first draft, which likely would’ve taken me close to an hour to write without assistance. Feed it a prompt, and it'll churn out a draft in minutes. The better and more detailed your input, the better output it delivers. And you can give your tool feedback to keep editing the draft. Grammarly: The free version spots grammatical errors and helps you enhance readability. Grammarly Premium does everything the free version does, plus checks for plagiarism, offers recommendations based on over 400+ writing styles, and has an AI writing assistant (although not as sophisticated as GPT-4). SurferSEO: Using AI to analyze top-performing content in your industry, SurferSEO helps you craft SEO-optimized copy based on keyword searches and queries. There are hundreds of AI tools available and dozens specifically for copywriting. Pick a few that work for you. Trying to use too many tools can easily derail your efficiency and productivity. AI needs you to function, not the other way around. Maximizing the AI Advantage 🚀 Now that you have your favorite AI tools in hand, how do you squeeze every last drop of potential from them? Here's the playbook: Customize, Don't Compromise: Don’t expect perfection. AI is not a mind-reader. It’s an interpreter of the knowledge and experiences you give it. It also pulls from other sources around the web to complete your request. The content you publish becomes your digital portfolio, so don't let AI tools diminish the quality of it. Quality Control: Always have a human check the output and edit as needed. I've never published an AI-generated piece that didn’t require edits. Feedback Loop: Get feedback from your marketing tools, audience, customers, or team on AI-generated content. If they report a decrease in quality, relevance or effectiveness, try changing your input or editing processes. What AI Can't Replace 🧠 AI can’t replace you. Because while it can put words on paper for you, it lacks: Creativity: The AI may paint by numbers, but the canvas is still your domain. Innovative ideas, storytelling, wisdom, and expertise gained from experience are firmly in your human court. Empathy: AI doesn't have a heart. It can't truly understand your audience's emotions and respond with the compassion and empathy that only a human can provide. Strategy: Crafting a content strategy that aligns with your business goals requires human finesse. AI can execute, but the roadmap is your creation. There's no question that AI has drastically impacted the marketing and copywriting industries. But like any other technology, it doesn’t function on its own. AI can’t replace a skilled human writer, but it can improve their productivity and efficiency in unprecedented ways. The new era of copywriting and content marketing is not driven by AI, it’s driven by humans leveraging the power of AI.

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