Everywhere you turn today, businesses are seeking guidance to leverage their content marketing strategies.

Visibility management and content marketing platform Semrush highlights this tremendous shift in their recent 2021 predictions. The pandemic has created all-new customer behaviors that no one is immune to. Meeting the customer where they are at means developing a relationship that sets your business apart from your competition.

However, this is a very elusive topic for businesses to wrap their heads around. In Semrush’s recent report, out of 1,500 organizations surveyed, nearly 85% of them said they had a content marketing strategy, yet just over 10% rated their content marketing strategy as excellent.

Many try to implement content marketing and fail. Because of the positive press of this style of marketing, they assume that they will quickly see increased responses over their traditional marketing activities.

However, there are many reasons why content marketing fails and businesses quit. Understanding these reasons and how to overcome them will help you build a successful program.

1. Content Marketing is Different From Content Advertising

The first thing businesses struggle with is creating truly valuable content without embedding advertisements in the message. It simply runs counterintuitive to a business to spend their precious time giving away valuable (and sometimes proprietary) content without having some kind of sales pitch embedded in the message.

The problem is that your customers will see through your veiled attempt at what I call “content advertising.” When you advertise within your content and try to pitch a product or service, it often is very obvious.

In fact, many people might take it as an insult that you think they are so clueless that they can’t see through your attempt. This activity can negatively impact your brand. When this ruse is ineffective, businesses return to traditional marketing, assuming that content marketing does not work.

In John Hall’s article “5 Content Marketing Trends That Should Be On Your Radar,” he highlights the importance of authenticity and vulnerability when conducting content marketing. If your content contains some traditional advertising pitch, you will lose the authenticity factor.

2. Content Marketing is About Building a Trusting Relationship — Not Selling

When businesses attempt content marketing, they often follow the same one-way communication approach as they do with traditional marketing and advertising.

They create and post their content, enjoying all the comments and views. However, they simply move on to the next piece of content without engaging back with their customers.

This creates a “Hey, look at me” vibe that generally turns customers away. Not engaging with those who take the time to comment sends a message that you do not care about their input. Again, this behavior will negatively impact your brand.

Also, if you plan to engage customers through content marketing and hope to build relationships with your customers, you need to incorporate an engagement approach. It is one thing to be seen as a thought leader when you post your content, but you should also seek out the work of others and add your thought leadership to their work. This is especially important when the content provider has a very large following.

3. Content Marketing is About The Long Game

In a recent Forbes article, Krystle Davis emphasized that marketers should look beyond their short-term marketing campaigns and start thinking about the long game.

Traditional marketing includes a single advertisement or activity. It either results in interest, or it does not. Businesses use A/B advertisement approaches to see which ad resonates more and drives more sales.

Content marketing does not result in immediate sales because (if done correctly) you are not selling anything. Thus, content marketing must be consistent and constant. The message needs to be on-subject but different all the time.

Creating one good advertisement can be challenging enough, but creating weeks and months of engaging and varied content can be exhausting. Typically, businesses do not want to wait for the content to drive customers to their door. So, they revert back to traditional approaches.

4. Content Marketing Is About Giving More Than You Get

When done inappropriately or incorrectly, content marketing becomes a waste of time, effort, and money for any business.

In order to drive true content marketing, businesses are relying on the Law of Reciprocity. This law states that when you give someone something or do something nice for someone, they have a psychological urge to respond to the favor.

When the response is not immediate, the giver tends to give up. For this law to be effective, however, the giving must be without expectation — selfless.

Then, and only then, is content marketing truly effective.

This article has been reprinted with permission from John Knott´s Forbes page.