With more and more brands investing time, money and effort in content marketing, there are some great examples out there of successful campaigns that engage customers and secure a solid return on investment. But there are also plenty of reasons why content marketing campaigns fail to deliver. In this download, we talked to 8 Castleford employees and asked them each to identify a common mistake brands make when it comes to content creation and promotion. Castleford is Australia and New Zealand's leading content marketing business, with a full-scale, in-house production set-up and Google-certified content strategists. We work with some of the region's leading brands, as well as mid-sized organisations and SMEs. Visit our website to book a demo.

1. #contentfail
8 reasons your content marketing is failing

2. There’s an awful lot of buzz around content marketing
right now. Businesses across Australia and New Zealand
are either doing it, planning to do it or being told every
day they should be doing it.
But like any marketing activity, there are more ways to
get content marketing wrong than there are to get it
right. So if you’re thinking twice about investing in
content and worried about ROI, check out these 8
reasons content marketing campaigns fail.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help make
content marketing work for your business, visit our
website to book a demo.
8 reasons your content marketing is failing

3. “Pop-ups, too much ad content above
the fold, pages that take too long to load
– these all cost websites visitors and
conversions. Users are also quickly
turned off when the content they want
is difficult to find.
“The hierarchy of information and how
the pages are organised is something a
lot of website owners still seem to
overlook, but it's crucial to a good user
experience.
“When a user can't immediately see
what to click, they usually click back to
the search results and on to a
competitor's site.”
Amanda Gross, Managing Editor
1. You have great content, but you make it harder than it needs to be for
users to find what they're looking for

4. “Website layout is so important these
days as users are starting to expect
beautiful design as well as great
content.
“Things like picture quality, size and
placement; tidy paragraph structure;
and pages that load fast and are easy
to navigate will sometimes have more
influence over a user's perception
than what you've actually written.“
Blair Polwart, Senior Business
Development Manager
2. You think substance beats style and present your brilliant content with
no thought to the design or layout

5. “One common issue many websites
fall down on is not making their
content mobile-friendly.
“More and more people are using
devices like tablets and mobiles to
look up information on the go, so
websites need to be compatible
across all platforms.
“Your content could be relevant,
interesting and well-written but if it's
not accessible on a user's chosen
device, they won't read it or act on it.”
Megan Smyth, Content Editor
3. You create awesome content that looks great on a PC or laptop but
awful on mobile and tablet devices

6. “For me it's when brands place less
emphasis on their website than the
channels they use to promote it.
“Your website should be at the heart
of your content marketing strategy
and you should think of Facebook,
Twitter, EDMs, etc. as channels that
drive relevant visitors.
“Social can be great for brand
building and engagement, but likes
and retweets are no substitute for an
awesome website experience that
drives conversions.”
Hao Nguyen, Content Strategist
4. You spend time counting your retweets instead of focusing on website
traffic and conversions

7. “I think a lot of brands misuse their
Facebook audiences. It's the biggest
social media platform in the world, but a
lot of businesses treat it as an 'accessory'
to their website rather than a valuable
tool to increase conversions and
engagement.
“A big blunder is buying likes, which might
boost your 'Facebook image‘, but only
with inactive or irrelevant users.
“Depending on your audience, Facebook
can be a really powerful tool for
engagement if you're sharing great
content rather than just artificially
inflating your numbers.”
Alistair Rathbone, Content Strategist
5. You see Facebook as a box to tick rather than a means of engaging your
target audience

8. “My biggest content marketing fail is when
a brand goes to either one of the extremes
when it comes to search versus user
experience.
“If you only care about SEO and you don't
put the work into developing an editorial
brief that's consistent with your brand and
relevant to your audience you're setting
yourself up to fail.
“The same applies to placing too much
emphasis on catchy headlines or content
you personally think is interesting and
losing sight of the real objective of your
content.
“Sometimes obsessing over minor details
in individual articles comes at the expense
of securing ROI.”
Gillian Kelly, Content Strategist
6. You let SEO dominate your content strategy or you ignore it completely

9. “A common fail, especially now that more
brands are investing in content marketing,
is not getting the most out of infographics,
whitepapers, video or other rich, high value
content.
“I've seen lots of infographics that are way
too small to do them justice or are just too
difficult to find on a website.
“A lot of brands are guilty of putting all
their effort into creating a graphic, or a
whitepaper or a video and then just sticking
it on their blog and hoping for the best.
“Great content needs great promotion,
whether that's through search, social
media, email, paid ads or blogger
outreach.”
Martin Cowton, Senior Account Director
7. You invest time, money and effort in high value content assets and
then fail to promote them

10. “From an editorial perspective, spelling
errors, bad grammar and poorly written
articles really jump out at me.
“If your company or brand is trying to
establish itself as an industry leader,
who is going to take you seriously if your
content is riddled with mistakes?
“This especially rings true for the most
visible parts of your content like titles or
headlines. This is the first part of the
article a reader will look at, and if it's
wrong, it will make you look silly.”
Max Koh, Associate Content Editor
8. You produce some compelling content, but then mess it up with
spelling mistakes and bad grammar