Today’s business owners and content creators alike know that content marketing is an integral part of online marketing and running a profitable business. All across the United States and the globe, more and more individuals are trying to build a personal brand. More companies are hiring independent content creators or agencies to build brand awareness. Whether you are a full-time content creator, freelance writer, one of a growing number of social media influencers, or just a business owner forced to also join the ranks of content marketers- you’ve GOT to avoid these 10 mistakes that content creators make left and right across all different platforms. Making these 10 mistakes on any platform will not only cost you precious time but could ultimately cost you quality leads and tons of money.

One of my goals with this business is to help business owners, bloggers, and podcasters (wherever you’re at in life) communicate more effectively with their words. My heart behind this blog and podcast is to help you avoid a bunch of mistakes that I see digital content creators make in content creation and, ultimately, their communication. 

There are 10 mistakes that I see commonly made in blogging, social media, and podcasting. 

If you can avoid these ten mistakes, you’re not only going to have quality content that people want to consume, but I bet you money (not real money, though) that your conversion rates will go up and you’ll see yourself becoming a very successful content creator.

10 Most Common Mistakes Content Creators Make

1. Not Keeping the End in Mind

If you take nothing else away from this, please implement this change today. The most common mistake I see among content creators is not beginning with the end in mind. Regardless of your primary content format, be it visual content, written content, or audio content, you must begin creating with the end in mind. You must know at the beginning of your content creation process what the main point of this piece of content is.  When you turn on the camera to record YouTube videos, you need to know what you’re going to say. You don’t have to have it all scripted out, but you do need to know the main point of your message.

You can and should reiterate the main point in a few different ways so that your target audience remembers what you’re trying to say. Even the best professional cameras can’t hide a lack of clarity in content. I use this tip in literally every piece of content that I create, either for myself or for clients. This tip is even crucial for strictly social media content creators whether you batch create or not (though I think you should, and this blog can help you learn how to batch work the easy way).

Content Creators: Remember your English Class

Truly, one of the best practices that content creators need as they go into their content creation time- whether it’s writing a post, writing an email, outlining your podcast or blog-  is to begin with the main point in mind. In English class, you might have heard this called the thesis. Ask yourself, “What is the point of this piece of content” for every piece of content you create. I literally have a spot for this on the top of my podcast outline template because I want to remember what the main focus of each episode is.

You obviously can have more than one tip. But focus each tip on the main idea that you want to communicate. What is that one sentence your audience can carry with them throughout their day that will help them remember this content? At the end of the day, we are all so inundated with content and information that if we are not super, super clear in what we’re trying to communicate, our message is going to get lost and forgotten.

2. Not Thinking About Your Client’s Wants or Needs

The goal of your content should always be to serve your people. It should be to serve the people that God has given you to serve in business. So if you’re only thinking about what you want to talk about, what you want to create, it’s selfish and is probably not serving your people very well. Now, this does not mean that everything you create has to be focused only on search engine optimization or pleasing the algorithm. That’s not what I’m saying. But your content is for your audience. It’s to serve them. It’s to bless them, to draw them closer to God. It’s to bless your business. Your content strategy should be a way to serve your people. However, don’t fear, you can absolutely implement stories, and elements of your personality into your content in a way that will still serve your people.

When you’re creating for your business, you need to be thinking about what’s going to serve your potential customers. I know that this might go against the grain of some of the things that you see out there, but making your little self happy should not be at the forefront of your content creation for your business.

Keep Serving Your Audience at the Forefront

If Jesus is our guide (and he should be), He didn’t just say what He wanted to say, right? In John 12:49, Jesus says, “ I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it.” And I think when we take that approach that love is serving, that we should be using our gifts, our callings, and our businesses to serve, then we need to run our content through that filter as well. Ask “Does this serve my audience?” If the answer is “No, it just makes me happy,” then you probably shouldn’t spend your time posting it.

3. So many Content Creators Forget to Do Keyword Research

So, here’s a true story: I don’t always do keyword research before I create content. Why?! Because I know my audience, I know my people, and I know how I want to serve them. However, I ALWAYS do keyword research before I publish content. Why? For starters, I have found that when I do keyword research before creating content, it seems to stifle my creative freedom. I want to take a great idea for content that I know will serve my audience and then make it keyword and SEO-friendly.

Often, I take my content idea, and the specific goals for that piece of content, and write a robust outline and even a rough draft before I do the keyword research. Then after doing the research, I alter some of my verbiage to better fit the keyword focus phrase I want to rank for. I find that this process works best for both my own content and the client’s content that we create as a professional content creator. 

Specific Wording Will Get You Found

A lot of times, I see social media content creators and business owners forgetting to do research specific to how people search for their topic, whatever digital platforms they use. All the good ideas in the world won’t help people if you can’t get found because you’re phrasing things differently than people search for solutions.  You can have this glorious idea of something that you’re like, “Yes, people wanna know this. They wanna learn about this! This is totally gonna help them!”  And then you post it and…..crickets. Because nobody’s actually searching for that thing in that way, sometimes, all it takes is a slight change in the wording. You have to know the precise keyword before you create content.

If you forget to do the research, you will now have created and posted this piece of exclusive content that’s not getting hits. Now you have a URL that you really don’t want to have to change, all because you’ve just skipped a very simple step and forgot to do the research. So, please do not forget to do the actual keyword research.

4. Not Repurposing Content

I am such a fan of working smarter, not harder! In fact, it is a mantra in my life. But the fact is that different social media platforms serve people differently and some better than others. Some people need to read things, some people need to see things on video, and some people need audio content. All of those are perfectly fine ways of retaining information, but when you are a content creator and are just publishing content in one area and not repurposing it across any other online platforms, you are missing huge opportunities. And for a very small amount of additional work.

Now the way that we do this in my business is I have a podcast that we then repurpose into blog posts. And then we break that down into social media posts, Pinterest, and email. One piece of content gets repurposed in so many ways, and it’s really not that hard to do. If you don’t have my content repurposing cheat sheet, grab that RIGHT NOW. If you’re finding it hard to fill your content calendar, make sure to schedule repurposed content at least 2 days per week as part of your social media strategy. 

One of my favorite ways to repurpose good content for my entire digital marketing strategy is when I’m writing out the outline for my podcast, I also write the email copy. It’s easier to do when I’m in the zone and already thinking about that content. And then the podcast outline gets tweaked and repurposed into the blog. I’m not doing social media right now, but if were, I would also try to write some captions down when I’m in that headspace.

We Can Help You!

Please, please, please do not fail to repurpose your content in some way, shape, or form. My business actually offers content repurposing for clients now! If you have a YouTube channel or you have a podcast and you need that repurposed into blog form we can help you! You cannot just post a transcript. You have to actually use good SEO practices and change things a little bit for the platform. 

If you are creating really great content on a YouTube channel or a podcast, but you’re not posting high-quality SEO-friendly blogs on your website, then you’re missing an entire ready-to-buy market and new opportunities. So if you’re not repurposing your audio or video content to blog posts, get on it. Get. On. It. Either do it yourself or hire us to do it. 

Reach out to our team about SEO-friendly content repurposing! Email info@faithhannan.com, or book a chat to talk about it.

5. Content Creators- STOP Reinventing the Wheel

I am such a huge proponent of templates! I use templates in literally every facet of my business: content creation, workflow, operating system…all of it. Mama ain’t got time to reinvent the wheel! Your templates might look completely different than mine and that’s okay. I think the mistake that we make as business owners sometimes is thinking that we have to buy a template. Or if we do it ourselves, we have to put together this super fancy, aesthetically pleasing template. (Y’all probably don’t know this, but I actually do love a pretty, aesthetically pleasing template.)

But really, all you have to do when you’re templating something is to just be able to copy and paste parts of your process over so that you don’t have to rethink about, “Oh, I did this and then this and then this.” Especially when you are first starting out creating content, it takes mental bandwidth to remember all the steps, all the software, and all the research that goes into each piece of quality content. Save yourself TONS of time and brain space by creating simple templates.

This can be as simple as having a spreadsheet of links that you need, or a list of keywords saved in a doc that you can then copy and paste and reuse as a template. Even that is hugely beneficial to your business and your time.  I know one great content creator who says, “If I have to do it more than once, I make a template for it.”

Additional Resources for Content Creators on Templating:

I have some more information on templates and some ideas for templates in Episode 133, where I talk about 3 ways to streamline your blogging process. And then in Episode 134, I talk about 15 easy templates to write great SEO content and save time. So go listen to those after reading this just to get your brain juices flowing on how you can create and use templates easily in your business.

Bonus tip for content creators:

Make sure to check your Google Analytics and search console information at least once per month. There may be content that you’re already ranking for that you could easily improve and move up the SERPS page. 

Check out this post for how to survive the latest Google update.

6. Not Working Hard Enough on the Title of the Content

I see a lot of content creators, bloggers, and podcasters across all platforms working really hard on creating great content but not working hard on the title. At the very least, writing a great title should take you about half as long as it does to create the actual content.

There are so many reasons for that, but one of them is that your first idea is usually not your best idea. I can pretty much tell you I have never had the first title idea be the one that I landed on. You just have to rework things with your titles. 

One of my other newer favorite tools for creating great content or great titles is Headline Studio by CoSchedule. It’s super affordable, and I actually have an affiliate link for it! When you’re creating your title, make sure that it is the ideal length for the platform that you’re posting on, and that your keyword focus phrase is in the title. Also, make sure that it’s clear and enticing without being clickbaity because everybody and their mama hates clickbait. When working on your titles, it’s also wise to keep in mind your audience’s specific goals when consuming that content. Be clear in your title as well as in your content. 

Bonus tips for content creators for writing a great title:

Know the main point of the content. Know the promise (aka what your audience is going to get out of consuming and implementing your ideas), know what your audience wants most, and know what “triggers” them.

Listen to this podcast episode and this episode for more tips on writing great titles.

7. Only Sharing Content Once

Mistake number 7 is to just create content once, share it once, and then forget it. When you just share it once, people just don’t see everything that comes across their feed. Especially if you’re just sharing the link on social media accounts and being like, “Go watch it y’all,” it might get missed. Recent studies have shown that social media followers only see 7.6% of your content! 

So, if you only share things one time, then you’re losing out on so many new followers and not getting your content in front of a large percentage of your audience. 

Try to establish a cadence in your content calendar and workflow where you reshare old content on a specific day of the week. In our business, we re-share an “old” blog post on Thursdays and reshare a spiritual growth podcast within our nurture email each Friday. 

This is also a great time to split test titles and different graphic designs. If you had a title that was close to 2nd place for the original title of the content, use the 2nd place title when re-sharing the content and see how it performs. This is a great way to learn what types of titles resonate with your audience the best. 

Now, truth be told, this is something that we are working on in my business. This is something that we are actively working on in my business as well, but truly, sharing content more than once is a great way to build up your online presence with very little extra work. 

8. Not Using the Focus Keyword Phrase Enough

Sometimes I see content creators using a focus keyword phrase in the title and the first paragraph or the first heading and then never again.

The way that Google and other search engines work, is you have to use that keyword focus phrase more than once for the search engines to realize that this piece of content is actually about that phrase. Once they realize that, then they’ll put your piece of content at the top of the SERPs when people are searching for that thing. The easiest way to be found on SERPs is to use your focus keyword phrase in the title, in H2 headings, some H3 headings, and then also in your paragraph text. But make sure that you’re not keyword dumping. Don’t make the mistake that little baby blogger Faith did, where you’re just putting that phrase or keyword in there as much as possible.

But you also have to get that keyword-focused phrase for the blog used authentically throughout that piece of content in various places. This will get you picked up by the search engines faster and ranked higher on the SERPs.

Please note that SEO and keyword placement and frequency “rules” vary from platform to platform. What works on blogs won’t necessarily work for podcasts or YouTube. You need to do your own research for each platform and for your specific domain or brand authority on each. 

Want to learn the exact strategy we used to get one client 12,000% MORE traffic in less than a year?

Get access to The Organic Marketing Framework today

9. Not Getting to the Point

One of the biggest mistakes all types of content creators across the board make (looking extra hard at you, recipe bloggers) is just not getting to the point. To sound real country for a minute, “Get to the rat killing y’all.” 

No matter the type of content, tell me what you gotta tell me, and then move on. It will not only make your people so much happier, but they’ll actually get something out of your content, and they’ll come back to you again and again. This is one of the key differences between successful content creators and unsuccessful content creators. As a consumer, if I know that I can come to your YouTube channel, blog, or podcast and get my questions answered quickly and thoroughly, then I will come back. However, if it takes you 10 minutes to get to the point, then I will likely never watch another video, read another blog, or listen to another podcast. Being able to get to the point and communicate clearly is (IMO) one of the most important content-creation skills that anyone can develop.

I do believe that part of this mistake links back to mistake number one- not knowing the main point of your message before you start to create content. After all, if YOU don’t know the main point of your message, your audience won’t either. Figure out the main point and then communicate it early and often. 

10. Using AI Too Much

This one is a bit of an unpopular opinion here, but I don’t really care. Mistake number 10 in the world of content creation is letting AI do too much of the work. We use chat GPT very little in my business. It’s not something I love or am super comfortable with, to be honest. As a professional content writer, I’d rather write great content myself than let AI write for me. Then I know that it’s written correctly, the research is accurate, and that it sounds like my client! That’s just how I am. However, I do know that with the high demand for content, we do need to learn to use AI effectively for certain parts of the content creative process. I am actively looking for the best ways to make our workflow better by using ChatGPT in a smart way without having it written for us.

Use Other Methods

I know that social media managers especially love to use AI to help write captions and generate content ideas, but the best content creators will still further tweak those ideas and customize them with E-E-A-T to not only serve your audience better but keep Google happy.

But please, when you’re creating content, do not let AI do too much of the work. I know it is tempting to plug a blog idea into your favorite AI tool and then just copy and paste what it says into WordPress, hit publish, and never think about it again, but don’t. Not only will this hurt your SEO and domain authority, but the content will suck too. You’re going to wind up with poop-sounding content that doesn’t get you found by the right people. And since it’s completely unoriginal, it doesn’t actually help your target audience. AI likes to think it sounds human-esque and that readers won’t be able to tell if a ‘bot wrote it. But we can tell. We. Can. Tell.

Avoid These Mistakes as Content Creators

Check yourself before you wreck yourself! Avoid these 10 mistakes to create better digital media content to serve your audience and bless your business. When writing your content, keep the main idea or endpoint in mind, and remember to think about what your audience wants or needs…not you. Don’t forget to do the keyword research so you get found! To make your life easier, repurpose your content for different online platforms, and USE TEMPLATES. Make sure to spend time on your title to get it just right, share your content multiple times on different social media channels, and use the focus keyword throughout your headings and text. And please, please, get to the stinkin’ point and try to refrain from letting AI do all your writing for you! Your clients want personal, authentic content that will improve their daily lives. 

If this all seems way too overwhelming, book a discovery call to see how my team can help repurpose your content! Oh, and guess what? We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out, and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now, you won’t regret it! All the other things: courses, coaching, and copywriting can be found on my website, faithhanan.com.

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