Hey, everyone, welcome back. And if you are new, thank you so much for tuning in. Today we're answering the question of what are some common mistakes to avoid when creating a content marketing strategy? I've been building content plans for more than 20 years, you guys, and I've thought of eight mistakes to avoid when creating your content marketing strategy and your plans. Eight things to avoid that will help your plan be that much better. These are the kind of topics we talk about here on this show, right? So welcome to Marketing with Empathy, the podcast that helps content marketers more confidently navigate the world of brand storytelling. I'm your host, Sarah Panus, and I've spent the last 20 years creating and growing successful editorial brand storytelling strategies, teams, and operations. People are craving connections and I'm on a mission to help brands better connect with their audience by creating content people actually want to consume. Think of the show like a creative content marketing jam session mixed with Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Let's quickly hear from today's sponsors and then jump right into my quick but mighty list of eight mistakes to avoid when creating your content marketing strategy. All right, the number one mistake is lacking focus. Lacking focus on the why, the what, and the where. So with the why, it's what's the point? What business goals does this content support? How are you laddering up to something, to several things? You need to have the why to keep you focused and keep your vision going in the right place. And then, lacking focus on the what what you say? This is obviously very key. My mentor and story brand creator Donald Miller always talks about how people don't buy know the best brands. Always, they buy from the ones that are answering and solving their problem. I'm paraphrasing, but basically you could have the best product in the market, but if you're not talking about it in the right way and having focused words and a solid strategy, you're going to be all over the place and your customer is not going to act in the way that you want them to.

And then lacking focus on where. Well, we all know not all content works for all channels. There's so many nuances, especially now. It just keeps it advancing all the time. And you need to think about what are the priority channels for your customer, where are they? Where do they like to hang out that you can reach them, and then also for your company. And my advice here is to focus on fewer than many. And I think right now is a really perfect time to audit your content ecosystem, your channels that you are prioritizing, especially your social channels and which ones you're going to cut. And I give you full permission to have conversations internally about like, I don't think we need to be on all of the social channels.

I think we should be on these three. And this is why, as an example, keep your name, keep your business name and the URL on the other social channels that you have for reputation management purposes. You don't want somebody else scooping up your brand name and then having to go back and get it. It's a headache. Trust me, I've done that with brands before. The biggest thing here and why I'm saying this is you're probably feeling this. You are stretched thin. Social teams, especially content teams that create a lot of social content are very stretched thin.

There's such a high demand for very specific and different variety of formats and styles and things that go across different channels. Teams are very stretched thin. They are having competing priorities. Everything can't be top priority, right? And you, your teams are going to do way better content if you can focus your efforts on fewer channels overall. And so I think what better time than right now after we've all gone through the pandemic, we've all kind of reflected on our lives and our relationships. Well Dang, look at your content channels guys. Cut where it's not needed. Mistake number two is creating in a silo.