4 Reasons Why Content Might NOT Work for You

We talk a lot about content and why people should do it and what the benefits are and yada yada yada. But obviously, nothing is without risk.

And the same for content. There is a risk to putting time and money and resources into building out a content marketing strategy and it then never working out or bringing ROI.

Here are 4 reasons why content might NOT work for you:

𝟏. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭-𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭:

If your product/service doesn't solve a big enough problem in the market, no amount of content will solve that for you.

So if you're just starting, you need to:
- figure out how to systemize your processes and your product to get a product-market fit and
- then start creating content around it.

𝟐. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞-𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭:

Even if you solve a big enough problem, your content won’t work if you don’t know how to communicate your value prop in a way that resonates with prospects (for example, you speak in features and not in benefits)

It might be because you don't understand:
- their buying processes well enough,
- what frustrations they're going through, and
- what their day-to-day looks like.

You need to keep iterating your content based on your audience’s response until the message resonates with them.

𝟑. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐬:

You need to find where your target audience is spending time.

If you are selling to B2B decision-makers, you won’t get much out of posting on Reddit or Tiktok.

LinkedIn is the obvious choice for any B2B business, but still make sure your prospects are active here. For example, if you sell to construction site managers, very few of them are active here.

𝟒. 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲:

You will not get results even if you do all the above things right if you stop after posting 3 videos.

Content marketing is not performance marketing but brand building.

Depending on your average sales cycle length, it might take you anywhere between 3 to 12 months to start seeing the results like:
- consistent inbound leads,
- shortened sales cycles, and
- reduced customer acquisition cost.

And you need to keep iterating in that time period. Look at your analytics. What resonates, what doesn’t? Which channels are working, which aren’t?

So as summary, if you want content marketing to work for you, you must:
- Have product-market fit,
- Have message-market fit,
- Post on the right channels, and
- Be consistent for 3-12 months WHILE iterating.