The second common mistake companies make in content marketing is that their content just isn’t useful.

Many companies with an online presence think that blogs, social media pages, and other new media platforms are simply a different kind of amplifier for the same promotional and self-glorifying messages.

The less useful a company’s messages are, the more we try to tune them out. When there was only one show on TV, you had to sit through the commercials. Now, you can change the channel, find a new podcast, unsubscribe from the list, delete the app, unfollow a feed, or a host of other ways to avoid content you have no use for.

Yet some content sources stick around on our devices. We can’t bring ourselves to unsubscribe because we think there might be something we’ll eventually get out of it. When a brand fulfills a promise to make our life better, we are much more willing to stick it out with them and listen to what they have to say.

The content you create should be so useful that when someone starts purging their phone/email/podcast list, yours is never considered for the chopping block. [Read more…]