The Biggest Mistake Businesses Make With Their Online Marketing (and How to Fix It)

Let’s be real – many businesses completely miss the mark with their online marketing and it’s really sad to see. You see, they put in hours creating decent content, post it, then walk away, hoping for miracles. Not you, obviously.  

But here’s the truth: if you’re creating content and not squeezing every last drop of value out of it, you’re wasting time and missing out on some serious results.  

I see it all the time – heck, I’m guilty of it myself occasionally – you’ve got a killer podcast episode, or a blog post that actually gets engagement, and you just leave it sitting there. That’s short-sighted, not strategic. And that’s the biggest mistake businesses make. 

Marketing needs volume and you might think that creating a large volume of content needs loads of time, but you’d be wrong! Here’s why…  

The Biggest Mistake Businesses Make With Their Online Marketing (and How to Fix It) 

1. Stop Posting and Forgetting  

The first problem? Posting and forgetting. If you create a video, blog, or podcast, and post it once without any follow-up, you’re doing your content (and yourself) a disservice. The content you create should have more of a lifetime than that.  

Take a LinkedIn post that outperformed the others, for example. What worked? Was it the opening line, the graphic, or maybe the hook? Learn from it, and milk that post for all it’s worth!  

Break it down: 

• Use that hook in your next email campaign 

• Turn it into several TikTok or Instagram clips 

• Or even make a blog post out of it.  

This isn’t “copy and paste.” This is strategic repurposing – stretching one piece of good content across multiple platforms and formats. 

2. Lazy Repurposing vs Proper Repurposing

Most businesses think “repurposing” means posting the same thing on every platform. Well, sorry, that’s lazy. Real repurposing is about adapting content to fit each platform.  

Think of it like batch-cooking. You’ve got a base (let’s say it’s mince and tomatoes), and you make a cottage pie, pasta sauce, and a chilli. Same core ingredients, but each “dish” has its own spin. It’s the same with content: each platform needs a slightly different flavour. The caption that worked on LinkedIn might need a tweak for TikTok or a punchier line for Instagram.  

Follow Todd for more hot chef tips – from the man who only eats chicken, steak, rice, and vegetables! – Jo 

Proper repurposing is all about being smart with your time and making content fit the platform it’s on.  

3. Avoid Content Waste

Don’t let content go to waste. If you’ve taken the time to write a blog, shoot a video, or even get some professional photos done, then plan for reuse.  

If you’re booking a photoshoot, make a list of shots you’ll need and use them everywhere: in your emails, social media, blogs, presentations. One photo isn’t just one post; it can be five. When we do shoots, I come in with a shopping list from my team, like, “Here’s what we’ll need for the next six months.” That way, nothing gets wasted, and each photo and video can live a long, useful life across many channels. 

4. Don’t Just Post – Learn What Works 

Good online marketing isn’t just about posting content. It’s about understanding your audience and what they engage with most. If you’ve got a LinkedIn post that gets traction, figure out why. Was it the list format? An emotional hook? Then, use that data to inform your next post.  

In the end, the biggest mistake in online marketing isn’t about what you post. It’s about how much value you’re squeezing out of every single piece. So, if you’re still creating content and letting it collect dust after one post, it’s time to rethink your approach. Stop letting good content go to waste. Start making it work for you.  

That’s how you get real results. 

TLDR? 

• Post decent content (see our other blogs or book a call to find out what that looks like) 

• Learn what worked and what didn’t work so well. 

• Take the lessons and repurpose it for the other platforms you’re on. 

We use a combination of AI, humans, and social media feedback to do this. If you’d like a chat how we could do this for you then give us a shout! 

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