It’s Friday the 13th – and while that triggers friggatriskaidekaphobia (the fear of Friday the 13th itself) in some people, others are fervently trying to stay out of way of any black cats, avoiding ladders and gripping mirrors with a death grip.
We don’t have any solutions for those fears, but we are encouraging marketers to overcome their biggest phobias … and the first step is admitting to them.
Here’s a list of some of the biggest fears marketing experts and members of our team have revealed, along with some potential solutions:
Fear: “Website UX that doesn’t represent a company’s full potential” – Brittany Cornell, Brafton
Solution: A marketer’s guide to UX: The ‘invisible’ elements that fuel success
Fear: „That our content comes off sounding like a brochure for a hospital, instead of a useful resource.“ – Melanie Graham, Dana Farber
Solution: Write education content that’s supported by outside research.
Fear: “Typos and errors.” – Ken Boostrom, Brafton
Solution: Sloppy kills credibility – Why you need an editor who knocks
Fear: „Being repetitive.“ – Danny Wong, Shareaholic
Solution: The writer’s struggle against repetition: How to break free of daily vocabularies
Fear: „After working in Comms for a while, my biggest marketing fear will always be a PR disaster!“ – Jenna Weiner, Dropbox
Solution: Reputation management in an online world
Fear: „Missing opportunities to genuinely connect with the audience and answer their questions in the rush to be real-time.“ – Lauren Kaye, Brafton
Solution: Use social listening for better real-time engagement
Fear: „When brands get discouraged with content marketing because of lack of results.“ – Joe Pulizzi, CMI
Solution: Getting conversions where they count: An enterprise software success story
Fear: „Not keeping up with the rapid pace of change. It gets harder to stay informed if you’re not disciplined.“ – Mel Carson, Delightful Communications
Solution: 36 percent of search results draw from Schema markup, but less than 1 percent of sites use it
Fear: “Coming off as pretentious or not genuine.” – Molly Buccini, Brafton
Solution: How to write content without cramming messages down your readers throats: a.k.a being real
Fear: „That too much reliance on social media will make us less diligent about in-person interactions.“ – Gina Perille, Boston Public Library
Solution: Positive social engagement results in genuine interactions and sales
Fear: „My biggest marketing fear is not trying something new. You really don’t know what will work and what won’t until you try it. If you have the luxury to experiment at your company, I’d suggest taking advantage of it!“ – Kathleen Ong, Wantering
Solution: Stuck on a single approach? Get more traffic and engagement with an agile strategy
Fear: “Sometimes I worry my writing is unintentionally filled with buzzwords and corporate jargon.” – Molly Buccini, Brafton
Solution: LinkedIn says buzzwords kill your personal brand…here’s a list of buzzwords to avoid
Fear: „Writing content that appeals to a wide audience but that ends up coming across as watered down.“ Alex Butzbach, Brafton
Solution: Make sure you fully understand the topic you’re covering. If you can’t explain it with content, you don’t understand it
