We’ve been thinking a lot lately about the unforeseen obstacles that can drive a spike through the smartest, most creative and focused content marketing campaign.

They’re usually the simplest things, the elements you assume will be in place in any organization before campaign planning gets under way. (Rule #1: Make no assumptions.)

We’ve come to think of them as Breaks in the Chain—the unexpected choke points that slow down a project, or make it impossible to proceed at all.

The more we explore this topic, in-house and online, the more we’re convinced that it’s one of the most common and least discussed barriers to effective content marketing.

We’ve found some useful posts on specific tools and tactics. But almost no one comments on how often organizations sabotage their own content marketing efforts, or how a cluster of problems combine to make successful campaigns less likely.

To help open a wider conversation, we’ve set this post up using the fabulous list.ly app, to make it easy for you to comment on individual items, vote them up or down, or add your own ideas. We think the field of content management and marketing needs some honest, thoughtful dialogue about the Breaks in the Chain.

If you agree, please dive right in!

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