Creating Content With Experts: Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Losing Your Mind)
You probably know this already — publishing content written by experts in your field (be it health, climate, femtech, or any other world-changing space) is one of the best ways to build credibility for your brand.
But here’s the catch: to come up with that expert content, you need actual experts.
And actual experts — doctors, engineers, researchers, data scientists — are not necessarily writers. Nor should they be.
Usually, the more genius the mind, the harder it is to follow their train of thought. Their brilliance often lives in 15 layers of context, acronyms, and deep technical knowledge that your audience simply doesn’t share.
And that’s where we marketers come in.
As marketers, our job is not just to “get content out.” It’s to translate. To take something complicated, precious, and a little intimidating — and turn it into something people can actually understand, trust, and care about.
That’s what this article is about.
The most common mistakes marketers make when creating content with experts — and how to do it better.
I’ve spent over a decade (omg…) building content around health tech, cybersecurity, and marketing research — complicated, highly technical stuff. And I’ve learned (the hard way) that working with experts can either make your life a whole lot easier… or make you want to scream into a pillow.
Here’s how to avoid the latter.
Mistake #1: Expecting Experts to Write the Content
The biggest mistake to make.
Experts are brilliant at what they do — they just don’t have time (or often the right words) to explain it in a way that your audience understands. And that’s not their fault. Writing isn’t their job. Translating their genius into something clear, relatable, and readable is your job.
The Fix:
You do the writing. Always. Your expert’s job is to share their knowledge; yours is to turn it into something people can actually connect with. Guide them. Ask the right questions. Build the bridge between what they know and what your audience needs.
Mistake #2: Expecting Experts to Come Up With Ideas
This one’s personal. I know a marketing team that still struggles because every time they need new content, they go to their data science team and ask, “So… found anything cool in the data lately? Maybe something we can write about?”
But that’s not how it works. Data scientists don’t sit around casually exploring data, hoping to stumble on marketing gold. They have processes, tasks, sprints, deadlines — their jobs are not about “finding stories.” So when you ask them to do that, it’s not just unproductive — it’s kind of disrespectful.
The Fix:
If you’re looking for ideas, go to sales and support. Those are your real idea mines.
They’re the people who actually talk to your audience. They know what questions come up again and again, what people complain about, what confuses them, and what makes them light up.
Watch sales call recordings. Read email threads. Ask your support team what they get asked five times a day.
Then — and only then — bring your expert in. Let them answer specific, meaningful questions that come from real audience problems.
(And if you build a good relationship with your experts, they’ll start coming to you when something interesting pops up — but that’s a bonus, not the baseline.)
Mistake #3: Involving Experts Too Early
It feels polite to include experts from the start, but honestly? It just creates chaos.
They’ll try to help, of course. They’ll share ideas, references, maybe even rewrite parts of your brief. But without structure, it turns into a mess — too many ideas, no direction, no clear output.
The Fix:
You start the process.
You research, outline, and define the goal of the piece first. Who’s it for? What’s the message? What do you want the audience to do or feel after reading it?
Only then bring in your expert — when you already have your outline and specific questions.
That’s when they can truly shine.
Mistake #4: Endless Review Rounds
Last year, when I started working with one of my clients in health tech, I joined a meeting where they told me, “So, there’s this article we’ve been working on for three months now…”
I wish I were joking — there were like six people involved, and they just kept writing and rewriting it because no one could agree on the structure. Everyone had an opinion, no one was managing the process, and the article just… kept existing in draft purgatory.
You need to remember that every expert article is like a tiny cross-functional project. And like any cross-functional project, it needs a project manager — that’s you, the marketer or content lead.
Without someone steering the ship, it quickly becomes a never-ending loop of “just one more edit.” And every review round does two things:
It slows everything down, which kills momentum.
It waters down your message because every new opinion chips away at the clarity and tone.
Speed and efficiency matter when it comes to content — not because you’re chasing deadlines, but because attention moves fast. By the time you finally publish your “perfect” article, the topic might no longer be relevant, the audience may have shifted, and your competitors will already be ranking for that idea.
So yes, make absolutely sure your piece is fact-checked by the expert. Accuracy always comes first. But creative control, structure, and tone? Those are your responsibility.
The Fix:
One round of review is ideal. Two if you’re brave.
Let them fact-check and correct inaccuracies, sure — but don’t hand over creative control. The voice, flow, and message are your domain.
Mistake #5: Thinking You’re Lying
This one is real. Many marketers feel guilty when publishing expert content that wasn’t written by the expert. It feels like you’re faking it.
You’re not.
Ghostwriting isn’t lying. It’s facilitating communication. You’re helping someone brilliant get their knowledge out into the world in a way people can actually absorb. That’s not deception — that’s collaboration.
Sometimes, audiences can actually spot when something was “written by marketing.” It starts to feel like sales material instead of education. That’s when you risk losing trust.
The Fix:
Be transparent. Take a cue from Natural Cycles. They publish articles that clearly credit both the writer and the expert who fact-checked it. That way, the audience sees where the information came from and who verified it — it’s educational and credible.
Mistake #6: Forgetting Internal Communication
Let’s be honest — tech people and creative people live on completely different planets.
They think in systems, precision, and data.
We think in stories, feelings, and headlines.
And when those two worlds collide without a plan, things can get… messy.
Here’s what I learned (the hard way): creating content with your internal teams — especially your researchers, doctors, or engineers — can’t be treated like a one-time thing. It needs structure. A repeatable process. Something that everyone understands and agrees on.
Because otherwise, chaos. Endless Slack messages. “Just checking in!” emails. Drafts that keep getting stuck in “review hell.”
I’ve seen it too many times.
That’s why you need a clear, transparent workflow for how this collaboration happens — every single time.
Who’s involved.
What they’re expected to do.
When they’ll be needed.
And most importantly — how much time it’ll take.
Your tech people aren’t sitting around waiting to be interviewed for content. They’re deep in code, research, or data. So when you reach out, you have to respect their time. You have to speak their language, be prepared, and be clear about what you need.
And please — don’t ambush them with “this is super important, it’s for marketing.”
They don’t care that it’s for marketing.
They care that you’re organised, efficient, and respectful.
If you want to make this easier, I’ve created a template you can use (it’s a Google Doc you can download or copy). It helps you brief your expert before every project — no surprises, no chaos.
Mistake #7: Forgetting Who It’s Actually For
It’s so easy to get carried away when you’re deep into a cause you care about. You’re excited, invested, maybe even a little obsessed. And that passion is incredible.
But here’s the trap: all of that brilliance, all of that depth, only matters if the audience actually understands it. You could spend hours on the most elegant explanation of a carbon capture system, but if your reader’s eyes glaze over at “chemical sorbents and industrial sequestration,” you’ve lost them.
The Fix:
Always, always bring it back to the reader. Who are they? What problem are they trying to solve? What do they actually need to know — not what impresses you or the expert?
And when your expert gives you a ton of information — which is awesome! — don’t try to stuff it all into one article. That’s a one-way ticket to confusing your audience. Break it up. Turn parts into webinars, eBooks, social posts, or follow-up content. Use that wealth of insight to plan more content, not to overwhelm a single piece.
Your role? You’re the translator. Between brilliance and clarity. Between expertise and empathy. Between the world your tech people or scientists live in, and the world your audience actually inhabits. Keep them in mind, and everything else falls into place.
TL;DR
If you’re building content with experts:
Don’t expect them to write or ideate.
Involve them after you’ve built a structure.
Keep review rounds to one or two.
Ghostwriting isn’t lying — just be transparent.
Always centre the audience.
Experts don’t need to become marketers. And marketers don’t need to become experts.
You just need a process that lets everyone do what they do best — and respects everyone’s time, brains, and bandwidth.
💬 Final Thoughts
The world doesn’t need more noise. It needs more clarity. You don’t have to be everywhere, do everything, or sound like everyone else. You just have to sound like you — honest, curious, and ready to make a difference.
Marketing isn’t about hype. It’s about helping your idea reach the people who need it most. Let’s build marketing that feels human again. If you’re ready to stop overcomplicating and start focusing on what truly matters, reach out to schedule a free session with me.
We’ll map out a simple 90-day plan that aligns with your purpose — and keeps your sanity intact.
🪶 Disclaimer
Written by a human (hi, that’s me) — with a little help from ChatGPT to organise my ideas. The thoughts, experiences, and occasional anxious opinions are all mine.
