Content Marketing Challenges: What Issues You Need to Overcome in Today’s Market & How

by

You probably haven’t missed the fact that content marketing is no longer optional, especially given the season of uncertainty we are in today.

In an age when information is at our fingertips, everyone expects to get immediate answers to their questions.

Right now, you have a captive audience. People are at home and searching. 

If you can do it right, content marketing will help you…

And the best part? It’s a non-salesy way to generate leads and gain respect from your audience.

Right now, people want someone they can trust. They need someone who can lead them in the direction they want to go.

But, it’s not as easy as it might sound…

What Are the Biggest Content Marketing Challenges?

In an SEMrush survey from January 2020, more than 1,200 marketers in 39 countries were surveyed, and numerous content marketing challenges were identified.

Here are the top content marketing challenges from that survey:

  1. Being able to create content that brings in quality leads – 54%
  2. Creating content that brings in more traffic – 52%
  3. Making content that resonates with their audience – 45%
  4. Developing content that improves SEO performance – 44%
  5. Coming up with ideas for new content – 34%

Even though our world is drastically different compared to a few months ago, these challenges remain. Except now, the stakes are higher. Companies are on a mad dash to switch to digital services to endure this stretch of economic uncertainty. 

Pro: There is a captive audience.

Con: Data-proven, high-quality content marketing is essential to survival.

In addition to those main ones, other content marketing challenges included the following:

How to Address Common Content Marketing Challenges

When you overcome your content marketing challenges, you’ll improve your ROI and make your content marketing efforts more effective, saving you time and money.

The good news is that these content marketing challenges are all interconnected. That means that when you resolve one of them, it will typically resolve another.

As you can see, it’s all one interconnected puzzle, and there is one simple solution to all of it…

The Solution Is Data & Analytics

The resolution for all of these interrelated content marketing challenges quite simply comes down to data and analytics. Without hard numbers, you’d just be guessing, which isn’t a solution at all. It’s a gamble. And the odds are not promising. 

5 Ways to Use Data & Analytics to Overcome Your Content Marketing Challenges

Let’s look at data in 5 ways to help illustrate this point.

1) Use Data to Help You Understand Your Audience

If you don’t fully get your audience, then you can’t give them what they are looking for, at least not without missing more times than you’re hitting. 

Content marketing is all about getting the right people to be attracted to your content and then giving them the answers they are seeking. By being the resource they are looking for, they are more likely to purchase from you.

Keep in mind that your customers’—and potential customers’—needs and wants have changed in recent months. Therefore, your ears need to be open, listening to their needs as the market continues to change.   

With data, you can answer all of the following questions to help you understand your audience and create your customer avatar:

2) Use Data to Help You Perform Better on Search Engines

Make no mistake, content marketing is a balance between creativity and SEO. Focus only on SEO and you’ll have no readers; focus just on your readers and no one will find your content.

Obviously, you can’t be playing a guessing game if you want to rank high in search engines. It’s all about the data. You’ll need to do keyword research and use on-page SEO while writing for the reader at the same time.

The questions you’ll want to answer are as follows:

3) Use Data to Help You Come Up with Ideas for New Content

Coming up with topics is best done through data as well. That’s how you can be sure that your audience is going to be attracted to and want to consume your content.

To find content ideas, you should be asking the following questions:

There are many tools available to help generate content ideas. Here are some of our favorites:

One of the best ways to find topic ideas (and it’s one of the most underused methods) is to survey your existing audience. 

Just ask them what questions they have and what information they would like to receive from you. This can be done with a simple Facebook poll or a survey through email.

This is a great starting point for your research, especially given the fact that their problems have likely changed. If you can make the shift to provide a solution to your content marketing efforts, no matter your business, you will be a step ahead of the competition. 

4) Use Analytics to Help You Understand the ROI of Your Content

Analytics are essential because it’s the only way to know if your content marketing campaigns are successful or a major waste of time.

The problem is that it’s pretty difficult to evaluate the results that come in from your analytics. 

In most cases, you’ll have analytics on several different platforms that you somehow have to merge and evaluate together.

Plus, understanding how to interpret data is something that is best left up to the pros. Most people are looking at the wrong metrics instead of the ones that really matter. And there can be a lot of reasons why a metric is coming out the way it is, making it even more difficult to interpret.

You’ve heard it said, “If you have a hammer, everything can look like a nail.” Don’t let your biases influence how you analyze data.  

5) Use Data & Analytics to Help You Automate Your Content Marketing

Let’s face it, there simply aren’t enough hours in a day, even if you have a full-time marketing team, to be able to overcome all the content marketing challenges that come up. 

Businesses today are in dire need to integrate marketing automation strategies and tools that utilize data and analytics to save time, improve conversions, and gain ideas.

Okay, so we all want it, but that presents one big problem. Software companies are constantly coming out with new automation platforms, and it’s pretty overwhelming—to say the least.

And even worse, there are marketing agencies popping up out of nowhere claiming they can move the needle, yet they have little proof to show they can. 

That’s why it’s worth consulting a marketing agency that specializes in data and analytics and has decades of experience, such as Viral Solutions

A team that has all the working parts and can advise you on how to reach the next level. 

The Best Way to Access & Properly Use the Data You Need

There you have it. The solution to your content marketing challenges is experience, data, and analytics, so all you need to do is access some data and you’re golden, right?

Wrong! 

None of this stuff is easy, and it really is true that hiring an outside team is what will help you overcome your content marketing challenges with ease. In the end, it is what will give you the fastest results, save you the most money, and earn you the biggest ROI.

And who doesn’t have these needs at this time?

At Viral Solutions, we not only are a full-service digital marketing agency but also specialize in data and analytics (which is a hard combination to find).

So, contact us for a free consultation today! We’ll get you on a path to resolving your content marketing challenges so that you can respond to the ever-changing market of today.

 


At Viral Solutions we are committed to seeing YOU succeed. It is our goal to grow your business with proven digital marketing strategies that will help your business for the long haul.

Stay Up To Speed in the Ever Changing World of Marketing!

Sign-up today for FREE, monthly marketing tips, loopholes, and news to EXPLODE your Return on Investment!

 
 

Share your knowledge and gain exposure by becoming a guest author on our blog! Learn how to write for us.

Filed Under: Content Creation

About Shannon Kegerries

Shannon’s deep desire to help others is a trait that was developed early on, as she has always enjoyed seeing people, groups, organizations, companies, and families thrive and make positive changes that encourage growth in all areas. That combined with her love of learning is what drove her to earn her master’s degree in psychology and counseling from Pittsburg State University in Kansas. For more than 15 years, Shannon worked in a variety of settings as a behavioral, family, young adult, and group therapist. As a behavioral therapist and case manager who has worked with people from nearly all walks of life, Shannon has a knack for helping others reach their desired outcomes, which she applies to her work at Viral Solutions as a content marketer. In addition to possessing keen insight into what drives human behavior, Shannon strives to find various ways in which she can relay each client’s message and vision to their prospect so that it hits every angle and sinks into the prospect’s mind. Likening her role to that of a detective, Shannon enjoys gathering information about each client’s prospect and competitor, then fitting it all together with the client’s product/service as the answer to the problem. She is a StoryBrand Certified Guide.

When she’s not working, Shannon enjoys reading, skiing, painting, and spending time with her family.