7 Content Marketing Challenges Every Content Marketer has to Face
Are you facing any content marketing challenges in 2020?
Every time I think about content marketing, the first image that comes to mind is an iceberg. A quick look at statistics around content gives you a glimpse of why an iceberg is the best way to look at it.
Content is still at the core of any successful marketing campaign. This is definitely a reason to celebrate for most content creators (yes, you are key to your company’s success).
It, however, may cause one to cringe inside when they remember how grueling the content creation process can be. Let’s not even get to distribution yet.
This goes out to every marketer who is wondering whether their efforts are still worth it. You need to brace yourself for these content marketing challenges.
You will most likely face most of them in your career. You are better off prepared so that you can get your arsenal ready.
1. Myths that Need to be Debunked
There are a number of myths that surround this mystery known as content marketing. Some of them are quite hilarious though. Common myths include:
- Content is a magic wand
It is easy to think that all you need to do is create it and post it on your site (or whatever platform). It will then go viral, perform really well, and you will see a significant increase in your site traffic, leads and even revenue.
The only problem with that kind of thinking is that it does not factor in the fact that a lot of content gets created. This image will give you an idea about what happens in an internet minute:
Source: http://bit.ly/2OO2EcA
So, simply creating great content does not guarantee that it will get seen, and by the intended audience.
- The company does not need to get involved in creating content
If you are in the marketing department or are a consultant, you need to get the company or brand involved in its own content marketing. You need to talk to different departments, individuals and even management. This way, you get to see the brand and the audience from their perspective.
For example, you may want to create a blog post about taxation, and your client is quite knowledgeable in the area. You need to interview them. This way, the company positions itself as a thought leader in your industry.
2. Consistency
As we have seen from the image above, a lot of content gets created and consumed in an internet minute. How about in a day? This means that you need to consistently produce high quality, unique and search-intent focused content.
You need to know what’s trending and stay up to date on technologies that can make your content fresh, and relevant. You also need to know what algorithm updates there are and evaluate how you are doing against the tweaks and improvements.
You need to stay creative and give a unique angle that solves a user’s problem. The content creation process has to go beyond the vicious cycle of creating, posting, reporting and repeating.
3. Distribution
Like we have mentioned, creating impressive content is not a guarantee that the right audience will see it. The next big headache after creation is distribution. You need to have a solid distribution challenge in place that defines:
- The platforms where your audiences are,
- Whether to work with influencers or not,
- The type of influencers to work with,
- Paid campaigns
- Guest posts, among other creative strategies that you can come across
4. Understanding Search Intent
People look things up because they have something that they intend to achieve at the back of their minds. It could be as simple as entertainment, education, or as complex as making a purchase.
How do you get to determine whether your reader just wants information about ‘a certain noise in my car engine’ or whether they need a mechanic to look at their car?
5. No Defined Content Strategy
Content may not have a direct relation to your traffic and revenue. It, as a result, can be difficult to define how it fits into a brand’s overarching goal. It is easy to create content for the sake of it. Worse still, to try to ‘push a sale’ into it in a bid to prove that the content indeed contributes to revenue, traffic or a brand’s success.
You need to define a strategy that takes care of both the intended audience, as well as helps achieve the company goals or objectives while being good enough to outshine the competition.
6. Compelling Storytelling
It is difficult to tell a compelling story to your intended audience every time you publish a piece of content. You need to appeal to the audience’s emotions. Moreover, help them meet their intent, while still working towards your brand’s goals and objectives. That can easily get murky and overwhelming.
7. Quality content
This might be ultimately, one of the most difficult challenges that a content marketer faces. Ensuring that a piece of content is of good quality is no mean feat. It takes a lot of effort, creativity, time, planning and even money to ensure that a piece of content is of good quality.
You may need time and money to interview industry experts for example. If your company does not have the equipment to take quality videos or pictures, or even to do good quality design you end up hiring and outsourcing these services. You have not even factored in the cost of distribution yet.
In conclusion
There are many more content marketing challenges that content creators face. The above are the ones most likely to make it difficult to achieve what you intend to.
However, content marketing is all about commitment from all stakeholders involved – the content creator, influencer, business or brand owners and even the financial team. If everyone puts in their weight, then we can make it easier for marketers to deliver what they promise to.
Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash