How to Avoid the Biggest Pain Points with Content Marketing
A good content marketing strategy is critical for every business or organization that wants leads. It costs 62 percent less than traditional forms of marketing but generates around three times as many leads.
But while content marketing works, it can be tough to get right.
With that in mind, let’s explore the biggest content marketing pain points marketers face — and the steps you can take to avoid them.
1. Measure Effects Properly
Measuring performance is a must to what’s working and what’s not.
The problem, though, is that content spans so many different marketing channels. It’s not like analyzing a landing page or an ad. There’s more to study and more at stake.
“It’s important to have KPIs in place prior to kick-starting your content marketing campaign,” says Prashant Puri, CEO and founder of search and content marketing agency Adlift. “What’s your target audience? Has traffic/revenue increased across target demographics? Has user engagement increased? These are important benchmarks to have in place prior to starting.”
Content marketing teams should define company goals and aim to understand the target audience before rolling their campaigns out. Producing engaging, valuable content is much easier when creators know who it’s for, what it’s supposed to communicate, and how its performance will be measured.
2. Address Actual Customer Needs
Another of the biggest content marketing pain points is producing content laden with product and company messaging rather than content focused on audience interests/needs, according to Karla Spormann, President and CEO of content marketing firm Tendo Communications.
Roughly 77 percent of consumers worldwide expect more personalized content in the future, with more than 60 percent agreeing relevant content improves the way in which they view the company responsible.
Businesses which fail to analyze, engage with and understand their audience are unlikely to publish marketing content which connects with target buyers. Segmenting audiences into groups based on specific factors (age, location, income, industry, etc.) helps brands personalize content further, for greater effectiveness.
3. Publish on a Regular Schedule
“The scale of content marketing, with all the different channels and platforms, has become very challenging,” says Molly Parker Tapias, head of the strategy and the content practice at EM Marketing.
“Now that we’re moving into this age of personalization and hyper-targeting, you have to iterate for many audiences across all these platforms. An explosion of content is required.”
Research shows more than 55 percent of consumers will spend more with companies they feel a stronger connection to. A strong flow of valuable content across different channels can help to engage customers, and businesses that fail to meet expectations could lose out to competitors.
Studying those competitors and their content marketing strategy can indicate the volume consumers expect. Businesses should establish a content marketing schedule and stick to it.
4. Inconsistent Quality
“Lack of consistency and cohesive content experience across company channels” is a major pain point, says Spormann. For example, “corporate website content is often not created by the same teams that create content to support campaigns, sales enablement, or thought-leadership initiatives.”
As a result, there may be noticeable deviations in tone and voice. Businesses should determine the most appropriate style for its brand and audience, and create a guide for all content creators to follow.
Consumers should recognize a business’ voice from one piece of content to another across all channels.
5. Lack of Coordination With the Rest of the Company
Another pain point is not having a process where the content marketing strategy talks to other verticals such as PPC, SEO and social media.
“Today, your content marketing strategy needs to be the hub of all things marketing, and working closely with cross-verticals,” says Puri.
In short, a cohesive approach is vital to achieve company-wide consistency. An integrated strategy will prevent missed opportunities and contradictory messaging.
6. Lack of External Site Strategy
Content marketing works best when it extends beyond a company’s own website, app, social media and blog posts.
Publishing content on third-party sites expands reach, increases visibility, and boosts brand awareness while building valuable connections.
“It’s important to have an external content strategy to help build brand credibility,” suggests Puri.
7. Failure to Stand Out
Getting content seen is an ongoing challenge for many marketers.
“There’s a desire to achieve thought leadership and turn the brand and CEO into household names, but it’s a challenge to stand out,” notes Tapias.
To stand out, businesses can focus on producing marketing content which offers maximum relevance, is optimized properly, presented in an engaging way, and features attention-grabbing headlines.
Gather feedback from customers to understand which content is making an impact. Then double down on that content.
8. Getting the Most Out of Video
More than 80 percent of video marketers claim video achieves good ROI, boosts lead generation, increases traffic, and has a direct impact on sales. But high-quality video content is a big pain point for many marketers.
“Companies know that they should be doing something with video because they keep hearing how effective it is,” says Tapias. “But it feels like a heavy lift and an expensive one.”
The key for getting more from video is just starting it, according to most marketing experts. Let it be DIY at first, and gradually up the quality over time. Once there is some traction and regularity, you then can buy fancy equipment or up the production values through better editing or a third-party video production outfit.
Content marketing can be hard. We feel you. But it also is essential.
