That doesn’t surprise me because we’ve personally asked over 580 marketers and business executives to identify their greatest marketing challenge within their digital marketing operations.
The category of Content Creation and Content Marketing was the number 1 challenge identified by these executives and marketers.
Here is what they identified as their top challenges in order of greatest to least:
What’s interesting is that content creation is the “blood that flows through the veins” of all digital marketing strategies, campaigns, and activities. In fact, content creation and marketing have a significant impact on all these other challenges including:
Only 20% of B2B marketers would characterize their content marketing approach as “very successful.” (Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs)
Your buyers routinely use online channels such as search, social media, email, and referring websites to research and educate themselves on matters that are important to them. Prominent positioning of your content within these channels makes your potential buyers aware of you and attracts them to your company.
72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic. (Ascend2)
Creating and offering highly-valuable and educational content such as guides, ebooks, white papers, case studies, videos, podcasts, and pillar pages help convert more website visitors to leads.
A pillar page is a longer-than-normal website page that covers all aspects of a core topic on a single page with links going out to high-quality, more in-depth content such as blog articles for related subtopics. This high-quality content then contains hyperlinks back to the corresponding pillar page.
Some people may feel that no one will read long webpages or articles. But if it’s written well, has relevant content, and is designed to make it easy to read, then long “pillar” pages are extremely effective and help tremendously with SEO.
The average content length for rankings on Google’s first page is over 2,000 words. (serpIQ)
So why do so many companies and marketers struggle with content creation? I admit that it can be very overwhelming and easy to just ignore or put off.
So, let’s dive into each of these areas a little deeper. Hopefully, we can find a solution that works for you since content marketing is so important.
We get it. You have more on your plate than you can get done in a day, much less a week. You’re a subject-matter expert in your industry and you know what content needs to be created and published, but you don’t have time to write it yourself.
You probably have the time to review and approve content written by someone else, but that’s about all the time you can devote to it., Finding a credible resource to help write the articles would be a great benefit.
Sounds like you need someone to:
The solution for this is likely an outside resource such as a consultant or agency. It may be a combination of internal and external resources. You may need the external resources on an ongoing basis or designated period of time until you can internally take on more of the content marketing efforts.
Whatever works best for you, I recommend moving in the direction of creating the content you need to help market your business online.
In this case, you have the bandwidth and experience to produce high-quality content and market it effectively. You are just not sure what content needs to be created for your buyers to nurture them throughout their evaluation journey.
Only 37% of B2B marketers say they have a documented content marketing strategy. (Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs)
I find that this is common with marketers or business executives who are new to their company. In fact, they may have been hired to help with their company’s content marketing efforts and they need to research and discover the types of content that their ideal clients are searching for.
What helps in this situation is an updated digital marketing strategy and plan for your company that includes a:
With this customized digital marketing strategy and plan, you will have the blueprint for marketing and sales success to grow the revenue of your business.
More importantly, it identifies the content to create, publish, and market throughout your marketing and sales process to attract your ideal buyers, convert them to leads, and nurture your relationship with them.
This will help to create more sales opportunities for your sales team.
You may be at a point where your traditional methods of marketing and sales are not as effective as they used to be. Marketing and sales efforts such as telemarketing, cold calling, conferences, tradeshows, direct mail, and print advertising may have brought your company to where it is today.
However, these traditional methods are either not producing the same results as in the past or they have just gotten too expensive for the return on investment (ROI) you are trying to achieve.
Maybe you’ve tried various digital marketing activities such as search engine optimization (SEO), email blasting, digital advertising, and you may even be on your 3rd or 4th website design, but they’re not producing the results or gross profit margins you need for the investment you’ve made.
Your digital marketers may have thrown marketing campaigns up against the wall to see what would "stick” or produce results. A lot of activity, but they didn’t have a customized strategy or plan designed for you.
They gave you the one-size-fits-all plan, or maybe the choice of the infamous 6-tier plan options – Good, Better, Best or Standard, Professional, Enterprise.
It’s obvious to you that things have changed, and it takes a different approach to market and sell in today’s almost all-digital, all-the-time, marketplace.
Your approach should include:
Maybe you only need the experts to get you up and running until you can bring in the talent to take over some or all of the marketing and sales enablement efforts inside your company.
You need the ability to stay on top of what works and doesn’t work for your company now and in the future. Maybe you don’t have the resources or expertise now but will as you get your internal team trained.
An external partner who is flexible with your needs as they change may be the key to get you over this hump.
You are possibly a business owner or corporate executive in denial. You may hope or dream that this whole digital content thing will go away. You may even find yourself thinking that the traditional marketing and sales will make a “comeback” because that’s all you know.
Sales Alert! Sales have changed.
You don’t own or control the sales process anymore. Your buyer owns the sales process. (Bummer I know, but it’s true.)
Your buyers want to make their decisions based upon what they learn online from their own research and education.
Maybe you’re not in denial. You could be a company VP or Director of Marketing and Sales and you get it but can’t seem to find the budget or resources to produce content.
You cannot convince the business owner or executive team to understand it. The owner or executive feels they got the company to this point because “that’s the way we have always done things.”
But now it’s your problem and career on the line.
Sometimes the business owner or executive has tried it in the past and was burned.
Does any of these sound familiar:
We could spend days listing out-of-touch or out-of-date comments from business owners and executives.
Don’t lose hope if you are trying to convince the owner or executive team who are in denial or want proof before they will give you the budget to make a substantial impact on the revenue growth of the company.
There are some good options to help prove to the owner or executive that it is worth the investment.
Here are some initiatives to consider:
Some examples of initiative or campaigns may include:
Hopefully, these examples will stimulate your thinking for a campaign that will give you the greatest likelihood of quick and positive results that impact one of your company’s primary goals.
Presenting these positive results to your decision maker(s) may open the door for a discussion to fund the full digital marketing strategy and plan in order to deliver both short- and long-term results that are most meaningful to your business.
As you can see, content is critical to any marketing and sales campaign, not only now but in the future. Ideally, I have given you at least one solution for each roadblock to content creation and content marketing, the biggest challenge marketers are encountering today.
Regardless of the reason you struggle with content creation and marketing, our Xcellimark team can help.