The world of Digital Marketing is continually moving forward with new technologies and best practices to make make marketing efforts more efficient and ultimately more successful. On the flip side, the rapid rate of change in the digital marketing space may also cause some challenges.
We asked local leaders what challenges they faced in today’s digital marketing space (plus how to overcome them).
Here’s what they had to say:
Personally, I see two major challenges. The first is being able to stand out from the crowd given that brands are ramping up their digital marketing activity. I recently read article that described 2016 being the year of “Content Overload” as brands publish more and more content. It means digital marketers need to be creative, opportunistic and pro-active in terms of the content created and the tools being used. Second, marketing budgets are going to be determined by what performs best and what delivers the highest ROI. Digital marketers will need to prove what they’re doing is working, otherwise marketing dollars will be reallocated to other activities.
– Mark Evans, Principal at Mark Evans Consulting, @markevans
The biggest challenge for digital marketers is understanding and keeping up with the disruption happening in today’s marketplace. According to Forrester, 74% of today’s B2B buyers conduct more than half of their research online before making a purchase. As people shift from traditional ways of accessing and digesting information (mobile, internet of things, social), marketers must adapt their approach. We’re in the age of the empowered buyer and our role is to better serve him/her.
The focus is not on marketing, sales or your product anymore, it’s about helping buyers navigate through their journey. A marketer’s goal is to enable relevant conversations with buyers that sales teams can leverage and ultimately drive revenue.
– José Sánchez, Director of Marketing at Sales for Life, @zesanchezr
In today’s environment the biggest challenge is cutting through. Most of us don’t have significant budgets and need to rely on a great idea, with great creative and top notch execution. Yes, people have short attention spans, but if you truly build something that speaks to the right community, in the right language in the right places then you are more likely to have success.
– Jon Sinden, Vice President Marketing at Beerlicious, @JonSinden
I think the biggest challenge facing digital marketers these days is abundance. Marketers have never had more tools at our fingertips to create, manage, optimize, and promote digital content. But with greater availability also comes greater responsibility. Marketers are now expected to manage huge volumes of content across a number of platforms, create unified experiences that turn visitors into fans, followers, and leads, and all the while measuring the performance of everything in order to make more informed marketing decisions! It’s tough to keep up and stay ahead of the curve.
– Sam Brennand, Director of Customer Success at Uberflip, @SamBrennand
The software related to marketing is growing and changing at a pace faster than ever before and there’s no signs of it slowing down. According to chiefmartec.com the marketing software landscape contained about 350 different types of software companies in 2012. Today that landscape is populated with over 1876 software companies. One of the challenges for digital marketers is keeping up, and staying educated when it comes to the different marketing software options out there.
– Sourov De, Managing Partner at Stryve Digital Marketing, @Sourovde
The biggest challenge for digital marketers today is the vast number of opportunities out there and the labour power/expertise needed to execute. From content marketing through videos, infographics, blogs and digital newsletters, to search, to digital advertising to social media – there is no shortage of options. However, many of these options require long term, focused strategy, consistent execution, measurement and monitoring. Choosing the right option and applying the necessary resources consistently is a big challenge for most organizations.
– Shelley Mayer, President at Ramp Communications, @shelleymayer
My clients usually cite two top challenges:
- Producing content that engages their ideal customers
- Finding the time and resources to produce more of the above
Digital marketers have been struggling with these challenges for years and will continue to face these issues in 2016.
One good thing I’ve been seeing is that more B2B marketers want to create engaging, customer-focused content. They’re moving away from talking about their company and focusing more on engaging with their customers. They’re trying to find out what makes their customers tick and then address these concerns in their content.
– Rachel Foster, CEO and B2B Copywriter at Fresh Perspective Copywriting, @CopywriterTO
There are many tools and strategies to use today. This is both a great thing and an issue for a marketer. There are many social platforms, content marketing, email marketing, marketing automation, places for digital ads, and much more. A plan should be created and results measured. From there you can determine what is working and continue to add a few new tactics and tools to find new ways to drive traffic, leads, and sales.
– Mark Elliott, Co-Founder at Venture Accelerator Partners, @markeelliott
What challenges do you encounter with Digital Marketing? Let us know in the comments below.
Stay tuned for the next blog post in this series, The Experts: Biggest Challenge for Sales Professionals.
