What are the most common Content Marketing challenges and can you resolve them?

Did you know that the average person only spends around 37 seconds reading through a blog post before leaving? (Source 99firms.com). The stats are even worse on website bounce if they get what they came for quickly. In addition, 72% of readers said they would rather watch a video than read through a post.

This leaves us in doubt that most users want information quickly and efficiently. Yet, many content creators fail to keep this in mind when creating content and create content their audience doesn’t value and in formats they don’t appreciate.

But there’s a more basic problem. Content creators think they know what customers want, but they don’t know for sure. When you did last really validate who is making the decisions to buy products and services like yours? Who has an influence on these decisions? What problems do your products and services actually solve? How do they transform and improve the lives and operations of would-be customers?

If you’re not doing this and instead running largely commercial content hoping to win customers, it’s no surprise your content isn’t engaging.

Solution

One easy solution to this is to look at what competitor companies are doing to meet the needs of Google search on specific topics and questions.

Who is featured on page one of the search results? Learn from the content competitors are posting online content. They will be ranking highly on this search because these pages have been deemed the most relevant by Google. What are they offering? How in-depth is it? Is there a comment section where there is even more insight to help you?

Writing about problems and transformation is the best way to create a connection and stimulate resonance. But you need to know what they are first.

The hero of your marketing communications, shouldn’t be you, your product or service, It should be your customer. They are only interested in things that help them get what they want and need.

If your product or service can deliver a benefit to them, it will be useful if communicated in the right way. Remember why you exist, who you serve, the problem you solve and the transformation you provide.

Creating content is a long term strategy but it can be deployed tactically in the short term to achieve some level of interest if you are following a clear strategy.

Content whether it is in blog, ebook, video, webinar, social posting form is ultimately aimed at helping your audience make more informed purchasing decisions and influencing them into choosing you.

This is difficult to do when content is not good quality, useful or relevant. This post is a great example. We’ve elected to write a post about problems because it is a topic that lots of creators are searching for information on. It would be easy to outline the problems and make an offer to help. But that would fall flat.

In outlining the most common problems, we’re helping people recognise they are not on their own, we understand it. And in offering ways to resolve these problems, we’re delivering value. That enables us to credibly make a support offer in this post. Going straight to sale is one of the biggest crimes in content marketing, especially in B2B marketing where you might need many touch points before buyers decide to take action.

Content usefulness speaks to content that helps a customer meet their goals and help them whilst content relevance refers to how applicable the content is in helping a customer take the next step, for example move to trial, demo or full purchase.

Solution

In industrial coatings, it would be easy to endlessly create content around the features and benefits of one type of paint over another. But what do decision makers and influencers want when they might be looking at new options?

Operationally, they want to learn how easy it is to mix and use a new paint. How does it work with other undercoats, primers etc? How can it be applied in different operating environments or with different application systems – brushes, rollers, sprays?

Commercially, they might want to learn more about how changing will impact their usage, how much they need to buy and what they are paying?

By putting ourselves in the mind of the buyer who has questions that need answering, we’ll begin to create more interesting content that demonstrates our expertise without needing to say “hey, we’re experts”.

If your content hits these kinds of marks, buyers are more likely to trust you and consider you when they’re ready to make their move.

It can take a minimum of 6 to 9 months, if not years, for your content to truly engage with audiences and be effective at generating leads.

At its extreme, when do brands like Google and Hoover enter accepted parlance and become verbs i.e. to Google (search the Internet) or to hoover (vacuum clean a carpet)?

It takes supreme clarity in positioning, some creativity and a big dose of consistency.

Similarly, content marketing takes time to build and become trusted. It takes time to create quality content, build great websites and build up your reputation as a brand and rank on search engines, or have emails routinely opened or social media posts interacted with.

And most companies don’t give it time. They have too many product offerings and too many audience segments to serve and are scared to niche down, when in reality working in the niche is the very best way to build a strong following and a viable business.

The hard work in sticking to a strategy, remaining true to your core topics and serving your audience is worth it when you become known for what you do.

High-quality (evergreen) content will continue to drive traffic online weeks and months after creation and can be deployed in new campaigns.

Solution

Staying consistent is hard. This is where content pillars and content plans come into play.

Having a set number of topics, customer problems and then building out many different content ideas that speak to them – from best practice posts, things to avoid, common mistakes, offering tips, sharing case studies, talking about innovation, addressing known industry problems, compiling best of lists – all help build a strong position on the back of consistently useful and relevant content.

When you’ve done the work to ensure your strategy is clear, you’re thinking creatively to stand out in your market and you’re working consistently to provide great content, confidence in what you’re doing inevitably comes.

Marketing is often a game of trial – one of the most overused quotes is 50% of it works, we often just don’t know which 50%. High levels of investment are needed to ensure organisations have the right level and type of resource and materials to market themselves effectively. And confidence at all levels in marketing’s ability to deliver becomes critical.

Knowing who you’re targeting, where they hang out and what they need helps pinpoint which platforms and mediums are most likely to be the most effective.

In B2B almost every sector has its own magazines, events and communities that offer editorial, advertising, email and social media packages. In B2C, social media platforms are designed to tap into behavioural demographics and analytics to better target advertising at people most likely to be receptive to it.

Solution

Research what is being offered and what isn’t. Sometimes it makes sense to do the same if an audience is particularly tied to a particular medium – like engineers to industry magazines and webinars.

Sometimes, creating content through unique mediums that might appear new to your audience can show you are innovative and do things differently. Interactive quizzes or scorecard reports look exciting and tap into a human need to benchmark can help increase engagement and stimulate enquiries.