We hear the term “content marketing” everywhere nowadays. 

Whether it’s starting a YouTube channel, running a business online, or starting a website, it seems as if the one thing these businesses have in common is creating content and marketing it effectively to consumers online. 

However, creating engaging content that helps expand your customer base is easier said than done.

Without the right team, research tools, and expertise, you might find yourself facing significant content marketing challenges that can hinder your growth and search rankings. 

Fortunately, there are ways to improve your content marketing and attract more customers. Below are 7 content marketing challenges and how to solve them.

5. Not Using KPIs For Your Business

It can be difficult to understand how well your content is working without using the proper content engagement tools. 

That’s why key performance indicators, known as KPIs, are incredibly valuable for your website. Without KPIs, it is difficult to know:

  • Which types of formats work best.
  • Which content or platform to focus on for more success.
  • Which content to update or remove due to lack of performance.
  • If your marketing strategies are working to meet your business goals.

Fortunately, there are simple KPI tools that successful businesses use, including:

In addition, around 95% of leading marketers stated that KPIs must be tied to actual business goals to matter.

For instance, if you want to measure brand awareness, then measuring the organic traffic to your website is a good KPI.

Email sign-ups can help you measure the rate at which your customers find your content useful and want to make purchasing decisions (either now or in the future). 

These are just two examples of KPIs, and how measuring them can greatly improve your content marketing and translate to meeting goals for your business.

6. Content Never Seen By Audience

Sadly, a whopping 90.63% of content never sees any traffic from Google searches. 

This is primarily due to companies not understanding how to properly optimize their content, comprehend what audiences are looking for on Google, and failing to use search engine optimization, or SEO, principles to their advantage.

Admittedly, SEO best practices can be a bit difficult to understand and utilize properly for new digital marketers. 

However, some basic SEO principles that can improve your traffic include:

Conducting keyword research

Keyword research through sites like Ahrefs, Google Trends, and Semrush allows you to understand the specific phrases people are looking for, such as “Indoor plant care,” or “Indoor plant care for beginners,” or “Indoor plant care in winter.”

There are many different possibilities, which makes it important in order to understand which of these keywords are being researched most, and which of these you can create content for.

Now, plenty of people will dump hours into keyword research only to realize their niche just isn’t going to make waves on Google—at least, not with the competition out there. It happens. Sometimes you’ll discover your target audience hangs out somewhere else entirely, like Instagram, TikTok, or even in a random Reddit community. In moments like these, it’s worth remembering that SEO isn’t the only path to eyes on your work.

Another thing that trips up some folks: obsessing over the “right” keywords until everything starts to sound artificial. You can absolutely lose sight of your real voice and the helpfulness of your material trying to force the latest search phrase into every headline. It’s a balancing act, honestly, and not everyone nails it at first. If in doubt, step back and ask—would you actually click on what you just wrote?

Creating backlinks

When a website posts a link to your content, this is a huge win for you and can greatly improve traffic and visibility.

That’s because Google deems your site credible enough to link to, therefore increasing your search rankings and leading to more visibility. 

There are various ways to improve your backlinking, such as:

  • Reaching out to websites that have outdated links on their pages.
  • Posting quality content that is easy for viewers to digest.
  • Using authoritative sights as sources.

7. Giving Up Too Soon Due to Unrealistic Expectations

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. 

However, although advertisements and other types of paid campaigns can also help you increase customers and generate leads quickly, there are lots of benefits to digital and content marketing.

Content takes time to build. It takes time to create quality content and share that information with the public via an aesthetically pleasing website. 

It also takes time to build up your reputation as a brand and rank on Google search engine pages. But it is worth the hard work for companies that want to continue to see an increase in traffic as the days and months progress.

High-quality content will continue to drive traffic online, provided you continue to update your content. 

It’s important to understand this when first beginning your digital marketing campaign, and to not give up if you don’t see results right away.

An easy way to improve your outlook on digital marketing is to create realistic SMART goals for your content marketing campaign, which are goals that are:

  • Specific (align to a business goal, such as improving awareness or generating leads).
  • Measurable (through KPIs).
  • Attainable (depending on the size of your employees and budget).
  • Realistic (based on your availability and those of your team).
  • Timely (set using a timeline, such as I want 16 visitors a day on my website 1 month from now).

You may also be interested in these articles:

Content marketing challenges might lead you to get discouraged or even give up on your brand or website.

However, with the help of SMART goals, knowledge on best practices for content marketing, and the right team, you can create content that generates leads and grows trust in your brand. 

To get help creating the right team for your content marketing, find ways on how to manage your content marketing team and keep your eye on the prize of continued growth.

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