Even with the advancement of technology, some marketing challenges remain unchanged. As different marketing elements digitalize, some of these marketing challenges do so too.
To optimize the impact of your marketing efforts, it’s critical that you get rid of the roadblocks that are slowing you down. In this article, we’re going to talk about five common challenges faced by modern marketers today and what strategies you can use to overcome them.
The 5 Marketing Challenges That Every Modern Marketer Faces
In the process of digital transformation, marketing has changed drastically over the past several years. The days of relying solely on traditional tactics have been replaced by the utilization of the digital landscape.
But this and other advancements also come with challenges. The following are five of the most common issues that challenge marketers of today.
1. Adoption of technology
Marketing teams everywhere are struggling with the adoption of new marketing technologies – and it’s not hard to see why. With so many different marketing challenges, keeping up with the latest marketing trends can feel like spinning plates in the wind. But that doesn’t have to be a cause for discouragement.
Although marketing teams may rapidly find themselves playing catch-up, there is still ample time to experience success by embracing these opportunities and crafting strategies that take advantage of cutting-edge marketing advancements. After all, the quickest way to stay ahead of the competition is to master technological changes in marketing as soon as they become available.
Embrace tradition and technology
The modern marketing challenge that many marketers face today is the rapidly advancing technological landscape. According to Statista, the market size of the marketing automation industry is expected to grow to $25.1 billion by the year 2023. So what does that say?
With the data above, clearly, if a marketing team wants to stay ahead of the competition and get those new customers, they’ll need to be open-minded about how to embrace technological advancements in marketing.
From using automation tools for social media posts to building additional marketing channels like chatbots and AI-powered personalization, there are plenty of creative ways for marketers to use technology that will maximize their reach and goals.
Staying attuned to the evolving marketing ecosystem will help your company tap into all it has to offer, bringing your marketing efforts into the digital age!
So how can you leverage marketing technology?
- Save time in copywriting and content marketing by using AI-powered software
- AI can also be used to personalize content for your website’s target audience which can lead to more engagement and a higher click-through rate
- Integrate software into your team’s project management for centralization
2. Weathering risks and fast market changes
In a Phrasee study, data revealed that 64% of US marketers are worried that their marketing message will not connect or will be misunderstood by their target audiences. This is why modern marketing can be a volatile mix of both carefully crafted strategy and risk.
The sheer speed at which marketing trends change makes it difficult to know the best marketing strategies to use. With so many marketing challenges, marketing professionals must have their fingers on the pulse when creating campaigns that reach potential customers.
Without trying something new and taking calculated risks, marketing professionals will struggle to break through in such a saturated market. A successful marketing strategy requires a balance between avoiding risk aversion and adopting bold new solutions.
Be focused and be bold
The marketing world is ever-changing; what worked last year may not work this year. To succeed, marketers need to be ready to adjust quickly and adopt a flexible mindset. A big part of success is focusing on the customer – understanding their needs and behaviors and creating timely solutions that fit their lifestyle.
Additionally, data analysis is essential for marketers as it helps track campaigns, analyze results, and make educated decisions about which strategies should be used going forward. Finally, keeping up-to-date with trends in the industry and staying on the cutting edge of new technologies can help them stay competitive and deliver effective campaigns.
It’s an evolving landscape, but by embracing change, understanding your customers, analyzing data, and taking advantage of new technology – marketers can enjoy success in today’s dynamic markets.
To succeed in an evolving market, it’s crucial for you to understand that:
- If the market is changing, so should you in order for you not to miss the wave
- Regularly monitoring data will help you keep track of the changes in your customers’ behavior as well as how your campaigns are holding up during market shifts
- Having a clear understanding of your customers’ wants and needs is an indispensable part of keeping them engaged despite changes in the market
3. Setting marketing metrics
Today’s marketing landscape presents unique challenges that were unheard of ten years ago. For one, modern marketers are not just dealing with marketing campaigns in a single platform or location: their campaigns need to be timely, effective, and span across several platforms or channels.
This requires marketers to set metrics for each campaign to accurately assess how successful they have been and whether they’ve met their marketing goals. It’s a difficult task as traditional metrics often don’t apply when marketing in an era where there is such an abundance of platforms to reach customers.
It requires a lot of creativity, experimentation, and analysis on behalf of marketers, but the rewards can be incredibly valuable – something we all know is worth the effort!
Go back to your marketing goals
We all know it can be tricky to set well-defined marketing metrics. After all, how do you accurately measure success? There’s no shortage of ways marketers can avoid this dilemma – but they have to think outside the box. One way is to focus on customer satisfaction metrics that gauge engagement and loyalty.
You should also look at traditional measures like website clicks and purchases so it’s easier to correlate your activities with actual business results. Lastly, leverage new technologies such as AI and predictive analytics for insights into consumer behavior and uncover deeper trends.
Keeping these strategies in mind will help marketers confidently establish the right goals and objectives for their campaigns!
When setting your metrics, remember to:
- Go back and review your business goals to understand better the kind of metrics that will help you align your marketing goals to your overall business goals
- Focus on the metrics that boost your customer satisfaction
4. Managing budget for marketing campaigns
Modern marketing is incredibly complex, and it often feels like a labor-intensive game of juggling marketing challenges. From marketing campaign budgets to tracking their effectiveness, marketing teams are expected to know a lot about running multiple campaigns at once.
It’s even tougher if you don’t have unlimited resources or if your marketing plan isn’t properly outlined. This leaves many marketing teams in the difficult position of having to figure out how best to use their limited budget, often compromising impactful campaigns that could have been awesome successes.
Luckily, there are ways to get creative with marketing budgeting – including investing in the right technology – but it’s certainly an ongoing challenge for modern marketers.
Budget can be segmented too
Managing a marketing campaign budget can be complex, to say the least. One of the most common strategies to address this is to segment each component of the budget into sections like advertising, customer acquisition, or research & development and assign a fixed amount for each one.
This will not only help you identify how much you’re spending in each department but also how effectively your money is actually being used.
Additionally, by using analytical tools such as SEO dashboards, marketing automation instruments, and online libraries, you can streamline various tasks like content creation or audience data collection in order to save both time and money.
So despite its complexity – if done correctly – managing your campaign budget can be much easier than it seems!
How can you add efficiency to your budgeting?
- Leverage marketing technologies such as digital products and tools that help automate common marketing activities in order to save funds
- Use traditional budgeting methods such as segmenting marketing spending into categories to have a clearer picture of your budget limit
5. Interpreting customer behavior
Studying, understanding, and marketing to potential customers is a great challenge for modern marketers. Especially in the digital age, marketing professionals are constantly trying to figure out what marketing strategies and marketing channels actually work best – it’s no longer enough to just write catchy slogans or create trendy advertisements.
Modern marketing attempts require a keen understanding of customers’ behavior and what motivates them in order to create effective campaigns. It can be incredibly tricky to decipher customers’ values and preferences and even more difficult to capture their attention with marketing materials that align with those.
Marketers must find the sweet spot between being too predictable and staying ahead of trends, or else risk missing the mark completely. It’s an exciting challenge!
The tools that help to familiarize your customers
Now, there are more ways than ever for marketers to understand their customers and analyze their behaviors. Platforms such as Google Analytics and Facebook Insights provide valuable insights, tracking things like user engagement, click-through rates, applications, and usage trends.
Marketers can also use online surveys and data mining for additional insights into customer preferences. By combining these tools and analyzing the data they produce, marketers can identify market opportunities and create effective strategies to engage customers.
Moreover, with the use of AI algorithms such as machine learning, predictive modeling, or clustering, marketers can gain an even deeper understanding of their customer’s wants and needs. Going forward, leveraging innovative technologies such as these is sure to pay off for savvy marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve.
Below are just a few ways for you to cut out the stress of analyzing your customer’s behavior:
- Revisit or recreate your buyer personas using a simple template so that it’s easier to simplify for everyone on the team
- Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Webmasters, Facebook Insights, etc.
- Conduct surveys, studies, and research involving your own target audience
It’s Tough, But It’s Not Impossible!
The modern marketer has their work cut out for the. But by understanding the five challenges they face and how to overcome them, they can set themselves up for success.
Now that you know what some of the biggest marketing challenges are, it’s time to start putting together a plan to tackle them. With the right strategies in place, you’ll be able to take your marketing game to the next level.
Discover the latest marketing tech tools and techniques with Martech News. Follow us on MTC Podcast for new episodes and updates.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Shelton, Founder of Grow Predictably
Brian Shelton is an entrepreneur, marketer, and life-long learner committed to helping businesses achieve impactful results. He founded Grow Predictably to provide tailored marketing strategies to generate predictable, profitable growth. With over a decade of experience in the industry, Brian has helped businesses, large and small. reach their goals and drive positive change in the world.
LinkedIn.