Top 9 Content Marketing Challenges & Solutions in 2024

It is estimated that by 2026, the content marketing industry revenue will exceed $135 billion.¹ However, ~35% of marketers state that they have difficulty in content marketing.²

Here we provide the challenges of content creation and offer solutions to develop strategies targeting overcoming the challenges and generating leads.

This article lists

• Content marketing challenges to consider pre-investments
• And some solutions to allocate the resources correctly
  

We have categorized the content marketing challenges into three, as

• Market-related issues
• Content-related issues
• Finances

Top 9 content marketing challenges

Market-related issues

1- High competition 

Figure 1. Google search engine results pages for the keywords “content marketing tips.”

Simple keyword research on Google search engine with the keywords “content marketing tips” resulted in about 1,660 million results, and standing out among all the content and ranking high on the search engines is challenging.

Solution: Implement SEO tools

Research shows that implementing SEO strategies in content results in ~9 times higher sales rates than traditional marketing strategies. Thus, companies can increase their visibility on search engines with almost zero costs, resulting in more traffic, engagement, and sales.

To learn how much to invest in SEO tools and the factors affecting SEO service prices, check our article on SEO content services pricing.

2- Identify a niche

Every industry has different strategies for content marketing, and even in the same industry, the two companies can follow different approaches. Thus, identifying the niche can be challenging for new content marketing starters.

Source: Ghost

Figure 2. Critical assets in identifying a niche that allows standing out in the market as a content marketing strategy

Solution: Create a plan

To find a niche, businesses should focus on some assets such as: 

• Expertise 
• Interests 
• Audience’s needs. 

Then identifying the common topics between each asset is crucial. Only then companies can have a more clear picture of how they should determine the right niche.

3- Distribution channels

Source: Stella Rising

Figure 3. The visualization of content distribution channels for an effective content marketing strategy.

Different ways of distributing content depend on the budget, resources, and brand awareness; however, deciding where to start might be challenging.

Solution: Know your capabilities

Decide whether the content marketing budget is enough to cover paid promotion options such as paid influencers, social media promotion, etc. For instance, without enough budget, paid channels might waste resources. Or, owned channels such as blog posts and e-mail marketing cost less, and the companies control their brand image. However, insufficient resources, such as qualified writers or high-quality content, may risk the brand’s reputation.

Understanding each channel’s requirements and comparing them with your company’s capabilities can give insights into which channel brings the most value.

4- Personas on different social media platforms

Publishing content in the right channels can be challenging, considering the number of different marketing channels through that companies can share their content, such as 

• social media posts
• short-form videos
• blog posts
• podcasts

As each medium has its unique target audience, they all include different buyer personas, and finding the right medium that includes target customers to generate leads is not easy.

Solution: In-depth analysis of buyer personas on different platforms

Among social media users between 18-29 years, while 70% of them use Facebook, only 30% state that they use LinkedIn.³ The same study also shows that 1 out of 2 college graduates have LinkedIn accounts. Thus, when choosing the right channel for publishing content, considering the different buyer personas in these platforms is crucial not to waste money.

Content related issues

5- To outsource writers who have domain expertise and produce high-quality content

Thought leadership is essential in content creation as it indicates authority in a specific domain and thus facilitates brand trust. As writing high-quality content is challenging and compelling content requires domain expertise, companies usually outsource writers. However, finding the right talent can be time-consuming.

Solution: Check vendors’ lists

We have applied this solution at AIMultiple and conducted research on the key criteria of the vendor selection process in content writing and benchmarking. Results showed that Clickworker is the only company that satisfies all the identified metrics in content creation.

You can also check out our article on SEO copywriting tools and a vendor selection guide.

6- User Experience (UX)

Readers use the Internet to be educated on a topic, get help from a service, or make a purchase. While doing so, content readability elements such as content with small font or plain text that does not highlight the crucial parts gain importance as they can lead to a negative experience.

Solution: Customer-focused approach

In content marketing, the readers are of utmost importance, as without anyone reading the content, there would be a waste of effort and time. Thus, having a customer focus and paying attention to their content reading experience is crucial as a content marketing strategy. For the readers to get the best out of the content: 

• Splitting the content into different parts
• Using bullet points
• Inserting engaging content such as short videos 

could help.

7- Consistent publishment

What would yield better results in content marketing, publishing short articles frequently or creating long content with less frequency? That’s an ongoing debate among content marketers. Still, a survey with 1000+ writers shows that producing content consistently is the 3rd biggest challenge of being a writer, as 36% of them find it challenging.⁴

Besides, the same survey also shows that publishing 2 to 6 times a week would get 50% better clicks, rankings on search engine results pages, etc.

Solution: Work on how to ensure motivation

The ideal number of articles published is between 2-6, which can be demanding for the writers that may result in a lack of motivation in the content creation process. Being flexible with them but providing feedback and the results of their efforts would give them authority, increasing their motivation to keep consistency.

To learn more about content writing best practices, check our comprehensive article.

Finances (e.g., sales, budget, etc.)

8- ROI measurement

Marketers suggest that 25 to 30% of the marketing budget should be allocated to content marketing.⁵ Companies change their marketing strategies and budget allocations based on the insights from content ROI. However, how ROI is measured is not well defined.

Solution: Identify the KPIs for the company

Some key performance indicators (KPIs) in content marketing include website traffic, CTR, unique video viewers, etc. Survey shows that only 35% of companies have solid KPIs.⁶ Understanding which KPIs are the most compatible with the company goals is crucial as they can be used in ROI measurement.

To learn the benefits of ROI measurement for content marketing, check our comprehensive article on content marketing reporting.

9- Budget management

Source: Statista

Figure 4. Marketing budget allocation

Research shows that 70% of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget in 2022 as it brings leads three times more than traditional marketing strategies.⁷ The biggest share of the content marketing budget is contracted content creators, followed by content management tools (See Figure 4). However, different metrics, such as the company size and resources, affect how to allocate the budget.

Solution: Make a priority list

While some companies have high-quality content writers, they may have poor designs. In this case, the budget for design assets can be prioritized against hiring new writers.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any additional questions about content marketing:

External Links

• 1. “Content marketing revenue worldwide from 2018 to 2026”. Statista. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
• 2. “State of Marketing Trends Report 2022” (PDF). HubSpot. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
• 3. “Social Media Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
• 4. Crestodina, Andy. New Blogging Statistics: What Content Strategies Work in 2022? We asked 1016 Bloggers. Pew Research Center. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
• 5. Agius, Aaron (January 20, 2021). “How Much Should Your Company Budget For Content Marketing? Forbes. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
• 6. Jacobson, Ben (July 16, 2022). Content Marketing ROI: How To Measure Your Success. Semrush. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
• 7. “Content marketing budget allocation worldwide as of November 2021, by target”. Statista. Retrieved November 30, 2022.