Marketing
10 Challenges Digital Marketers Face Today
Being a digital marketer is more challenging today. The role is much more complex due to new technology, evolving consumer preferences, content fatigue, and keeping up with Google’s algorithm changes.
Arguably, the hero for marketers now is first-party data and how it’s used to deliver content that resonates with audiences.
This article is a snapshot of the ten most challenging areas of digital marketing and how marketers can use first-party data and other strategies to overcome them.
Let’s begin with data privacy.
1. Data Privacy and Compliance
The increasing emphasis on data privacy (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) has made it challenging for marketers to collect and use customer data while complying with regulations.
Not only are marketers dealing with the loss of third-party data, but Google, Facebook, and other data collectors also have to change how they capture and share it. For example, privacy policy updates include more transparency about the data collected and how it is used. Plus, enhanced security measures protect user data.
First Party Data
It’s only zero-party or first-party data today, and marketers are still working through it all.
First-party data refers to customer information collected directly through interactions with a brand’s owned channels. Marketers use first-party data to tailor content and messaging to individual preferences.
First-party data helps marketers group customers based on their behaviour, such as purchase history, website interactions, and engagement with marketing campaigns. This enables more targeted and relevant communication.
2. Content Saturation
With the sheer volume of daily content, breaking through the noise and capturing audience attention has become increasingly difficult. Marketers need to create high-quality, relevant content to stand out.
Marketers realize they must innovate their campaigns to engage with customers. All types of content must be high-quality and relevant to their intended audience.
Blog posts should go beyond AI-generated content and provide readers with fresh perspectives and unique insights.
Using AI writers to provide ideas for your blog posts makes sense, which is why some of the most renowned bloggers, like Neil Patel, use them.
3. Technological Advancements
While technology offers new opportunities, it also brings challenges. Marketers must stay abreast of the latest technologies and trends, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and voice search, to remain competitive.
Artificial intelligence is not going away, and we mentioned one use for writing content, so we all need to work out how to use it to improve our marketing campaigns.
Automation
Marketing automation involves using software and technologies to automate repetitive tasks, manage multifaceted marketing campaigns, and measure the performance of marketing initiatives.
Automation saves marketers time and reduces errors. It streamlines processes, improves efficiency, and enhances campaign effectiveness.
4. Marketing Tools and Platforms
The fast-paced evolution of digital marketing tools and platforms requires marketers to adapt quickly to new technologies, strategies, and consumer behaviors.
Numerous marketing tools and platforms are available to help businesses promote their products or services, reach their target audience, and analyze campaign performance.
Social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have business suites for marketers.
Email service providers like Mailchimp and Constant Contact offer everything businesses need to create, measure, and analyze email campaigns.
There are providers like Moz, Ahrefs, and Google Analytics for SEO, and there are literally hundreds of tools for marketers.
Specific marketing strategies like video marketing and podcasting have platforms for marketers.
The main challenge for marketers is dedicating time to research and learning how to use new tools and platforms. Today, AI tools can develop a website to create content, including videos and songs; in time, it will do much more.
5. Ad Blocking
The prevalence of ad-blocking software limits the effectiveness of traditional online advertising, forcing marketers to find more creative and non-intrusive ways to reach their target audience.
One way is to use retargeting. Marketers use first-party data to identify users who have visited their website but did not purchase. Then, they use retargeting campaigns and deliver ads to these individuals on other platforms, encouraging them to return and complete a purchase.
It’s not a failsafe solution, as the Brave browser is widespread and blocks ads by default.
6. Short Attention Spans
Consumers often have short attention spans, making conveying messages difficult. Marketers must find creative ways to capture attention quickly and keep audiences engaged.
Marketing and Advertising Fatigue
One of the most difficult challenges for marketers is dealing with content fatigue.
What is marketing or content fatigue?
Marketing and advertising fatigue is joint when consumers feel exhausted, uninterested, or overwhelmed due to the constant bombardment of marketing messages and advertisements. This weariness can take different forms and significantly impact a brand’s ability to captivate and maintain its audience.
One example of advertising fatigue is the meagre click-through rate for social media adverts. Statista says social media ads CTR is just 1.36%
While it’s impossible to overcome consumer fatigue as a marketer. One solution is leveraging first-party data to create custom audiences for marketing and advertising.
The content and paid adverts are then shown to individuals who have already shown interest in the brand, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
7. Multichannel Marketing
Coordinating marketing efforts across multiple channels, such as social media, email, SEO, and paid advertising, poses a challenge. Maintaining consistency and a unified brand message is crucial.
Marketers integrate first-party data across various channels to create a unified view of the customer. This helps in delivering consistent and coordinated messaging across touchpoints.
A quick mention of how email marketing has evolved to remain a relevant and cost-effective strategy.
Marketers use first-party data to segment their email lists based on customer behaviour and preferences. This allows for more targeted and relevant email campaigns, increasing open rates and engagement.
Influencers
Influencer marketing is a go-to strategy. People follow celebrities and social media influencers. Some of the reasons people follow influencers include the following:
- Entertainment
- Social connection
- Escape and distraction
- Relatability
- Popularity
Individual motivations can be complex and also include the need for a sense of belonging with people with similar interests. A validation of sorts.
Whatever the reason for following influencers, when other marketing fails, using influencer marketing for your business can be highly compelling for promoting products.
8. Customer Trust and Engagement
An ongoing challenge for marketers is building and maintaining trust with consumers.
Marketers must be transparent and authentic to establish meaningful connections with their audience. One way to do this is to reach out with surveys.
Ask your audience what content they want from you. Schedule a couple of surveys yearly to ensure your audience is happy with your content.
9. Attribution Modeling
Determining the ROI of marketing efforts and accurately attributing conversions to specific channels or campaigns is a persistent challenge.
Marketers need to measure similar campaigns consistently. To do so effectively, they need sophisticated analytics and attribution models and know how to use them.
To build a solid foundation for reading analytics for attribution modeling and make informed decisions, including the following initiatives:
- Invest in Training and Development – of first touch, last touch, linear, time delay and algorithmic models
- Study User Journey Data – look for patterns and trends in the data
You must also document and refer to your insights and share them with your colleagues to get feedback for honing future marketing campaigns.
10. Algorithm Changes
Search engine and social media algorithm changes can significantly impact content visibility. Adapting strategies and staying on top of these changes is a constant challenge.
One recommendation is to follow Google’s Think With Google for marketing tips. Here is an article worth reading.
