Top 5 Pain Points for Marketers

Introduction: Top 5 Pain Points for Marketers

Marketing is a universal struggle for companies around the globe. Marketing can be broad and complex yet so simple at its core. It is one of the most dynamic aspects of a company and yet can be so hard to capture. The American Marketing Association defines Marketing as simply, “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

The keyword in this definition is the word “value” which can be hard to define and vary across consumers. Companies have to decide what value is to their customers and from there make sure that their company delivers it.

This struggle to deliver value takes us to one of our first pain points for Marketers.

1. Variability of Consumer Preference and Value

The key to any business is the consumers, and like we defined above the core of marketing is to create value for the consumers so that they buy into what you are selling. However, in this digital age, it is extremely difficult to keep up with the times. New trends, platforms, and technology are constantly arising making it very difficult to gain insight on what your target audience will gain traction too.

“Consumers use all kinds of media to make shopping decisions – from YouTube to Facebook – and it’s becoming increasingly harder to put the people that buy certain products into a box than it used to be.” - Dominique Turpin

Nobody can predict the future anymore. It's hard for the consumers themselves to figure out what they want to be let alone the marketers. With so many channels and avenues for consumers to get their information from, the choices get more and more complex and the marketing efforts get spread very thin across multiple avenues instead of more concentrated in just a few.

Potential Solution:

A possible solution to this struggling pain point is to keep up with updates within the marketing world. You can do this by either subscribing to marketing Newsletters or listening to marketing podcasts. This is not only beneficial to help keep up with the latest trends and information in marketing but it also allows you to form a habit for gathering news, so finding trends isn’t an intensive research process, but rather a daily habit.

2.  Need Higher Marketing Budgets

With these multiple channels and avenues comes greater expenses needed towards the marketing budget. A lot of companies, especially smaller-sized companies, and startups do not have the resources necessary to keep up with the marketing efforts their company may need to succeed.

Mariana Morales, a blogger for Computer, found that companies like hers “make excessive and inaccurate budgets. Or, invest way too much on things we don’t need to invest in.”

Focusing and distributing money in the right areas of a company can be a lot more difficult than people realize and that can result in an imbalance in the budget. Unfortunately, most of the time these imbalances reflect in the marketing budget because it is underestimated how much this area actually needs to be prioritized. Without an abundance of money to spend on marketing, the channels chosen to focus on are more critical and allow less room for error.

Potential solution:

A solution to this would be to explore cheaper advertising platforms. Try to deviate from the more expensive outlets such as Google ads. Even though it is the most prevalent advertising platform - check out Snapchat ads, Pinterest ads, etc. They are far cheaper and just as effective.

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3. Keeping up with Technology

Technology has grown immensely within the last decade. Any information you may need can be found at the click of a button. This high-speed era has resulted in a huge change in the way marketing is approached. Before the only way to reach your audience was through door-to-door advertising or simple word of mouth, but now you have digital marketing at the forefront of most marketing efforts.

American Marketing Association defines digital marketing as “any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices. This includes online marketing efforts conducted on the internet.”

Digital marketing is so important to any company no matter how big or small. If you can get your ads out there at the right place at the right time it can significantly impact the success of your company.

Digital Marketing has taken the world by storm and is a constantly ever-changing aspect of marketing. It is one of the most important types of marketing but also the most difficult because of its dynamic nature.

Potential solution:

The solution to this pain point is similar to the first one in that you should subscribe to marketing newsletters to receive updates on new marketing technology. One newsletter in particular that stays up to date with the newest, most important technology is Stiddle, a well-established company that utilizes AI technology to help automate social media marketing ads. Their website can be found here, https://stiddle.com/newsletter/.

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4. Getting Messages Across Effectively

Consumers get thousands of subliminal messages thrown at them every day. It can be really easy for your company’s message to get lost within these thousands, and not even given a second glance. That is why creating the easiest, clearest and effective message is so important.

“Businesses are realizing that they cannot escape the transparency offered by social media. More companies are learning the lesson that if they aren’t truthful, they will pay the price: Not only hefty fines from the authorities, but also in lost loyalty and business from their customers.” - Dominique Turpin

Transparency is key in this digital age. Everyone has access to information on any company and at the click of a button can let millions of people know whether their company is trustworthy or untrustworthy. So make sure that not only is your message clear but it is true, nobody wants to lose their consumer base to a fabricated message that can be so simply changed.

Potential solution:

If you want to get your company's message across effectively you should consider doing split testing. Split testing significantly increases your clickthrough rate if done correctly. You should never assume you’re getting the message across effectively without data backing it.

5. Creating the Best Marketing Team

In order to succeed in the previous four pain points, you need to have the proper team to help alleviate the symptoms from these pain points as much as possible. It is not easy creating the perfect marketing team. Everyone has different backgrounds and brings something different to the table, your company just needs to create the best mix. Marketing teams can be complex and this industry is only growing to create more of a demand for better hires.

Potential Solution:

If you are trying to create a stable marketing team, do not try to hire the best immediately, that can be expensive and unnecessary. If you are running an agency, try to train new marketers and help them become better, although it's a long-term investment, it will pay off in the end.

These are just some of the most important pain points I found affecting Marketing professionals. Although these pain points can be constantly prevalent they can also be adjusted to and solved for. Even just recognizing them can better your company as a whole.

Wanna Know more about Customer Success?

Stiddle's Blog: Why Customer Success Management Is Important to Expand Your Business

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