For those looking in from the outside, they may think content creation is easy breezy. After all, it’s just planning, writing, optimizing, designing, publishing, distributing, and amplifying!
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The reality, which you know all too well, is that there are many content creation challenges. And the number of challenges grows exponentially as the scope of your content endeavor expands.
The challenges for each organization will look somewhat different, but they have many similarities. In this post, we’re going to define the most common issues and provide you with proven fixes. Let’s go!
What Are the Biggest Content Creation Challenges (According to Content Marketers)?
Challenges in creating content changed in many ways in 2020. A disruptive year, it rewired every organization to think about content in new ways—different messaging, channels, etc. So, what do content marketers say were their biggest challenges?
According to a SEMrush poll, the top content challenges for 2020 were:
- Creating content that delivers leads
- Developing content that drives more traffic
- Improving the ROI of content
- Producing content that resonates with a target audience
Those were basically in line with the challenges faced in 2019; however, it’s a new environment. Generating leads, traffic, and engagement are always top priorities for a content strategy. However, the way that you approach them may be different now.
They all deal with the idea of quality and consistency, and that’s where content teams struggle. So, what’s the fix?
Challenge: Producing High-Quality Content
The Fix: Developing and Maintaining a Content Strategy and Plan
First, you have to define what high-quality content is for your brand. Generally, it means it’s original, has a clear angle, speaks to your ideal buyer, includes data to support points, and is SEO-optimized. Creating content that fits this description isn’t easy. It requires many foundational pieces to be in place:
- Subject matter expert (SME) access
- Well-developed buyer personas
- The ability to research and pull from data points (internal, external, or both)
- An SEO strategy
- A mature point of view on the topic
The best way to realize this is with an in-depth content strategy that addresses all these things. That’s the blueprint. Then, you also need to create a path to execute, which is the content plan.
Challenge: Keeping Pace with Content Publishing Goals
The Fix: Use a Dynamic Content Calendar
You want to set a content frequency in your strategy. It should define your monthly production of all content—blogs, e-books, whitepapers, infographics, case studies, product sheets, etc.
To stay true to this schedule, you need a way to organize everything and institute workflows. The best answer is a dynamic content calendar. It tracks a project from ideation to publication to measurement. It’s the most critical part of any content marketing software.
Challenge: Resources Are Scarce
The Fix: Outsource or Adopt Technology
Even an enterprise content team may not have enough resources. The truth is, you may have limitations. So, you need to determine where those are by looking at your content workflows and identifying bottlenecks. Do you need more writers? Designers? Strategists?
You may also find that you have enough people, just not an efficient process. Are you using technology to remove manual and redundant tasks? That could boost the productivity of your team.
You should address whatever you discover in your analysis, either by outsourcing or deploying new technology.
Challenge: Connecting to Target Audiences
The Fix: Deliver an Experience and Be a Thought Leader
Does your audience care what you have to say? Are you resonating with them? These don’t have to be open-ended questions. You can tell by viewing your content analytics. If engagement is falling and traffic is ebbing, you have a disconnection problem.
But why? It’s likely not solely the topic. It may be what you’re presenting to them. Is your content just covering the basics and not offering anything innovative? For your content to impact a customer’s decision to buy from you, it has to answer questions and be in the realm of thought leadership. Otherwise, it’s a waste of their time.
If you want your audience to come away from interacting with your content with ideas and inspiration, you have to deliver an experience.
Challenge: Aligning Content with the Buyer Journey
The Fix: Audit, Assess, and Pivot
As you know, content can be top-of-funnel (ToFU), middle-of-funnel (MoFU), or bottom-of-funnel (BoFU). You’ll want a balance to address every stage of the cycle, prompting users to move on to the next step.
The problem is, it’s tricky. The buyer’s journey is no longer linear. You have people entering it at the middle and bottom, while others never seem to move beyond the top.
It’s good to have an exercise to draw the lines between buyer stage and content to see if you are hitting all the spots. It’s a good idea to get feedback from sales on this, as well. They can tell you about their interactions with prospects and what they’re seeking at different intervals.
Regularly auditing your content plan and adjusting it based on data you get around content’s attribution to leads and conversions is the best way to stay on top of this.
Challenge: Your Promotion Budget Took a Hit
The Fix: Get Creative
You likely have to do more with less throughout your marketing team. With a lack of budget, you can’t promote in paid mediums. You also may not have the funds to partner with an influencer or feature a leading expert in the field in content pieces. Maybe those dollars will come back as you prove the value of content marketing. Maybe they won’t. So, you have to get creative.
To get some of that amplification back, work on a backlink outreach strategy. You can also be more interactive with some of your content on social media to encourage virality. Other ideas could include doing your own original research project that could get attention from the media.
Content Creation Challenges Aren’t Going Away
Even with all the money and resources in the world, content creation would still be challenging. It’s hard to publish great content that connects and converts consistently. One thing that does make it easier is using a tool like DivvyHQ—an award-winning content marketing platform. Explore how it works today for free.