Eight of the world's top marketing challenges [new data]

Every marketer faces different challenges. While we generally share similar goals, some teams are stuck on recruiting top talent, while others struggle to find the right technology for their needs.

Regardless, there is always at least one area that you can improve. In other words, it is always possible to optimize the different components of your strategy and turn your marketing into an even more effective income generator.

In recent years has been able to keep up with a number of global marketing challenges trends. We also surveyed thousands ofe marketers about the challenges they face, as well as the tactics they used to tackle those challenges head on.

Although you may think that global marketing issues have changed dramatically in recent years due to the evolution of media platforms and emerging technologies , you might be surprised at what trends the research has actually shown.

In fact, we've found that today's most common global marketing struggles haven't changed much in recent years.

In 2019, when we looked at researching global marketing challenges, such as this Attest survey , most of the results we found were quite similar to those we found in 2017 and 2018, when we interviewed thousands of market specialistsng for our Status of incoming reports .

Between 2017 and 2018, our State of Incoming Reports found that the top five challenges remained the same, with some slight fluctuations in non-U.S. regions.

According to a 2017-2019 study, traffic and lead generation, as well as mobile ROI, as well as ROI, as well as ROI , along with ROI, remain the top challenges marketers face .

While the constant list of challenges is a good sign that marketers aren't facing unprecedented obstacles, it's always important to take stock of the factors that continue. to retain marketers. Why? If marketers are facing the same problems today as they haveencountered in the past, it is likely that these major challenges will continue into the future.

So what's going on in 2020?

Below, let's review the current global marketing issues impacting the industry.

Main global marketing issues

1. Generate traffic and leads
2. Provide a return on investment for your marketing activities
3. Getting enough budget
4. Managing your website
5. Targeting content for an international audience
6. Building your team
7. Recruit the best talents
8. Set up an account-based marketing strategy

1. Generate traffic and leads

Generating enough traffic and leads was the number one global marketing problem, according to 2017 and 2018 Inbound Status Reports .

A 2019 survey from Vital shows that over 35% of marketers face challenges with leads and / or traffic, showing that this trend is still going on.

In fact, the top priority of market specialistsing in 2020 is to generate leads .

Why this is a challenge

Obviously, marketers struggle to generate enough demand for their content. And as the years progress and the competition stiffens, that will only become more true. With so many platform options for marketers to publish their content and even more ways to promote it, it's hard to know where to focus your efforts.

What can you do?

When it comes to creating content that generates enough traffic and leads, marketers should ask themselves two questions: Are you really creating high quality content - the type content that people would pay for? And do you know what kind of content your audience actually wants?

In 2020, The Most Common Customer Marketing Tactic Is To Create Exclusive Contentfor customers .

For example, Research found that 5 3% of consumers want to see more video from marketers in the future, while only 14% want to see more video. 'blog articles . To learn more about the evolution of the way people read and interact with content, check out this research report .

Once you know you are creating the kind of content your audience wants, the focus is on promoting it in a way that your audience notices. More than ever, people are inundated with content. Consumers don't have to use a search engine to find answers. Instead, articles fill their news feed or buzz in their pocket via a mobile notification.

2. Provide the return on investment of your marketing activities

Measure the return on investment (return oninvestment) of your marketing activities has remained a major global marketing challenge year after year.

In fact, only 53.85% of marketers surveyed even said they measure customer acquisition costs .

be an essential way for marketers to understand the effectiveness of each particular marketing campaign or piece of content.

In addition, proving ROI often goes hand in hand with the argument to increase the budget: no monitoring of ROI, no demonstrable return on investment. No return on investment, no budget.

Why this is a challenge

While ROI is a crucial statistic that shows the success or progress of your campaigns, tracking the ROI of each Marketing activity is not always easy, especially if you do not have two-way communication between your marketing activities and your reports.sales rts.

What can you do?

When it comes to providing a return on your investment, there is a strong case for spending time and resources on making the links between marketing activities and sales results. This means using both marketing software ( like ) and a CRM solution ( like free CRM from ), then linking them together to close the loop between your marketing efforts. marketing and sales with a service level agreement (SLA) . This way, you can directly see the number of leads and customers generated by your marketing activities.

We have found that there is no better combination than having an SLA and doing m inbound marketing . According to the 2018 report, inbound organizations with SLAs had twice the organizations' ROImisaligned.

( Use this ROI calculator to simulate the potential ROI that you could achieve by doing inbound marketing.)

3. Get a budget sufficient

How can you create a winning marketing campaign without a budget? The truth is, it is quite difficult. But, even if you have a great income-generating idea, you usually need to get your budget approved by a superior.

For 2020, 64% of marketers said their marketing budget has increased .

Why it 's a Challenge

Getting more budget is a pressing challenge for global marketing. And often, getting more on budget is easier said than done - especially for small organizations that don't work with large or flexible marketing expenses.

But the key to getting more money for your team may not bethis complex. Here is what you can do.

What can you do?

The key to unlocking the budget lies in being able to prove the ROI of your marketing efforts. According to our report, organizations that can calculate ROI are more likely to receive higher budgets.

Again, the success of inbound marketing also plays a big role in increasing budgets. Effective strategies obviously produce results, and our data shows that those who feel confident in their marketing strategy are more than 2 times more likely to get higher budgets for their marketing teams. But remember, inbound marketing is a long game. If you start out slow, you shouldn't back down - in fact, you might consider doubling down.

To learn more about how to understand and harness ROI marketing, check out this simple guide .

4. Managing Your Website

While managing a website is a challenge for marketers, it seems to be becoming less and less threatening.

Over the past few years, fewer and fewer marketers have worried about this compared to other challenges such as "identifying the right technologies, " which has grown from fifth to fourth biggest challenge in the 2018 Inbound Entry Status report.

In 2020, 63% of marketers are looking to update their website .

Why It's Always a Challenge

Managing a website was the fourth biggest challenge for marketers in 2017. And there are strong chances that your website's performance is high on your priority list. It 'sa asset that works 24 hours a day to attract visitors, convert them and vHelp you achieve your goals, after all.

Website management problems include a variety of different factors, from writing and optimizing content to creating beautiful web pages. Here are some steps marketers can take to overcome this challenge.

What can you do?

First, read this report to see how your website compares to over a million other websites. It also includes an in-depth analysis of the four most critical elements of website performance and design, from average load time and website security to mobile usability and SEO.

If your main challenge in running a website is related to the skills and resources you have available, you are not alone. This is especially true for small businesses that do not have all the talent needed in-house to coverthe content, optimization, design and management of the main website.

A solution? Hire freelancers and partner agencies. To find freelancers, we recommend that you:

• Tap into your personal and professional network by posting to LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks with some deion of what you are looking for.
• Browse freelance writers and designers according to their portfolios and interests. For editors, see Zerys and Contently . For designers, check out Behance & Elance .
• Browsing the services marketplace, which lists a wide variety of designer companies and partner agencies that we have found to be credible.

Overall, you can make managing your team's website easier by hosting your website on a platform that integrates all yourmarketing channels like 's COS .

Finally, for projects that you want to keep in-house, here is a list of eBooks and guides that might be of use to your team:

• Run a target Website Grader Report
• Ebook: Website Redesign Guide
• Ebook: 77 great examples of landing page design
• Ebook: How to Design and Optimize Landing Pages
• Blog: 27 Ways to drive traffic to your website
• Ebook: The ultimate workbook for your website redesign
• Ebook: Guide from the mobile marketer

5. Targeting content for an international audience

Targeting is a key part of all aspects of marketing .

With 59% of marketers surveyed currently in international marketing , it is importantto have an international strategy.

To be more effective at targeting, one of the first t All marketers need to do is identify their buyer personas to determine who they should be marketing to.

Why this is a challenge

If you are growing internationally, it can be difficult not only to find the best ways to market to an audience international but also to organize and optimize your site for different countries.

However, currency exchange rates are the biggest challenge for marketers in international marketing .

Research recently analyzed the difference between content preferences around the world .

What can you do?

Download our free eBook, The Global Marketing Playbook . It contains some very useful tips that will help you get your bearings in global marketing, including how to identify your top three growing markets, how to explore local trends, and how to choose the best localization providers.

Also, when marketing to a new region, the most common tactic used by marketers is to change their product offering. >.

Remember that visitors to your website can speak a plethora of different languages ​​and live in totally different time zones. To make your content appealing to a large audience, you'll need to keep your global visitors in mind when creating all of your content. This means being aware of seasonal references, translating units of measure and currency references, and giving translators the tools and permissions necessary to customize andtailor content to a specific audience when they need it.

Finally, make sure that you also optimize your website for international visitors. For more tips and resources on expanding global marketing, browse our international inbound marketing center .

6. Train your team

As businesses evolve and technologies continue to evolve, training your team will become an increasing challenge for them. marketing specialists.

Why this is a challenge

Whether it is training them on the concepts and tools they will use every day or to ensure that they reach their full potential, the struggle is real in all areas.

To combat this, I am going to share some tips that I have used in my trainings to ensure that the concepts and tooltips stay true and have a lasting effect on you.e team and your marketing.

What can you do?

To get a general idea of ​​where your team is, take a few minutes to assess the marketing strengths and weaknesses of each of your team members, their level of expertise and their passion / commitment to your team. business. Then, objectively assess the priority (or level of importance) of their expertise and their contribution to profitability goals (ROI) to date. Here's a simple Lean Labs assessment tool to help you assess your team so you can determine who needs recognition and who needs coaching.

You might also consider having members of your team acquire an online marketing certification. Academy , for example, offers certifications, documentation, and training programs to help people master the basics of inbound marketing. Google also offerst analytics training and certification with its online Analytics Academy .

What about training new employees, in particular? We recommend that you create a training plan for new team members. At, every new marketer gets a 100-day plan like this to set specific goals and help new hires demonstrate their effectiveness.

7. Recruiting the best talent

Hiring the best talent is another challenge that marketers commonly report.

Why this is a challenge

Many businesses are increasingly changing from inbound marketing, which means more and more demand for top marketing talent. But the offer just does not follow. From finding the right candidates to assessing the right skills, finding the right fit can takemonths ... or more.

In addition, the type of marketing talent companies are looking for is also changing. According to a LinkedIn 2020 Report , employers are looking for marketers with soft creative skills as well as strong technical skills. And the rapid rate at which demand for these jobs is increasing has resulted in a marketing skills gap, "making it difficult to find candidates with the technical, creative and business skills needed to be successful in digital marketing. "

What can you do?

Employers Are We are looking for marketers with a diverse skill set that includes digital marketing, content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. To find the best inbound marketer for your team, the first thing to do is decide what that person should be able to do.r achieve for your business.

Ask yourself: what will the new marketer's tasks and duties include? What skills do these tasks and functions require? What goals or challenges will the new marketer face? Use your answers to these questions to write a compelling job description. ( Here's a long list of pre-written marketing job descriptions to get you started.)

Then post your vacancies where talented marketers entering will find them. While traditional job boards like Indeed.com, CareerBuilder.com, or LinkedIn will help you spread a large network, we recommend that you check out Inbound.org , which is the only listing service rld jobs world which is exclusively focused on inbound marketing and sales jobs.

Finally, focus your post deion and the 100 day plan of your new recstreet on what people value most about their careers.

LinkedIn data from 2020 shows that 87% of active and passive applicants will consider new employment opportunities. Additionally, career growth is the number one reason applicants will consider or accept a job. This means that the job postings and corporate culture that provide employees with a plan for growth will attract the most interest from talent.

8. Implement an account-based marketing strategy

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a new trend, which is a growth strategy in which marketing and sales work together to create a personalized shopping experience for an identified set of accounts.

However, it's worth noting that the most common challenge with ABM is delivering a personalized experience .

Why this is a challenge

Currently there isn't a lot of software focused on account-based marketing . Many companies that implement ABM strategies use manual methods, which means that some accounts get lost in the cracks.

However, marketers strongly agree that personalized content (56%) and advanced data management (43%) are the keys to ABM 's success .

What can you do?

To provide a more personalized experience, you should use software that helps you combine your business and marketing information.

For example, ABM software from helps unite your marketing and sales teams with collaborative and intuitive ABM tools that create seamless shopping experiences for your most trusted accounts. more profitable.

This software can enable amon g teams collaboration and personalize content.

DAdditionally, the software has account-level targeting added to the LinkedIn Ads integration, giving you the ability to target businesses by target account status or level, and contacts or subsets of contacts on target accounts. The account overview sidebar, ABM guide for sales reps, and a native integration to link your accounts and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, help deepen your relationships with people over time, helping to build more connections. authentic with the stakeholders of each account. >

Is your business facing any of these marketing issues?

A thorough analysis of your marketing strategy and its current performance will help you discover where your greatest marketing opportunity lies. This will allow you to focus on improving the areas that need the most attention, so you can start to make your work.much more efficient rketing.

If you are faced with a challenge and want some ideas on how best to go about it, you can always consider getting some help through a different types of marketing training available .

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in November 2012 and has been updated for freshness and completeness.