The most common challenges digital marketers face

The world of digital marketing is always changing and evolving, so it remains an essential tool for businesses to connect with current and new audiences. While it does have many amazing benefits, digital marketing can also come with a host of challenges, leaving many who work in the industry trying to find ways to overcome these obstacles.

However, understanding these challenges and finding suitable solutions can help pave the way for great success. In this article, we take a closer look at some of the common challenges digital marketers face and provide tips on how to overcome them. We also investigate some of the hurdles our own team members find challenging within the industry.

Unveiling the biggest hurdles in digital marketing

While there are numerous hurdles digital marketers face in a competitive and growing industry, there are some obstacles that are more common than others.

A 2022 survey from Statista looked at the leading challenges of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers in the UK and found that more than 18% thought the competitive marketplace was the biggest hurdle they faced. 12.5% of respondents said adapting to a digital-first consumer landscape was another challenge, while a further 12% of marketers said reduced consumer spend was also a challenge they faced within their role.

So, what are some of the top digital marketing challenges to consider? Let’s take a look.

Understanding your audience’s changing preferences

Customer preferences are constantly changing and they want a personalised online experience. It can be challenging to find the right strategy that works effectively. Digital marketers therefore need to be quick and adaptable to these changes and monitor and analyse these trends to adjust their strategy accordingly.

Generating quality traffic and leads

A consistent flow of quality traffic and leads is vital for business growth in order to generate revenue. Generating quality leads that will likely convert into customers can be a challenge for many digital marketers. To attract more visitors, it’s important to understand your target audience as this will allow you to utilise effective lead generation strategies which will help target and gain potential customers.

Budget allocation

Allocating budgets across different channels while trying to maximise ROI can be quite difficult as it’s hard to predict what is going to succeed. To help make smarter decisions when it comes to strategy and budget, it’s important to set clear objectives and KPIs that can help achieve targets. Analysing historical data regularly can also provide helpful insights you can use to adjust your strategy.

Building brand visibility

Building and maintaining brand visibility can be challenging with the constant changes in social media and search engine algorithm updates. This is why staying up to date with industry changes is extremely beneficial, and utilising digital PR is a great way to gain coverage and increase visibility while amplifying your brand.

What are some of the challenges we face here at Click Consult?

Here at Click Consult, there are times when we are faced with challenges that we need to navigate through to meet targets and deadlines. We asked various team members what some of those challenges were and how they overcame them.

Charlotte Chapman, Head of SEO, said two of the biggest challenges were budget constraints and Google algorithm updates. To help overcome budget constraints, her solution is to ensure everything we do is strategic and to focus on those opportunities that will make the biggest difference to performance first. As a specialist SEO agency, we’re often challenged by Google algorithm updates, Charlotte’s solution to this is to ensure we follow best practices, keep up to date with industry news and ensure we are constantly learning.

Director of Search, Alan Reeves, said recruiting experienced local talent was a common challenge, and the solution for this is to hire local people with the right skills and attitude and then develop and coach them into superstars. Another challenge Alan faced was inflation affecting overheads and direct costs, and the solution was to utilise automation or AI and experience to increase efficiency and add more value, passing on cost increases to clients where possible.

Lara Harding, Senior Organic Social Executive, said keeping up with the changes in social media algorithms can be a real challenge and that she used to feel like she was always playing catch-up and getting left behind. To stay ahead of the game, Lara joined some online communities that gave the latest platform updates and algorithm tweaks. She now stays on top of things to give her clients the best service possible and keep them ahead of the curve.

Senior User Focused Content Strategist Sarah Macklin said that since Google released the Helpful Content Update, more websites are creating informational content than ever before. As SERPs become more competitive, Sarah says she has to consider why a reader would choose to read our content over a competitor’s, or why Google would choose to rank our content. The aim is to make the content as helpful and easy to read as possible, including extra information that competitors might not include.

Sarah Boyd, Content Marketing Manager, found that trying to stay relevant and finding a way through the noise of media could sometimes be a challenge, and her solution around this was ensuring that our PR and Content Marketing offering is genuine by only targeting relevant press with topics that our clients are passionate about. This allowed us to stay focused on the overall goal and stand out in such a hugely competitive landscape, ensuring we didn’t get lost in the noise.

The takeaway

The challenges highlighted in this article show that in an industry that is always changing and evolving, digital marketers need to become more adaptable, innovative, and strategic in addressing and overcoming obstacles. This will help in achieving success in the competitive digital marketing landscape.