Marketers are continually bombarded with new ideas, new channels for marketing their company, and new technology. While these advancements are frequently exciting and valuable, marketers may need help to stay up with the changes.

Traditional marketing strategies, while still effective, need to be revised for firms. SEO and cold phoning may have gotten you by in the early 2000s, but you must promote to people two decades later rather than search engines.

How do you go about doing that? You must, therefore, create a comprehensive digital marketing plan, often known as inbound marketing. The appropriate program increases your marketing effectiveness and assures you a return on your expenditure.

And the most significant thing is that by establishing a strategy that encompasses the four Crucial Components of the GrowthStack (Clear Messaging, Marketing Automation, Sales Automation, and Campaigns), you’re sparing yourself from some of the difficulties that traditional marketing causes.

Here are ten marketing challenges business owners encounter and how digital marketing may help them solve them.

Top Ten Entrepreneurial Challenges

1. Establishing Consistent Branding

One of the most crucial parts of marketing is branding. Developing a distinctive, relevant brand is critical, with many messages bombarding customers daily. Without consistent branding, your company will become another faceless name in a sea of advertisements.

How do you build a powerful brand? By paying close attention to details. Everything from font and colors to voice and style influences how your company is regarded. Keep these elements consistent across all platforms and communications, and you’ll be OK.

A Brand Guidelines document can guarantee that all marketing firms, contractors, and new employees adopt the correct fonts, colors, and styles when developing your brand.

Another helpful resource is Patrick Hamlin’s book, Primal Branding. It deconstructs the fundamental elements of branding and explains how they interact. 

And it will alter your perceptions of well-known brands such as Apple and Coca-Cola, as well as your own company.

2. Creating an Efficient Budget

Many businesses need more wriggle space in their budget. And, more often than not, marketing is not regarded as a high priority for which resources are made available. Cutting your marketing budget, on the other hand, is equivalent to turning off your open sign. With it, your company will flourish.

To justify investing money in marketing, you must demonstrate that your actions are practical. Track your ROI, and feel free to try new things when the old ones aren’t working. If you engage with a marketing firm, request reports at the end of the year to show how your money is being spent wisely.

And, if you’re doing it yourself, spend only some of your money on flashy approaches (like SEO or boosted social media posts) when campaigns can provide a better return.

3. Understanding Technology and Tools

Choosing the correct tools, technology, and software for your company may be challenging. There is no proper solution with so many possibilities available and diverse viewpoints.

HubSpot is the top all-in-one sales and marketing platform, integrating smoothly with the GrowthStack components. It can be used to:

• Please send emails to potential consumers automatically based on the forms they’ve completed.
• Keep track of all leads’ activities on your website.
• Throughout the year, manage your specials and keep track of your sales.
• Determine who has downloaded all lead generation offerings from your website.
• Create, publish, and distribute blogs

4. Obtaining Traffic and Leads

According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2017 research, the number one difficulty for marketers is that getting traffic and leads appears to be becoming more difficult rather than simpler as more platforms become accessible. Many company owners devote all of their time to social media, posting hundreds of posts every week with little return. It’s aggravating, especially when it appears to work for other brands.

To pique people’s interest in what you say, you must first generate content your target audience desires. You must first understand your intended audience. Create buyer personas based on consumer surveys, market research, and any other information you can find.

Once you understand your audience better, you can take activities that appeal to them, increasing traffic and leads. It begins with a campaign as one of the four Crucial Components of the Business GrowthStack; Campaigns lay the groundwork for lead generation and conversion.

It usually comprises the following components:

• A compelling lead generation offer, such as an infographic or digital guide, is tailored to a particular consumer persona.
• A landing page where potential consumers download the offer by filling out a form.
• A follow-up email will be sent to give them the offer as soon as they require it.
• A lead nurturing email series to keep the information engaged and establish trust so they’re ready to buy your goods or service.

5. Taking Note of Your Website

When done correctly, your website attracts people, converts them, and allows you to sell even while you sleep. It’s no wonder that managing websites are one of the most difficult challenges that modern marketers confront. Your website must attract, nurture, and convert leads. Otherwise, it’s nothing more than a gleaming golden toilet: an unnecessary expense that has gone to waste and is no longer performing its purpose.

Most entrepreneurs recognize the significance of their website but often need help with its implementation. Website difficulties range from generating excellent content to developing an appealing and user-friendly site. Many businesses, tiny enterprises, do not have the time or resources to devote to website administration.

This isn’t to say you should settle for a website that isn’t up to the task. Find a company or a consultant to help you through the procedure. Get input from customers on where they have issues with the site and where you can improve. Then, using StoryBrand, design compelling website content that keeps people clicking your “Call Now” button.

6. Creating Relevant Content

As we discussed in our second point, having great content is essential for generating visitors and leads. When creating a content schedule for blogs, offers, emails, or social media postings, consider what problems your audience may have that you can answer. Constantly tailor your content to a specific problem that your clients are experiencing. This will make it more appealing and helpful.

Consider the sort of material that current customers like—for example, blog postings versus videos. Videos and social media postings are consumed more frequently than any other sort of content, according to HubSpot research. Consider incorporating video into your other pieces of content for even more success. Do you want to start a blog? Make a 30-second video on your phone and put it in the post. Are you making an infographic? Add a teaser video to the landing page to clarify what’s included.

This desire varies based on your target demographic, which is why buyer personas are crucial. However, consumers are significantly more likely to choose video over words or graphics. Consider how many videos you’ve viewed on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram in the previous week. You may capitalize on this trend to help your business flourish.

It’s also critical to make your consumer the hero of your content. You are fixing their difficulties and improving their lives; nonetheless, consider yourself the guide. If this seems familiar, you’ve previously investigated the StoryBrand marketing structure.

7. Recruiting the Best Marketing Team

Finding the proper people to join their team is crucial for many business owners and marketing managers. You want top-tier talent without breaking the bank. However, engaging full-time marketing pros is only sometimes possible. So you go with the cheapest choice.

It may be a recent college graduate who needs to learn about your sector. Perhaps it’s your cousin’s son, who is said to be an Instagram influencer. In either case, you end up with someone who excels in one marketing area but needs help understanding the big picture.

As with web design, partnering with a marketing firm may be the best option for your company. These companies use the most outstanding marketing professionals in every field. They can help you with anything from creating unique content to managing social media.

If you opt to hire in-house, properly vet your candidates. Choose someone with expertise in content development and design since they can help your business more efficiently than someone who concentrates solely on one area.

8. Educating Your Team

Every person you recruit, including your marketing staff, should be well-taught. Whether you recruit full- or part-time marketing workers, it’s critical to give extensive training, even if they’re experts in their sector.

Begin by assessing each team member’s competence, strengths, and shortcomings. This offers a starting point and indicates where you should focus your training time and money. The Kolbe exam is an excellent tool for assessing where your staff thrives and where they need to improve.

Next, have each team member develop personal growth goals for each quarter. These objectives include obtaining certificates in their expertise, reading a new marketing book, or attending a webinar. Prioritizing education at work shows that you are more likely to recruit people engaged in personal growth and development.

9. Calculating your marketing ROI

The most efficient approach to assess the performance of any campaign you launch is to measure your marketing campaigns’ ROI (return on investment). It’s also a surefire technique to increase your marketing spend.

Nonetheless, it is one of the most challenging tasks. Close the loop between marketing activity and sales results to assess ROI better. Several tools are available to assist you in this endeavor, from marketing software to CRM systems. HubSpot is an excellent tool, and applications like MailChimp and Infusionsoft can also be helpful.

However, you may accomplish this without using any program. When speaking with new consumers, please find out how they first heard about your company. Did they come across a social media post? Did they get an offer? Were they told about you by a friend? Then, monitor their answers to see where you’re getting the most traffic.

Consider incorporating this question into a survey and distributing it to all your consumers. That way, you’ll know whether your marketing strategy attracted customers to your door.

10. Promoting Greater Customer Engagement

All too often, marketers are obliged to devote so much time and effort to generating new leads that they overlook existing consumers. This is a significant error because current clients may increase sales and referrals.

So, how can you keep folks returning for more? Make particular resources available for engaging current consumers. Implement a customer interaction strategy that can be readily automated while also rewarding loyal consumers.

Your strategy may include the following:

• An annual customer satisfaction survey.
• A thank-you package (with branded mugs or t-shirts) for every new client.
• Special discounts for regular clients.
• A rewards program.

Conclusion:

Marketing may need to be clarified. You may feel overwhelmed and bewildered as an entrepreneur if you try to manage it on your own. Fortunately, you can contact individuals and build your business even in today’s crowded economy. All you need is some knowledge and the correct equipment.