In a rapidly changing world, marketing has become an ever-changing process that we must continually improve. Marketing problems inevitably pop up because the process is dynamic—as conditions change, so too do our strategies for dealing with them. Marketing problems constantly evolve, so it’s hard to keep up with the latest developments. The trick is to align your efforts accordingly—if not, you’ll fall out of favour and become uncompetitive. So, what are the possible marketing problems your business might face?
The top 15 marketing problems and their solutions
Whether you’re a small business, a startup, an entrepreneur, or an established brand, you will face marketing problems. It’s inevitable. So, here’s the breakdown of the top marketing problems and solutions.
1. Lack of a marketing strategy
A lack of marketing strategy can lead to a marketing problem. When you’re running your business daily, it’s easy to forget about planning how to sell your product or service—but that’s important to keep in mind! How will anyone else know if you can’t describe what your product or service does? If you’re having this marketing problem, it’s time to sit down and put some ideas on paper. A marketing plan is the foundation of any successful business; this document should include your target audience, how you’ll reach them, and what they will be encouraged to do when they visit your site or social media accounts.
2. Failing to know how to allocate your budget
Failing to give your marketing budget is a standard marketing problem for companies. Assigning a budget means deciding how much you want to spend on each marketing activity, like advertising or public relations. An easy decision if you have unlimited funds available for your project. But if you are working with a limited budget, it becomes much more challenging to decide what’s most important—and where to spend money. The best way to avoid this marketing problem is by setting goals and figuring out how much money you have available for your marketing efforts.
3. An inability to calculate the return on investment (ROI)
The biggest marketing mistake is failing to calculate return on investment, or ROI, when companies don’t have the data they need and make mistakes about how you should make such calculations. The ability to calculate your return on investment (ROI) is one of the most important parts of marketing. Without it, you won’t know whether or not your marketing efforts are working. Calculating the return on investment for all your projects is essential to planning for future success. However, calculating ROI is tricky, and you must learn how to do bookkeeping. Once you know what goes into your business’s bottom line, you’ll be able to measure and make adjustments as needed. Track advertising expenses and profits on a spreadsheet to ensure your marketing efforts are profitable. This will allow you to calculate the return on investment (ROI)—the amount of money gained relative to a cost.
4. Lack of a social media presence
The marketing problem with needing a social media presence may make people question your brand’s legitimacy. What does it say about your seriousness if you aren’t on social media while everyone else is? This could cause customers to think you’re not serious about your business or the care you provide—which is crucial in today’s social-media-driven marketing environment. To market and sell your products successfully, you need to be visible on the websites frequented by your ideal customers. You can tailor content and offerings to match consumers’ wants, boosting sales.
5. Failing to understand your target audience
Marketing problems arise when businesses need help understanding their customers. To succeed, companies need to know whom they are selling to and what product or service those people want most from them. Without this information, no matter how good your plan is, it will fail to connect with consumers. To avoid this marketing problem, you must understand what your audience wants from their purchases. It would be best to find out what makes them tick so that you can make the right approach. Let your customers know you care about their opinions by asking them regularly what they think of your products and then incorporating that feedback into future development efforts.
7. Using a generic “one size fits all” approach
Most companies today use a “one size fits all” marketing approach, applying the same strategies to their entire customer base. Using the same process no matter what product or service you’re selling, can be effective sometimes, but it’s risky. It can cause marketing problems because it ignores differences among customer segments and campaign goals.
When you’re trying to reach out to customers, you must be able to tailor your message and approach. Just as you wouldn’t ask a child to do a job requiring an adult’s skills, you also need to ensure that your marketing campaigns are for the right audience. If you’re trying to market your product or service, it’s easy for a one-size-fits-all approach to work against you and cause marketing problems. If you have multiple customer segments with different needs and goals, you must ensure that your campaign is tailored specifically for each.
8. Keeping up with all the different marketing channels
Keeping up with all the different channels and formats available today is essential, so you don’t waste money on things that won’t help you achieve your goals. Regardless, this can cause a marketing problem because it means there’s always something new to learn and master, which can be stressful, especially when trying to keep up with the latest trends. As a result, companies tend to stick with what they know instead of trying something new. However, this kind of thinking can lead to missed opportunities and wasted money—significantly if someone else figures out how to use something before you do.
To avoid being overwhelmed by all the marketing channels, you must stay up-to-date on the latest technologies and content creation tools. Nevertheless, keeping abreast of all the different marketing channels may distract you from more important things, like your vision for your business or industry.
9. Trying to be everywhere at once.
Being everywhere at once can be a great way to get your message out there and reach your audience, but it also means you will be spread thin. This is a marketing problem because if you try to do too much, you’ll end up doing nothing well. When it comes to marketing, you must prioritize what’s most important, so you don’t end up with mediocre content. Be sure you’re focusing on quality over quantity in your content creation efforts—that means creating fewer pieces but ensuring each piece is as good as possible! If you feel overwhelmed or like there’s too much content for people to consume, try setting aside some time each week for content creation and putting that priority ahead of everything else on your plate.
10. Assuming that a particular approach will work for you
Thinking that just because something worked for someone else, it will work for you too without considering whether or not their business is similar in nature or size. This is a typical marketing mistake that newbie marketers make. They think that just because something worked for someone else, it will work for them too. The problem with this is that different businesses have different needs. So even if something worked for someone else, you might need something else. You have to consider whether or not their business is similar in nature or size before deciding if what they’re doing will work for you as well.
11. Pursuing an outdated marketing strategy
The marketing world is an ever-changing beast. Just because something worked for your marketing strategy before doesn’t mean it will work again—especially if there were no significant changes in industry norms between then and now. What worked well for you last year might not be as effective this year; what seems to function well today may not continue to do so tomorrow. Don’t rely on old marketing strategies. If you find a plan isn’t working, it’s probably because the industry has changed, and you need to change. If you don’t maintain the latest trends, you could fall behind in the marketplace and lose out on revenue opportunities.
12. Not using the right social media channels for your business
Social media marketing is a potent tool for reaching your customers, and it’s easy to see why. With so many different platforms available, you can get creative with how you use them to reach potential customers. But you need to use your business’s proper social media channels to take advantage of valuable opportunities. Many social media apps for small businesses are available, so you must determine which is best for your business. The problem with deciding on a marketing strategy is not knowing which platforms will work best and where to focus your efforts.
You can avoid this marketing problem by checking out your competitors’ social media profiles and seeing which sites they use most frequently. Once you have identified the platforms that seem to be a good fit for your brand, research those platforms and see what kinds of content work best on each. Please keep track of how frequently people post and how much engagement their posts typically receive to model your strategies after theirs. Learn which channels are sufficient for your business model and goals, then focus on those!
13. Confused about appropriate content for different channels
You’re not alone if you need clarification about creating the right content for each social media channel. Should you post long-form blog posts or short, snappy tweets? And then there’s Instagram and LinkedIn. So many choices! The best way to solve this marketing problem is to figure out what kind of content you want to create and how you want it delivered. For example, if you post long-form blog posts, use LinkedIn as a publishing platform. If you wish to write short, snappy tweets, use Twitter. And if you want Instagram-worthy photos and videos, use that channel instead.
14. Sales are down
No one wants to hear that sales are down, but it’s a fact of life for most businesses. Sales are the lifeblood of any industry; if your sales are down, you need to do something about it. If sales will decrease the typical marketing problem that companies face and is the number one reason businesses fail.
When sales are down, the first thing to do is to figure out why. Is it because you need to target the right people? Or is your product not quite ready yet? Or is your pricing too high? Once you’ve identified what the underlying issue is, fix it! But wait to implement changes. Give yourself time to test each change before moving on to the next step. A slow-and-steady approach will help you avoid marketing problems that could set back your progress further than necessary.
15. The company has been around for a long time and has lost its edge
The best companies are constantly evolving. If you’re not moving fast enough, you’ll get left behind. This marketing problem’s harder to attract new customers, and it can be hard to make sales or generate leads when you’ve been around for so long. That is why your company must constantly keep up with the latest trends to maintain its competitive advantage. As companies grow, they often become less innovative and more entrenched in the status quo. This can hurt their ability to attract new customers looking for something novel and exciting.
However, there are ways to stay fresh without completely overhauling your brand and deal with this marketing issue. You can start by establishing a brand aesthetic for your business that stands out from the competition. This could mean changing your logo or using brighter colours on your website—whatever works best for you and helps make your company more appealing to potential customers.
Takeaways
The key to competing in today’s business world is not just about surviving but thriving in an era of uncertainty where everything changes on a dime. Marketing problems are everywhere and can arise anytime—the more prepared you are to address them, the better. By keeping on top of what’s happening in the industry and across your own business, you’ll be able to see changes coming before they hit and adjust accordingly.
