Digital Marketers have to face some issues, and their job is not at all easy. The most common problems they face include how to generate enough traction from their efforts to justify their existence and their efforts, and also how to keep on getting measurable returns on the investments. But apart from these well-documented problems, digital marketers face a plethora of smaller issues that do not get written about so often, and this article will attempt to look at some of them.
Keeping It Dynamic
The good thing about digital marketing is that it is a breathing, living organism and interacts with the target audience, unlike the static billboards of yesteryear. The flip side of this is that the digital marketer needs to not only keep the content of his website or the different social media profiles updated with current and fresh content but also needs to have adequate interaction on those media. The good news here is that if a digital marketer doesn’t have enough skilled people on his team to take care of this, and is also not getting enough budget to hire good people, then he could try the cheaper alternative of hiring freelancers.
Getting the Money Needed
As mentioned in the above point, the digital marketers of today have to continuously struggle for not only hiring budgets but also budgets to run campaigns. Organizations would be willing to spend more tomorrow only if it is possible to demonstrate the benefits that yesterday’s expenses brought clearly. That’s why digital marketers not only need to sell their ideas well to the intended audience, but they also need to sell their ideas well inside the organization.
Addressing All Audiences
Back when digital marketing was not yet in vogue, traditional marketers had the luxury of deciding their audience. A campaign could be for even a specific city, or a province, or the whole country, and the language and content was accordingly devised. But with digital marketing, the marketer needs to be aware of the fact that anyone in the world could see his campaign. As one of the Tayloright experts told us, ‘if a particular post is planned on Facebook, then it could be read by someone in Cincinnati or Cyprus, so the messaging has to be location neutral to the extent possible.
Keeping Up with Technology
Things are changing at such breakneck speed today that it is a big challenge for digital marketers to stay on top of the next big thing always. Also, which technology fits their intended result is also difficult to decide, since it can become easy to fall prey to the latest trend or fad and spend a lot of time and effort on it, only to realize that it wasn’t the best choice.
Training the Team
Coupled with the difficult choice of which technology to use, is the issue of upskilling the team to take advantage of that technology. Many digital marketers, therefore, fall back on hiring the services of freelancers or letting a professional agency handle specific campaigns. That is an easy way out, but it comes at a cost and also results in the organization losing a bit of control, but the positive outcome is that it is being handled by people who are conversant with that technology and can make good use of it.
Ensuring Security
Since more and more of digital marketing efforts are done, stored and accessed online, it opens the door for hackers and other malevolent entities to attack data, results, processes or even content, and this is a big issue for marketers today. Proper firewalling and encryption need to be in place.
Analysis Paralysis
The real job of a digital marketer is to tell an interesting story to promote his brand. But with the Huge amount of data being collected and analyzed for every digital campaign, it is crucial that digital marketers keep their focus on the messaging rather than get swamped by data only. Of course, there is no denying that data has its uses, and can help in showing if the campaigns are moving in the right direction. But the data should at best be used for indicative guidance.
Breaking Through the Clutter
Because the internet allows anyone to share their views with millions of others, there is an overdose of messaging in the digital landscape. One of the biggest challenges for digital marketers is to have their voice heard above all the noise. This was a challenge earlier too but has now been compounded by the fact that the attention spans of the target audiences have shortened considerably.
As we move into 2018, digital marketers will need to find a way around all these problems and come up successful.
