Content is a very important component of marketers’ strategies. Irrespective of the nature of campaigns being run, every marketer needs content to be a part of his store to inform, engage and convince viewers.

Marketing the content that you develop is right at the top of the importance scale for marketers. Content marketing continues to shine as a priority area. This trend continues from 2013, when 91% B2B marketers said that they used content marketing to 2014 where the number of B2B marketers planning to use content marketing has inched its way up to 93%.

In tandem with the increased usage, according to a recent Ad Age survey, 71% marketers are also spending more on content marketing in 2014. It’s important to note that this figure includes 58% B2B marketers.

Despite such concentrated efforts, the above mentioned survey by Curata found that US marketers are floundering in content marketing waters. How do you counter these roadblocks in content marketing?

Let’s look at some of the key issues (identified by the % of marketers facing these) and how they can be tackled.

Contextualizing content (67%)

Making sure the content that is developed is appropriate to the context in which it is being received is the biggest problem of marketers according to this survey.

Solution

• Use primary or secondary research to delve into your target audience’s minds and know what makes them tick. Also understand how and when they consume content.
• Knowledge of audience demographics and online behavior are important factors in prepping your marketing campaigns for success.
• Engage with customers to know them better. This will give you an idea of their deeper motivations that may not be revealed by basic research.

Organizing content (63%)

At 63%, organizing their content collateral is the second biggest hurdle for marketers.

Solution

• Organizing content is a matter of planning content flow so as to ensure that the marketing messages are being played out in a logical sequence to each audience.
• This requires creation of a set content calendar to ensure that all campaigns go live at the designated time with the right content.
• A clear content strategy serves as the backbone of well-organized content. A Content Marketing Institute survey found that only 44% B2B marketers have a documented content strategy!
• 66% B2B marketers with a documented content strategy thought they experienced more success than those without (11%).

Finding and discovering content (57%)

According to an AOL and Nielsen study, 27,000,000 pieces of content is shared every day. That’s a really huge number! Finding and discovering content is this ocean is obviously difficult.

Solution

• You can use tools like blog topic generators that can line up topics suited for your business based on keywords you supply.
• You can scout the web for trending topics from your industry and develop content that is relevant and gives you thought leader status.
• You also can identify customer pain points that you can address through content. Even if you don’t have solutions it shows you to be thinking on the right lines. This will endear you to customers and show yours to be an empathetic brand.

Sharing content (52%)

Sharing the content developed may rank as the lowest in the list of marketers’ content related problems however it is a significant issue with over 50% marketers saying so. After all, content distribution is as important as developing the right content.

Solution

• Identify websites that cater to interests similar to your website and share content there through tactics like white papers, webinar registrations, eBooks, best practices guides etc.
• You can also use distribution tools like Position²’s EVA that not only distributes your content across relevant sites, but also provides the added benefit of content re-purposing.

Are you facing any other content marketing related problems? Do you think there are any other ways to tackle the above problems?