Marketing Challenges in 2022 and How to Overcome Them

Every marketer faces different challenges. And, ever since the 2020 covid pandemic, the ways we've had to pivot, adjust campaigns, and address marketing challenges have been unlike anything many of us have had to do before. Today, marketing is so fast-paced that it can be difficult to identify which areas you'll want to develop to facilitate stronger growth in 2022 and beyond. As business or marketing leaders, we often have to recognize our marketing challenges. But that’s only half the job, right? You must also find ways to overcome these challenges. If you’re unsure of where to begin, this article should help. Not only have we outlined the most common marketing problems based on search intent going into 2022, but we’ve also provided potential solutions to help you conquer them.

Technology has vastly improved, and many businesses have already made adjustments from the post-pandemic. A lot of companies are operating remotely and have tech stacks in place to keep communication, project management, and other tools needed to allow people to work out of the office. Let’s take a look at the marketing problems that businesses face and how to overcome them:

Below are some of the common marketing problems that you may face in 2022. 

Despite this, many organizations struggle to stay aligned. Distributed workforces, fluctuating market dynamics, and office politics can make working in lockstep difficult. Regardless of the root cause, overcoming sales and marketing misalignment is necessary to secure long-term success. Companies tend to have conflicting goals. For example, marketing will want to capture as many leads as possible, while sales are only focused on closing deals. The problem is that they aren't working together, and thus prospects become confused when they see that the company isn't aligned. 

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Communication is key when trying to align your sales and marketing efforts. If you want your teams to be on the same page, you can't keep them siloed. They have to interact with each other consistently meaningfully. Your sales team needs to be able to discuss the results it's seeing from the leads marketing is passing along. And both have to understand each other's respective plans and strategies when it comes to messaging. Additionally, if you're planning specific campaigns, both departments need to know what to expect from each other. Ultimately, you need to maintain a mutual understanding between departments.

The remedy for unqualified leads or people who don't respond to your marketing campaigns can be fixed by creating buyer personas. If you don't already have them in place, it's important that you listen closely to what I am about to say here. In order to capture the right leads, you must first capture the attention of the right audience. With detailed personas in place, marketers can pull specific information from them and use it to create content that resonates. The more you know about their pain points, the more you can do to provide solutions.

Messaging allows your business to establish a consistent way of talking about your company. We find that stakeholders, leaders, and staff each have a unique way of talking about their business—many of whom miss the mark when it comes to leaving a memorable and clear impression of what they do for whom. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that "everyone" is your target audience. Not everyone wants or needs to buy your product or service. A "mass market" approach will only allow you to reach a broad audience instead of a niche audience that already seeks solutions your business offers. A common saying we have in the office is, "if you're shouting to a stadium of people, your message reaches nobody." The more refined you can get with articulating your ideal customer, who they are, what their pain points are, where they live, their age, their income level, their buying behaviors, etc., the more robust of a target audience profile you'll be able to own.

To ensure your marketing message effectively boosts sales, you need to know your target audience inside out. Your content should center on your customer's needs – that's what's going to catch their attention. To best understand how you can cater to them, you need to do your research. Focus groups, questionnaires, and interviews are great for gaining insight into how you can serve existing and potential clients.

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Even if subscribers open your emails, they may not take any action. Thus, you also need to A/B test multiple variations of your call to action (CTA). For a quick marketing makeover, try different fonts and formatting. Phrase your CTAs differently and test which delivers the strongest results. Format your overall email content in various ways to see if you can make a CTA stand out more clearly. When you constantly experiment and test new strategies, you’re more likely to learn what best address your marketing problems.

Chances are, your website's performance is high on your list of priorities — particularly since website speed and performance play a major role in your website's SEO ranking. It's an asset that works around the clock to draw in visitors, convert them, and help you hit your goals. Issues with website management include a variety of different factors, from writing and optimizing the content to designing beautiful web pages. Here are a few things marketers can do to deal with this challenge.

• Tap into your personal and professional network by posting on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networks with a description of what you're looking for.

• Browsing freelance writers and designers based on their portfolios and areas of interest. 

Unfortunately, in the fast-paced world of marketing, it can be challenging for leaders to find the time to train, while employees might not have the time or money to access professional development outside of their day-to-day tasks. When you hire someone or get hired by your dream company, the work needed to grow doesn't just stop at the offer letter. If you're a manager or marketing leader, you'll need to take time to teach that employee how your company works. This could include voice and messaging training, helping them understand buyer personas, or getting them acclimated to the tech stack or processes you use. Meanwhile, regardless of whether you're a seasoned marketing team employee or new hire, you might wish your company had more opportunities for training, onboarding, or professional development that could allow you to excel and learn while also hitting your KPIs. 

Ultimately, businesses should think of training and professional development offerings as indirect ROI generators. Ultimately, even the most top-tier unicorn talent will need time to get used to how your company works. On one end of the spectrum, companies and leaders can retain employees and save money on talent searches because of their offerings. Meanwhile, their talent will learn more, grow more, become even more competitive, and -- most importantly -- feel more fulfilled and supported in their role. Additionally, you don't always have to hire instructors or take time out of your day to train. For example, you can:

If you're a marketer who sees the same challenge year-over-year, it might be a barrier worth putting on your radar. However, some challenges can be industry-wide. Year-over-year challenges across the industry are incredibly important to note, regardless of whether they impact you or not. Why? These challenges might not just be something you're facing but could also be faced by your competitors. If you can figure out how to navigate a reoccurring industry challenge effectively, you could have a leg up against the competition. Universal Creative Solutions helps you create a marketing plan and provides marketing consulting to help you navigate the challenges you may face this year and beyond. Schedule a consultation with our marketing and business operations expert to see how we can help take your business to the next level.