Macy is a marketing writer with over five years of experience creating content for dozens of industries including food and beverage, home services, and education. She also specializes in creating SEO and PPC content. Her work has been featured by Search Engine Journal, HubSpot, Entrepreneur, Clutch, and more. In her free time, Macy enjoys trying new crafts and reading comic books.
Whether a marketing expert or novice, you’ll face challenges with creating and executing your marketing strategy. Since technology and the digital marketing landscape always change, you need to pivot and adjust each year to take on new challenges in marketing.
Keep reading to see the top marketing challenges you’ll face and learn how to take them head-on!
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Marketing challenge #1: Staying on top of trends
One of the biggest challenges in marketing is staying on top of trends. As mentioned earlier, the digital marketing landscape continually changes as technology develops. As a result, marketing strategies must change and adapt to meet the current market.
Why it’s challenging
Staying on top of trends is one of the top marketing issues because trends constantly change –– what’s popular one month can easily switch to something else within a few weeks.
Think about TikTok. There are always trending sound bites, songs, and dances that suddenly become popular and everyone’s using/doing them. By the next month, people move on to something else.
Staying on top of these trends online is time-consuming for your business.
How to solve this marketing problem
So, how do you solve this marketing problem? The best solution is to focus on the trends that apply to your industry. Not every trending dance or new social platform is the right fit for your business. Focus on the ones that fit your brand.
If you own a restaurant, for example, you’d want to stay on top of any trending food videos you see on social media or blog post topics generating interest.
Marketing challenge #2: Facing competition
Next on this list of common marketing problems is facing competition. Did you know that 53% of business leaders plan to spend more money on digital marketing in 2025? More businesses recognize the value of online marketing, which means more companies invest in it.
Why it’s challenging
You’ve always faced competition, so what makes it different for 2024? While competition is always present, more businesses are investing in digital marketing. Companies recognize the benefits of marketing online and are choosing to invest in it to boost their return on investment (ROI).
That means there’s more competition you need to face and more businesses taking up digital space. That also means your audience has more options, which can drive potential leads away from you.
How to solve this marketing problem
If you want to get and stay ahead of your competition, conduct a competitor analysis. This analysis will enable you to understand your competition’s strengths and weaknesses to capitalize on them.
Additionally, a strong digital marketing strategy helps you stay competitive. Using the most effective strategies for your business will help you continue attracting qualified leads over your competition.
Marketing challenge #3: Setting the appropriate budget
One of the top marketing challenges every business faces is setting the right budget. Your budget plays a significant role in your marketing’s effectiveness, so you must invest enough for your marketing to be effective.
Why it’s challenging
Setting a substantial marketing budget is always a challenge. If you invest too little in your marketing, you won’t see the return you desire. At the same time, you must consider other business costs and balance them with your marketing investment.
It makes it tricky to know how much you should spend on your digital marketing efforts.
Some strategies don’t have set-in-stone requirements. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads and social media ads, for example, don’t have a set budget you need to spend to run them –– that makes it harder to know how much to invest to see success.
How to solve this marketing problem
Generally, the rule of thumb is to allocate 7-8% of your revenue to marketing. While this isn’t a set amount you must spend, it’s a good starting point for figuring out your budget. You may find you need to spend more, or you can spend a little less and still see results.
In a survey of over 500 business leaders, we found that 68% of them spend anywhere from $500-$10,000 per month on marketing.
So, you can use those numbers as guides for determining how much you should spend on your digital marketing.
Marketing challenge #4: Managing data
To continue this list of common marketing problems, let’s talk about managing data. When you run digital marketing campaigns, you collect tons of data with your campaigns, from clicks to leads to conversions.
Why it’s challenging
Managing data is a challenge because there’s so much data to collect. Every campaign you run and strategy you use provides you with data about the performance.
With all this data, you face the challenge of processing and sifting through it. You either sift through data manually or spend time researching and finding the right tool to process your data.
On top of that, you must figure out what data you want to focus on. Not all data you collect will have value to the goals of your campaign. You decide what data to prioritize, which can be challenging.
Expert insights from
Trevin ShireyWebFX’s Vice President of Business Development
“Having a proper data foundation is crucial for businesses looking to grow using digital marketing. Building this foundation can be quite challenging and often requires spending on both expertise and software. But once you nail the data piece, it makes the rest of your marketing efforts exponentially easier. You get better targeting, more precise reporting, and more confidence that your campaigns will succeed.”
How to solve this marketing problem
To help you solve this common marketing problem, focus on finding data management software. Tools like MarketingCloudFX can help you track your marketing campaigns and sift data to get insights about your marketing efforts.
Additionally, you can help your team stay focused on the crucial data by revisiting your goals. If your goal is to increase conversions for example, you’ll want to focus on data like click-through rate (CTR), form completions, and more.
Marketing challenge #5: Generating quality leads
Another top marketing challenge is generating quality leads. For your business to grow, you need to generate leads interested in what you offer. That means investing in marketing strategies that help you reach people who need your products or services.
Why it’s challenging
Many challenges with generating leads boils down to two aspects: Targeting and generating interest.
For you to generate quality leads, you need to target the right people. This task proves difficult if you aren’t sure who wants your products or services.
If you know who to target, you must then generate interest. You must tailor your marketing to get people interested in what you offer, so you can capture those leads. That means you must know how to engage your audience, which can involve continous trial and error to get it right.
How to solve this marketing problem
The best thing you can do to generate quality leads is to create buyer personas. Buyer personas are fictional profiles based on real customers. These profiles help you create marketing materials relevant to customers that fit that profile.
You’ll want to include crucial information in your buyer persona profiles like:
Age
Gender
Location
Occupation
Buying habits
Socioeconomic status
Family status
Creating detailed buyer personas helps you better understand who to target, so you know how to market to those prospects.
Marketing challenge #6: Hiring the right marketing team
One of the most common marketing problems is hiring the right marketing team. Whether you hire internal employees or outsource to a marketing company, you often rely on others to handle marketing your business. That means you need to find the right group of people to market your company.
Why it’s challenging
If you want to create an internal marketing team, you must find the right employees to carry out marketing tasks, which becomes a time-consuming endeavor.
Finding the right marketing company can be just as difficult. It requires hours of research, sifting through testimonials, and meeting with the company to see if they’re a good fit.
How to solve this marketing problem
There’s no direct solution to finding the right talent to handle your marketing, but there are steps you can take to help get you on the right track.
If you opt to keep your marketing in-house, consider asking your employees for referrals. They may have connections to people looking for marketing opportunities. Your employees can often be a reputable source to find talent for your internal marketing team.
You can also use your social media channels to help showcase what it’s like to work at your company. This step can entice qualified people to apply to your company.
If you choose to outsource your marketing to an agency, you can ask for recommendations within your professional network. You can also use third-party websites that provide an unbiased review of different marketing companies to create your short-list.
Marketing challenge #7: Finding the right marketing tools
To continue this list of challenges in marketing, let’s talk about finding the right marketing tools. As more marketing tasks fill your plate, you need tools to help you manage your marketing and simplify tedious tasks.
Why it’s challenging
Finding the right marketing tools is challenging because there are so many options. From managing emails to processing customer data, you’ll find hundreds of tools for different tasks. Sifting through all these options can be difficult if you aren’t sure what you need.
How to solve this marketing problem
The best way to address this common marketing problem is to use third-party resources that help you find the right software. G2.com, for example, provides unbiased analysis of different types of software to help you find the right tool.
You can also ask for recommendations from your professional network to see if anyone raves about certain platforms.
Marketing challenge #8: Adaptability
One of the top marketing challenges every business faces is adaptability. The marketing landscape continually changes and evolves, as does your business. Your marketing needs to remain flexible, so you can adapt to changes.
Why it’s challenging
There’s comfort in doing what you’ve always done, especially if it’s worked for your business. Many companies are reluctant to change because what they’re doing works, so they don’t see a need to adapt.
The problem is that marketing approaches and technology always change. Think about this: TikTok didn’t exist ten years ago –– now it’s one of the most popular social media platforms. Additionally, in the past few years, artificial technology (AI) has become a prominent part of the marketing landscape.
Many businesses are hesitant to adapt their strategies for the changing market because they feel confident in what they do. That leads to missed opportunities for growth and can leave your business struggling in the long term.
How to solve this marketing problem
The solution to this problem is to create an adaptable mindset with your marketing strategy. A good rule of thumb is to dedicate a portion of your marketing budget to trying new channels. That way you can keep your current tactics in place while trying new channels.
Additionally, make sure you continually review your marketing channels. If you have channels that aren’t driving results, you may want to shift that budget allotment towards trying new ones.
Marketing challenge #9: Expanding marketing
Another of the common marketing issues businesses face is expanding their marketing. Expanding your marketing can take on multiple meanings –– it can be investing more money into your strategies, running more campaigns, or adding new channels.
Why it’s challenging
So, why is it challenging to expand your marketing?
First, you may run into issues with budgeting. If you must get approval from someone higher up to expand your marketing budget, you may run into some roadblocks. You may have some people who don’t see the value in expanding your budget.
In terms of campaigns and strategies, sometimes it’s tough to know where to allocate the money. It’s difficult to figure out where to expand your marketing to get effective results.
How to solve this marketing problem
If you’re facing the challenge of expanding marketing, here’s how to address it.
Show results: To get more budget to expand your marketing, show results. Present the effectiveness of your marketing to higher ups and show them how the investment will increase company growth.
Analyze campaigns: If you have the extra budget but don’t know where to allocate it, you’ll want to analyze your campaigns and see if there are holes you can fill. Is there an ad you should create to target a new audience segment or some content missing from your website?
Identifying gaps and areas of need can help you focus on where to expand your marketing.
Marketing challenge #10: Retaining customers
Next on this list of common marketing problems, let’s talk about retaining customers. Customer retention involves keeping existing customers and turning them into repeat purchasers.
Why it’s challenging
Customer retention is something all businesses struggle with. When there are so many options on the market for shoppers, there are a lot of alternatives. That means if they aren’t getting what they need from your company, they can turn to another option.
Not to mention, retaining customers takes work. Buying from you once doesn’t make them a customer forever — you must continually engage and delight them to keep them purchasing from your business.
Expert insights from
Trevin ShireyWebFX’s Vice President of Business Development
“Using marketing levers to retain customers is often neglected. Many marketing teams leave retention up to the client-facing teams, which is a big mistake. Retaining and even upselling to your current customers is often the highest ROI activity a marketing team can spend time on. You don’t have to go crazy with coming up with super creative ideas, either. Run some ads to them about new products. Keep your brand top of mind. If you want to go the extra mile, provide a few exclusive resources like webinars, Q and A’s, or deep-dive guides to your current customers. These things go a long way and are right in a marketing team’s wheelhouse.”
How to solve this marketing problem
There are numerous solutions for solving this marketing challenge.
One solution is to create a loyalty program. A loyalty program rewards shoppers for their purchases and incentivizes them to keep shopping with you.
For example, Old Navy uses a rewards program to keep their customers coming back for more:
Additionally, you can tailor your marketing efforts based on these customers’ interests. It ensures they get a tailored experience with your business, which means they stay engaged.
Another of the top marketing issues businesses face is creating quality content. Content marketing is a crucial digital marketing component because it helps drive traffic to your page, boost engagement, and build authority.
Why it’s challenging
Creating quality content is difficult because it’s time-consuming. When you create content, you position yourself as an authority in your field –– that means your content needs to be accurate and well-researched.
Not only does it take time to research, but you also have to spend time composing your content, editing it, and integrating visual elements to make it engaging. The process takes time, which can be a challenge for businesses with limited time and multiple projects.
How to solve this marketing problem
If content creation is one of your marketing issues, there are steps you can take to resolve this problem.
If you’re having trouble penciling in the time to create content, you can make a content calendar to keep you on track. You can break down the content creation process into steps to make it easier for yourself –– one day you research, the next day you write and edit, and the third day you publish.
An alternative option is to hire a content marketing agency to handle your content creation, so you can take that task off your plate.
Marketing challenge #12: Identifying and entering new markets
For your business to continue thriving, you must adapt your business strategy to earn new customers. That’s why one of the top challenges in marketing is identifying and entering new markets.
Why it’s challenging
There are always difficulties with finding areas for your business to expand. Not only do you have to try and find potential markets to expand, but you also have to determine whether it’s a viable market for your business.
Even once you identify potential new markets for your business, you then must go through the process of figuring out how to enter the market. You need to identify the marketing strategies that will work best and find unique ways to promote your product or service.
This process is challenging when you try to enter a market with established businesses in it.
How to solve this marketing problem
To tackle this marketing challenge, start by looking at your competition. What markets have they tapped into that you aren’t reaching yet? Your competition is often a good source of potential market expansion ideas.
If you know what markets you want to try, a good starting point is to use the marketing strategies you’re already using to reach interested leads. You can then monitor your strategies and see what’s working for promoting your business in the new market.
You can also look at your competition and see what strategies they use to promote themselves within this market. It can give you a good idea of how to market your company in this new sector.
Marketing challenge #13: Testing new channels
As we mentioned earlier, one of the top marketing challenges is expanding your marketing. Along with that, there’s another marketing problem –– testing new channels. As your business continues to grow, you’ll want to try out new channels to see if you can help it grow even more.
Why it’s challenging
Testing new channels presents a series of marketing challenges.
First, if you choose a channel you aren’t familiar with, there’s a learning curve. If you decide to run PPC ads, for example, you must learn how bidding works, how to do keyword research, and how to use Google Analytics to evaluate ads. That can easily get overwhelming.
Additionally, you must figure out whether the strategies are effective. If a marketing channel is new, you may have difficulties figuring out the effectiveness.
How to solve this marketing problem
The best thing you can do before diving into a new channel is research. Turn to the industry experts and learn everything you can about the strategy. Learn about the tools you can use, how to measure results, and more.
You can also hire a marketing company to help you with your new strategies.
To wrap up this list of the top marketing challenges, let’s talk about quantifying marketing results. You don’t want to waste your marketing budget on strategies that aren’t driving the results you desire, so it’s crucial to track your results and adjust accordingly.
Why it’s challenging
Quantifying your marketing results is a big challenge in marketing because some things aren’t easy to quantify. Many businesses struggle with quantifying ROI because, for some strategies, it’s not entirely clear what the ROI is.
A lot of this challenge stems from the fact that people don’t often become leads or customers on the same path. There may also be multiple touchpoints from a customer before they buy. They might click on a search ad, then later come back and read some blogs, and then buy from a social media ad.
All these steps contributed ultimately to the sale, but it can be difficult to assign “credit” and, therefore, figure out the value of each strategy.
How to solve this marketing problem
The best way to understand the value of your strategies is to use analytics tools. These tools will help you collect all the data on your strategies and uncover insights into their effectiveness.
Many of these tools can help you manage your omnichannel approach and attribute value to the pages that impact your sales.
If you have strategies that don’t present a clear ROI, these tools can help you see how different tactics impact your leads and sales.
Need help facing these top marketing challenges?
There are a lot of common marketing problems your business will face in 2024. It can feel overwhelming trying to take on these challenges at once and alone. That’s where WebFX can help.
Craft a tailored online marketing strategy! Utilize our free Internet marketing calculator for a custom plan based on your location, reach, timeframe, and budget.
Craft a tailored online marketing strategy! Utilize our free Internet marketing calculator for a custom plan based on your location, reach, timeframe, and budget.
Macy is a marketing writer with over five years of experience creating content for dozens of industries including food and beverage, home services, and education. She also specializes in creating SEO and PPC content. Her work has been featured by Search Engine Journal, HubSpot, Entrepreneur, Clutch, and more. In her free time, Macy enjoys trying new crafts and reading comic books.
