What are your biggest problems and Challenges with digital marketing in 2024?

My biggest problem with digital marketing is time—the time it is needed to stay updated and current with ever-evolving technology and trends. With the wide array of digital marketing tools and social media platforms available, staying ahead of the game can be challenging. For example, the increase in artificial intelligence (AI) tools is quickly changing the game.  This can be both good and bad for you. When AI is used correctly, it can certainly save you time.

The Evolving Landscape of Digital Marketing: Challenges and Solutions

The digital marketing world, as you know, is constantly evolving and adapting to new technologies and consumer behaviors. Keeping up with these changes can be a challenge, but as a business owner, you will want to stay ahead of the curve to remain competitive.

In this article, we will discuss the challenges you may face in your digital marketing today and throughout 2024, and I’ll show you a few solutions to help you overcome them.

Digital Marketing Challenges in 2024: Gets Better with AI

One new technology that is growing very popular right now is AI. And it would be best to use it with your business in 2024. Competition will continue to be challenging, and AI will give you the edge you need.

You can now find answers to many of your questions within a few seconds using Open AI chat tools. You can save time and even help run your marketing campaigns more effectively.

AI tools can write an SEO-enhanced blog article, product description, or social media post almost instantly.

With the right prompts, these results can be pretty impressive. Imagine how much more effective this will be in six months or a year from now. It’s all pretty exciting. 

The time that artificial intelligence tools can save you with these marketing tasks is life-changing. I am not exaggerating. It may 10x your production. Its already proving to be very effective for our clients. Try AI and see for yourself. I will review the best tools to use in another article.

However, I have found that using AI tools alone is not enough, not just yet, anyway.  These marketing tools are helpful, but they are not always accurate. 

Plus, you need to know which of these tools to use. In the last quarter, more than 3,000 new AI tools were introduced.

It seems everyone is launching an AI tool almost daily.

I suggest you look at prompt engineering and learn how to prompt these AI tools. This will make your work so much more effective.

And most importantly, you still need to personally enhance this information and apply it so that it helps your business stay ahead of the game.  Never copy the results from using any AI software without editing and adding your own experience.

Some AI detector tools will tell you if an article was written with AI. My favorite is Originality AI. This is a paid tool, but it can be very useful when needed.

Additionally, it can be difficult to identify the most effective methods for reaching target audiences and tracking the success of campaigns. Let’s take a look at a few more of the top digital marketing challenges. 

To learn more about AI helping your business in 2024. you may also want to read “The Evolving Role of CEOs in An AI Driven World.“

Targeting the Right Audience

Targeting the right audience is extremely important for your digital marketing success. And, as you may already know, the more precise your targeting, the more effective your marketing will be. Here’s how you can hone in on the right audience:

Know who you’re after: It’s all about clarity. Be specific about who you’re trying to reach – their age, location, interests, pain points, and so on.
Do your research: Use surveys, focus groups, customer data – whatever it takes to help you understand your audience’s behavior and preferences.
Get active on the right channels: Social media and other digital platforms offer the opportunity to reach your ideal customer directly. Use targeting options when creating your ads to get in front of the right people. And test different audiences.
Track and analyze: Use data and analytics to inform your decisions and track your progress. You need to understand what’s working and what’s not, to improve continuously. I personally use data and ad testing to help guide all of my clients. 
Connect through personalization: When you know your audience well, use that knowledge to create messages that resonate with them. Personalized messages are often the most powerful because they address people’s needs and interests.

As you can see, the key to targeting the right audience is to understand who they are, where they are, and what they want. By following these steps, you’ll be on your way to crafting a marketing strategy that truly connects with the people you want to reach.

Staying Current with Technological Advancements

Social media platforms and search engines are constantly changing and updating their algorithms. Staying up to date on these changes, especially on what is working and what is no longer working, can have a great impact on your business. 

New technologies are being developed all the time. Digital marketers must keep up with these advancements in order to stay competitive or, as I like to do, use these new advancements to get ahead of the competition. This can be a challenge, especially for small companies with limited resources. To overcome this challenge, it is important to stay informed about the latest technologies and to invest in the tools and platforms that will help you stay ahead of the curve.

One resource is to follow this new blog site, as I will be posting weekly on technology that will help you save time and be more effective.

I personally follow all of the latest information coming out of the largest platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, etc…all are changing almost weekly. What worked last month may not be as effective this month or even this week.

I have been very lucky,  probably due to spending a good deal of time and money advertising on these networks. As a result, I am able to meet with marketing and strategy team leaders from most of the platforms on a semi-regular basis. They do a great job of keeping us updated and even showing us new products and tools they have coming in the pipeline. This helps our clients stay ahead of the competition.  They understand that if we are successful, we will spend more time and money on their social platform, so it’s in their best interest to help us. 

A quick plug: If you want to stay updated on the latest information. I am launching a Digital Strategy Newsletter. It’s really just a quick email when something changes. I’ll provide you with updates on how you may use this latest information or tools to your advantage. I will share what is working for us. Clients pay us a lot of money to stay current with their digital strategy and execution. They find these quick updates and tips to be extremely helpful, so feel free to subscribe. It’s my way of giving back and helping you succeed. 

Having an effective Social Media Marketing Strategy

This is one of the most important answers to your digital marketing challenges. Social media is a solution that, directly or indirectly, will help lead to your company’s success. 

The key trends in social media marketing for 2024 include the need for authentic content, the dominance of video content, and the importance of private and meaningful connections.

Your Business needs to create high-quality, professional, and creative content that reflects your brand and engages your audience.

User-generated content and video content are particularly effective in making a brand more relatable and building connections with the audience.

An effective social media strategy will allow you to earn valuable traffic to your website and help you rank faster. I have found no matter what industry that you are in, active and value-added social channels will help your business.

Build and engage with your target audience, and you will develop trust in your brand. This will bring new customers over time. 

You can do this organically with the informative and engaging content you produce and share on social or through paid ads. There are advantages to both paid social advertising and organic social media.

I can tell you that organic (non-paid) activity on social media can work incredibly well, but it does take time to build loyal and engaging followers.

Using social ads is highly effective as it speeds up the time to get these followers. If you want to go fast, I advise using at least some ads.

SEO Digital Marketing Challenge:

SEO challenges in 2024 include continuing constant changes in Google’s ranking algorithm, the impact of AI tools on content creation, and increased competition leading to shorter content lifespans.

Google’s algorithm is continuously refined to reward helpful, educational content with higher rankings.

The rise of AI and generative AI in content creation also poses challenges, as it can make it difficult to separate great content from mediocre.

Improving Your SEO in 2024

As a seasoned expert in digital marketing and SEO, I understand the importance of making complex topics accessible. For business owners looking to improve their SEO in 2024, here’s a straightforward approach:

Think of your website as a new library or Amazon book. You want it to be easy to find and interesting to read. First, make sure your website talks clearly about what you offer, using words people commonly use when searching for your products or services. This is like picking the right title for your book.

Next, regularly update your site with helpful information, like articles or blogs, to keep it fresh and engaging – it’s like adding new chapters to your book.

Also, ensure your website loads fast and looks good on both computers and phones, as a slow or clumsy site can turn visitors away.

Lastly, build strong connections with other reputable websites, like getting your book recommended by others. This can be done through guest blogging or partnerships.

By following these steps, you’re helping your website to be easily found and appreciated by more readers.

Email Marketing Challenge:

Key trends in email marketing for 2024 include privacy-compliant tracking, tracking the right metrics, personalized emails, interactive content, and investing in newsletters.

Businesses must build a connection between their brand and audience through emails, not just use them as a selling tool.

An effective and automated email system will be very important for businesses in 2024. You own and control your email list.

Unlike social media and search engines, where algorithms can change and destroy your traffic overnight. Your email list is yours to control and build. Treat it wisely in 2024, and you will have a great year.

Brand Awareness- A Significant Marketing Challenge in 2024:

In 2024, brand awareness continues to be a significant challenge for businesses. The digital landscape is increasingly crowded, and businesses must work harder to make consumers understand why their product or service exists.

Authenticity and Transparency

Consumers favor brands they perceive as genuine. Businesses must prioritize authenticity in their communication and marketing efforts, fostering transparency about their values, products, services, and business practices.

This includes being open about sourcing, manufacturing, and other processes and providing consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions.

Storytelling

There is a heightened emphasis on storytelling within brand strategies. In 2024, Brands should build narratives to articulate their own stories, align with the values of their customers, and cultivate a community spirit around their identity.

Consumer Engagement

Engaging with consumers on issues they care about through social media campaigns, partnerships with NGOs, or other social initiatives can foster a deeper connection and trust.

Sustainability and Ethical Marketing

Recognizing sustainability and ethical marketing as critical consumer expectations, not merely trends, is vital for maintaining brand loyalty as consumers increasingly make purchases that align with their values.

Brand Salience

Brand salience speaks to how well your brand stands apart from the competition. Consumers not only remember and prefer brands with high salience but also see them as authorities in their fields. Think of Brand Salience as when a customer is about to make a purchase and they think of you.

Human Connection

People buy from other people. A potential customer doesn’t want to buy from another business. They want to buy from someone they know, like, and trust.

In this age of AI your challenge is ensuring you have that human touch to your business.

Brand Recall

Brand awareness is being intimately familiar with the brand experience. When consumers have brand recall at that level of detail, you have a lock on brand awareness.

Marketing Challenge: Diversification

Diversifying metrics and enhancing brand visibility across different channels can help grow brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.

Use PR effectively with sites such as HARO and create well-planned press releases and media or podcast appearances. The links from these high-domain sites, as a result of your PR efforts, can help to propel your website and business in 2024.

In 2024, businesses need to focus on authenticity, transparency, storytelling, engagement, sustainability, brand salience, digital presence, human connection, effective use of AI and technology, and diversification to overcome brand awareness challenges.

Common Digital Marketing Problems and Challenges

Achieving a Strong ROI (Return on Investment)

With limited budgets for marketing, ensuring that you have an effective ROI is not only good for the business but also helps sell those in the company who may oppose spending limited dollars on marketing. Most people think of marketing as promoting brand awareness. They don’t realize how much money an effective marketing campaign could bring in. I’ll share a brief example here of a client without naming them.

A CEO asked me to fly in and help their company. They were doing about $10 million in annual revenue. The first thing I realized was that even though they had a strong focus on sales and conversion, they didn’t put much weight behind marketing.  There was no focus on attracting potential customers through traditional or digital marketing. After evaluating their previous and recent marketing efforts, I proposed a new marketing campaign.  This consisted of a pretty decent increase in their marketing spend. In fact, it would be the largest spend they would have ever done. And the results? Read on…

Going Multichannel – Expanding Your Vision

The marketing tactics I proposed would lead to the most effective and largest marketing effort in the company’s history. 

First, one of the biggest problems was convincing the owners that this marketing campaign would be their best solution for the goals they wanted to achieve. It would involve spending not only on digital but also on combining traditional marketing with local media publications and outlets. We would also launch a considerable sponsorship with the local professional sports team. 

To make this work, we partnered with the co-founders of a major Fortune 500 company. With this partner in place and the help of a local station, we created an enticing, fun, and engaging promotional campaign. I won’t go into the details here as it would take almost writing a book to cover it all. I can tell you this became the most profitable omnichannel marketing and sales effort in the company’s history and the most successful in the entire industry. 

The company owners quickly became big fans of marketing. They realized the success of combining the use of several marketing channels and methods instead of the more narrow focus they previously held.  I even received a call from their main competitor congratulating us. He told me that it drove him crazy how we were there in his face everywhere he turned with our content.

Generating Quality Leads and Getting Results Fast

In the example mentioned above and based on a real client experience, I can tell you firsthand that generating quality leads can lead to not only great profits but great morale among your sales teams. 

Once we identified our target audience and determined where they were, we quickly created a content strategy and lead generation system that had the sales managers fighting over each other to get the leads. 

The result: Over the next 18 months, the company revenue doubled from $10 million to just over $20 million.

A well-planned digital marketing strategy and the combination of a traditional strategy can change a business like nothing else. 

Creating Content People Want- Staying Creative

Another big challenge for many business owners is staying creative and listening to their customers. 

By providing helpful content on your website, blog, and social media channels, businesses can attract not only new customers but also create valuable relationships with their current customers and establish credibility.

You don’t always need to hire a copywriter or a marketing agency. However, these talented people can be very helpful when it comes to creating content for effective digital marketing. 

As I mentioned earlier in this article, there are now a number of AI tools that can help you with your SEO and content marketing. You can get pretty creative once you master the correct prompts. I suggest you take some time to play around and test these new AI tools.

I know firsthand how busy we can get with running our day-to-day operations, but you may find the answers to some of your biggest marketing challenges or come up with some creative new ideas to run by your marketing team. Try it out.  

Understanding Analytics – a Key tool in Digital Marketing

I have found that using analytic tools to track customer behavior and gather customer feedback allows us to make the necessary adjustments to meet customers’ needs quickly.

As a business owner or company officer, you want to know what brings your customers to your website. You want to see what content they are most interested in, what competitors they visited, and much more. 

As digital marketing evolves and the addition of A.I. and other helpful tools evolves, the importance of content marketing and analytics becomes greater. Consumers and potential customers are constantly seeking new and informative content that can help guide them toward finding a solution. You want to be able to give them what they seek. 

In 2024, it is expected that short-form videos, live-streaming, AI-powered chatbots, informative podcasts, and the use of social media will continue to grow in popularity. This is because audiences are drawn to interactive content that allows them to have a voice and share their perspectives. However, you need to know what your customers are interested in and where they are hanging out, and I have found the best way to do this is to follow the numbers. Monitor your analytics to see where your customers are engaging the most. 

I could continue on for quite some time on this topic, so check back here or on our site for more great articles in the works to help you with your digital marketing efforts.

So let me know; What is your biggest problem with digital marketing?