6 business challenges that can be solved with great marketing

Every business will run into certain business challenges that are unique to their industry, market positioning, and personality. However, there are some challenges that are extremely common that most businesses will run into at some point in their life cycle. Some of these business challenges can be solved with a great approach to your marketing strategy.

Here are six business challenges and how you can solve them with great marketing.

Challenge #1: No one knows who you are

This can be challenging for startups who have just set up shop, for small businesses who don’t know the best aspects of their marketing strategy to invest a limited budget in, or even legacy companies who have been around for a long time, but have slowly started becoming irrelevant in the market. You need to find ways to connect with your target audience in a meaningful way.

Solution: Focusing on brand development is key to overcoming this business challenge. Build a solid foundation with a great brand story and key messaging that you can use to connect with your audience. Once you have that in place. Choose the best channels to tell your story. You can figure this out by doing a bit of market research or having a peek at where your competitors are telling their story.

Challenge #2: Your target audience doesn’t know what you do

For someone to buy what you are selling, they need to understand what it is you have to offer. If you aren’t communicating effectively you won’t have much success.

Solution: Figure out what your value proposition is and then either learn how to articulate it through great content (website, blogs, social media, marketing materials, etc.) or hire someone who can develop your content for you.

Challenge #3: You can’t attract and retain a good team

Most business owners/managers don’t realize that attracting great employees through recruitment requires a solid marketing strategy. The gap usually lies in not making those connections in the first place and then hiring the wrong people for the job. It’s just a perpetual bandaid solution rather than a growth opportunity.

Solution: Figure out your brand values and find ways to showcase them. Great talent wants to feel connected to the business they work for, which means aligning causes and ethical viewpoints. Find your voice and your opinion as an organization to attract the right kinds of people that will want to stay long-term. The other thing to consider is to become an industry leader by developing a thought leadership platform and having a presence in the media and on prominent industry blogs. Show people how great you are so you attract great talent that wants to work with your business.

Challenge #4: Increasing competition

You would be hard pressed to find a business with absolutely no competitors. Even in innovation-driven industries where new ideas are big business, there will always be a competitor nipping at the heels of the business in front of them with something bigger and better. Everyone is competing to be heard and you need to figure out how to stand out.

Solution: Figure out how you are different and showcase that through content. It comes down to being able to articulate what it is you do, but also who you are as a business. Sometimes your brand personality is the one thing that makes you a step up better than your competitors. You should also keep a close eye on what your competitors are doing in terms of their marketing to see if you can adapt anything to your own strategy. You don’t want to just copy them, but if they are doing something that is working really well, then figure out a way to make it work for you in your own unique way.

Challenge #5: Silos

The right hand should be working with the left hand, not separately. If all of your departments (or each individual team member) are working separately without knowledge of how they fit into your overall strategy – or what other departments are doing – then you won’t put forward a cohesive and healthy business.

Solution: Build your marketing strategy so that it touches all aspects of your business, which forces the silos to work together. That way people can feel connected to the brand overall because everyone will share in the wins across the company.

Challenge #6: TMI

Too much information (TMI), information overload – call it what you want, it can be a problem when you are trying to educate your target audience on the intricacies of what you do and who you are. It can lead to confused customers who walk away from a purchase.

Solution: Set a content strategy that is based on recurring themes. Structure your blog topics within these themes so your information/content is always adding to the theme rather than jumping around from topic to topic. Think of it as telling a “yes and” story where your story continues and builds through multiple people/sittings.

Business challenges don’t have to mean disaster where you’ll crash and burn. It just means you need to figure out a solution that will work for you.

If you’re having trouble finding your solutions, we can help with that. You just have to give us a call!