Content marketing is a hot topic and while the benefits are countless, there are a lot of challenges facing brands and business who want to do it properly. Adam Vincenzini, manager partner of Kamber offers up the five biggest challenges facing business right now when it comes to content marketing.

1. The five big content marketing
challenges facing brands and
businesses right now
Prepared by Adam Vincenzini, managing partner, Kamber
@KamberCo

2. Putting content in context
Content marketing can be defined as the creation and distribution of relevant
content that adds value to the lives of the people it has been crafted for.
In many cases, it helps solve problems for people or enables them to achieve
things through access to niche information provided by organisations and
individuals who house this knowledge.
Sharing this information not only creates goodwill, but also increases
consideration and the likelihood of recommendation.
Social media has created a distribution and feedback mechanism for this content
and made the ‘business-as-publisher’ dream a much more attainable reality.
But, why haven’t most businesses latched onto this
opportunity?

3. 1. Potential impact is not fully
understood

4. Stop paying ‘rent’
We’ve have been taught that paid media is the only guaranteed way to get
our own messages in front of the right people.
We’ve also been taught that earned media is the only way to influence
people en masse.
In essence, we’ve been paying rent to be seen and interacted with.
This reliance on traditional paid and institutional earned media can be
reduced if you make a commitment to the properties you own.
The right content strategy will help your own online properties become
destinations in their own right.
But, the right strategies aren’t being employed because this opportunity isn’t
fully understood or being made a priority.

5. 2. There has been a huge shift in
search engine optimisation

6. The artist formerly known as...
Search engine optimisation is going through a major identity crisis.
Traditionally, SEO service providers have been able to generate immediate
results by using techniques like link building to make online properties and
content more visible.
Now, with social media playing such a huge role and Google constantly
changing the way it operates, the value of genuinely useful content that
appeals to humans is gaining more consistent traction.
This does not mean SEO is dead, far from it, but it has built a rod for its own
back as long-term content strategies can’t produce such immediate results.
The time to bite the bullet is now.

7. 3. Social media has been a blessing
and a curse

8. Out of focus
We were, and still are, so desperate to be ‘part of the conversation’.
Some chose to make customer service a key pillar of their social media
existence.
Other chose the flashy campaign approach.
The thing most people forgot was the a sustainable content strategy that
would act as the backbone.
This ‘backbone’ content is the key to being a valued online participant.
Instead, meaningless metrics are chased, content calendars are populated
with ‘engagement’ content and people switch off.
This isn’t being challenged, internally or externally.

9. 4. Where’s the money going to
come from?

10. Show me the money
If an organisation did want to embrace the genuine publishing opportunity, it
would require an appropriate budget allocation.
But, marketing budgets are already stretched thin.
It is hard for content marketing to get the financial support it needs because the
initial return on investment won’t look that hot alongside traditional disciplines
and metrics.
The best way to look at the content marketing journey is similar to the way you
approach your personal health and wellbeing.
If you change your lifestyle and make exercise and eating well part of who you
are, you will reap the benefits for life.
If you go on a crash diet, you might get an immediate return but you’ll pack the
weight back on just as quick.
Content marketing is a lifestyle change, traditional marketing is a weight loss
shake.

11. 5. You won’t win any awards any
time soon

12. Campaigns vs ‘always on’
Big, creative and boundary pushing campaigns are sexy.
Content marketing is less so.
Linked to the budget dilemma, the time required to make a sustainable
content strategy pay off means that the person who initiates it may not be
around to enjoy the spoils.
The organisational priority will always be on the immediate commercial
need, which has only ever been impacted by campaign-based activity.
However, if you build up an engaged audience through the delivery of your
content over a sustained period of time, you can achieve those ‘spikes’
without relying on the big sexy campaigns to the same degree(s).
But you may cost yourself internal kudos and an award or two...for now.

13. About Kamber
Kamber is a specialist content marketing and social media consultancy based
in Melbourne, Australia.
The consultancy was established to provide clients with a partner that could
drive genuine change within organisations, helping to make content
marketing and social media central to operational success.
Kamber’s core products and services include social media and content
audits, social media and content strategy, content production, content
visibility, social media management and social media monitoring.
Find out more at www.kamber.com.au