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Content marketing is nothing new. By now it’s well established that social media, blogging, and video provide businesses with uniquely powerful ways to engage customers—creating trust and building brand loyalty. In fact, small business owners may actually be tired of hearing how vital content marketing is; it’s certainly a subject that generates a great deal of discussion.

But if the advantages of content marketing are so well known, why do many small business owners resist engaging in these important, brand-enhancing channels? The truth is, there are some obstacles to effective content marketing—and these obstacles are not insignificant, but neither are they insurmountable.

In this post, we’re going to acknowledge five of the primary barriers to entry, but also posit some solutions for small business owners to consider.

Common Barriers to Content Marketing

Lack of Time

One reason why business owners don’t do content marketing? They feel like they just don’t have the time for it. It’s certainly true that content marketing requires consistency, and that you need to put some time into regular content production and quality control. With that said, however, one of the great things about content marketing is that it’s scalable—and if you only have the resources for one blog a month, that’s a perfectly viable start. Social media posting can all be automated. And, of course, working with a marketing agency removes almost all of the busywork from your plate.

Lack of Money

Another common obstacle is the cost associated with content marketing. Posting to Facebook may be free, but what about running PPC ads? What about sponsored LinkedIn updates? What about pricey email marketing platforms? While these things can be helpful, we’ll say again that content marketing is wonderfully scalable—and that, when you work with an online marketing agency, you can develop a strategy that fits your goals and accommodates your budget.

Lack of Talent

We don’t mean to insult anyone, but let’s be honest: Some small business owners may not be great writers. Some may have little or no experience making videos. Some may not be comfortable with social media. There are always ways to work around these limitations—if you’re not a great writer, you can maybe do live video streams and curated content—and, once again, we’ll note that outsourcing to an online marketing firm takes care of the talent issue pretty straightforwardly.

Lack of Metrics

It’s possible that you’ve tried content marketing and didn’t find it to be effective—but maybe the reason for this is that you didn’t have a clear definition of success. A lack of meaningful metrics can certainly impede your content marketing success, but that’s something you can remedy by strategizing some key objectives. Increased website traffic, increased social media engagement, increased response to your marketing emails—these are not just worthy goals, but measurable ones.

Lack of Understanding

We meet a lot of small business owners who say that they eschew content marketing in favor of search experience marketing, SEO, or something similar. Our argument is that these different disciplines work best when they are working in tandem. You don’t have to choose between then; instead, we’d recommend trying to use them harmoniously. An integrated digital marketing strategy will help you join these complimentary mediums.

What’s Your Barrier?

Is there a reason why you haven’t embraced the role of content in your marketing strategy? We’d love to talk with you about your obstacles, and to share some ways in which Driven2020 can help. To start that important conversation, we encourage you to reach out to our marketing team at Driven2020 today.