While not a marketer per se, Thomas Edison did realize the important role that marketing played in the success of his inventions.
He went as far to say, “Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent.” He figured out that he had to understand customer needs in order for his inventions to achieve prosperity. He also understood the need to analyze his approaches and overcome numerous difficulties in order deliver a useful final product.
For modern marketing professionals, Edison’s persistence and innovation can serve as inspiration when encountering challenges.
Depending on the source, Edison is said to have tested thousands of theories and experiments while developing the electric light bulb and conducted more than 10,000 experiments with different chemicals and materials to develop his alkaline storage battery.
While we’re quite sure you won’t get that many attempts to launch a successful campaign, you will still likely have to conduct research, test and discard hypotheses, and navigate around any hurdles, just like Edison did.
"I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" – Thomas Edison.
Modern campaigns can sometimes make marketers feel the same way. 
As marketers, we’re not trying to trying to invent the light bulb, but the fact is marketing can be difficult. It isn’t easy to research audiences and competition, develop laser-focused and eye-catching campaigns, identify the right marketing technology for your needs, and then find ways to measure the return on investment of said campaigns.
Once, marketing was largely about conducting valid market research, finding a creative angle to position a product, and executing a campaign. According to a recent MarketingProfs article, marketing now involves things such as branding, messaging, demand generation, collateral, competitive positioning, revenue, website design, search engine optimization, content development, social media engagement, and so much more.
The entire process can get to be overwhelming, especially if you are struggling to secure adequate budgets and show effective results. But if you feel like your campaign has hit a wall, don’t fret, even the most experienced and innovative professionals have to clear a few hurdles now and again.
In this new marketing age, there are some common issues that marketing pros encounter. Here is a list of four of the top issues facing marketing professionals today, and a few tips to help you conquer them.
Predictably, money concerns top the chart of marketing worries. According to Hubspot's "2015 State of Inbound" report, marketing pros are worried about money on two fronts. Tight marketing budgets make managing a multi-channel, integrated marketing campaign a difficult proposition.
Additionally, the difficulty of proving ROI for inbound marketing efforts leads to likely reductions in budget allocation for future marketing. This vicious cycle does nothing to ease the anxiety of marketing pros.
However, the solution may lie in the very nature of the problem. The same report notes that survey respondents whose teams were able to demonstrate positive marketing ROI in 2015 were more than twice as likely to receive additional budget allocation for future marketing.
So, how do you demonstrate positive ROI? The first step must be establishing benchmarks and setting goals for your marketing campaigns. Settle on a set of metrics to follow to demonstrate results. Follow through by checking those metrics regularly and proactively.
The report also notes that companies that achieved higher ROIs in 2015 were approximately 20 percent more likely to check their marketing analytics three or more times a week. Keeping a close eye on your analytics will enable a more agile response to marketing trends and consumer patterns, which in turn will produce a better ROI overall for your marketing efforts.
For companies without a large in-house marketing department to do the heavy lifting, maintaining an optimized, highly effective website filled with fresh, relevant content can be a real challenge.
An inexperienced or understaffed marketing department may struggle to provide such content, while also trying to maintain a strong social media presence on multiple platforms.
To solve this problem, you may find it advantageous to hire freelancers or agency partners. Using the skills of other professionals can help you over the hurdle of generating fresh content.
Curating content where appropriate is another way to fill your website with relevant, engaging information. Top marketing pros use their industry connections to find solutions to website deficiencies.
While the idea of going global holds the potential for rapidly increasing the profitability of your enterprise, the reality of global marketing presents some unique challenges. Since much of your marketing strategy is based on clearly defined target buyer personas, global marketing involves creating a clear picture of a global audience.
This is more easily said than done. To reach a global audience, you must remember that your website traffic comes from people who speak different languages, live in different time zones, and have cultural differences for which you must account in your marketing campaigns.
Many global marketing experts find it necessary to enlist the services of a professional language service provider who specializes in translation and localization of web content in the languages of your target audience. Additionally, decisions must be made about how your web content will be translated on an ongoing basis and where and how such translations of your web pages will be hosted.
“I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it" – Thomas Edison.
Marketers looking to expand their message also need to understand what their audiences need.
People connected neither with marketing or sales sometimes use the terms synonymously. However, marketing pros and sales pros know that a great divide can exist between the two departments unless steps are taken to bring them together with unity of purpose.
To bridge the gap, many organizations find it useful to craft a service level agreement (SLA) between the two departments. An SLA should address the goals and objectives of each department, clearly outlining the process by which marketing hands over qualified leads to sales.
Appropriate areas in which to capture metrics to determine the success of the efforts on the part of both departments must be outlined and regularly analyzed. In this way, the two departments will likely both experience improved efficiency, and the organization as a whole will become more productive and profitable.
Marketing professionals are facing challenges today that eclipse many of the issues they may have faced in the past. Now, a successful marketing strategy must include both outbound and inbound efforts, all managed in a multi-channel environment.
Demonstrating positive ROI for marketing efforts requires a considered, nuanced approach to capturing and analyzing the right metrics. Partnering with an inbound marketing agency can provide you with the extra boost you need to maintain your website, demonstrate positive ROI, and bridge the gap between marketing and sales.
To find the right inbound agency for your needs, download our ebook: The Ultimate Guide to Hiring an Inbound Marketing Agency. There is no time like the present to start jumping your marketing hurdles and getting the results you want from your marketing efforts.
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