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Be it B2C or B2B, small or big, every business organization has its own set of obstacles that it faces when it comes to marketing its products and services. Some of the firms face budget constraints while some are impacted by the sudden external changes. Challenges are an integral part of business and certainly cannot be avoided as there will always be areas to work on. Here are top challenges that digital marketers currently face along with ways which will help in overcoming them.

Leads and traffic generation

Challenge:

Generating relevant traffic and leads has always been an obstacle in the digital marketing industry. There has been an increase in the trends of complexities regarding leads and traffic as different marketing channels including social media platforms have upgraded to increase their efficiency. This has heightened the level of competition in the market. With bigger platforms for digital marketing, options widen. With the availability of too many options, it becomes difficult to choose the right one for you.

Resolution:

You can resolve this ever-existing issue by incorporating a 2-step process.

Firstly, creating high-quality web content will help you to resonate with the requirements of the target audience. For instance, there are many research papers which state that video content attracts more traffic. It was also found that most of the audience prefers to watch live and recorded videos. Your strategy for lead generation has to be oriented towards generating high-quality, relevant content which is sought by your target audience.

The second step would be to structure out an appropriate promotional strategy for your content. You need to ensure that your audience finds your posts attractive out of a number of notifications that they receive daily. Although search is a crucial part of obtaining the required information, direct delivery of content is made through different social media channels. Make a social calendar and have a proper schedule for posts to have regular and timely content promotion.

Assessing ROI of digital marketing activities

Challenge:

It becomes very difficult for digital marketers for tracking and assessing the ROI of all digital marketing activities with the availability of different avenues which facilitate conversions. However, it proves to be a crucial aspect for every digital marketing campaign. Improving ROI assists you in optimizing your budget and in devising successful digital marketing campaigns for your brand.

Resolution:

Establishing links between all your digital marketing initiatives is important when tracking ROI is considered. This refers to the tracking of metrics from various websites and social media platforms along with evaluating data. That is why it becomes absolutely necessary to have an efficient analytics tool which will help you in connecting the dots. Incorporate an effective analytics tool that connects all social media channels and sites. This will help you in viewing all important metrics.

Choosing the right technology

Challenge:

Identifying the best tools and applications for carrying out marketing activities is another challenge. There is availability of a number of apps which will help you in conducting marketing activities, however, only a few of them are really effective when it comes to investment of money, time, and effort.

Resolution:

List out all your digital marketing requirements while looking for a specific tool or app. There are different apps for analyzing social metrics, scheduling web content and automating all the digital marketing processes. Instead of choosing different tools for different purpose, choose and invest in the app or the tool that will help you in handling multiple tasks together.

The face of marketing has changed drastically since the introduction of social media. Today, marketers understand that social media is the best way to reach a larger audience, connect with them, and ultimately expand your business.

But the dynamicity of this channel makes it difficult to keep pace, and with new updates being launched on different social media platforms every now and then, businesses face serious challenges with social media marketing. 

Let’s take a look at the biggest challenges that await marketers on social media channels -

Lesser Organic Reach

With the widespread use of the internet, more and more companies are leveraging on social media channels to increase reach and widen their audience base. This means that marketers have to face a decline in their organic reach. A lesser organic return can force marketers to become selective in their social media approach, turn specific about what and where they post and also capitalize more on paid advertising to maintain their numbers.

Social Video Saturation

There has been a consistent growth in the field of social video advertising. However, this development has shown no signs of stopping and has now reached a point where the market for social videos has become highly saturated. This poses a big challenge for marketers as they have to produce extremely relevant video content and distribute it appropriately if they want to get noticed.

New Algorithms

When social media was newly introduced, everything was quite straightforward. But as the number of users grew, social media platforms started incorporating new algorithms that made it difficult for marketers to reach so many people like they used to before. Today, users see posts that are relevant to them which mean marketers need to find the right followers and post engaging content instead of generic marketing messages.

Time Management

Of all the challenges that marketers will have to face, the biggest one is time management. It is really difficult to update social media as well as stay updated on the latest trends. Social media, as helpful as it may be, has the ability to consume all of your time if you don’t stay focused.  If you don’t manage your time properly, all your attempts and efforts might go in vain.

These are some of the challenges that marketers are likely to face in the upcoming period. Stay observant and make sure that you don’t get caught up!

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What Is C2C  E-Commerce?
Consumer to Consumer (C2C) e-commerce is a modern version of the classified form of advertising. When individuals participate in online trading of products and services, such trading is clubbed in the C2C e-commerce category.

How it Works?
Typically the sellers list their products or services on an aggregator website like eBay, Craiglist, OLX, or Gumtree. The listing is usually free but at times the aggregator website may charge a small nominal fee for the listing. The buyer can then look up for required products or services on these websites and pick the seller of their choice by considering factors such as price offered, customer ratings for the seller etc

Examples of C2C
There are many aggregator websites which offer a range of products and services online. eBay, Craiglist, OLX, Gumtree to name a few are the best examples of this form of e-commerce. The listings can range from brand new products to used products. Services are also often listed on such platforms. The interested buyer can get in touch with the seller and take it forward from there.

Facebook’s Entry into C2C
Facebook’s e-commerce platform called Marketplace is making a headway in the Europe. Facebook announced that Marketplace will be launched in 17 countries including Ireland, Denmark, Austria, France, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. After the initial launch in the US, UK, Australia & New Zealand they expanded into Mexico, Chile & Canada.

Currently Facebook is not charging buyers or the sellers for using its platform so it will not add to the company’s current revenue. However a no fee platform will make Marketplace an attractive platform for customers and could give a serious challenge to C2C giants such as eBay and the classifieds site Gumtree.

In Western Europe, eBay has emerged as the most popular C2C e-commerce site in terms of unique visitors. comScore reported that eBay attracted more number of desktop users in the Netherlands compared to any other platform. In UK & Germany, eBay came second to Amazon. In the third largest economy of Europe, eBay came fourth behind Amazon and two local competitors. In countries such as France, C2C platforms are gaining popularity as trends show that more digital buyers make C2C purchases and do it through such digital platforms.

Facebook is widely used in Europe and eMarketer’s forecast suggests that 85% of the social network users come from Western Europe. Facebook and social media platforms haven’t been successful in getting its users to do shopping on their platforms. But with Marketplace they have the right platform to unsettle C2C giants like eBay and Gumtree.

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References:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/15/facebook-adds-ebays-daily-deals-to-its-marketplace-on-mobile/
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/15/16152264/facebook-marketplace-ebay-daily-deals