problem solving in marketing management

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7 Proven Problem Solving Techniques for Marketing Managers

• May 13, 2024
• by Steven Austin

As a marketing manager, your job is all about finding creative solutions to complex challenges. Whether you‘re trying to boost sluggish sales, outmaneuver the competition, or do more with a limited budget, problem solving skills are essential.

The most successful marketing leaders are expert problem solvers. They‘re able to analyze issues from multiple angles, think outside the box to generate innovative ideas, and then take decisive action to achieve the best possible outcomes.

But problem solving isn‘t an innate talent that you‘re either born with or not. It‘s a skill that can be learned, practiced, and mastered over time. By developing your problem solving abilities, you‘ll be able to tackle bigger challenges, make smarter decisions, and add more value to your organization.

In this post, we‘ll equip you with 7 proven problem solving techniques used by top marketers. For each one, we‘ll explain what it is, how it works, and provide real-world examples and tools to help you put it into practice. Let‘s dive in!

1. Identify and define the problem

The first step to solving any problem is to identify exactly what the problem is. This may sound obvious, but it‘s a step that‘s often rushed or overlooked. Many attempted solutions fail because they‘re solving the wrong problem.

Start by gathering as much relevant information as you can. Collect data, talk to stakeholders, and study the situation from multiple angles. Aim to determine the root causes driving the visible symptoms.

For example, let‘s say your company‘s email open rates have been steadily declining for months. It would be easy to jump to solutions like changing the subject lines or sending frequency. But by digging deeper, you might discover that the real problem is that your email list is full of inactive subscribers who haven‘t opened a single email in over a year. Removing them would immediately boost open rates.

There are a couple useful tools that can help with root cause analysis:

5 Whys : This technique involves repeatedly asking "why" to drill down into the underlying drivers behind a problem. Starting with the initial problem, ask why it‘s happening. Then look at the answer and ask "why" again. After 5 iterations, you‘ll usually have identified a root cause.

Fishbone diagram : Also called a cause-and-effect diagram, this visual tool helps you categorize potential causes into major categories like people, equipment, materials, environment, processes, and so on. By filling out each "bone" of the diagram, you can see how different factors combine to create the overall problem.

2. Brainstorm potential solutions

Once you‘ve clearly defined the problem, it‘s time to generate ideas for how to solve it. The key here is to separate idea generation from evaluation.

Give yourself and your team total freedom to brainstorm without worrying if ideas are good or bad. Encourage creativity and out-of-the box thinking. The goal is quantity, not quality at this stage.

There are many different techniques you can use to fuel creative brainstorming:

Mind mapping : Start with your problem statement in the center and branch out with ideas, grouping related ideas together. Keep branching out until you‘ve exhausted all possibilities.

SCAMPER : Walk through the SCAMPER checklist of idea-spurring questions: Substitute something, Combine it with something else, Adapt something to it, Modify or magnify it, Put it to some other use, Eliminate something, Reverse or rearrange it.

Brainwriting : Rather than verbally sharing ideas, participants write down their ideas on sticky notes and place them in the middle of the table for others to read and build on. This neutralizes loud voices and encourages equal participation.

Starbursting : Focus the brainstorm by asking who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about the problem at hand.

3. Evaluate and select a solution

With a robust list of potential solutions in hand, now it‘s time to evaluate them and choose the best one. Rushing into action without thoroughly vetting options is a recipe for wasted time and resources.

To assess each potential solution, you‘ll want to gather input from people with different perspectives and consider questions like:

• How effective is this likely to be at solving the problem?
• What are the costs and resource requirements?
• How long will it take to implement and see results?
• What are the risks or potential negative consequences?
• Do we have the capabilities to execute this well?

You can use tools like a decision matrix, SWOT analysis or paired comparison analysis to guide your evaluation in a more systematic way. Getting input from a broad range of stakeholders also helps ensure you don‘t overlook important considerations.

For major decisions, you‘ll also need to think about the buy-in and change management needed for successful implementation. Choosing an analytically strong solution that meets huge resistance from stakeholders may be worse than an acceptable solution that everyone can get behind.

4. Develop an implementation plan

Even the best solution is only as good as its execution. So once you‘ve selected an approach, it‘s crucial to develop a thorough implementation plan.

Investing time to plan upfront will help you avoid unexpected obstacles, keep your team aligned, and hit your target outcomes. Here are some of the key elements to include in an implementation plan:

Action steps : Break the solution down into specific, concrete tasks that need to be completed. Make each one as clear and granular as possible, so there‘s no room for confusion.

Roles and responsibilities : Clarify exactly who is responsible for each action item. Make sure each person is clear on what they‘re expected to do, and how their part fits into the overall solution.

Timelines and milestones : Lay out the overall schedule for implementation, including key milestones and dependencies between tasks. Be realistic in your time estimates to avoid missed deadlines.

Resource requirements : Identify and secure any resources needed for successful implementation, such as budget, personnel, equipment, technology, or outside expertise.

If you‘re not familiar with them, I‘d suggest learning how to use Gantt charts, work breakdown structures (WBS), and RACI matrices. These tools are tailor-made for translating solutions into actionable plans.

5. Monitor implementation and evaluate results

Implementing a solution isn‘t a "set it and forget it" operation. You need to proactively monitor progress, track results, and course-correct as needed.

Start by defining what success looks like. What specific outcomes are you trying to achieve? What metrics will you use to measure those outcomes? And what targets will indicate that the problem has been solved to your satisfaction?

As you execute your implementation plan, you‘ll want to track progress and results in as close to real-time as possible. Tools like project dashboards and status reports can give you the necessary visibility. If you spot areas where execution is behind schedule or below target, drill down to diagnose why and decide if any adjustments are needed.

Even if the implementation goes perfectly, your team should still complete an after action review once the solution has been completed. Bring key players together and review questions like:

• What went well? What didn‘t go well?
• What did we learn that could be applied to future problems?
• If we had to do it over again, what would we do differently?

Regularly reflecting on and learning from each problem solving experience is one of the best ways to hone your skills over time.

6. Continuously improve problem solving skills

One of the traits that distinguishes great marketing leaders is that they‘re lifelong learners. No matter how experienced they are, they maintain a growth mindset and continuously work to expand their capabilities.

Problem solving is definitely a skill where there‘s always room to learn and improve. To keep leveling up your abilities, proactively seek out new challenges. Volunteer for initiatives and projects that will stretch your problem solving muscles. If you see a problem that‘s not being addressed, take the initiative to tackle it.

You can also deliberately build your problem solving tool kit. Read books and take courses to learn new frameworks, methodologies, and technologies you can apply. Look for opportunities to apply what you‘re learning to real-world situations.

Finally, make an effort to pass on what you know to others. By teaching and coaching less experienced colleagues, you‘ll clarify and cement your own understanding. And by investing in your team, you‘ll amplify your impact and effectiveness.

7. Cultivate key problem solving traits

While tools and techniques are important, the best problem solvers tend to also cultivate a few key attitudes and behaviors:

Intellectual curiosity : They have a deep desire to understand how things work and why. If something doesn‘t make sense, they dig into it until they figure it out.

Embrace of ambiguity : They‘re comfortable wading into uncertain or unclear situations. Where others see frustration, they see possibility.

Willingness to experiment : They view problem solving as an iterative process of trial and error. If an initial attempt doesn‘t work, they reframe it as a learning opportunity and keep trying.

Balance of analytical and creative thinking : They leverage both left-brain logic and right-brain creativity. They look at data to understand all angles of a problem, and then use their imagination to come up with original solutions.

Inclusivity of diverse perspectives : They know that their own knowledge is limited, so they actively seek out and listen to differing viewpoints. They harness cognitive diversity to see past blind spots and make better decisions.

By combining these traits with a robust problem solving skill set, you‘ll be well equipped to handle whatever challenges come your way.

As a marketing manager, solving problems is an inescapable part of your job. But by developing your problem solving skills, you can turn those challenges into opportunities.

The 7 techniques laid out in this post give you a versatile tool kit to tackle any issue – from declining sales to internal dysfunction. Master them and you‘ll be able to analyze complex situations, make smart decisions, and mobilize your team to achieve better results.

But remember, problem solving isn‘t a solo sport. The best leaders also invest in building the problem solving capabilities of their entire team. So share these techniques with your colleagues, and establish a shared language and approach to collaborative problem solving.

By making problem solving a core competency of your marketing organization, you‘ll be able to consistently turn even the thorniest challenges into elegant, effective solutions. And that‘s how you‘ll deliver breakout value to your company and your customers.

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Top Marketing Problems and Solutions: How to Strategically Combat Issues

In the world of marketing, there are a lot of innovative and creative campaigns that help businesses achieve great results. But an industry as vast and expansive as advertising also allows space for problems to arise. If you’ve experienced (or are currently experiencing) issues, you may feel like your troubles are unique. Take heart! You’re definitely not the only person — or company — going through digital marketing woes. 

Several situations have proven consistently tricky for many branding and marketing agencies all over the world. The COVID-19 pandemic was the stem of some of these issues like hiring, but others are just typical problems that many advertising agencies experience simply because they work in the marketing industry. 

We’re going to explore some of the most common types of situations that marketers find themselves facing, what solutions you can implement, signs that problems are occurring (even if you may not see it) and how a strong and set marketing strategy can help any agency avoid falling into the trap of common complications. 

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!

Common Marketing Problems You May Be Facing

The worst possible response to marketing problems is to freak out. First, you must understand that this is, sadly, much more normal than you’d expect. There are certain obstacles nearly everyone in the industry encounters at one time or another. 

Before diagnosing a situation, you should start by figuring out if it’s a marketing problem or a business problem. Although advertising agencies are called to fix marketing problems, if you do a deep dive into what’s going on, you may actually discover that it’s a problem connected to the business. 

• Business Problems: Any hurdle, situation or variation that leads to a difference between the desired objectives and actual accomplished results is a business problem. This type of issue can’t be solved with more marketing. For example, if your message isn’t connecting with the intended audience, saying it louder or more frequently isn’t going to fix anything. You’ve heard the saying “putting lipstick on a pig,” right? Well, dressing up your business with marketing when the inherent problem is much deeper than that won’t do a thing. 
• Marketing Problem: If you don’t have a business problem inhibiting your efforts from being effective, then you most likely have a marketing problem. This type of issue can be defined as any factors in a campaign that affect the results you may be looking for, like a lack of strategy, a bad understanding of your target audience or unengaging social media posts. These are the types of problems that we’re going to discuss today. 

So, what are the most common types of marketing or advertising challenges? Here are a few examples that many companies experience: 

Recruiting Talent

During the shutdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses had to adjust how they run their business , and marketing was no different. Now that the recovery and revival of “normal” is taking place, some agencies have found that hiring and keeping employees is a difficult task to undertake. The HR managers put much effort to make  team extension  as quality and profitable for their business as possible. 

Talented marketers are often in high demand, making recruiting and maintaining an accomplished staff an issue. Many marketing professionals have found ways to offer their staff benefits and positive work experiences including more flexibility, educational opportunities and higher salaries. 

Lack of Clear Strategy

About 50% of companies using digital marketing have no plan or strategy in place for their efforts. This is a problem because if you don’t know why and how you’re doing something, it will most likely not yield helpful or beneficial results. Having a plan of attack for all things, from email marketing and content creation to website design and social media, will enable you to make informed decisions and will most likely deliver you the outcomes you’re hoping for. 

With a marketing strategy you can:

• Find your target demographic.
• Create SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals.
• Keep your team on the same page.
• Be timely. 
• Make your brand more authentic.
• Ensure brand awareness.

No Alignment With Buyer Personas

If marketers don’t know who they’re creating content for, then it will be difficult to effectively communicate with them. No industry is the same, meaning that every audience that is being targeted has specific needs that should be met, and tones of voice and language choices that resonate with them. If you aim at nothing, you’re sure to hit it.

Another common sector of buyer persona problems is shooting for the wrong group of people. Trustmary found that 80% of content marketing is targeted at the wrong audience . Basically, a marketing team could have the best possible creative work to send out, and a great marketing plan to execute, but if it’s given to the wrong people, it won’t land properly. 

Showing ROI

Often, when a company experiences financial hardships, the first thing to be cut is marketing spend. The reason for this might be that proving its value can be difficult without specific tactics in place to do so. Hubspot’s State of Marketing Report found that demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of marketing activities to be the No. 1  roadblock for marketers . 

When done correctly, marketing does offer a boundless supply of benefits for companies. But if you can’t specify what the impacts of advertising efforts like market research, email campaigns or social media marketing are to upper management or clients, it’s going to be difficult to continue producing quality work. 

You have probably found yourself knee-deep in one of the situations above, but there are solutions to these problems. Continue reading to learn what you can do to help yourself and your clients get the results you’re hoping to achieve. 

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Effective Solutions for Bumps in the Road

For every marketing problem, there’s a solution. Some issues might take more effort than others, but all fixes require strategic thinking and research to fully understand where the problem stems and what the best steps forward are. Let’s look specifically at the challenges we listed above:

How to Fix Your Recruiting Practices

There are loads of ways to make your current employees happy as well as bring in new talent, but we’re just going to talk about a few. First, ensure your marketing team is heard and satisfied by adding feedback channels in the workplace. This could be a digital platform that collects remarks, or could be a physical version in your office. Either way, make sure your employees know their thoughts are valued by actually giving them the ability to share.

Word of mouth is everything nowadays. If your employees share that they’re happy on social media platforms like LinkedIn, or if they speak positively about your company with their friends and family, more people will be prone to apply to your open positions. And, you’ve hired your team for a reason — pay attention to who they think would be a good fit for the business. 

Creating a Clear Strategy

A set strategy is vital for consistent and effective marketing, but that doesn’t mean it’s a breeze to build. Let’s break down the process for creating a marketing strategy :

• Define Your Goals: Have your target objectives in mind before you start creating any advertising content. This can make sure your hard work is going to serve a specific purpose and will help you have an end goal to aim for. 
• Think of Your Audience: Understand and highlight who it is that you’re trying to reach. Every industry and type of business speaks to very unique people, meaning that your marketing initiatives must work for your target audience. Create buyer personas to help you visualize the set group of customers as you work.
• Build Brand Messaging: Since you’re speaking to your specific audience, ensure that they can recognize and pick out your brand from the competition using a set tone and voice. 
• Research Your Competitors: You should never ever copy what your competitors are doing — you bring a unique voice to the market. But, it’s smart to pay attention to what other brands are bringing to the table. 

Once you go through the process of creating your marketing strategy, you’re off to the races! 

Mending Your Buyer Personas

Finding a solution for your either lack of or incorrect target audience comes from having a clear marketing strategy, which we’ll get into more later. After you create your strategy for all marketing and advertising efforts, you should understand who it is that you’re trying to reach. With that knowledge, you can ask yourself the following questions before creating any content:

• Is my customer really interested in this?
• Will they actually care about this topic or information?
• What needs am I meeting or problems am I solving for my target audience?
• Is there a better way that I could connect with my audience?

If you’re confident in your answer, go ahead and interact with your buyers! And if you’re not? It may help to create buyer personas — model people who match your ideal customers. Give him or her a name, a detailed description and think about them every time you’re working on a component of your marketing. This can help you cut generalizations about who you’re creating content for, and be more specific and focused on the right group of people. Then you can create inbound marketing to attract these people and build more brand loyalty. 

Better Prove Your ROI

Your digital marketing efforts should be full circle, meaning that you should always end up with actual results and data that you can either determine successful or not. Without the power of marketing and sales working together, it’s really difficult to calculate ROI. Discover how much impact your content actually had on your target audience by looking at data points like impressions, qualified leads, web traffic, conversion rates and actual sales. After checking over the relevant information, compare those numbers to the specific goals that you’d made prior to creating the content. 

Did you meet your objectives like you’d hoped? We hope so! Either way, it’s time to put those numbers into a dashboard that can be easily displayed and read by your clients or upper management. By showing the impact of the advertising procedures you followed throughout the project timeline, you’re better able to discuss and prove the work was worth it and made a difference for your clients. 

Maybe none of these issues are things that you’ve experienced — so you think. But what if problems are occurring that you’re unaware of? If that’s the case, you could be losing money or potential customer partnerships without even knowing it. Want to learn more about how to know if you’re flying blindly into challenges? You’ve come to the right place. 

Tell-Tale Signs That You’re Experiencing Issues

We sincerely hope your marketing efforts are going well, but if they’re not, we want you to be aware. Here are some common red flags that you may be missing with your current advertising:

• Email Unsubscribes: This happens pretty normally, but not at alarmingly high rates. If you’ve had a drop-off in subscriber numbers, it’s probably because the content may be irrelevant or targeted toward the wrong people. This could also be a sign to check in on your email marketing platform to ensure your leads and contacts are being handled correctly. 
• Wrong Audience: Have people been clicking on your organic listings without converting? Maybe it’s time to reassess your messaging and brand personas. 
• Ad-Heavy: We’ll say it very loudly: Paid advertising isn’t bad! But, if you’re solely relying on it to be noticed by any members of your audience, then you should consider creating meaningful content that can draw more organic traffic to your brand. 
• Losing Followers: Similar to email subscribers, if you’re seeing a large dip in social media followers lately, it could be smart to reassess your social media marketing strategy. Although this is a common marketing problem, it can be more serious than some understand.

How Strategy Can Safeguard Your Marketing Practices

We’ve talked a lot about strategy, and that’s because it’s super important to find success with your brand. 

To ensure your marketing is strategic, you must create goals that your efforts can adhere to. And, to pinpoint objectives you need to do a bit of research. Here are the key elements of a brand strategy:

• Value Proposition: A simple statement that summarizes why a customer would choose your product or service over the competition.
• Key Brand Messaging: Set tone, language and values that articulate how your brand sounds and speaks to your audience.
• Target Customers: The specific audience that your product or service is aiming to please, as well as the competition that you’re battling.

Also described as the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. Having these factors defined can help your team align to achieve specific goals, tie your efforts to business objectives, identity and test what resonates with your target audience and helps you stay up-to-date and capitalize on emerging technological and cultural trends. 

Although these marketing problems are common, they don’t have to be inevitable. Avoid the above issues (and any unlisted situations) and find success by efficiently recruiting, defining your strategy, targeting the right people and proving your ROI. 

Madelyn Gardner

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Madelyn Gardner is a content writer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Off the clock, she loves being outside, hiking, reading, baking and eating Mexican food — specifically burritos.

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How to become a strategic problem solver in 5 steps

A version of this tutorial originally appeared in the free Primer app .

Problem solving is an underrated talent. It helps you make clear decisions during turbulent, overwhelming times, and many experts identify it as a vital soft skill for job seekers post-pandemic .

To develop your problem-solving acumen, use a structured approach that focuses on the why, what, and how of your issue. Let’s break it down by asking five questions that will serve as a step-by-step guide.

Question 1: Why should I care about this problem?

Write a problem statement, which is a few short sentences describing an issue you’re facing that also affects your audience. Use specific, quantifiable details. Instead of, “We lose money each year due to quality issues,” a better statement would be, “In 2019, we lost $1 million due to quality errors. That’s 5% of our overall revenue.”

You don’t want to define a problem so big that you lack resources to solve it or get so specific that you miss the chance to have a greater impact. Also, avoid prematurely adding in a solution, like “We need to hire a quality assurance consultant.” Solutions come later.

Question 2: What does success look like?

Set an objective that defines what you want to achieve and key results to know when you’ve achieved it. Your objective should focus on a goal, not a solution. “Make our website an intuitive and enjoyable experience for visitors,” is an objective, but “Hire 5 UX designers,” is a solution. Then define measurable key results so you know for sure when you’ve achieved your goal. “Get increased click-throughs,” is vague, but you’ll know when you “Increase click-throughs by 30%.”

Question 3: How might I solve this problem?

Now it’s time to brainstorm potential solutions. Start by finding out as much as you can about your problem. Find out if there’s available research on problems like yours, and look to “parallel worlds” outside your industry where a similar issue has been addressed before.

If you’re holding a group brainstorm, choose one person as the moderator, and others as timekeeper and notetaker. Then brainstorm as many solutions as possible that might address your problem and help you reach your objective and key results. Tell everyone to be expansive in their thinking: Come up with both big and small ideas without self-editing.

Once you have a list of potential solutions, put them in a solution tree to help organize your goals and how you’ll get there (your strategy). Start by writing down your objective. For the sake of an easy example, let’s say your objective is “Increase product revenue.” Create branches from each objective that list solutions you brainstormed, like “Sell more of the same products,” and “Start selling new products.”

Solution tree

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Question 4: How should I actually solve the problem?

A prioritization map helps you winnow your ideas to decide in which ones you should invest effort. Make a graph with a vertical axis labeled “impact” and a horizontal axis labeled “effort.” Then plot out all your potential solutions on the graph.

Prioritization map

High-impact and high-effort solutions will likely be the main focus of your work. Ones that are high impact and low effort are quick wins, and good for building stakeholder confidence. Low-impact and low-effort solutions should be deprioritized and only focused on when you have some free time. Low-impact and high-effort solutions are probably not worth your time.

Question 5: How can I take action?

Make a simple plan to solve your problem, avoiding unnecessary detail. You can use an action tracker, which can be a spreadsheet that breaks down who does what and when. In the first column, put all the actions that make up your problem-solving steps. In the second column, note who is responsible for each action and when it should be done.

Action tracker

Discuss and agree on task ownership and due dates with the people responsible so that everyone is on the same page. Share your action tracker with the group and regularly review it together to make sure due dates are met.

Remember that no matter how well you plan, things will change and your plan will have to change too. Be prepared to modify it so you can stay on track and achieve your goals.

Problem solving doesn’t need to be complicated. By following the right steps, you can avoid jumping into solution mode too quickly. Just think of the structure “why, what, and how,” and you’ll start to see your problems in a new way.

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How to Conduct a Problem-Solving Session in Marketing?

November 3, 2023

Unlock the secrets to effective problem-solving in marketing with our comprehensive guide.

Arpit Bhavsar

In today’s competitive business world, marketing professionals face numerous challenges that require effective problem-solving skills. From developing successful marketing strategies to overcoming obstacles, problem-solving plays a crucial role in achieving marketing success. In this article, we will explore the importance of problem-solving in marketing and provide practical techniques for conducting problem-solving sessions.

Understanding the Importance of Problem-Solving in Marketing

Problem-solving is an essential aspect of marketing as it allows businesses to identify and overcome obstacles that hinder their progress. By addressing problems head-on, marketing professionals can improve their strategies, develop innovative solutions, and drive business growth. Effective problem-solving enables marketers to identify opportunities, make informed decisions, and stay ahead of the competition.

In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape, problem-solving has become a crucial skill for marketers. It goes beyond simply identifying issues; it involves analyzing data, conducting market research, and applying critical thinking to find the most effective solutions. Successful problem-solving in marketing requires a combination of creativity, analytical skills, and a deep understanding of consumer behavior.

One of the key benefits of problem-solving in marketing is the ability to identify opportunities. By actively seeking out and addressing challenges, marketers can uncover untapped markets, niche segments, and new ways to reach their target audience. This proactive approach allows businesses to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on emerging trends.

The Role of Problem-Solving in Marketing Success

Problem-solving plays a critical role in achieving marketing success. It helps marketers identify and address the root causes of issues, allowing them to develop targeted solutions. By resolving problems, marketing professionals can enhance customer satisfaction, improve brand reputation, and increase sales. Problem-solving also fosters creativity and innovation, enabling businesses to stay relevant and adapt to changing market demands.

When faced with a marketing challenge, problem-solving allows marketers to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions. It encourages them to explore alternative strategies, experiment with different approaches, and take calculated risks. This mindset of continuous improvement and adaptability is essential in today’s dynamic business environment.

Moreover, problem-solving in marketing is not limited to addressing external issues. It also involves internal problem-solving, such as improving team collaboration, streamlining processes, and optimizing resource allocation. By identifying and resolving internal bottlenecks, marketers can create a more efficient and productive work environment, leading to better overall marketing performance.

Key Challenges in Marketing Problem-Solving

Marketing problem-solving presents unique challenges that require careful consideration. Some of the common challenges include limited resources, time constraints, and conflicting opinions among team members. Additionally, identifying the underlying causes of problems can be complex, as multiple factors often contribute to marketing issues. Overcoming these challenges requires a systematic approach and effective communication within the team.

Limited resources, such as budget constraints or a shortage of skilled personnel, can hinder problem-solving efforts in marketing. Marketers must find creative ways to maximize their resources and prioritize their efforts to achieve the best possible outcomes. Time constraints also pose a challenge, as marketers often face tight deadlines and the need for quick decision-making. Effective time management and prioritization skills are crucial in such situations.

Another common challenge in marketing problem-solving is dealing with conflicting opinions and perspectives within the team. Different team members may have varying ideas on how to approach a problem, which can lead to disagreements and delays. Effective communication and collaboration are essential to overcome these challenges and ensure that everyone is aligned towards a common goal.

Furthermore, identifying the underlying causes of marketing problems can be complex. Issues may arise from a combination of factors, such as market trends, consumer behavior, or internal processes. Marketers need to conduct thorough research, gather data, and analyze information to gain a comprehensive understanding of the problem. This analytical approach helps in developing targeted solutions that address the root causes and deliver long-term results.

In conclusion, problem-solving is a fundamental skill for marketers, enabling them to overcome obstacles, identify opportunities, and drive business success. By embracing a proactive and systematic approach to problem-solving, marketers can enhance their strategies, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition in today’s dynamic marketing landscape.

Preparing for a Problem-Solving Session

Before conducting a problem-solving session, it is crucial to lay the groundwork for success. This involves several key steps that ensure the session is focused and productive.

One important aspect of preparing for a problem-solving session is creating an environment that fosters creativity and collaboration. This can be achieved by setting up a comfortable and well-equipped meeting space, providing ample whiteboards or flipcharts for brainstorming, and ensuring that everyone has access to the necessary materials and resources.

Another crucial step in preparing for a problem-solving session is conducting thorough research and analysis. This includes gathering relevant data, analyzing market trends, and understanding customer feedback. By taking the time to gather and analyze this information, marketers can gain valuable insights into the problem at hand and identify potential solutions.

Identifying the Marketing Problem

The first step in preparing for a problem-solving session is clearly identifying the marketing problem. This involves gathering relevant data, analyzing market trends, and understanding customer feedback. By clearly defining the problem, marketers can focus their efforts on finding solutions that address the root cause rather than merely addressing symptoms.

During the problem identification phase, it is important to involve key stakeholders and decision-makers. This ensures that all perspectives are considered and that the problem is thoroughly understood from various angles. Marketers can also gain buy-in and support for the problem-solving process by involving stakeholders early on.

Additionally, conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) can provide valuable insights into the marketing problem. It’s also beneficial to build detailed marketing dashboards to visualize data and identify issues swiftly. These templates enable marketers to track multiple metrics and make data-driven decisions efficiently.

Assembling the Right Team

Successful problem-solving sessions require a diverse team with complementary skills and expertise. It is essential to assemble a group of individuals who can bring different perspectives to the table. Including team members from various departments such as marketing, sales, and research and development ensures a well-rounded approach to problem-solving.

When assembling the team, it is important to consider each individual’s strengths and areas of expertise. This ensures that the team has the necessary skills to tackle the problem at hand and can provide valuable insights and ideas. Additionally, fostering a collaborative and inclusive team culture encourages open communication and idea-sharing, leading to more effective problem-solving.

Furthermore, it can be beneficial to include individuals who have experience in similar problem-solving sessions or have a track record of innovative thinking. Their past experiences and knowledge can provide valuable guidance and help the team avoid common pitfalls.

Setting Clear Objectives for the Session

Establishing clear objectives is crucial for guiding the problem-solving session. Clearly defined goals help team members stay focused and ensure that the session remains on track. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives provides a framework for success.

During the objective-setting phase, it is important to involve the entire team in the process. This ensures that everyone has a shared understanding of the desired outcomes and can contribute their ideas and suggestions. By involving the team in setting the objectives, it also increases their ownership and commitment to achieving the goals.

Additionally, it can be helpful to prioritize the objectives based on their importance and impact. This allows the team to allocate their time and resources effectively and ensures that the most critical issues are addressed first.

Furthermore, setting milestones and checkpoints throughout the problem-solving session can help track progress and make adjustments if needed. Regularly reviewing and reassessing the objectives ensures that the team stays on course and can adapt to any unforeseen challenges.

Techniques for Effective Problem-Solving in Marketing

Once the groundwork is laid, it’s time to dive into the problem-solving process. There are various techniques that marketing professionals can employ to generate innovative ideas and find effective solutions.

Brainstorming and Idea Generation

Brainstorming is a tried-and-true method for generating creative ideas and solutions. By encouraging free thinking and suspending judgment, brainstorming allows team members to share their thoughts openly. This technique often leads to unexpected connections and breakthrough solutions.

The Six Thinking Hats Technique

The Six Thinking Hats technique, developed by Edward de Bono, is a powerful tool for problem-solving. It involves assigning different “hats” to each team member, representing different modes of thinking (e.g., logic, creativity, emotions). This approach helps teams thoroughly analyze problems from various perspectives and make more robust decisions.

The Five Whys Technique

The Five Whys technique is a simple yet effective method for uncovering the root cause of a problem. It involves asking “why” up to five times to drill down to the underlying issues. By repeatedly asking “why,” marketers can uncover deeper insights and develop solutions that address the core problem.

Implementing Solutions and Monitoring Progress

Once potential solutions are identified, it’s crucial to prioritize and implement them effectively. Additionally, monitoring progress and measuring success ensure that the implemented solutions yield the desired outcomes.

Prioritizing and Selecting Solutions

Not all solutions are equal in terms of feasibility and impact. It’s vital to prioritize potential solutions based on various factors such as their alignment with objectives, available resources, and potential risks. Selecting the most suitable solutions requires careful evaluation and consensus among team members.

Creating an Action Plan

An action plan outlines the steps required to implement the chosen solutions. It specifies responsibilities, timelines, and key milestones. A well-defined action plan ensures that the implementation process is efficient and that progress can be effectively monitored.

Tracking Progress and Measuring Success

Monitoring progress is essential to ensure that the implemented solutions are achieving the desired outcomes. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be established to measure success and track progress over time. Regular evaluation and adjustment of strategies are crucial to stay on track and continually improve marketing efforts.

Conducting problem-solving sessions in marketing is vital for identifying and overcoming obstacles that hinder success. Understanding the importance of problem-solving, preparing for sessions, employing effective techniques, and implementing solutions are all critical steps in the process. By embracing problem-solving as an integral part of marketing, professionals can drive innovation, enhance competitiveness, and achieve business growth.

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9 Common Marketing Problems And How To Solve Them

Every marketing strategy is unique, just like each company is unique. But, regardless of the industry or company size, I hear the same few complaints over and over again from prospective clients.

We’re not getting enough traffic.

Our competitors are killing us.

We don’t have enough money for marketing.

Sound familiar? If you sell something, chances are you’ve run into at least one of the problems in this post.

I’m taking some of the most common challenges I help clients tackle and sharing the very best resources I know of to help you overcome them. Some are my own, some of from other experts in the field, but all of them will help you better understand the problem you’re having and what you might be able to do right now to solve it.

Problem #1: You’re Not Getting Enough Website Traffic

You can’t sell anything if you don’t have traffic, be it to your website or your brick-and-mortar store. It’s the most common complaint from new brands, but believe it or not it’s also a fairly frequent problem among established brands that are having trouble keeping up with the pace of technology.

Before you can do anything about your sales pipeline, you’ve gotta get some customers in it.

Website traffic tool suite Sumo has an awesome series of blog posts designed to help you take your website from 0 to 10,000 visitors per month. If you haven’t yet reached that milestone, these posts are an awesome place to start. Once you’ve crossed the 10K a month threshold, it gets a lot easier from there.

The posts are great because each writer shares his or her own formula for getting to 10K monthly visits, and none of them are alike. Here are three of my favorites from the series:

Growing a Site from 0 to 10k Visitors a Month: Sarah Peterson Edition

Sarah’s strategy centers around creating be-all, end-all  content on your topic, kind of like what I am to do on this blog.

How To Grow Blog Traffic From 0 to 10k Visitors: Nat Eliason Edition

Nat’s strategy is built around becoming an online resource about your field, then creating a guest-posting strategy to gain eyeballs based on your expertise.

Growing a Site from 0 to 10k Visitors in a Month: Noah Kagan Edition

Entrepreneurial powerhouse Noah Kagan and his apprentice Julien grow a brand spanking new website to 10K monthly visits in a matter of months using networking, giveaways and interviews.

Problem #2: You’re Getting Traffic, But No One’s Buying

The saying goes “If you build it, they will come.” But no one ever promised they would buy!

This has to be hands-down one of the most frustrating problems in business, but it happens all the time. The interest is there, but the inclination to buy? Zilch.

How To Reduce 14 Friction Points In Your Checkout Process

It could be that you’re making your would-be customer jump through too many hoops before they finally hit the ‘Submit Order’ button. In this post, PCA Predict breaks down the top causes of friction in the checkout process—many of which you probably hadn’t thought of—and shows you how to fix them.

The Complete Guide To A/B Testing

Sometimes, all it takes is a few small tweaks to make a world of difference in your conversion rate. You’ll never know if you don’t tweak and test. This exhaustive guide from Visual Website Optimizer shows you how to run A/B tests (and what elements to test) to identify and improve your traffic-to-sales conversions.

Problem #3: There’s Too Much Competition

Very rarely is a business lucky enough to be the only one in its field. At a minimum, you’ll have at least a few strong competitors, and you might have a few dozen.

Competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though; it proves there’s a market for what you sell and forces you to innovate. It’s up to you to set yourself apart with your marketing.

The Riches are in the Niches: Why Appealing to Everybody, Means You’re Really Appealing to Nobody

The best way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to think smaller. Yes, really.

When you’re trying to sell to everyone , your marketing message won’t be relatable to anyone . Your customer is an individual, and speaking to their needs in a way your competitor can’t is a surefire way to win their business. Mish Slade does a great job illustrating this in the above article on Beliyf.

Useful Value Proposition Examples (and How to Create a Good One)

When I ask our clients how they’re different from their competition, they never say “we’re actually not different at all.” Instead, they rattle off a laundry list of things that make them unique, whether it’s their level of service, their personalization, or a materially superior product.

YOU know what makes you unique. Now show this to your target customer with a laser-focused value proposition. ConversionXL has an excellent guide on engineering your value proposition with actual examples of great (and not-so-great) ones from name brands.

Problem #4: You’re Attracting the Wrong Customer

When you’re talking to potential buyers, do you run into the same roadblocks over and over again? Maybe you keep coming across would-be customers that are just a little too young, a little too thrifty, a little too conservative, a little too whatever to actually buy from you. You’re attracting the wrong type of person.

How To Build Buyer Personas For Better Marketing

All those people coming to your website or walking in your door do you no good if they don’t need what you’re selling. Narrowing down your buyer personas before you ever hang that ‘Open for Business’ sign is a key component for converting the right types of people into paying customers. Shopify has an awesomely thorough guide with helpful questions to ask as you’re building your ideal buyer persona.

7 Steps to Convert Your Target Buyers With Content Offers

Once you’ve zeroed in on your buyer personas, you must create content offers that speak directly to their pain points. Content offers act as a fishing line to reel in warm leads, but they also act as a barrier to keep the wrong leads out.

The above guide from Spark Reaction takes you step-by-step through creating targeted content offers to narrow down the right customer.

Problem #5: People Seem Interested, But They’re Not Ready to Buy

You’re attracting the traffic, and they’re the right people, but when it’s time to swipe the credit card they’re just not ready to buy. It’s time to pay closer attention to your buyer’s journey: the process every customer goes through before making a purchase.

How to Create Content for Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey consists of three phases: Awareness, when the customer is gathering information about their problem; Consideration, when the customer is weighing options for what they might buy; and Decision, when they’re ready to pull the trigger on a purchase.

The guide above from the sales funnel experts at Hubspot explains how to create content for buyers at every phase in this journey, not just the decision phase. When you do this, you’ll have a strategy in place to manage and follow-up with those individuals who are interested, but not ready to buy just yet.

Problem #6: People Always Want A Discount

There are bargain shoppers and tire kickers in every industry. It’s not just you who’s dealing with them. The better question is why are you dealing with them?

Is it because you’re positioning yourself as a “bargain” choice? Or maybe your product just doesn’t seem worthy of the price to your customers. You’re not doing a good enough job of conveying its value.

3 Ways To Charge More for Your Products and Services

What’s the difference between a BMW 5 Series and a Toyota Camry? Well, when it comes to function, not much. But there’s a nearly 100% price difference between the two automobiles. As the guys at Crazyegg explain in the article above, the power of re-framing your products and services can’t be overstated.

6 Critical Ways to Show Value to Your Customer

You know your product is valuable, but you’re a bit biased. Are you proving that value to your customer?

From demonstrating outcomes to providing ongoing consumer education, the 6 value-building strategies outlined in this post will help you clearly demonstrate exactly what your customer is getting for his money—and why it’s so worthwhile.

Problem #7: You Don’t Know If Your Marketing Efforts Are Working

You’re throwing all this money into your marketing efforts, but is it paying off? If you’re not measuring your efforts and their results, you might as well take that pile of cash and set it on fire. Without good data, you can’t make informed decisions about your marketing.

3 Site Metrics You Absolutely Must Track

In this post, I break marketing data down into three baseline metrics: goals, traffic sources and search queries. If you’re just getting started with tracking and measuring your marketing campaigns, these three metrics are a great place to start.

A Simple Plan for Measuring the Marketing Effectiveness of Content

Okay, so tracking things like sales is pretty easy. But what about things that aren’t so cut and dry, like your content efforts? How do you determine the effectiveness of, say, a blog post or a social media campaign? Content Marketing Institute has an easy formula and worksheet for it in the post above.

Problem #8: You Don’t Have A Big Enough Marketing Budget

Feel like you need a bigger budget to “really” do marketing? You and everybody else, friend!

More dollars for marketing are always nice, but honestly, sometimes having a small budget is a good thing because it forces you to get creative and only focus on tactics that prove results.

Save Time and Double Your ROI: A Guide to Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Marketing

It’s well-documented that in most results-driven situations, 20% of the efforts breed 80% of the results. It’s known as the Pareto Principle, and lucky for us, it also applies to marketing. In this insightful Quicksprout article, Neil Patel explains how to find and take advantage of that magic 20% in our marketing efforts.

Problem #9: You Need More Exposure

Maybe you’ve seen your competitors getting shoutouts from sites like Forbes or getting featured in the local newspaper. You want that kind of exposure, but you have no idea how they got it or maybe you think they just got lucky.

Get Major Media Coverage

Getting exposure and press coverage is no accident. Sure, sometimes you just get lucky, but most of the time it results from a planned and strategic approach to working with media. In my self-guided online course, I show you the exact steps I take to get media coverage for my clients, from the local news all the way up to The Wall Street Journal.

Get my latest marketing and copywriting tips delivered to your inbox as soon as they’re posted! Subscribe below and never miss and update.

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More From Forbes

Is your marketing solving the right problems.

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Lee Roth, North American Director,  BeenThereDoneThat

The challenges for marketers today can be overwhelming. Beyond the usual issues of competition, spending and market share, at this time we have to navigate a cultural climate with ever-expanding trapdoors, from Covid-19 to a recession to political division. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Where there is seismic change, there is opportunity, but success lies in starting at the very beginning, which as we all know is a very good place to start.

And the beginning is identifying and defining the right problems to solve.

One of history’s smartest thinkers, Albert Einstein, is often quoted as having said, “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.”

As with most things Einstein said, he made problem solving seem simple, but it’s important to put in place the right problem definition process in order to be good at it.

While selling your product might not be as important as saving the planet (but don’t underestimate the power of business to do so), when we define problems properly, we are reframing them so that we can see the opportunities contained within them that previously might have been hidden.

And as Einstein reveals in his quote, when we define them properly, we get to great solutions that much quicker, which can save us money and energy. This is the essence of what makes a great brief. Defining, identifying and framing problems in the right way enables other people to see the opportunities and get excited about solving them.

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And here’s why I think that we, as marketers, need to foster this art of problem definition. Among the 100 senior marketers polled last year for a report we commissioned, only 18% agreed that their teams are good at writing concise briefs. Poorly written briefs in turn often lead to confusion, misery and the same old solutions that don’t even come close to the problems we really should be solving.

But all is not lost. Here are some ways to ensure that problem definition sits at the heart of your marketing:

Resist the urge to race to solutions.

Identifying and defining problems require discipline and an approach designed to stop you and your team from falling into the trap of coming up with solutions first and retrofitting a problem.

Use a framework for the identification of problems, not the generation of solutions. They are hugely different. Create the space and time to investigate properly; you can’t rush it.

Emphasize the importance of identifying the problem and get the important people in the room. A quick way to do this is to ask yourself who can say no to the solution, and make sure they are there.

Inject objectivity into the process through outside help and diverse thinking.

Shift your investment to understanding the broader context, rather than validating solutions.

Testing has always been a route to making sure that the idea resonates with the consumer. But testing executions is only justifying the solution. More marketers are understanding that they need to tap into a broader understanding of the cultural landscape to identify the right problems to stay relevant in consumers’ lives. As one senior marketer told us in our poll, “We’re making a big effort to spend more time and money on empathy work and really understanding consumer tensions and consumer needs rather than validating things. ... That’s one of the changes that I’m seeing and for me that’s the right approach.”

Another said, “For me it keeps coming back to our ability to know if we are focusing on solving real people’s problems.”

The most essential part of your problem definition process is making sure that what you are trying to solve is an actual consumer problem. Solving consumer problems drives growth; solving internal business problems tends to save money.

Once you’ve identified the problem, open your mind to the solution.

Adopt a growth mindset:

• Don’t allow muscle memory to snap you back into an old solution set.

• Go wide and use a diverse set of minds that are focused less on agenda   and more on creativity to bring you a richness of solutions, but stay laser-focused on the problem you are trying to solve.

• Remember that success lies not in the subjective world of “Do I like it?” or “Will the boss like it?” but in the objective world of “Will this solve the problem my consumer has in a way that will drive value for both of us?”

As Einstein said, once you’ve identified the problem, solving it should be simple, really. 

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Problem-solving skills.

An effective problem-solver uses many skills to devise and implement solutions including:

Creative skills

Research skills, team-working skills.

• Decision-making skills, and

Risk-taking skills

Creative skills allow big and boundless thinking. They involve the consideration and analysis of ideas, concepts, and solutions that no one else has considered before. Thinking creatively requires you to set aside any biases or assumptions that you may hold and to take a different look at things. By approaching a problem with an open mind, you allow yourself the chance to think creatively. Often, a problem may seem to be insurmountable and it is only by practicing creativity and innovation that a workable solution can be found. Considering a problem from different viewpoints and being open to a change in perspective is key.

For example, the US Air Force Research Laboratory required an update for their supercomputer but the cost was well over their budget. So, by thinking creatively and looking for alternative solutions, they realized that they could purchase 300 PlayStation 3s that would fulfil their computing needs instead. To quote their creative decision: “The processors in the Sony PlayStation 3 are the only brand on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics needed for this program at an acceptable cost.”

Another example of creative problem-solving is from the inventor and founder of Dyson® vacuum cleaners, James Dyson. While his competitors were focused on how to design a better filter for the paper bags in their vacuum cleaners, he came to the realization that he had to approach the problem from a more creative direction. The result was that he created a ‘cyclone’ vacuum cleaner which could separate dust from air, and brought the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner to the market.

Another important set of skills for problem solving are research skills . How can you find out what you don’t know? By doing research.

Being able to demonstrate the following competencies is key to ensuring your research is effective:

• Attention to detail
• Critical thinking
• Planning and scheduling
• Technical skills
• Statistical and Graphical Analysis of Data, and
• Interviewing

Because data is so easily accessible these days, it is important to check that the data you are relying on has come from a trusted source.

Team-working skills are also very useful when it comes to problem solving. If you lead a team, you can help your team or colleagues to solve problems in many ways.

Create easy wins to begin with. Pick the ‘low-hanging fruit’ for the team to practice upon, that is, the tasks that are easiest to achieve, or the problems that are easiest to solve. Resist the temptation to offer a solution to hurry the process along; act as a facilitator instead and guide your team toward the answers. The greatest impact can come from giving the accountability of owning both the solution and the implementation of the solution, to the team. By delegating the problem, you reinforce your confidence and trust in the work of the team.

You can also use the 'framing effect'. The ‘framing effect’ is a cognitive bias, whereby people decide on options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations; for example, as a loss or as a gain. Show your team or colleagues how to practice the skill of framing an issue from differing perspectives, for example, positive, negative, or neutral, and how to devise specific solutions for each frame.

Another method is to remove yourself from the team problem-solving equation. Consider the unintentional influence you may have that might lead to potential biasing of the group with your views. In addition, be understanding and willing to support the team by working across the organization to acquire resources and budgets.

Avoid getting angry at a failure by the team as this is almost always destructive. Instead, instruct the team to take a step back and pause to consider the situation and analyze what did and did not work. Give them time to consider how to respond, learn, and move on.

Be sure to avoid group-think by drawing in individuals with areas of expertise and knowledge not currently held by the team. A common pitfall of group-think is that the team narrowly focuses on their own held-knowledge and plays down any outside or differing viewpoints, limiting the possibility of the most effective solution as an outcome.

Decision-making skills

Decision-making skills are another key component of problem solving. According to the economist Evan Davis, “If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard.” This is true of many people, because due to their lack of experience, confidence, or authority, they resist the taking and making of decisions. The more decisions you make, the stronger your decision-making skills become. As long as you learn from your decisions and mistakes, then the more mistakes you make, the better it is for your decision-making ability!

Having the ability to take risks is an important skill for effective problem solving. It is usually better to take determined risks rather than undetermined risks. Being able to distinguish between the two takes experience, skill, and knowledge.

An undetermined risk is a risk that is taken without performing due diligence or accounting for possible negative outcomes; that is, you may have found a positive solution, but you don’t know what the final cost will be or what the ‘knock-on’ effects are.

A determined risk requires detailed research, and while you may not actually achieve success, you know that enough research has been carried out to ensure that there is a high likelihood of success.

Many people become risk-averse from building pros and cons into every single decision they make. We tend to avoid taking risks for the following reasons:

• A fear of failure
• A fear of the inflated consequences of failure, and
• A fear of handling the consequences of risk

However, a certain amount of risk-taking is necessary for every new solution, particularly in the beginning. Aiming to take calculated and well-informed risks only is a healthy and effective approach to problem solving.

Cathal Melinn and Kevin Reid

Cathal Melinn is Digital Marketing Manager at Digital Marketing Institute.

• 13 years’ experience in search and display
• Worked at Yahoo! Search in 2005 as a Senior Search Strategist for the UK Financial Services vertical
• Moved to the world of agency in 2010 as Head of Search and Online Media for five years 
• Currently working at the Digital Marketing Institute as a Digital Marketing Manager
• Previous clients include Apple, Vodafone, Expedia, Virgin, Universal Music Group, Amazon, Compare the Market, and HSBC

Kevin Reid is CEO of Personal Skills Training, Senior Coach at Kevin J Reid Coaching, Co-founder and Communications Director of The Counsel.ie, and Lead Collaborator of LeitrimMade.com.

• A consummate and skillful international communications trainer, facilitator, and coach
• Has over 15 years of learning development experience with individuals, teams, and entire organizations
• Has facilitated communications workshops and training across numerous sectors in Ireland, the UK, Europe, America, and Africa

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

• Compare techniques for enhancing creative thinking skills.
• Analyse strategies to improve problem-solving skills in the workplace  

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The following pieces of content from the Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library have been chosen to offer additional material that you might find interesting or insightful.

You can find more information and content like this on the  Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library

• Article: Setting Yourself Apart With ‘Soft Skills’
• Article: Delight Your Audience: How to Create Content That Excites and Entertains
• Case Study: LEGO, The Building Blocks of a Modern-Day Superbrand
• Webinar: Brand Storytelling - Should Digital Marketers Lead with the Heart or the Head?

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ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE

Creativity Skills

Creative skills aren’t just for artists and designers! Everyone can learn to be more creative. In fact, the ability to think creatively is an invaluable skill in today’s workplace.

With the help of Cathal Melinn, you will learn how to enhance your creative thinking skills – which should help you generate new ideas, find innovative solutions to problems, and develop new products and services. You will also learn how to remove barriers to creativity and the importance of persevering when your ideas fail.

When it comes to tackling specific workplace difficulties, you will be introduced to a six-step method you can use to solve problems. And you’ll learn about the skills you need to cultivate in order to be an effective problem-solver.

You will also turn your creative attention to the art of giving presentations. You will discover how to create and structure an effective presentation, and the preparations you need to make in advance, as well as useful tips on how to deliver an engaging presentation and how to hold a Q&A session at the end.

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Identifying Risks & Solving Problems in Digital Marketing

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In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, businesses face ever-growing challenges when marketing their products and services online.

With the advancement of technology, organizations must stay ahead of the curve.

Read on to learn more about effectively navigating risks and solving problems in the digital marketing realm.

Solving problems in digital marketing: understanding digital marketing

Digital marketing has become essential to any business in an increasingly connected world.

Businesses, from small startups to multinational corporations, use digital platforms to reach their target audience and drive growth.

Digital marketing encompasses various channels, including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, and content marketing.

The digital age demands a strategic and data-driven approach to reach their audience and achieve marketing goals.

Mitigating risks and solving problems in digital marketing is another essential aspect for organizations to thrive in today’s digital economy.

But what do modern organizations need in their ‘solving problems in digital marketing’ toolkit?

The Role of Digital Marketing in Today’s Business World

Digital marketing has revolutionized how businesses communicate, connect, and engage with their audience.

It provides an opportunity to reach specific demographics, gather valuable customer insights, and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

By leveraging digital platforms, businesses can expand their reach, improve brand visibility, and drive customer engagement.

Components of a successful digital marketing strategy

A successful digital marketing strategy involves harmonizing key components to achieve business objectives.

These components include:

• Clear goals and objectives : Define what you hope to achieve with your digital marketing efforts, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or driving conversions.
• Target audience analysis : Identify your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and online behavior to tailor your marketing messages effectively.
• Strategic content creation : Develop high-quality, engaging content that reaches your target audience and drives them to take action.
• Effective channel selection : Choose the right digital platforms and channels to connect with your audience where they are most active and receptive to your message.
• Data-driven decision-making : Utilise analytics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your campaigns and make informed marketing decisions.

In addition to these key components, organizations must stay updated with the latest technologies and trends in the digital marketing landscape.

As technology evolves, new opportunities and challenges arise.

Businesses must also consider the importance of user experience in their digital marketing efforts.

A seamless and intuitive user experience across all digital touchpoints can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.

From a well-designed website to a user-friendly mobile app, customer interaction with a brand online contributes to their overall perception and experience.

Ultimately, a good digital marketing strategy requires a deep understanding of the target audience, a data-driven approach, and the ability to adapt to the ever-evolving digital landscape.

By embracing new technologies, businesses can effectively navigate the digital marketing landscape and drive sustainable growth.

Identifying common risks in digital marketing

While digital marketing offers numerous business opportunities, it comes with its fair share of risks.

Understanding and addressing these risks is crucial to ensure the effectiveness and success of your digital marketing efforts.

The danger of ignoring SEO

SEO drives organic traffic to your website.

Neglecting SEO best practices can result in poor website visibility, low search rankings, and missed opportunities to reach potential customers.

Solving problems in digital marketing involves investing time and resources into optimizing their websites for search engines to improve their online presence and attract relevant organic traffic.

Social media pitfalls to avoid

Social media offers organizations various opportunities to connect and engage with their audience.

However, it’s essential to approach social media marketing with strategy.

Failing to maintain a consistent brand presence, engaging inconsistently with followers, or using an inappropriate tone can significantly impact brand reputation and customer perception.

The risks of email marketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool for organizations to communicate with their audience directly.

However, it’s important to be mindful of spamming practices and ensure compliance with data protection regulations .

Failure to do so can result in damaged brand reputation, legal implications, and a loss of trust from your subscribers.

Strategies for solving digital marketing problems

It’s crucial to develop effective problem-solving strategies to overcome the challenges faced in digital marketing.

Organizations can navigate the digital landscape and achieve their marketing goals by implementing these strategies.

Overcoming SEO challenges

SEO can be complex, but businesses can overcome common challenges with the right approach.

Key strategies for overcoming SEO challenges include staying up-to-date with algorithm changes, conducting thorough keyword research, optimizing website speed and mobile-friendliness, and creating valuable content.

Navigating social media issues

Solving problems in digital marketing means navigating social media issues such as negative feedback, negative reviews, or customer complaints.

It’s crucial to respond promptly, professionally, and empathetically to such issues, addressing them transparently and seeking resolutions.

Consistent monitoring, engagement, and proactive content creation are essential to maintain a positive brand image on social media.

Addressing email marketing concerns

To address concerns related to email marketing, businesses must ensure they have explicit consent from subscribers, offer valuable and relevant content, and facilitate easy opt-out options.

Implementing personalization techniques, segmenting your email lists, and testing different email formats can help address concerns and improve email marketing performance.

Tools and techniques for effective problem-solving in digital marketing

Solving problems in digital marketing means utilizing the right tools and techniques.

Streamlining problem identification and resolution processes ensures optimal performance and efficiency.

Utilising analytics for problem identification and resolution

Analytics platforms like Google Analytics provide valuable insights into website performance, user behavior, and campaign effectiveness.

By leveraging these tools, businesses can identify potential issues and make data-driven decisions to optimize their digital marketing efforts.

The role of automation in problem-solving

Automation tools can significantly enhance efficiency and effectiveness in digital marketing.

From automating emails and social media posts to implementing chatbots for customer support, businesses can save time and resources while maintaining consistent communication and engagement with their audience.

Preparing for the future of digital marketing

Solving problems in digital marketing is pivotal in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Organizations must adapt their strategies to stay ahead of the competition and meet changing customer expectations.

Emerging trends and their potential risks

Businesses need to stay informed about emerging trends and technologies that can impact the digital marketing landscape.

From artificial intelligence and voice search to immersive experiences, understanding these trends allows businesses to capitalize on opportunities while mitigating potential risks.

Adapting your strategy for future success

As new technologies and platforms emerge, organizations must adapt their digital marketing strategies agile.

Mitigating risks and solving problems in digital marketing is fundamental in the digital economy.

Regularly assess your marketing goals, explore new channels, and optimize your campaigns to ensure your organization stays relevant and successful in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Navigating the risks and solving problems in digital marketing requires a comprehensive approach.

By understanding the digital marketing landscape, pinpointing risks, deploying effective problem-solving tactics, using appropriate tools and methods, and planning for future developments, organizations can optimize their digital marketing initiatives and reach their targeted results.

Are you ready to launch your career in digital marketing?

If so, we encourage you to explore the Institute of Data’s Digital Marketing & Artificial Intelligence Program. 

Alternatively, we invite you to book a  complimentary call  with a member of our team to discuss the Digital Marketing program in more detail.

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• Inbound Marketing and Sales Blog

15 common marketing problems and their solutions

Index Content

It is very common (and normal) to encounter marketing problems during the planning, development and finalisation of campaigns. Read on to find out how you can overcome them

Marketing is an industry full of obstacles, but for each of them there is a solution that requires continuous learning, motivation, time and resources. Marketing problems can be found at any stage of any campaign, but they could also be considered challenges. Because we all know that the ultimate goal is to sell more and improve the company's profitability, but the process to achieve it is by no means simple.

The 15 most recurrent marketing problems and how to solve them

how do I find customers? Where is my niche in such a competitive market? These are just two of the most frequently asked questions related to marketing, but there are many more. That is why OCCAM has come up with 15 common marketing problems and possible solutions with hyperlinks to complementary information that can be useful for both veteran companies and start-ups. Let's look at them one by one:

• Not setting goals or setting them incorrectly

Before launching a short- or long-term marketing strategy (such as inbound marketing ), it is essential to define clear objectives that you want to achieve. Otherwise, campaigns will probably lose their focus because they are not directed towards a specific goal. The same happens when objectives are set, but incorrectly.

Solution : always write objectives with SMART criteria in mind.

Failure to differentiate

Regardless of the marketing strategy employed, differentiation of the company from its competitors is essential to ensure that its products are of interest to the public. Moreover, it will facilitate all promotional actions carried out by having clear and easy-to-communicate characteristics.

Solution : it is necessary to find the brand's market segment or niche through innovation, originality and the quality of its services .

• Not targeting a segmented public

It may happen that a company tries to address all types of social profiles or does not choose its ideal target audience. If either of these two cases occurs, it will be much more complicated to find customers interested in the brand and to determine an adapted communication strategy, as it is not the same to address teenagers as it is to address older people, for example.

Solution : study the ideal segmentation for the company and establish a buyer persona .

Failure to adequately communicate the product or service

This marketing problem is very common in newly founded brands that have to make themselves known through a new product. But to reach the public, it is necessary to be able to explain what it consists of quickly, clearly and simply. In addition, it is necessary to adapt to each segmented group, whether in the tone of the language, the communication channel or the format of the message.

Solution : make an effort to know the product and research it by analysing the competition and talking to the rest of the team. Once this is done, it will be possible to extract its most attractive elements to use them in the communication strategy, which will present its advantages, qualities, values, etc.

• Lack of knowledge of useful techniques and tools

Marketing offers a very broad catalogue of strategies to launch a campaign. Of course, not all of them are equally well known, and a company could be missing out on promotional opportunities by using only traditional techniques instead of others that are more in line with its objectives. The same goes for tools, as platforms such as HubSpot are very helpful to a company's marketing team .

Solution : discover all the types of marketing that exist and consider the use of tools .

• Complications in finding customers

The above problem is often related to a rather limited reach that does not translate into real customer acquisition, because finding the target audience and attracting their attention is not an easy task.

Solution : launch commercial actions in line with the company's budget and objectives .

• Incorrect pricing strategy

Thanks to differentiation and the establishment of a market niche, the company will not be solely dependent on price competition. Even so, prices must be studied and calculated to the millimetre in order to, at the very least, cover costs.

Solution : create a good pricing strategy according to the 5Cs and with the impact of psychology in mind .

• Lack of budget or overspending

Depending on the size of the company and other variables, the budget will be more or less comfortable. In marketing, the important thing is to make the most of every euro and invest it in those strategies that are viable and most effective. In addition, it is worth highlighting the essential work of planning so as not to exceed the maximum expenditure set and generate a bigger problem.

Solution : make a good marketing budget , opt for commercial actions adapted to it and control spending .

• Disconnections between teams in the same company

It is not uncommon for marketing and sales managers to clash or not to be heading in the same direction. This is a major problem, as the work of the two sectors should be clearly divided, despite their commonalities.

Solution : Convene regular meetings and ensure communication and joint work to align the two teams .

• Insufficient search engine ranking

SEO positioning depends on many factors, all of which must be taken into account to make it easier for potential customers to find information about the company on the Internet. These include responsive design , usability , keywords , writing techniques , etc. Not working on these elements, in addition to harming positioning in search engine results, will worsen the user's experience with the company .

Solution : manage the concepts related to SEO and adapt to them as well as possible .

Having a high bounce rate on the website

The bounce rate or bounce rate refers to all those users who visit a website and leave it without having interacted, navigated or clicked on internal links. This indicates the amount of potential customers a brand is losing and, with it, sales and profits.

Solution : measure the bounce rate, analyse the source of the problem and improve the website accordingly (with a special focus on visual design) .

• Not making the most of social networks

Interaction with users and the possibility of creating a community loyal to the brand depend, for the most part, on social networks, whether Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook... Companies have to take advantage of their benefits and opportunities which, if done well, are very profitable with little investment. Not doing so would only lead to problems and deficiencies in the customer's experience with the brand.

Solution : establish a good communication strategy with your social profiles and, if possible, hire a community manager .

Not working on engagement

Captivating users and engaging them with the brand is a long-term, original and constant task, but it is worth it for its benefits. If customers feel part of a company or generate an emotional bond with it, then they will want it to do well, their acquaintances to know about it and buy products regularly, to give three examples.

Solution : make the entire marketing team aware of this concept, follow the advice that works best for the brand and look at success stories for inspiration.

• Poor digital reputation and brand image

Marketing should be concerned about the image it gives outwardly, be it online (reviews or social media), in the media or in private conversations. Make the most of positive opinions and try to address negative ones. A considerable proportion of sales depend on this.

Solution : carry out a brand image study and find solutions to possible shortcomings .

• Failure to analyse results or poor data management

The last marketing problem is, in turn, a conclusion. The time invested in each strategy or commercial action (both offline and online) requires a subsequent study (and follow-up) to check what has worked, what has not, its profitability and whether the objectives have been met. The conclusions derived from this analysis will allow improvements to be made for the future.

Solution : create a results report for each marketing campaign following the steps and using expert tools in data analysis and management .

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• Problem-solving Scenario #2: Handling a Product Launch

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Problem-solving scenario #4: team not meeting targets, problem-solving scenario #5: team facing high turnover, problem-solving scenario #6: team member facing discrimination, problem-solving scenario #7: new manager unable to motivate a team, building an effective problem-solving framework, wrapping up, frequently asked questions for managers.

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Problem-Solving Scenarios for Managers

• Talk to the team members: John begins by asking what’s holding them back. Based on their responses, he realizes that he needs to delegate better. Immediately, John schedules meetings to  clarify each member’s expectations , priorities, and roles and ensure everyone is on the same page. He also makes a note to work on his delegation skills.
• Plan things: John creates a project timeline or task list that outlines the deadlines and deliverables for each team member and shares this with the team to ensure that everyone is aware of what is expected of them.
• Support the team: The team sits together to establish regular check-ins or progress updates to ensure members can ask questions or raise concerns.

Problem-solving Scenario # 2 : Handling a Product Launch

• Review and redraw plans:  Emily revisited the project plan and identified areas where the team could reduce the scope or prioritize features to meet the budget constraints.
• Go for alternatives:  The team then explored alternative resources or suppliers to find cost-effective options. Are there any underutilized resources, equipment, or personnel from other projects or departments that can be temporarily assigned to this project? Moreover, they revisited their suppliers and negotiated further.
• Outsourcing parts of the project:  Emily considered outsourcing some project functions to external contractors or freelancers. Eventually, they outsourced the marketing to another team and continued working on the core features.
• Upgrade the available capacity:  Emily and her team invested in upskilling the present workforce with additional skills. It allowed some team members to explore exciting areas and supplemented the team.
• Get both sides onboard: Taylor begins the conflict resolution process by talking to both team members. She recognizes the issue and first goes into individual discussions with both. Later, she sets up a meeting for both to share their perspectives.
• Mediation:  In the next step, the manager encourages the two team members to talk to each other and resolve the conflict independently. Taylor describes how the optimal contribution can look different for different team members. Additionally, she encourages them to be more open and collaborative so that they understand what the other one does.
• Preventing mistakes again:  The team holds a meeting to discuss the issue and allow other team members to express their thoughts and feelings. By not hiding the problem that happened in front of everyone, Taylor acknowledges the issues and shows that she cares about the things happening inside the team. Further, by discussing and sharing, they can build a healthy relationship to prevent similar issues in the future. 
• Use formal tools: Lastly, they establish clear guidelines and expectations for behavior and communication within the team to prevent future conflicts. Training and coaching are also added to help team members improve their communication and conflict-resolution skills.
• Discussions with the Sales Representatives: Donna starts by having one-on-one conversations with each team member to understand their perspectives on why the targets are not being met. After gathering insights from personal discussions, Donna calls for a team meeting. During the session, she allows team members to share their experiences, challenges, and suggestions openly. 
• Analysis of Sales Process: Donna conducts a detailed sales process analysis, from lead generation to closing deals. She identifies bottlenecks and areas where the team might be facing difficulties. This analysis helps her pinpoint specific stages that need improvement. 
• Setting Realistic Targets: Donna understands that overly ambitious targets might be demotivating. She collaborates with her team to develop more achievable yet challenging sales targets based on their current performance and market conditions. She organizes training sessions and workshops to help team members develop the necessary skills and knowledge to excel. 
• Recognition and Incentives: Donna introduces a recognition program and incentives for meeting and exceeding targets to motivate the team. This helps boost morale and encourages healthy competition within the team. She closely monitors the team’s progress toward the revised targets. 
• Conduct Exit Interviews:  As the stream of resignation continues, Neil adopts a realistic approach and starts by attempting to understand the issues his former team members face. He conducts exit interviews with the people leaving and tries to determine what’s wrong. 
• Understand the current team:  In the next step, Neil tries to learn the perspectives of staying people. Through surveys and conversations, he lists the good parts of working in his team and emphasizes them. He also finds the challenges and works on reducing them. 
• Change and adapt to employee needs:  These conversations help Neil enable a better work environment to help him contain turnover and attract top talent. Moving forward, he ensures that pay is competitive and work is aligned with the employee’s goals. He also involves stakeholders to create development and growth opportunities for his team.
• Be approachable and open: Erica first ensures she can gather all the details from the team members. She provides them with a safe space and comfort to express their concern and ensures that action will be taken. She supports the targeted team members, such as access to counselling or other resources.
• Adopt and follow an official policy: Developing and enforcing anti-discrimination policies that clearly state the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is the first step to creating a safe workplace. Erica refers to the policy and takes immediate action accordingly, including a thorough investigation.
• Reiterating commitment and goals: Providing diversity and inclusion training to all team members to help them understand the impact of discrimination and how to prevent it is essential to create a safe workplace. Erica ensures that the team members are aware of the provisions, the DEI goals set by the organization, and 
• Connect with the team: Andrew starts by conducting one-on-one meetings with team members to understand their personal and professional goals, challenges, and strengths. Observing team dynamics and identifying any issues or obstacles hindering motivation and productivity also helps.
• Involving team members in the process: Seeking feedback from team members on what motivates them and what they want to see from their manager to feel more inspired.
• Enabling and empowering: Offering opportunities for growth and development, such as training, mentoring, or leadership roles, helped Andrew contribute to his team’s development. 
• Take help from Merlin: Andrew reached out to Merlin, the AI chatbot of Risely, to get tips whenever he got stuck. Merlin sought details about his issues and shared some tips to help out Andrew. Here is what it looked like: 

• Develop a problem-solving process: To get problem-solving right for multiple scenarios repeatedly, the key is to remember and set a problem-solving approach that works across the board. A wide-ranged problem-solving process that begins with identification and concludes at the resolution helps managers navigate various challenges the profession throws us. 
• Learn to identify problems: The key to solving problems is placing them at the right moment. If you let some problems pester for long, they can become more significant issues for the teams. Hence, building the understanding to identify issues is essential for managers.
• Think from multiple perspectives: As a problem-solver, you must care for various parties and stakeholders. Thus, thinking from numerous perspectives and considering ideas from a broad spectrum of people is a core skill. 
• Consistently work on skills: Like other managerial skills, problem-solving skills need constant practice and review. Over time, your skills can become more robust with the help of assessments and toolkits. Tools like Risely can help you with resources and constant guidance to overcome managerial challenges. Check out Risely today to start reaching your true potential.

Suprabha Sharma

Suprabha, a versatile professional who blends expertise in human resources and psychology, bridges the divide between people management and personal growth with her novel perspectives at Risely. Her experience as a human resource professional has empowered her to visualize practical solutions for frequent managerial challenges that form the pivot of her writings.

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8 Ways to Solve Prospects' Problems Through Your Marketing

Updated: August 26, 2017

Published: May 14, 2012

You're in business because you provide solutions. You've got answers. You're the (wo)man with the plan. Let's take a look at some of our customers, for example. AmeriFirst Home Mortgage helps home buyers find the right mortgage for them. In The News helps businesses memorialize their accomplishments with custom lamination and engraving. HubSpot helps marketers get an end-to-end view of their marketing activities to determine which channels provide the most ROI.

Notice how none of those explanations of what each company provides focused on the specific product or service? That's because the product or service isn't what makes a lead want to be your customer -- it's a solution to their problem that people care about. Your business is successful because it provides some solution, but if your campaigns seem to be flailing a bit, it may be because you haven't applied that problem-solving principle to your marketing.

Not yet, anyway. This post will give you plenty of ideas to implement that will make your marketing more solution-oriented. That way, your prospects see you as a helpful problem solver they actually like and trust ... not just a peddler of your product or service!

How to Inject Problem Solving Into Your Marketing

1) Create how-to blog content. As most inbound marketers know, success starts with content; so begin by writing blog posts that solve peoples' problems! If you'll allow me to get meta for a minute, this very blog post about how to be a problem solver is, well, solving a problem. People reading this presumably want to know how to inject more problem solving into their marketing, and this post is providing solutions to that problem. When writing your how-to blog content, focus on providing actionable advice. There's already a ton of content out there that says a lot without really saying anything at all. But you want your content to give you credibility and authority ; you can do that by making sure your reader walks away from the blog post with at least one thing he or she can do to be better.

2) Create lead gen offers that make people's lives easier. Helpful content doesn't end with blog posts, nor does successful marketing. You need to convert that blog traffic into leads, and if you've written some amazing content, your readers will probably want to learn more from you. Create lead gen content that will help your readers be more successful -- at work, at home, whatever it is your customers need. For example, HubSpot has released tons of ebooks that show marketers how to do something, like set up their Facebook page timeline , for instance. Or perhaps you'd like to create some templates for your audience, like we did with our downloadable leads waterfall graph that we encourage all marketers to use . If you're looking for some inspiration, we've written an entire guide to creating lead gen offers quickly .

3) Source problems to feed your content. I'm asking you to create all this content, but where will the topics come from? You should be speaking with the people on the front lines of your business on a daily basis -- employees working in Services, Support, and Sales hear questions from prospects and customers during every conversation. Ask all employees to document these questions and problems and send them your way to feed your solution-oriented content. And if any of them fancy themselves a writer, they can document their answers, too, for a guest spot on your blog! ( Tip: As you write this content, be sure to keep other departments in the know. Sales, Services, and Support should be equipped with an arsenal of content they can send to their prospects and customers that answers their questions. This will not only establish trust and authority between employees and your prospects and customers, but for Sales, it could shorten the buying cycle, too.)

4) Leverage the brainpower of your community. Part of being a helpful, solution-oriented marketer is connecting people with content that solves their problems ... regardless of the source. Look, nobody knows everything. You're surrounded by people that have data, research, insights, and experiences from which your audience would benefit. Tap into that brainpower, and be the one to share it with the rest of your community! We're doing this now, in fact, with our push for our social media community to contribute ideas for our next blog post.

Not only is this an excellent way to build strong relationships with others in your industry, but it also shows that you're committed to providing answers for people regardless of the source.

5) Monitor and respond to social media inquiries. Speaking of social media, your active presence on social sites can contribute to your reputation as a thought leader, problem solver, and all around awesome business. This means more than just monitoring your Twitter stream for questions you can answer, though. Think outside of the box a bit! Visit places like LinkedIn Answers , Quora, and industry forums to see what problems people are having. Take a look at how HubSpotter Meghan Keaney Anderson improved both HubSpot's clout, and her own, by answering Scott's question on Quora. Take special note of how she linked back to a blog post HubSpot wrote that answers his question, too!

6) Optimize for long-tail search. Long-tail search is a critical component of any well-rounded SEO and content strategy, and it provides tremendous opportunity for marketers that are looking to be more solution-oriented with their content. That's because many long-tail keywords are centered around interrogative queries, like "what makes a good blog post," or "where should I host my blog," or "how to start a blog." Not only does centering content and SEO around long-tail keywords of this nature give you another avenue to assert yourself as a helpful marketer instead of a pushy salesperson, but it also helps you achieve higher search rankings quicker, and with a more niche market than short-tail and head terms allow. And if the keywords provide solutions to evergreen problems -- in other words, problems that your audience will always face -- your website will also enjoy ongoing organic traffic as a result of your high ranking for these long-tail queries!

7) Nurture leads with emails based on their problems. Now that you have all of this fantastic, solution-oriented content, you should use it to nurture your leads! After all, you can't have a successful lead nurturing program without a full arsenal of content. Consider segmenting your lists and creating lead nurturing tracks that address specific buyer problems. You can identify the problems right in your landing page forms. Take a look at the optional field we at HubSpot include on almost all of our landing pages to allow us to do this type of nurturing.

By asking leads to identify their biggest marketing challenge, we get a better idea of what problems our audience face so we can create content to address it, and simultaneously target prospects in our email sends according to the problems they need an answer to.

8) Create apps and tools that help solve a problem. Tools and apps -- especially free ones -- are mutually beneficial for businesses and their audience. Let's take one of HubSpot's free tools, Marketing Grader , as an example. Marketing Grader helps solve a problem many marketers face ... they don't know how good their marketing is. When you enter your website into the free tool, you get a comprehensive report that tells you not just an arbitrary grade, but also actionable advice on exactly what areas of your marketing need improvement, and how you can do it. It even provides links to content that helps solve your problems. So ask yourself: "Self, is there a tool or mobile app I could develop to help my leads and customers?" If there's a problem people in your industry face, make your business the one that solves it!

How do you inject problem solving into your marketing to gain the trust and loyalty of your prospects?

Image credit: Tomasz Stasiuk

Don't forget to share this post!

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7 problem-solving strategies to overcome project hurdles

Unexpected problems are unavoidable in business. Whether it’s a workplace conflict between two coworkers or a sudden change in industry regulations, problem-solving strategies and skills are crucial if you want to be successful.

Each industry and individual career has its own set of unique challenges that require different approaches. The trick is to have a fully loaded problem-solving toolkit ready to go when problems arise.

In this article, we’ll break down the problem-solving process and then dive into seven of the most powerful problem-solving strategies.

What are problem-solving strategies?

Problem-solving strategies help you break down, analyze and resolve problems. They take you beyond obvious answers and help you find the best solution to your specific problem.

Whether your problem is a business challenge, personal conflict or technical work issue, problem-solving strategies help replace random guesswork with detailed blueprints.

In sales and marketing, problem-solving strategies are used as guidelines to figure out the best way to resolve industry challenges. These strategies can be put in place ahead of time so that when fires arise, you have the tools required to put them out.

Different problem-solving strategies are designed for different types of problems. While one problem requires a strategy that uses creative thought and experimentation, another problem might require a heavily analytical approach.

Before we dive into specific strategies, let’s take a look at the foundations of good problem-solving.

Key takeaways from this problem-solving strategies article

Seven powerful problem-solving strategies: Overcome project hurdles with these strategies, including trial-and-error, the 5 Whys, problem tree analysis, SWOT analysis, means-end analysis, consulting an expert and working from experience. How problem-solving helps: Effective problem-solving strategies help identify root causes, generate solutions and implement effective actions, ultimately improving project outcomes and fostering a proactive approach to challenges. Pipedrive aids in problem-solving by providing tools for tracking project progress, managing tasks and analyzing performance metrics, ensuring efficient resolution of issues and optimization of project workflows. Try Pipedrive free for 14 days .

The four essential steps to problem-solving

To solve a problem, you need to identify it, conceptualize solutions, decide on the best solution and then put the solution into action.

While all problem-solving strategies approach these steps differently, each step is integral to the process, so let’s take a look at the four steps in detail.

1. Identify and define the problem

To solve a problem effectively, you need to know exactly what it is. Trying to solve a vague problem is like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it. Any solutions you implement will be based on guesswork and probably won’t solve the problem in its entirety.

To identify your problem, remember:

Clarify with a statement. It’s far easier to solve a clear problem. Use journalistic questioning (who, what, where, when, why and how) to clarify the problem as far as possible. Then create a problem statement that defines your problem in simple terms.

Break the problem down. Problems are often complex with a lot of distracting information. The trick is to identify key parts of the problem and, if necessary, break it down into smaller problems that you can solve individually.

Visualize the problem. If the problem you’re dealing with is abstract or particularly complex, it can help to try to build a mental picture of it. For example, if your problem is with your sales software, visually map out the elements of the program and how you use it. This lets you see each step and pinpoint where issues may originate.

Example: Your team’s sales productivity is lower than it should be. You investigate and realize that your sales process is disorganized, causing opportunities to slip through the cracks. You break the problem down to look at each part of the process and find that your sales reps don’t have a standardized way of tracking customer interactions.

2. Brainstorm possible solutions

With the problem clearly defined, your next step is to generate an exhaustive list of potential solutions. The purpose of this step is to work out everything you could possibly do so that you can narrow it down later.

Here are some tips for effective brainstorming:

If you’re working with a team, have them brainstorm ideas before the meeting. Prior to the brainstorming meeting, provide background information so everyone has some ideas ready by the time you meet and you can get to a solution faster.

Include key stakeholders. Who does the problem mainly affect? This is the group of people you should include in the solution-finding process, as they will have the deepest understanding of the problem.

Include every solution and narrow them down later. Begin by getting as many ideas written down as possible. This will get the creative juices flowing and help you consider all angles to develop a more effective solution.

Example: You send out your findings about the gaps in the sales process in advance and ask each sales team member to bring a few proposed solutions to share. During the meeting, you set a ground rule that you won't discuss or critique ideas until they’re all on the table. By the end, a series of solutions are suggested, including introducing new tools to track the customer journey, automate repetitive tasks and set follow-up reminders.

3. Decide on a single solution

Now that you have a list of solutions, it’s time to decide which are likely to be the most effective. To do this, you need to evaluate each in order until you have a short list of promising solutions.

To help evaluate your solutions, consider whether:

The solution will achieve your desired outcomes without causing additional issues

The solution aligns with your organizational goals

The solution is affordable and realistic with your current resources and constraints

This step is often the most difficult and requires effective decision-making abilities in addition to problem-solving skills. Often, there will be several solutions that vary in their projected cost, effectiveness and difficulty to implement and you’ll need to take all this into account when making a decision.

Example: Based on your brainstorming session, you decide that the best solution is to invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. This will allow you to set up a consistent process and will easily pay for itself in increased productivity. The CRM’s reporting features will also provide greater insight into your sales team’s performance, helping you improve processes further based on what’s working.

4. Implement the solution

Finally, it’s time to put the solution in place. Depending on the complexity of the problem you’re trying to solve, this may require additional steps. For example, you might need to develop a detailed action plan for several team members and then monitor their effectiveness going forward.

To ensure that your solution remains effective:

Schedule regular feedback meetings. Regular feedback from the people closest to the problem will help you gauge whether the solution has been effective and how and when you may need to make adjustments over time.

Decide on key metrics before implementing the solution. Which metrics will tell you whether your solution is working? For example, if your problem is tech-related, you could judge whether the solution worked based on how many IT requests come in each month. Determine what you’ll need to measure upfront.

Don’t be afraid to try again. If your solution didn’t work, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Get your short list of possible solutions out again and reevaluate them based on what you’ve learned. You might find that another solution works better now that you have more data.

Example: You invest in a CRM solution for your team. A week after onboarding your team, you meet to discuss how the software is working for your team. Based on the discussion, you discover ways to optimize your sales process further.

Seven powerful problem-solving strategies

The type of problem you’re facing will determine how you approach each step in the problem-solving process. Different problems require different creative thinking, critical thinking and brainstorming techniques to come to a solution.

To help you sort out your approach, here are seven different strategies you can use to tackle different kinds of problems:

1. The trial-and-error approach

Trial-and-error is a step-by-step problem-solving approach that’s most effective for problems with many possible solutions. As you test each solution rapidly in order, you’ll find the best fit as quickly as possible.

For this reason, trial-and-error problem-solving is incredibly useful in fields like tech support.

For example, imagine your internet connection drops out. There could be more than one possible cause for this, so quickly running through a checklist of solutions (like checking if your provider is down and restarting the router) is the most effective method.

However, when you’re dealing with large, serious issues, the trial-and-error approach is tantamount to guesswork and may introduce more problems than it fixes.

2. The 5 Whys

The 5 Whys process is a systematic problem-solving method with a simple premise: Keep asking “Why?” until you discover the root cause of an issue.

In good problem-solving, people will often try to solve a surface-level issue without investigating any deeper. The problem many surface-level problems are themselves caused by prior problems that went unchecked.

The 5 Whys process helps uncover these root causes. It also provides a framework for you to work through more complex problems. With the framework in place, it’s much easier to develop a plan to solve each part of the problem in turn.

How to use the 5 Whys:

Write down the surface-level problem.

Ask why the problem has occurred and write the answer below the original problem.

If the answer isn’t the root cause of the problem, repeat step 2 until you find the root (five times is usually all it takes, hence the name).

Here’s what this looks like in practice:

The overarching problem: You aren’t generating enough sales leads. Why #1: Your website isn’t receiving enough traffic. Why #2: Your website isn’t optimized for sales lead generation . Why #3: You don’t have any landing pages or effective calls-to-action (CTAs). Why #4: You haven’t allocated enough of your marketing budget to hire an in-house marketer or agency.

Once you find the root cause, you can easily develop a solution by working backward. In this example, you can clearly see that a potential solution to the overarching problem is to invest in a role that can drive website optimization for lead generation .

3. Problem tree analysis

Problem tree analysis is the process of mapping out the causes and effects of a problem. The causes become the roots of the tree, while the consequences become the branches. Once mapped out, the tree can be inverted to become a solution tree.

Here’s how a problem tree might look for a company struggling to move prospects past the sales demo in their sales process:

This format helps break a problem down into manageable chunks so you can prioritize key objectives. Here’s how to use problem tree analysis:

Identify and write down the problem. Write it in the center of a piece of paper in negative form (for example, “sales process stall after on-site demos”). This will be the “trunk” of the tree and is the focal issue.

Work out the causes of the problem. Write these below the problem and use arrows to connect them – these are the “roots” of the problem tree. Dig deeper to find whether each cause has further causes (you can use the 5 Whys process for this).

Write down the consequences of the problem above the cause. These are the “branches” and connect to the “trunk” in the same way that the “roots” do.

Analyze the tree to ensure it’s complete. If you’re certain that everything is covered, highlight the most serious causes and consequences, as well as the ones that are the easiest to address.

Create a solution (or objective) tree. Flip all negatives into positives. For example, the problem “sales process stall after on-site demo” would become the desired outcome “on-site demos help close deals”. Replace each cause and consequence with its positive counterpart to see how to correct the problem. Turning root causes into root solutions quickly establishes solution starting points.

Double-check your solution tree. Make sure each of your solutions is clear and realistic and there are no gaps between causes or consequences.

Implement a solution. Select your preferred solution and begin to work toward it using the solution tree as your blueprint.

4. SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning and sales management technique that can also be used as an effective problem-solving strategy.

Start by identifying the problem and coming up with a list of solutions. You can then use SWOT analysis to determine which solution is most suitable for your situation:

What are its strengths? Why is this solution the best fit for the problem at hand? How does it solve the problem better than other solutions might?

What are its weaknesses? Are there any ways this solution is lacking? Can you do anything to remove or strengthen those weaknesses?

Does it open up any opportunities? Does this solution provide any further benefits or opportunities?

Does it introduce any threats? Are there any risks involved with this solution? Could it backfire in any way?

This will help you compare solutions and choose the best one.

This approach works best with complex problems that have multiple possible solutions as it helps you consider their potential impact within your organization.

5. Means-end analysis

Means-end analysis is a problem-solving strategy that involves working out what you need to do (the means) to get to a certain outcome (the end).

You start by defining both your current situation and your ideal situation. You then determine solutions to get from one to the other.

For example, say your problem is that you want to increase sales performance . Your starting point is your current sales metrics while the outcome (end) is the number of sales you want to reach.

Then, develop a list of likely obstacles that might prevent you from reaching your goal and devise solutions to overcome each.

In the above example, you might find that a competitor is offering better deals on their products. You can then devise the solution of creating a new sales promotion or focusing your messaging on a unique attribute of your product.

6. Consult an expert

While this isn’t a creative problem-solving methodology, it is effective.

When problems arise that are completely outside of your expertise, attempting to solve them yourself is often time-consuming and costly. Most organizations simply don’t have the time or resources to create detailed strategies for complex, highly specific problems.

In many industries, there are expert consultants you can hire to help you solve your issues in a fraction of the time that it would take you on your own.

You wouldn’t attempt to replace your home’s hot water system with no experience in plumbing, you’d call in an expert. Sometimes it’s best to approach complex problems with the same mentality.

7. Work from experience

Use your experience with similar or related past problems to work out a solution based on a calculated guess. Working from a framework or strategy you’ve already established (such as an algorithm or formula, often called a heuristic approach), is a mental shortcut that helps you come up with answers quickly.

For example, say a previous organization you worked for reduced customer complaints by having sales reps follow up with customers within one week of purchase. When your current company has an urgent need to improve customer feedback, you draw from your experience and propose implementing rapid follow-up. The team then compares the solution with your current problem to gauge whether it might help in this case, too.

Heuristics are a quick way to get to a solution, and though it may not be the optimal final solution, this is a helpful approach when you need a fast fix.

Supplemental strategies for optimal problem-solving

Here’s a list of general strategies that can be applied to any problem-solving technique to help you devise a better solution in less time.

Don’t reject any ideas (at first). Fully consider your options when coming up with a solution. Many solutions could work, but some will be quicker, cheaper or more effective than others. Likewise, team members may hold back potential solutions for fear of immediate rejection. Instead, list them all at first and narrow them down later.

Set a deadline. Some problems are tedious to solve so they get put on the back burner. To keep easily fixed issues from remaining on hold indefinitely, set a deadline. Establishing a stopping point will increase the chances that you’ll find a solution within the time frame.

Introduce a mediator. If you have a sensitive issue like a personal conflict between two employees, it can help to introduce a neutral third party. A mediator can help reduce tensions and approach the conflict from an unbiased perspective.

Drop the assumptions. Assumptions can be one of the biggest obstacles to successful problem-solving. If you’re biased toward a particular solution or have unfounded presumptions about particular constraints, you may pass over effective solutions.

Reframe the problem as an opportunity. If you approach every problem with a negative mindset, you’ll think of the solution as an unwanted burden or cost. Instead, try to think of the problem as a challenge or opportunity. When you see it as a chance to improve your results and further your business, you’ll be eager to implement solutions.

Distance yourself from the problem. Problem-solving can require intense discussions and deep critical thought. It can help to distract yourself from the issue for a while and then return with a fresh mind. Instead of dwelling on a problem, try sleeping on it. You might find that your mind is open to new ideas when you return.

Final thoughts

Problems are a constant when you’re running a business. The key to success is preparation. With the right tools and problem-solving methodologies, nothing can stop you.

Look for strategies that address your specific problems and don’t forget to celebrate when you crack a tough problem.

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Marketing Management: Cases for Creative Problem Solving 1st Edition

• ISBN-10 0324027370
• ISBN-13 978-0324027372
• Edition 1st
• Publisher Cengage Learning
• Publication date April 11, 2000
• Language English
• Dimensions 7.75 x 0.5 x 9.75 inches
• Print length 180 pages
• See all details

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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cengage Learning; 1st edition (April 11, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 180 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0324027370
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0324027372
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 0.5 x 9.75 inches
• #3,383 in Business Marketing
• #10,999 in Business Management (Books)
• #14,706 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving

About the author

Laurence martin weinstein.

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