Companies using content marketing are struggling to employ enough staff to create enough original articles or blog posts to achieve marketing goals.

A report from Curata, relayed by eMarketer, suggests that companies looking to use content marketing to improve their web visibility are struggling to generate enough content. While there are other challenges plaguing marketers, 73 percent said a leading issue they face is adding original content, second only to the challenge of finding time to create content (cited by 75 percent).

These findings mirror the results of Brafton’s recent content marketing poll, in which 62 percent of marketers cited creating original content as a top challenge. (Creating original content followed producing engaging content and measuring content marketing results as leading marketing challenges in Brafton’s study.)

Frequently updated, original content is necessary to achieving content goals, which Curata found include boosting SEO, establishing thought leadership and increasing brand visibility. Among the most critical elements of improving SEO is updating a site frequently enough that search crawlers must return to index the page. For this to happen, new, fresh content must be regularly added to a website.

Employing content writers to create articles or blog posts is the best way to ensure that a site receives the number of entries it needs to improve search standing and keep prospects interested in what a brand has to say.

Fifty-six percent of Curata respondents said high-quality content is the biggest concern they’ve encountered since launching a content marketing campaign. Brafton recently reported that 87 percent of companies will use content marketing in some manner in 2012. Moreover, 70 percent of these organizations will outsource a portion of their effort in 2012.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.