Well, here we are: three weeks and some change into the New Year. It’s funny how quickly our motivation can dwindle after the first of the month. Have these weeks been full of planning and productivity? No? If you have taken steps toward your goals but feel any closer to reaching them, then there is no time like the present to reflect and regroup.

Here are five reasons why you might be having trouble:

1. You made cockamamie marketing resolutions.

Here is the first of three clichés that will appear in this post: the first step is admitting you have a problem. Be honest, do your marketing resolutions make sense for your business? Just because something is “all the rage” or working well for other businesses, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a good fit for yours.

2. Your team isn’t on board yet.

Just like you sell your products to your clients, you need to sell your new ideas to your employees. If they’re apathetic or reluctant to work toward your new goals, it’s probably because they don’t have a good enough understanding of them yet. It’s hard to want to complete tasks when you aren’t sure how or why you’re completing them. Meet with your fellow employees to explain the “how” and “why” of your marketing resolutions so they can work with purpose.

3. You’re getting impatient.

If you wait until you see results to move forward, you may never move forward. One thing can be said about inbound marketing (cliché #2): it works if you work it. The speed and quality of your results depend – in large part – on how hard you work. Some see results in as little as three to four months; others won’t them for six to 12 months.

Another cliché: good things take time. Again, trite, but true for inbound marketing. Your content won’t go viral overnight, just like your site won’t generate thousands of organic clicks in a day. And even if they did, that doesn’t mean you will continue to see consistent success over time. To generate sustainable results, you need to take your time optimizing your site and developing quality content. Not to mention, you need to give your leads time to move through the sales funnel.

 4. You’re not measuring enough.

Don’t be a doofus. No offense, but how are you supposed to know if you are making progress if you’re not measuring your progress? That’s like trying to figure out if you’ve lost weight without weighing yourself first. Measuring the success of your marketing activities matters the most when you are trying out new things. To measure your success every step of the way, you should be optimizing all of your web pages and content for search engines, as well as tracking lead generation, email/blog click-through rates, social media impressions and eBook/whitepaper downloads.

5. You’ve already run out of content ideas.

This is probably the biggest problem among today’s businesses. Many of them have realized the importance of content marketing – especially after Google’s most recent algorithm update – but are finding that it is a lot more work than they bargained for. I get it – it’s a pain to produce content on a regular basis. Coming up with new ideas isn’t as easy as it’s cracked up to be.

My advice? Just get your foot in the door. The first few blogs and CTAs you write will be the toughest ones to get through, but the more you write the easier they will become. The longer you prolong it or make excuses, the more daunting it will get. You’ll pick up tips and tricks for newsjacking and repurposing content as you go.

For more help, check this out: 6 Ways to Generate Fresh Blog Ideas

Or maybe you’ve given content creation an honest shot and over the past few weeks you’ve discovered that you just don’t have the time or resources to devote to it. I understand – blogging 6-8 times per month (on top of CTA creation and social media updates) can be really tough for companies with a small staff who lack a content or PR specialist. Maybe it’s time to consider hiring a marketing agency and leaving the work to those who do it for a living. After all, the amount of time and resources you would save in-house would balance the costs of outsourcing.

Not to mention, with the help of content specialists, you can ensure that topics will be planned in advance, blogs and CTAs will be produced as often as needed and content will be shared with industry publications. As most content specialists have a communications background, all of your information will be researched and written eloquently.

Need more convincing? Check out: 5 Reasons to Have a Journalist  On Your Side

What’s affecting your motivation so far this month?