According to a recent survey from Chief Marketing Officer Council and Content ROI Center, only 12 percent of marketers are satisfied with their content and believe this content matches their audience’s needs. It gets worse: out of 200 senior marketing officials polled, 90% report having a content strategy, but only 2% are actually satisfied with their strategy.

If you’re in the business of content marketing, that’s not great news for content project management agencies – or is it? By re-thinking your agency’s approach to content strategy, you can better market your agency’s services to meet CMOs’ top content needs. Here’s where to get started:

CMO Problem #1: Not developing customized content for target audiences.

Nearly half of all CMOs (48%) say their content is not adequately customized to meet their target audiences’ needs. That’s a huge problem, as creating custom content is basically content marketing 101 these days. CMOs know they need to skip the superficial posts and deliver real value by drilling deeper; they’re just not sure how to create the content that’s both unique and highly in-demand.

Solution: If content isn’t resonating with a client’s target audience, go back to their original buyer personas. It’s not enough to just base topic ideas off buyer personas; you also need to use a format that matches how these personas consume content. For example, don’t publish white papers if your target audience prefers to read short blog posts with bullets and bolded subheads.

CMO Problem #2: Not reaching the right distribution channels.

CMOs remain mystified by the content distribution process, wondering if they’re active on the right social media platforms. And that’s just the beginning: many don’t even syndicate their content or understand how to “reuse” old content by making it fresh and relevant again. Thirty-nine percent of CMOs say they are not leveraging the right distribution channels and syndication opportunities to maximize reach.

Solution: Look at where your client’s target audience spends the bulk of their time by measuring quality engagement, not just quantity. For example, maybe a B2B client’s target lead checks Facebook five times a day, but only to quickly scroll through their newsfeed while waiting in line for coffee or lunch. The true engagement is spent elsewhere – maybe reading in-depth articles once per week on LinkedIn, for example. This is where you need to be publishing your client’s content.

CMO Problem #3: Current metrics are meaningless.

Measuring content marketing ROI is always going to be a tricky proposition, especially when there’s no clear line that can be drawn between reading branded content and making a purchase or hiring a service provider. CMOs get this, but they still crave meaningful numbers. Engagement metrics, like clicks, tweets, and follows are fine, but they don’t paint the full picture.

Solution: Set and track content goals more effectively with better metrics. Go beyond superficial engagement metrics and report “depth” metrics, like how far a reader gets in an article, rather than just the amount of time spent on the article.

Erin M loves adding stamps to her passport, photography, scuba diving, hiking and cooking.