1,868 challenges in content strategy and operations [New for 2025]

“In the world of content marketing, organizations are drowning in a perfect storm of creative pressure, audience disconnection, and operational chaos, with quality concerns and resource limitations battling for supremacy as the most crippling challenges facing modern content teams.”

This is what the AI model Claude gave us when we asked it to sum up the findings from our analysis of 300 hours of client meetings at Toast.

It sums up pretty much the current tension that exists between building a proper content strategy to support your organization’s objectives AND building the proper team, processes and putting the right tools in place to make it happen.

The chart below is the result of analyzing over 1,800 challenges that were discussed in client meetings. Over 300 hours of conversations were analyzed, which led to precisely 1,868 challenges that were mentioned in the transcripts.

We then wanted to cluster these challenges in larger buckets and themes that give an overall picture of the challenges of content teams.

The challenges linked to content strategy

Looking at the table above, we can see that the main challenges are still, in 2025, linked to strategy aspects of a brand’s content program.

1. Quality & creativity: Creating high-quality, unique, and engaging content that resonates with the audience
2. Audience engagement: Getting the audience to interact with, respond to, and share content
3. Content formats: Managing different formats like video, text, audio, and finding the optimal mix

These challenges are solved through a thorough content strategy documentation process, but still require teams to be able to elevate themselves to a less tactical grind and think about the overall strategy behind it.

Too often we see content teams that are unable to elevate themselves to a more strategic point of view and end up churning out content that does not resonate with audiences, is not distributed in the best ways possible, or is not leveraged to its full potential.

When you remain too tactical, you start focusing too much on what the brand wants, the results it is looking for and less on what audiences want, need and expect from you.

The needs and expectations of your audiences are key drivers of success and must always be at the core of your content initiatives. But we see in this chart that it remains a challenge for content leaders, no matter the industry of organization size.

The challenges linked to content operations

Moving down the list of overarching themes that content teams face these days, we notice that content operations is not far from the top challenges.

1. Resource limitations: Having insufficient staff, time, or capacity to produce content
2. Workflow process: Creating efficient processes for content creation, approval, and publication
3. Production capacity: Managing the volume and frequency of content creation
4. Planning & scheduling: Developing content calendars and roadmaps for consistent delivery

People. Process. Tools.

It is all in there.

Those are the three main pillars of ContentOps and we see all three in the challenges mentioned by brands we speak to.

As more and more of the content function is internalized on the client side, we see this challenge creep up as teams have difficulty scaling content production, management and distribution.

Depending on team structures, we see team members struggling between operating the content strategy and leveraging existing content assets.

We also see a lot of waste. Waste of effort, waste of quality content not leveraged to its full potential, waste of internal stakeholder time.

What strategic action should content teams tackle?

Tackling these types of challenges is part of the daily lives of Toast team members. Through workshops, training and audits, we help content leaders improve content operations and content strategy. But before we work with a team, we always want them to sit down and ask themselves the right questions. Reflect on the current state of things and envision a future state based on this.

Based on the analysis of the content challenges discussed above, here are a few key actions content teams should take and questions they should ask themselves:

Quality & creativity

• Action: Establish clear quality standards and creative processes
• Questions:
  • What makes our content unique and valuable to our audience?
  • How can we build creativity into our routine processes rather than treating it as a special event?

Audience engagement

• Action: Deepen audience research and feedback loops
• Questions:
  • Do we truly understand what motivates our audience to engage?
  • Are we measuring engagement beyond vanity metrics?

Resource management

• Action: Audit content workflows to identify inefficiencies
• Questions:
  • Which content types deliver the highest ROI for our specific goals?
  • What low-value activities can we eliminate to focus on high-impact content?

Channel strategy

• Action: Develop channel-specific content strategies rather than one-size-fits-all approaches
• Questions:
  • Which channels actually matter most to our audience and business goals?
  • Are we adapting content appropriately for each platform or just cross-posting?

Measurement & planning

• Action: Connect content metrics directly to business outcomes
• Questions:
  • How does our content directly contribute to business goals?
  • What leading indicators tell us if our content strategy is working before revenue impacts?

Cross-functional alignment

• Action: Create clear content governance models and decision frameworks
• Questions:
  • Do stakeholders across the organization understand our content priorities?
  • Have we clearly defined roles, responsibilities and approval processes?

Skill development

• Action: Identify and address critical skill gaps through training or strategic hiring
• Questions:
  • What specialized skills (SEO, video, analytics) are missing from our team?
  • Should we build internal capabilities or leverage external expertise?

(You like questions? Have a look at our article 13 questions to ask your content marketing team)

We’ve seen that the most successful content teams will balance addressing immediate production challenges while building systems and capabilities that solve underlying structural issues. Rather than chasing every content trend, they’ll focus on establishing sustainable processes that deliver consistent value to both audience and business.

Is your team prepared to tackle these challenges and up their game?