7 Content Marketing Strategies for Small Business

In this digital age, one of the most powerful tools for connecting with targeted customers is content marketing. You may be one of those people who don’t understand the difference between content marketing and advertising.

Content marketing is what is called “enlightened marketing”. This means you are educating the audience before selling your products or services to them.

Content Marketing Institute defined content marketing as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Gone are the days when companies are all just about selling and nothing more. Today, customers’ buying behavior has changed and many companies are following suit.

If you are a business owner and you are not leveraging content marketing as one of your marketing strategies, I am sure you must be experiencing low sales and conversion rates. All top brands that you know are all using content marketing as one of their top marketing strategies for reaching their customers because they are loving the results they are getting from it.

Why Content Marketing for your Small Business?

• If you want to establish your brand identity in the marketplace, the only way to do it effectively is through content marketing. Creating valuable content will give you a leg up on your competitors.
• Content marketing is the ideal marketing solution for small businesses with a low budget.
• Small businesses can use content marketing to generate traffic to their website. If you have valuable and relevant content but aren’t sharing it with your target audience, you’re never going to benefit from great content. Following a content marketing plan will make sure that you get all of the coverage you need in order to succeed in the online market.
• One of the most effective ways to market and promote products and services. With content marketing, you can create and distribute content that emphasizes your brand’s value proposition. This content will help build relationships with your readers, which will increase your chances of making sales.
• It is the best way to build customer loyalty. If you create content that offers real solutions to your clients, they’ll be more likely to reach out to you in the future when they have a need for your products or services.

Content marketing is a process that requires consistency in delivering focused content to increase visibility and demonstrate expertise.

Below are 7 content marketing strategies you can implement for your business and maximize your sales.

1. Storytelling

This is one content marketing strategy that most top brands like Wall Street and most financial institutions use to get potential customers’ attention. Storytelling is the most important part of a content marketing strategy that helps to connect with your potential customers. Storytelling is the single best way to connect with people.

I am not saying you should go write a story and share it with your prospective customers. Storytelling here entails explaining the life of your target customers without your product or services and what can happen when your customer uses your product or service. You can also add a call-to-action element to emphasize the benefits of buying your products or availing of your services.

Storytelling, when done well, can sky rock your sales far more than you expect. I personally use storytelling most time in my marketing material to get clients and also get people to join my online community.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) also plays an important role in content marketing. It is the process of using targeted keywords in your content to drive traffic to your site when people type the keyword on search engines.

Each content you will be creating on your blog will be focused on specific keywords that your target customers will likely type on search engines when they are searching for products or services related to what your business is offering. Content marketing is increasingly being recognized as an important part of a successful search engine optimization strategy, and, thus, should be at the top of your list of SEO priorities.

But, don’t let your focus on keywords destroy the usefulness of your content. Make sure your content is interesting and relevant to your audience before optimizing it for SEO.

3. Influencer Marketing

You already know this I guess. But, in case you don’t, influencer marketing involves a business paying a celebrity or an influencer to help discuss its brand’s products or services to its own audience. This marketing strategy is used by small and big brands to get endorsements from social media influencers.

Now, why influencer marketing?

Because they have a large audience that is alert to hear what they have to say. You as a small business owner may not have that audience that is ready to listen to you. Bloggers do use this route to drive traffic to their blogs by mentioning an influencer and letting them know about it so they can share the post with their audience. Content marketing helps build your reputation as an expert in your industry, while also creating partnerships with other businesses or affiliates. Your content marketing plan should include a strategy on how you could utilize social media to promote your business.

It works 100%.

All you just have to do as a business is to look for an influencer(s) that is talking to your kind of potential customers and partners for a fee. You will be surprised at the outcome of this strategy.

You can learn how to become an influencer marketer.

4. Share Case Studies

Using case studies is another strategy of content marketing for your business. All you need to do is make a list of most of your successful customers or clients and share with your target audience how working with your business or using your product or services benefited these customers or clients.

Start with the problems these customers faced before using your product or services, then tell how your product or services addressed the problems. Creating content for your business is a great way to differentiate your brand from competitors. Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and Value Statement Preposition (VSP) provide your potential customers with a clear vision of what it is that you do. Make sure to use social proofs like testimonials from satisfied clients.

A case study will not only show potential customers what you have to offer but also give them confidence that you can deliver what you are promising as you have done for others.

5. Social Media

When you are thinking of getting great results from content marketing efforts, social media should be on top of your list. This doesn’t mean you should go and open a business page on all social media platforms, you are to go and research each social media platform to pick the one that fits your business and type of content. You need to create valuable content, build a social media presence, and make your content easily digestible and shareable. By following these strategies, you’ll find that it’s easier than you think to increase traffic and profits.

For example, you can’t share written content on Instagram and get a good conversion rate as when you share images. Neither can you share long content that is more than 141 words on Twitter.

So, you are to pick and structure your content according to the social channel you will be using. I don’t find Twitter and Instagram interesting because I can’t use them for marketing my services. I am a lover of long content and that is why I only use Facebook and LinkedIn to promote my services to potential clients and it has been working effectively for me so far.

6. Write a Book

A book is also a marketing tool for small, medium, and large businesses. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a writer to write a book. People like us are readily available to help you with the task. Sure, not every small business will benefit from writing a book, but most will.

A book builds your authority in the marketplace. It also put your business in front of a larger audience. Your book doesn’t need to have the writer’s name on it, the byline can be your company’s name. Also, it is essential to mention that you can easily hire a writer to ghostwrite a book for you, and there are many useful online guides on this.

This book that you will write will be given free to prospective customers or clients as a gift when they show interest in what you offer.

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing is also an effective content marketing strategy. For small businesses that may not want to build a marketing list or do not have one, you can take leverage of those with a large list talking to your audience and pay them to send promotional messages to their subscribers.

You can buy a list too and start building a community from there. People still read their emails and will open yours if your heading is catchy enough. Writing informative, quality content marketing for SMBs is a good strategy for growing your audience. It also provides valuable backlinks to your website and helps build your reputation.

Also Read: How to Make Money with Content Marketing

Conclusion

Content marketing involves a lot of creativity, planning, and consistent execution to earn your desired result. If you seriously take action from any of these 7 strategies shared above, you are guaranteed an increased return on investment. Consistency is the key to lasting success, so careful consideration is essential in implementing all your content marketing efforts and promotions.