Marketing Success: Did you know that Content Marketing is one of the keys to growth and success for most successful small business owners and entrepreneurs? Let’s explore why this is the case.
Contents:
- What is Content Marketing?
- Content Builds Trust and Credibility
- Content Helps You Connect with Your Audience
- Content Can Be Repurposed and Reused
- The Right Content Helps You Rank Higher in Search Engines
- Content Can Be Used to Drive Leads and Sales
- Content Builds a Community Around Your Brand
- Content Can Be Used to Nurture Relationships with Customers and Clients
- Eight Content-Generating Ideas for Marketing Success
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing approach that relies on creating and providing useful, relevant, and consistent content to attract and hold the interest of your target audience. It aims to encourage your customers to take action that leads to greater connections, relationships, and profit.
Here are seven reasons why content is key to marketing as a small business owner:
Content Builds Trust and Credibility
When you provide helpful, informative, and well-written content, your readers will begin to see you as an expert in your field. This trust and credibility can go a long way in converting readers into customers or clients. According to Predictions and Trends by Content Marketing Institute “savvy content marketers in B2B will rethink their approach in 2024…They will focus on building trust, credibility, and relationships by developing educational content that builds opt-in email subscribers to their content marketing programs.
Content Helps You Connect with Your Audience
When you focus on creating content that resonates with your target audience, you will establish a connection with them that builds relationships. When your audience feels like they know, like, and trust you, they're more likely to do business with you.
Content Can Be Repurposed and Reused
Content can be repurposed and reused in various ways. For example, you can turn a blog post into an infographic or create an eBook from a series of blog posts. Repurposing content allows you to get more mileage out of your content and ensures that your readers always have something new to consume.
The Right Content Helps You Rank Higher in Search Engines
Creating high-quality content makes you more likely to rank higher in search engines like Google. As a result, you’re much more likely to be found and get noticed by potential customers or clients when you appear in search results. If you’re new to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), following Is a very brief explanation:
Understanding the basics of SEO is crucial for making your content more visible and effective. At its core, SEO is about optimizing your content so that it appears higher in search engine results, making it more likely to be seen by your target audience. Start by identifying relevant keywords that your audience is searching for, and incorporate them naturally into your headlines, subheadings, and throughout your content. Alt text for images not only makes your site accessible but also tells search engines what the image is about, aiding in your site's SEO. Lastly, regularly updating your content and ensuring it provides value will keep your site fresh and authoritative in the eyes of search engines. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy, so be patient and persistent with these practices for the best results."
Content Can Be Used to Drive Leads and Sales
If you include a call-to-action (CTA) in your content, you can use it to drive leads and sales. For example, you could have a CTA to sign up for your email list or download a free guide. Including CTAs in your content can turn your readers into leads and, eventually, customers or clients.
Content Builds a Community Around Your Brand
When you create helpful and engaging content, you can build a community of loyal followers around your brand. This community can be a great source of word-of-mouth marketing and can help you attract new customers or clients.
Content Can Be Used to Nurture Relationships with Customers and Clients
By regularly sending helpful, educational content to your customers and clients, you can nurture those relationships and keep your business top-of-mind. Then, when they're ready to do business, they're more likely to think of you first.
Content marketing is a critical part of any successful marketing strategy. Creating high-quality content can build trust and credibility, connect with your audience, rank higher in search engines, and drive leads and sales.
The challenge that many small business owners have is that they run out of content ideas and feel they have nothing new to share with their community.
When I started my online journey in 2008, after a few months, I felt the same way. It seemed I had shared everything I knew so far about an online business. How would I continue to generate new content ideas for social media and my blog?
There was no need to worry then, and if you’re facing that challenge, there is no need to worry now. There are many ways to develop new ideas and produce more content for your needs and I’m sharing eight of these content-generating ideas with you to get you going.
Eight Content-Generating Ideas for Marketing Success
Look at Your Analytics
You must have Google Analytics on your website for this to work. If you don’t, I suggest you do some research on how to add this to your website or outsource it to someone who can assist you.
Google Analytics will show you the topics that have been most popular with your audience. Write about those topics again or write from a different angle. For instance, if you see that a lot of people are interested in a particular type of product, write a blog post about that product. If you notice that people are searching for specific information, write a post about that topic as well.
Ask Your Target Audience
Ask them if you're unsure what your target audience wants to read about. You can use social media, surveys, or even just conversations to accomplish this. For example, you could ask your followers on Twitter what kind of content they would like to see from you, or you could send out a survey to your email list and ask people what topics they're interested in. You may not receive a lot of responses on public platforms, but you could also do polls if you manage groups, or any online communities you’re a part of.
Look at What's Trending
Check out what's trending on social media and in the news. Then, see if there's any way to tie those trends into your business or product. Use tools to find out what s trending, such as Google Trends. Just enter a topic, and you'll see how popular it is over time.
Host a Contest or Giveaway
This is a great way to create content and engage with your audience simultaneously. Some terrific contests and giveaways include asking people to submit photos, videos, or ideas.
Write an Industry Roundup
Every week or so, search for news stories related to your industry. Then, write a post that rounds up those stories and offers your own commentary. For example, if you sell software, you could write a post that rounds up the latest news in the tech industry. I did this for quite some time with a weekly “Around the Net” summary. It does take time, but I got great feedback on bringing valuable articles to my audience on topics they were interested in.
Show Behind-the-Scenes Content
People love seeing the behind-the-scenes of businesses. Your audience wants to know what you're doing behind the scenes. Show them what goes into making your product or service or give them a peek into your company culture.
Create a Resource List
This is a great way to show your expertise on a topic and provide value to your audience. A resource list can be anything from a list of blog post topics to a roundup of the best tools for a certain task.
Do a Live Q&A Session or Webinar
This is another great way to engage with your audience and give them valuable information. You can also use this opportunity to promote your product or service.
Remember that you can then turn the audio recording as one piece of content and combine it with the transcript, as well as breaking up the video and using it as content on YouTube. You can also use some of the content as Reels or Short form videos.
Generating new content ideas doesn't have to be complicated. You can quickly develop plenty of new ideas with a bit of creativity. Focus on your audience and create valuable, engaging, and actionable content for them.
Content Marketing is key to a successful marketing strategy. In fact, effective content marketing can attract your ideal clients so that you spend less time marketing in other areas.
Promote Your Marketing Success! What have been your biggest challenges in content marketing. What other methods are you using to find valuable content? Please share your experiences with applying some of the above methods, or any other than have worked for you.
In addition to Content Marketing, Relationship Marketing is another vital key to success and I invite you to claim your copy of Relationship Marketing: Key to Small Business Success.