To build a successful business, you need more than just good products and services; you also need customers. That’s where content marketing comes in. Content marketing refers to creating relevant and valuable content that can attract potential clients and customers to your business—and keep them coming back for more. If you’re ready to try content marketing, there are two reasons why content marketing works so well with small businesses in particular—and how you can use these to your advantage!
Table of Contents
What exactly is content marketing?
Content marketing is the process of generating content to attract customers and prospects while educating them. Creating interesting and valuable content builds trust between you and your customers, which is a key component in a customer’s purchase decision. Content marketing puts your company’s value proposition up front rather than making it seem like you’re pitching an idea or product. To ensure your content marketing strategy reaches your target audience, give people different avenues for engagement, like email newsletters, social media posts, or comment sections.
Reasons Why Content Marketing Works
Content marketing works for small businesses because of the following key reasons:
- Google likes content – Google ranks sites higher in search results if they have more and better quality content on their site. Google plays a major role in how people find you online. If they’re looking for what you sell and you don’t have any content on your site related to that search term, it is highly unlikely that you will get found.
- Content Drives Lead Conversions – Website conversions increase for those companies that produce consistently high-quality content regularly. The more you publish, the more targeted traffic your website will receive from social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. And when visitors convert into leads, it boosts revenue for the business overall.
- Content Increases Customer Engagement – Whether you’re encouraging customers to sign up for your newsletter, purchase a product or service, or anything else, having valuable content on your site is crucial. Without some call-to-action, chances are they won’t do anything with the information they’ve just read.
But with one thing as simple as filling out a form with their e-mail address so they can stay up-to-date with what’s going on in your company, it shows them that you care enough about them to want them to stay connected, which drives customer engagement and loyalty levels up over time.
What kind of content can help your business?
What type of content can be successful for your business? To create something useful for your audience, you’ll need to identify who your business is serving. Try looking at customer profiles and then narrowing down the kind of content each customer might be interested in or could benefit from.
By knowing this information upfront, you’ll be able to pinpoint better the tone and topics of the posts you publish. Researching what other people in your niche are doing will help you understand where they succeed and where they fall short.
What are the benefits of content marketing?
Digital marketing agency Sonoma County works to build a company’s reputation by connecting with its customer base through valuable content. People are spending more time online and less time on traditional media channels. Marketers are not just promoting their products but also creating educational and entertaining information that keeps people engaged.
This builds trust with consumers who develop a connection with the brand through the content rather than seeing it as an advertising platform. In addition, small businesses need to create this kind of ongoing communication because it can be difficult to cut through the noise from larger competitors.
Who should be doing it?
Those who should be doing it are people like plumbers, electricians, accountants, and those in the service industry. So how do you get started? Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer. What do they need to know about your company, and what sets you apart from your competitors? The truth is that content marketing is not a huge commitment. All you need to do is blog monthly. And if you think that’s too much work, make it a quarterly thing instead.
Where should you focus your efforts?
The only thing you need to know about content marketing is that it’s not rocket science. Some marketers think of it as an art form or a skill that can only be mastered with years of training. But for most business owners looking to start content marketing, it’s as simple as coming up with a plan, writing a few articles each week, and sticking to it.
And while many people want to make their efforts more complicated than they need to be, the bottom line is this: if you produce quality content that builds trust and value for your company in front of the right audience, success will follow.
How do you make it pay off for your business?
- Tell your story. The best marketing is when people can relate to what you’re doing, and sharing your story is the best way. People care about others, and telling them about your experience—even with a product or service—creates a connection.
- Use visuals to help your customers understand what you’re talking about. If there were a picture for every word in this post, it would make it easier for readers to digest the information quickly and allow them to remember better what they learned from reading the post.
- Be consistent with your message across all of your channels. When everything points back to one central message, you have greater chances of generating buzz around what you do and are trying to accomplish.
- Promote events as they happen; don’t wait until after they happen!
- Create valuable content around seasonal holidays or events like Mother’s Day that happen annually so people know who you are, even though they may not be actively following your business on social media all year long.
- Ask customers for feedback: What could we be doing better? What would compel them to share their experiences with us?
Conclusion
Content marketing is a way to get your company’s name out there and build its brand. It can be tough to get the ball rolling with minimal funds if you’re just starting a small business. But if you spend that money on content marketing instead, then you’ll have more than just an attractive website. You’ll have people coming back for more.
