How to Do Content Marketing? 10 Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
Most entrepreneurs already understand the value of content marketing, but still, do not use it in practice. The reason is in the absence of time, money and understanding how all this should work. And the cost of paying for a specialist that can put the work on stream is comparable to the income of the owner of a small business.
What to do? It turns out a vicious circle, from which there is no way out? We hasten to assure you that this is not so. The secret of content marketing is not in large budgets, but in making the most efficient use of the resources at your disposal.
If you know your audience - this is already a good reserve for the start. The 2nd important condition is the existence of a plan around which the work will be built. And although the budget is also an vital condition, there are things that affect the results no less than money.
We have prepared 10 tips for how to do content marketing for small business owners that will help you attract the attention of the audience, stand out from the competition and attract more potential customers.
1. Identify Your Target Audience
To understand what to write about, you must first determine with whom you are doing it. Therefore, before you start creating content, you need to identify the audience with which you are trying to interact. All you need to do is create an image of your main customers, and determine the types of materials that will resonate with it.
Once you have decided on the target audience, it will be much easier to come up with not only topics for publications, but also to identify possible channels for seeding, for example, in targeted ads in social networks.
2. Think About Content Formats
Using several types of content and their combinations allow you to find what works best in your case. It is possible that in terms of traffic and conversions for you, only 1-2 formats will be optimal, but it is possible that in your niche the key to success will be diversity.
Here are the formats you can use:
- articles;
- cases;
- reviews and interviews;
- e-books;
- email-lists;
- video;
- infographics;
- webinars;
- posts on social networks, etc.
The variety of content allows sharing it on different platforms, which gives a wider audience coverage. The correct way to master all this diversity is "repackaging" of the same material.
Based on the same topic, you can write an article, compile a PDF-book, record a video for YouTube, make infographics, etc.
3. Analyze keywords
The search, though it understands the context and essence of the content of the page, a competent adaptation for keywords makes it possible to simplify the task of attracting traffic from organic issuance. Be sure to include the main search queries that your article is devoted to in the title, text, and other page elements.
This is especially true if it is a question of extensive topics for the disclosure of which will require the creation of large-scale content. Preliminary analysis of keywords also simplifies the formation of the structure of the article and the plan as to what information to include in it.
Some tools that can effectively cope with this task are listed in one of the previous publications on our blog.
4. Decide on the goals and opportunities
Understanding what goals you are going to achieve and installing specific KPIs is critical to measuring progress in achieving them. Setting goals are the basis of any marketing plan, including content. It is important to put them at least in order to distribute the limited resources in the best possible way.
For content marketing purposes can be the following:
- increase brand awareness;
- increase traffic to the site;
- an attraction of potential clients;
- audience retention;
- generation of conversions and leads.
The next step that you should do is to determine what resources you have at your disposal:
what budget you can regularly allocate;
whether you can create content on your own or you need to look for contractors;
What channels of distribution do you already have, and which ones to create?
how often you can generate new content.
Having received answers to all the above questions, you can proceed with the formation of the strategy.
5. First the strategy, then everything else
Any long-term project requires the creation of a preliminary plan for its implementation. Are you going to launch a company blog? Form the content plan with the topics for 2 months in advance. Decide on how often you will publish new materials and on what channels to distribute them. In which topics and formats of content are you sure and which ones should you test?
These are important questions that need to be answered before starting work. Creating fragmented content on random topics and publishing articles in a random order, without distribution, one should not expect impressive results.
6. Pay attention to social networks
Their potential is huge. But this is not about the classic SMM, but about their use for our purposes - as a channel for promoting content. One of the important advantages of social networks as a platform for content distribution - when people share it on their pages, it is perceived as a personal recommendation, which increases the involvement and level of trust.
Even if you create great content, this does not mean that your target audience will see it. It is necessary to take care of informing people about their existence. You can be a master of God but sit at home without a job simply because no one knows about your skills.
If the content is really good, when it is promoted by paid methods, the effect will grow due to organic distribution. People pick up interesting posts and gladly share them with friends.
7. Measure the results
Before you start exploring other sites in search of inspiration, you need to understand what works on your site. To do this, you need to study the effectiveness of already published content, by examining the pages that generate the most traffic.
Also, to understand what content provided a good return helps statistics on social signals. A page with hundreds of users sharing social networks can generate a huge number of transitions.
If you do not measure performance, you can not understand your progress and justify the budget that you are spending. The effectiveness of its development will also be in question.
Regular analytics makes it possible to understand which topics and directions have already worked well in the past, and therefore use this to achieve even greater success in the future.
8. Pay attention to readability
Nobody likes to read sheets of text, in which it is absolutely impossible to immediately understand what the essence and where is the fragment you need. Especially if a person views a page from a mobile on a palm-sized screen.
The modern audience does not have a special desire to enter into or understand anything, so the page needs to be designed in such a way that it can be quickly "scanned" with a glance.
To achieve this, it is enough to make a number of simple things:
- break the solid text into paragraphs with a small number of sentences;
- use sub-headings, selection, and other formatting elements;
- add illustrations and media content, if possible;
- correct grammatical errors, at least on a superficial level.
A small "grinding" of content, even on a superficial level, can provide a much more powerful return from it.
9. Use CTA in the texts
If your site seems to you simple and understandable, it does not mean that it really is. Sometimes the person who read the article is completely unclear what to do next after he read it. Then he just closes the tab and goes further surfing the Web.
Therefore, each article on your site should contain CTA-elements, that is, calls for further action. For example, a button with a proposal to order an express audit after a blog post about why you need an audit of a website or an online store:
Also, it can be an offer to subscribe to an email newsletter, go to a store, join a group on social networks, etc.
In any case, the CTA message should be clear to the reader, and it should clearly understand what you want from it. Whatever your call to action, your ultimate goal is that a person can continue to interact with you.
10. Create "evergreen" content
Some articles almost do not lose relevance with time. Others - quickly catch a wave, but the effect of them is lost with it. A large business can afford to hire a whole editorial office that will write about trendy things, track news events, issue 10+ publications a day or more. For small businesses, this is an unacceptable luxury.
That's why you need to work primarily on "evergreen" content, which can generate traffic for not only months but also for many years. In addition to attracting visitors, it also works well to create an image of an expert.
This type of content includes expert materials, research, and articles that cover well specific topics.
Conclusions
Content marketing is an essential component of SEO and can work perfectly to attract new and retain an existing audience. There is no ideal formula that will lead to success. Much of this process is a trial and error path.Since small businesses often do not have enough resources for large-scale activities, one must act smarter. This is especially important if such work requires resources that can be attracted only through other projects.
With these 10 tips for content marketing, you can get a much greater return on your efforts, getting results even months after publication. So the most difficult thing is to take the first steps.
