Operating as a small business owner, you might be constrained by a limited budget for promoting your products and services. You might question the value of marketing expenditures, particularly if you haven’t witnessed significant results from conventional approaches. Fortunately, content marketing is a more economical avenue for attracting fresh leads.
Content serves many purposes, from enhancing search engine visibility to fostering lead generation and revenue growth. According to a study, 89 percent of respondents reported positive outcomes from content marketing initiatives, irrespective of their specific objectives. It’s evident that content marketing is effective—but only when you understand which types to produce.
Quality content exists in diverse formats. Below are several formats that prove effective for small businesses and can serve as a solid foundation for your content marketing strategy.
Starting your strategy with written content is a logical step. Well-optimized blog posts and articles can draw new visitors to your site if they offer relevance and value. However, to effectively attract readers, blog posts and articles must be informative, well-crafted, and adhere to best practices for small and medium-sized business (SMB) blogging. In the vast expanse of the internet, merely having a blog is insufficient to make it noticeable. Your aim should be to craft posts and articles that present fresh insights, offer assistance to potential customers, or entertain them—ideally, accomplishing all three.
If you’re struggling to brainstorm topics, consider contacting your existing customers for ideas. For instance, if you retail a product with intricate usage instructions, consider crafting a detailed, step-by-step guide with visuals. Alternatively, if you operate a clothing store, delve into current fashion trends and suggest ways to incorporate new items into your readers’ wardrobes. Even if you’re a family restaurant with a compelling backstory, detailing it can engage your audience. While generating topics may pose a challenge, every business possesses something valuable to offer its clientele.
Humans are innately drawn to visuals, making images and videos integral to your content marketing strategy. Visual content captivates attention more effectively than text and is processed more swiftly by our brains. Hence, incorporating photos, videos, and other visual elements is essential.
An easy approach is to include relevant photos within your company’s blog posts. Authentic images are preferred over stock photos in almost every scenario and should always align with the content’s theme.
Opportunities such as recent office renovations or business events are perfect occasions for capturing photos. However, even on regular days, showcasing your product in action or offering glimpses of your employees at work can intrigue potential customers.
In addition to photos, videos are powerful tools for capturing and retaining site visitors’ attention. Creating videos has become simpler, requiring nothing more than a smartphone’s record button. Post-production editing can be achieved using free software like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, making video creation accessible to businesses of all sizes.
Consider the last time you encountered a blog post or article dense with complex information. Chances are, it was challenging to decipher and retain all the details. Infographics simplify statistical data, making it more digestible and memorable. Additionally, they are visually appealing and easily shareable compared to text alone. Lack design skills? No problem—numerous customizable infographic templates are available online for DIY projects. Alternatively, you can enlist a designer to create one for you. Regardless of the topic, ensure proper citation of references within the infographic and give it a searchable title with relevant keywords.
Above all, prominently feature your business name and website on the infographic. Branding content is essential for internet marketing endeavors of small businesses, and infographics provide a convenient means to achieve this.
Lists have perennially captivated people’s attention, whether it’s David Letterman’s Top Ten List or the latest Buzzfeed compilation. Remarkably, lists are among the most shared content on the internet, garnering up to 25,000 monthly shares. Craft lists that resonate with your target audience serve as effective vehicles for disseminating your message.
The versatility of the internet allows lists to be presented in various formats, including animated GIFs, slideshows, and textual formats. Identify the format that best suits your content or experiment with different formats. Ensure that the topics addressed align consumer needs with your business offerings. For example, if you specialize in tax software, a list titled “10 Reasons Why Tax Software Outperforms a CPA” will likely pique interest—albeit maybe not from CPAs.
If your small business operates within a B2B framework, effectively communicating how your products or services function and their potential benefits to prospective clients can be challenging. In such cases, case studies serve as valuable tools for illustrating the outcomes of your work.
Compile a list of your most successful clients and reach out to them to gauge their willingness to be featured in a case study on your website. In most instances, clients are receptive to the idea. Collaborate with your contacts to craft a detailed narrative outlining how your business positively impacted theirs.
Commence by outlining the company’s challenges before implementing your product or service. Subsequently, elucidate how your company addressed these challenges, employing precise facts and figures whenever feasible. Providing comprehensive support showcases your offerings to potential customers and instills confidence in your ability to deliver results.
Engaging potential customers often involves encouraging them to take action. While content should always include a call to action, certain content is effective because it inherently demands action. Introducing a series of interactive tools on your website can prolong visitor engagement and generate more leads for your business.
Many small businesses rely on contact forms on landing pages, which serve their purpose but may not sustain engagement for long. Conversely, interactive tools such as a tax calculator on a financial website or a project estimate generator on a contractor’s site prompt visitors to contemplate their needs, actions required, and how your business can facilitate their objectives.
Sustaining an effective content marketing strategy necessitates regularly releasing new content accessible to users whenever and wherever they prefer. This is particularly significant given the prevalence of mobile devices, enabling users to engage with your business on the go. Consequently, your content must be as portable as your audience. Podcasts and videos are fitting solutions.
Dedicated followers can access these audio files by subscribing to a podcast and receiving new episodes upon release. Additionally, you can distribute these files on on-demand platforms like iTunes, accessible to anyone. Videos can be shared across various platforms, including social media and YouTube. Both mediums serve as excellent channels for lead generation, conveying insights, and maintaining relevance to your audience.
While this type of content is time-sensitive and often spontaneous, crafting blog posts relevant to current events can significantly drive traffic to your website. Consider contributing to the discussion if you notice industry-related topics featured in morning news or trending on social media platforms.
For instance, during Amazon’s “Prime Day” event in July 2015, concurrently with Walmart’s competing sale, our blog, focusing on e-commerce, devised an infographic comparing the two companies. Subsequently, we approached news outlets covering the sales, providing them with our infographic. Some incorporated it into their articles, and a few shared it on social media, resulting in heightened traffic to our blog.
Upon witnessing the success of your content marketing endeavors, consider repurposing your most popular posts and articles into alternative formats. You enhance the likelihood of success by transforming favored topics into graphics, videos, and other formats.
However, repurposing often necessitates adopting a fresh perspective. For instance, a blog post featuring intriguing customer data could be repurposed into an infographic, or a popular how-to guide could be reimagined into a detailed video tutorial.
Irrespective of the approach, content repurposing should add value for your audience. Whether enhancing comprehension or boosting engagement, the ultimate goal is to elevate the overall quality of your content strategy.
As you develop blog posts, articles, and graphics for your site, you’ll realize that certain content requires more time and effort. While some posts may be swiftly crafted from personal experience, others may demand extensive research and analysis.
Instead of disregarding these complex topics or deeming them unworthy of investment, consider whether the additional effort translates into added value for potential customers. If so, consider gating the content—requiring visitors to provide their email addresses before accessing it.
While not all content may compel visitors to share their email addresses, particularly compelling guides or downloads may prove effective. Furthermore, this approach enables you to add them to your email newsletter list, making it worthwhile.
We specialize in crafting tailored content marketing strategies for small businesses like yours. Effective content marketing can transform a struggling venture into a thriving success story. Whether you opt to develop the content in-house or enlist the assistance of freelancers, a meticulously planned content strategy holds the potential to propel your small business to new heights.
If you require assistance devising a comprehensive strategy, feel free to contact us! Our adept team of internet marketers possesses the requisite skills and knowledge to kickstart your journey toward attracting a fresh stream of customers through compelling content. Contact us today to get started on your content marketing journey.
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