Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a well-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
To answer the big question is, how can a small business join the content marketing game and be successful with most the time limited resources and low budgets?
Know your audience
At the base of great content marking is a defined understanding of your target audiences. You don’t have to try to create content for everyone, start by identifying your top buyer types, put your focus on producing the most relevant content you can for that audience.
Tell a great story
Everyone loves a great story, try to understand your target buyers and create stories that appeal not just to the functional needs the buyers might have, but also to the underlying emotional needs. For example, babies aren’t looking for a pacifier that has a brighter pink then the other, they aren’t looking for a name brand pacifier, they have an underlying desires and emotions for the one that feels good, one they have an emotional connection. Spend time trying to understand what your customers want and truly need at a deeper level.
Best tools for the job
When you know your audience and have a great story your next challenge is determining which content avenue are best to tell that particular story. It may be videos is the best way to communicate or your customers want documentation and more technical detail. A blog is a great tool to engage, and feed your customers content rapidly. Keep is simple but understand even a great story that is executed the wrong way will have a negative impact.
Keep it fresh
A small business will most likely have the challenge of creating a steady stream of new content. When you do create new content you have to make sure that what you have out there is refreshed and current. If you have old content out there, but still relevant make sure to update where it can be so it retains the interest of your followers. Followers want to feel like they are getting the most recent information they can.
Don’t overwhelm
The expression more is better, in content marketing, more is not always better. Provide relevant, interesting content less often and consumers may be more likely to engage. Increasingly marketers are focusing more on quality then quantity.
Creating and distributing content is easier than ever before so for a small business there has never been a better time to roll up your sleeves, create some content and engage new customers.
