4 Content Marketing Strategies Your Small Business Can Use Today!
The planet Earth is so saturated with advertisements that consumers are innately trained to block them out. They leave the room when commercials come on TV, they skip over ads in magazines, they don’t even notice the flashing banners that appear on websites. This makes branding your business and uphill battle. How can you communicate the message of your business while building your brand if consumers just ignore advertisements?
Enter the services provided by a content marketing company.
A content marketing company focuses on taking a creative approach to communicating with your audience, by creating relevant and engaging content that consumers pay attention to. A good content marketing company can create a strategy for branding your company in which consumers do not even realize they are being advertised to. There is no “We will return to the regularly scheduled broadcast after this commercial” associated with content marketing. A content marketing company packages your business’s message into the channels of information that your audience is already using, rather than bombarding them with a sales pitch.
While many traditional advertisement strategies can only be used by huge players in the market (you don’t see any small local businesses with Super Bowl ads), the flexibility and scalability of content marketing makes it an effective tool for any business, regardless of size and marketing budget.
So what exactly is this magic marketing approach? Well there is no one-size-fits-all approach to content marketing, but some of the most common strategies are as follows:
- Search Engine Optimization Marketing.
More than 90% of online experiences begin with Google. When a customer is looking for the service that you provide, they don’t go to your website, they Google that service. In the Google results, users skip right over the paid advertisements and click one of the first few links in the organic results.
In other words, a great content marketing strategy revolves around search engine optimization tools:- Incorporate keywords into the content of your website to trigger Applicable search results.
- Update your content frequently, so that Google knows it’s not sending its users to a page that covered in cobwebs and dust.
- Create an engaging website that does more than just sells your service; Google pays attention to the “bounce rate” of its users. This means if a user goes to your website and then abandons it without clicking anything, Google is going to mark a “negative” on recommending your website in the future.
- Social Media Marketing.
There are a few common bonds that connect all of mankind more than social media. There are billions of people who use social media on a daily basis across the globe. Using social media in your content marketing strategy means that your business creates and shares content that really engages the audience. Your social media platforms should not just be a method of free advertisement, use it to share articles that inform your audience on hot topics in your industry, or make them laugh, or (your ultimate goal) makes them share your content. Engaging with your potential customers on social media is an awesome tool for creating your brand and building loyal customers. - Email Marketing.
The biggest benefit of email marketing is the return on investment. Once you establish a great email distribution list, sending out emails is next to free. However, if email marketing is executed poorly, and your audience gets a spammy feeling from it, and you can do more damage than good. On the other hand, using email marketing to let customers know of a big change in your business, or a great sale that they can’t resist is an awesome way to use email marketing in your content marketing strategy. - Influencer Marketing.
This content marketing strategy utilizes all of the above mentioned tools in it. While you’re still building an audience, you might recognize an influencer who aligns well with your brand and has a great following. Establishing a relationship with them (likely by paying them) to promote to your content is a great way to build your brand and gain an audience through content marketing.
Do you have any questions about dipping your toes in the pond of content marketing? Please ask (or provide your sage advice, if you have it) in the comment section below!