Do you even need one?
1- What Is Content Marketing?
I’ve written extensively about different kinds of marketing that can help drive new leads and customers to your business. You can read about them here.
That said, as more of the world shifts towards online commerce, the reality is if you aren’t practicing various forms of online marketing, you are missing out.
There are various forms of online marketing. Content marketing for small business specifically involves the design, development, and sharing of information, in various forms, intended to provoke interest in a product or service.
So if I was to publish information that answers these questions, including written content, video, and info-graphics, then there is a chance they might find my content.
If they find it and read it (and it’s helpful), they might click on my call to action that provides information on my software… and their contact information.
Now I have a lead.
I’ve oversimplified the example, of course (and the amount of work that would be behind it), but you get the picture.
What makes content marketing for small business appealing, is that the cost is relatively low when compared to other similar forms of marketing and advertising.
2 - Will Content Really Help Me Sell?
To be clear, content marketing isn’t easy.
Although not super expensive, like buying advertising, the upfront costs can still add up.
There is an investment of either time or money to create the content. But if it’s been done correctly, the content can drive leads to your business for years.
Like any kind of marketing, the goal of content marketing for small business is to use content (that’s valuable, helpful, provocative) to catch your customers attention.
A different way to think about it is this… What are people typing into Google right now, that my product or service can address?
What questions do they have that I can answer?
3 - Getting Started: How to Build Your Content Marketing Strategy
So by now, you’ve hopefully decided that there’s some logic in this content marketing thing.
Great! Now what?
Let’s build your Content Marketing Strategy so that you have a clear direction and the plans to support it.
More importantly, you’ll have something to measure your progress against!
First, let’s start your strategy by answering a series of questions:
Who is your ideal customer? (For more information on how to answer this, go here.)
What are the challenges they face? (Think about this in terms of the questions they ask.)
How does your product or service help resolve these problems?
What forms of content are your ideal customers consuming?
- Do they read online content?
- Will they tend to look to videos to demonstrate what they need?
- What social media channels do they spend time on?
What will capture their attention and make them stop to consume your content?
- Is your product or service complex and require simplification?
- Should you take a provocative approach?
What content is already in the marketplace that is capturing their attention?
Who are your competitors and what are they doing?
What seems to be working to get your ideal customers’ attention?**
Is there an angle you can take that further complements what is already out there?
