When you are a small business owner, you have a lot of things going on in your head. You know that your resources are limited, and you need to be smart and promote your business to the maximum if you want to reach more customers. Even though you know very well that you should promote your business online, this is sometimes a vague concept which you don’t know exactly how to implement.
When you develop a small business, you have to wear different hats as you need to take care of your budget. Therefore, the business owner is not only managing the business, but he is also taking care of marketing. So, if you are not sure how your content marketing strategy should look like, keep reading this article and implement the tips below.
Before you start creating content to promote your small business, you should first do detailed market research and determine which is your target audience. The market research will help you understand what type of content your customers would like to read, which are the main topics that attract them, and how often they expect to read something on your website or social media accounts. Moreover, even if you know very well who your target audience is, it may be that the results fail to appear.
Therefore, in order to create on-topic content, you can organize a short survey on your website and ask your audience what they would like to read. You can either introduce closed or open questions and hear your customers’ voice. This is a very effective exercise which will help you know your audience more and give you plenty of topics to address in your content strategy.
If you want your content marketing strategy to bring results, you should know very well what you expect from it. The power that content has for your business is incontestable. However, it is not enough to create content and just post it online.
You need to determine which is the purpose of your content and how often you want to publish it. If you don’t have enough experience in content creation and it becomes difficult for you to establish a clear objective for your content strategy, you can count on several tools to help you:
Ethan Dunwill, CEO at Hot Essay Service mentions: “Remarketing some of your most successful posts should be part of your content marketing strategy. If you already had some posts which attracted an important number of readers, you can easily report it and make your target audience remember why they chose you. What is more, when you are running a small business and you find it difficult to create fresh content every time, then this is an easy method to keep your customers engaged”.
In addition, when you re-use some of your past content, you can also tag some of your most loyal customers. Thus, your post, even though it is not something new, will also appear on their social media account and be read by their friends as well. You will reactivate not only your existing users, but you will also reach out to potential customers who can become loyal to your brand too.
Content marketing means more than written content. Your content marketing strategy can also include videos or podcasts where you can present your products even better. Take into consideration the fact that people are always in a hurry nowadays. Therefore, instead of reading a long text where you present your products, your audience might prefer to watch a video and become part of your story.
What is more, videos can be easily accessed from mobile devices. Thus, your target audience will have access to the information you want to provide anytime and anywhere. In addition, if you choose to create regular podcasts, your loyal followers can subscribe to your podcast and receive permanent updates on your business.
Interesting and verifiable content will always attract people. You need to show them that you care about them and you are preoccupied about discovering the latest updates on the market you operate in. Your target audience will understand that you are a professional when you publish clear facts and figures about your business and market. If you want to make them easier to understand, you can organize these figures in engaging infographics where you can synthesize all the researched information.
In addition, numbers will also help you create the relevant context when you want to launch a new product on the market. This is how you can show your audience the impact the current situation has on their well-being and how your proposed solution can improve their lives.
A successful content marketing strategy comes in the same package with detailed market research. You need to know what your audience wants to receive from you in order to create the most engaging content. Use the tips above and tailor your content in such a way so that it meets your audience’s expectations. In addition, it is also very important to thoroughly check your content before publishing. Thus, you will stay away from errors and show your readers that you are a professional.