In 1996, when Bill Gates said content is king he wasn’t lying. Fast forward 25 years and according to Hubspot, 77% of companies claim to have a content marketing strategy. It is evident how important content is for businesses to reach their target audience, but what does content marketing look like for small business in 2021?
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a form of marketing that relies on providing valuable and relevant content to convert leads and build stronger relationships with consumers. It consists of various types of content including blog articles, infographics, videos and ebooks. While there are many different ways you can construct your content marketing strategy it is vital to determine the type of content that is relevant to your business and audience.
Ultimately, the goal of content marketing is to provide value to its targeted audience. Unlike advertisements, content marketing isn’t about selling a product or service. It should strive to solve a problem for the customer. Content marketing allows brands to position themselves as a thought leader in a niche by building trust, brand awareness and customer loyalty. As 78% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles rather than ads, it is advantageous for brands to connect with audiences in this manner.
Why is Content Marketing Important for Small Business?
Content marketing is a viable marketing tactic for small businesses, as it yields a high ROI. Especially companies with a smaller marketing budget, content marketing is an inexpensive way to boost organic search visibility, nurture leads and build brand awareness.
The benefit of this long-term strategy is that the content you create can be repurposed in the future. The goal of every business should be to create “Evergreen” content. Evergreen content stays “fresh” forever for readers and ranks higher on search engines. The content you create today will serve to benefit your business years to come.
How to get started?
Set your content and business apart from the competition with a strong content marketing strategy. Before creating content, outline what the goal should be. Common goals are brand awareness, customer retention, lead generation or conversions.
Once the objective is clear, the guidelines are in place to determine which metrics need to be used to measure the success of the strategy. Measuring your metrics is key to determining quantitative success. An organized content strategy with well-defined key performance indicators will help you gain the results you’re looking for. Tracking your KPIs using metrics that are pertinent to your goals, whether it be CTRs, views, or traffic allows you to monitor what is and is not successful.
SEO is another powerful tool to use throughout your content marketing strategy. Understanding SEO and implementing it successfully primes your content to perform better on search engines.
By incorporating appropriate SEO keywords into your content, it becomes easier for search engines to read and rank it higher on search engine result pages increasing the trust in your website. This type of organic traffic is essential for small businesses with limited marketing resources to stand out.
Once you’ve created stellar content don’t forget to promote it. Share it on your social media, add it to your email newsletter. However you decide to share it make sure you spread the word.
Don’t wait to start your business off right this year. Have more questions? Send us a message to help you carve out a content marketing strategy that works for your business!