When it comes to content marketing, many of us usually think of large companies like Apple. As a rule, large companies spend millions on advertising. However, in reality, content marketing is just a good strategy that can give incredible results for a business of any scale.

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Such a strategy is also relevant for small enterprises. Because content marketing is a cheap and extremely effective alternative to other advertising strategies.

In order not to get lost among other brands, a small business must create the messages that the target audience wants to see. In other words, a brand that provides valuable information instead of direct sales wins the competition.

The most critical word in this definition is “valuable.” If the potential customer does not see the value in the content created by the brand, he will ignore it.

In this way, content marketing can come to the rescue if your current strategies do not work. If you are still not sure what type of content to use in this strategy, the most popular articles in advertising marketing are videos, podcasts, articles, and social media posts. Each of them has its strengths that help build brand confidence and reputation.

 

The Reasons to Use Content Marketing for Your Business

How Can Content Marketing boost your business? Take a look at the following reasons:

  • It Increases the Brand Recognition

By publishing fresh, relevant content regularly, the brand creates many opportunities to be noticed. More and more people will be familiar with him. As a result, the likelihood that your brand name will “pop up” in the user’s memory when he needs a product increases.

  • It motivates the target audience to perform an action

Many people hesitate to spend money on a product or service if they do not know the answers to their questions about the product or service. However, if your content provides these answers, buyers will be more motivated to make a decision and make a purchase. If you are interested in developing your content marketing strategy, then let’s understand how professionals do it.

  • It Makes Your More Valuable Online

Imagine that there are five companies in the city that provide the same services, but only one of them allows for useful information (creates valuable content) to potential customers. For example, it informs about the latest in its niche and advises on the most common problems that arise among users of products (services). In this case, this particular company will be the clear leader, because it demonstrates its experience, thereby forming a reputation as an opinion leader.

 

The Vital Steps to Build Your Content Properly

Before you dive into the content marketing routine, you have to understand all aspects and feel your audience. Many professionals and experts recommend to stick to the following steps:

  1. Feel and Understand Your Main Audience

There is absolutely no point in creating content if you do not know the needs and problems of your target audience. Without this, everything will be perceived as irrelevant and uninteresting. To avoid this error, you need to “get into the head” of the consumer, conducting research.

You can collect data in different ways. One right way is to create a questionnaire for your current customer base. For example, you can ask them questions about your business, service/product and quality. Many people use this tactic, even if they receive, at first glance, the most unaffected data, such as income, age, gender.

  1. Produce an Effective Content in different ways

Various types of content are particularly popular with online audiences, including video. Video content is widespread, and recent research claims to be one of the best marketing environments. Also, it is affordable and relatively cheap. MWP Digital Media also stated that 78% of people watch online videos every week and predict that by 2018, the video will occupy 79% of consumer Internet traffic.

After the basic publication schedule has been developed, add a couple of days to it to eliminate irrelevant information. If you have a blog for more than a year, you need to refresh it. Here are some tips to do this:

  • Review your archives. Find your old but still relevant articles and update them. A well-known blogger such as Daren Rose practices this method, and he discovered that it increases search engine rankings and attracts new readers.
  • Generate topics for your blog.

 

  1. Create a Decent Conversion-Oriented Website

The profiles of your website and social networks are necessarily business cards. In the case of content marketing, they are also platforms where users are converted into potential customers and customers. Given that many people, before making a purchase decision, are eager to get more information about the company, the site should have excellent usability characteristics. You can also consider running a blog to highlight all the events relevant to your business. Here is the list of benefits when you run a blog:

  • Always fresh content. If your customers have a desire to return to the site, you need to give them a reason to do so. Post regularly on your blog to get their attention.
  • Improve your search ranking. If you did everything right and depending on how competitive your industry is, high-quality content will help to improve the search ranking of your site and attract more traffic. Content features will also set your brand apart from others in the same industry.
  • Sets authority. Provide your subscribers with a wealth of educational content. With this information, they will sparkle with your mind and make you the dominant figure in the industry.
  • Helps in communicating with the audience. Blog content can be distributed on social networks and used to discuss with the target audience.

You can also ask your readers what they would be interested in reading on the blog. Post a photo of the most active reader on your blog. He will be pleased, and this will encourage other subscribers to be productive.

  1. Make Your Content More Visible

Whatever the purpose of your content, the best way to achieve great results is to create content that solves the problems your target audience is facing. Making sure that the user can find it is another crucial task that you will have to face.

To achieve this goal, collect keywords before creating content, expand your online presence with social networks and investment in promotion. To evaluate how your content works and identify areas for improvement, you can use the useful old Google Analytics.

 

Conclusion

Summing up all the above, we can conclude that content marketing helps to stimulate sales, generate leads, build the image of the company, and trust in it. Content marketing offers many benefits for small businesses, but participating in this strategy is not an easy task. However, careful planning and a desire to create beneficial content will ultimately make a significant breakthrough for you.

 

 

Marie Barnes is a Marketing Communication Manager at TheAdsy. She has a lot to share on the topics of Marketing, SEO, PR, and Branding.