You may have heard that content marketing is an effective tactic to successfully market your business online. But what exactly is content marketing, and how can an effective content marketing strategy help my small business?
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the process of creating, distributing, and promoting useful and relevant content to attract and retain your target audience. Content marketing is not just a series of one-off blog posts — it’s a strategy that helps you bring target customers closer to your business.
Content marketing is part of the overall digital marketing services for a small business. When executed correctly, content marketing enables businesses to focus on educating their target customers about their products and services, rather than spend time and money on advertising.
How to use content marketing to build trust and educate customers
Any great marketing strategy starts with building trust with your customers. You want to create relationships with your customers based on value and education. With your content marketing strategy, you can start this relationship by creating and promoting assets that inform and educate your customers about your products and services.
When customers trust you, they are more likely to buy from you. Without building trust, your customers won’t know who you are, what you do, and why they should purchase from you. Don’t worry though — creating content for your customers is an easy way to start building that trust.
Content marketing strategy
There are two main types of content, owned and earned. Owned content includes things like your blog posts, website copy, and social media messages. Earned content includes things like testimonials, brand mentions, and influencer content.
When creating a content marketing strategy, it’s important to create a mix of both types of content. The goal, as with any marketing strategy, is to get as many new visitors as possible to visit your website, and turn them into leads. When you create a content marketing strategy, you are creating a map to help you achieve your goals. The strategy map should include all of the actions you’re going to take, the people you want to take them to, and the tools you’re going to use.
Create a blogging schedule
The first step in creating content is to create a blogging schedule. If you have a daily, weekly, or monthly blogging schedule, you’ll have a clear approach to creating content. And when you have a blogging schedule in place, it will be easier to stay consistent. You’ll also have an easier time prioritizing your content because it will become part of your normal workflow. I
f you’re just getting started, we recommend creating a blogging schedule that’s flexible and easy to adjust. You don’t want to put too much pressure on yourself. To create your blogging schedule, start with the type of content you want to create. Maybe you want to create original blog posts or repurpose content from your website or another site. From there, you can create a schedule that fits both your business and your employees’ availability.
Produce video content
If you’re looking for a great way to produce content that appeals to customers across all channels, video is the way to go. Not only is video content easier to consume than traditional blog posts, but it also increases your website’s SEO.
Video is one of the most effective ways to engage with customers and drive leads. You can create videos using nothing more than your smartphone and some editing software. When creating video content, choose topics that your customers will find helpful and easy to understand. There are a few different ways you can use video content. You can create a video series that teaches a specific skill or soft skill, or you can create a behind-the-scenes video series.
Leverage social media with visual ads
Visuals make a huge impact on social media, and your customers will respond to them. Create original images and GIFs to use on your social media channels. You can also repurpose visual content from your blog posts to make ads for your social media channels. Visual ads make it easy to create ads, and they can be extremely effective.
When creating visual ads, follow the same guidelines you’d follow when creating any other content. Determine who your target audience is and create content that appeals to them. Use relevant hashtags and keywords to make your content more discoverable.
Try paid advertising
You’ve created a ton of great content, and you’re sharing it with your customers through various channels. But it can be difficult to make sure that your content is reaching the right people. Paid advertising can help you reach a wider audience and get your content in front of people who aren’t following you or aren’t aware that your business exists.
Paid advertising platforms, such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads, or Instagram Ads, can be an effective way to reach your target customers. When you create an ad, you’ll be asked to create a campaign and ad set.
A campaign is a high-level overview of your ad set, and an ad set is a detailed breakdown of your ad. When creating your ad, make sure that it follows the same guidelines you used when creating your content.
Summing up
Content marketing is a great way to build trust with your customers and educate them about your business. With the right content markting strategy and consistent effort, you can build an online presence that helps you convert leads into sales.
Allan Todd is CEO of Pagecafe Digital Marketing. In 2022, Allan teamed up with Infront Webworks to provide digital marketing, website design, content marketing, SEO and strategy and solutions to local businesses. Allan lives in Colorado Springs. More articles by Allan Todd