Has your company not yet explored content marketing? If you haven't, you’re missing out on a wealth of benefits for your bottom line.
Solopreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses can benefit greatly from this marketing strategy.
Here’s a dive into the benefits of content marketing and how you can start crafting your own strategy.
The Benefits of Content Marketing
Many businesses know that content marketing can bring quite a few potential customers to the table, but the pluses of this tactic go beyond that. Content can deliver so much more.
Higher ROI
Whether you outsource your content or produce it yourself, this marketing strategy delivers higher ROI to your business.
It can generate 3x the leads while costing just a fraction of outbound marketing costs.
Email in particular can be quite the valuable route. But this cost-friendly tactic means it’s perfect for small businesses with a tighter marketing budget.
Better SEO Results
You’ve spent a lot of time doing that keyword research for your website – why not put that SEO work to more use?
You can continue to improve your SEO marketing strategy by adding content to the mix and having a higher chance of attracting your audience thanks to organic traffic.
Google and other search engines also like to see new content being published – it helps you rank higher!
More Trust in Customer Relationships
Content marketing can help you build customer relationships while establishing your company (and yourself) as a leader in the industry.
Content allows you to promote your business without blatantly saying “buy from us,” reach a wider audience if you focus on high-quality, and make your business and blog a key resource and authority on a subject.
In the same vein, content also does more than attract new leads – it can nurture your current ones.
With your content, customers will:
- Remember your brand
- Increase engagement
- Trust your business
- Purchase more
- Share your content
This will lead to overall lower marketing costs for your business. If you want to increase your efforts even more, personalized and segmented content can provide quite the boost.
How to Make the Most of Content Marketing with a Strategy
Now that you know the benefits of content, it’s time to get started with your own. These tips will help you make the most of your marketing dollars.
With any type of marketing, you need a strategy. Jumping straight into content and writing willy-nilly will actually cause you to waste money and time.
Write Down Specific Goals
A good starting point is with your goals – what are you aiming to achieve with your content?
Better brand recognition? More leads? More sales? Writing out specific and well-thought out goals will help you properly set up the rest of your strategy.
However, just make sure they’re realistic and that you’re looking at the right metrics, or you could find yourself disheartened with the results.
Know Your Audience
You should already know your audience from the other marketing strategies under your belt, but if you’re not quite sure, return to your goals.
This should provide you with the information you need to define your target audience.
You will want to be sure that your content is written for and directed towards them.
Establish a Schedule
How often do you want to publish a blog? Once a week? Once a month?
Taking a look at your competitors is a good idea, but you also want to be realistic here.
If you don’t have time to publish once a week, don’t. Inconsistency can hurt your efforts in this department.
You want the ability to write thought-provoking, high-quality articles that your audience will want to share.
Consistency will also help your readers come back on a schedule to see your latest post.
If you struggle with writing or simply don’t have the time, outsourcing may be your best option.
Brainstorm Ideas
It can be tough thinking about what to write next. Writers’ block affects us all – not just professional writers.
Having brainstorming sessions can actually help you craft a number of topics to discuss in your content.
You may also find that some article topics do better in “parts” and you can turn one idea into several.
If you’re struggling here try:
- Checking out your competitors’ blog for past ideas (don’t steal though!)
- Think about what questions your audience normally asks and answer them
- Using your keywords from SEO as baselines
Go Beyond the Blog
When people think “content,” they usually think “blog.” However, this doesn’t always have to be the case.
While a blog is an excellent idea and you should have one, there are other types of content out there to explore and use to your benefit.
Some are easier to share on social media (video) while others may be more targeted to a very specific group (white papers).
Here are a few ideas and platforms for your content:
- Email newsletters
- Videos
- White papers
- Case studies
- FAQs
- Interviews
- Webinars
- Workshops
- Visuals
- Podcasts
Also feel free to recycle old content. Just because you wrote a blog about X last year, doesn’t mean you can’t make a video about it this year.
Content marketing should be central to every business’s marketing strategy, large or small.
Understanding how you can benefit and crafting a strategy will help you harness the energy that this marketing tactic can bring to the table.
