5 Effective Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

• Updated on: 2021-03-24
• Read original article here

With more than 400 million active websites (and counting), delivering the bare minimum information on a plain webpage isn’t sufficient anymore.

You need a thoughtful content marketing strategy to stand a chance in today’s competitive scenario. Such strategies become more critical for SMBs and startups because they’re competing against global leaders in the digital world. In fact, as per Content Marketing Institute's report, 67% of marketers already have a well-defined content marketing strategy.

Here are five pointers you should keep in mind when you’re working on your content marketing tactics:

Many marketers commit the mistake of fast-forwarding the research phase. You should explore deep waters and gather insightful information about your target audience and not just their demographics.

This will help you personalize your content marketing efforts, and the same would also reflect in the response you get from your consumers. According to Epsilon, 80% of customers are likely to engage and shop from a brand that offers personalized experiences.

You also need to understand how things roll in your industry. Be it the competitors, channels, communities, etc., – you should know all these aspects inside out. This knowledge will help you devise an effective content marketing strategy.

People have faith in the internet because they’re able to solve their problems through it. No matter how good your product or services are, they should always have a problem-solving narrative to them.

Address the various pain-points of your audience and propose practical solutions. Let them know how you’re different from others. You can utilize social media, blog posts, videos, etc., to devise a content marketing strategy that introduces your brand as a solution to the problems.

Keep interacting with your audience and incorporate the changes they suggest to prove that you’re willing to improve for their betterment. This will help in entrusting your consumers, and soon, they’ll become loyal members of your community.

There’s no denying that each brand is unique and caters to a different audience segment. However, you can expand your brand’s reach with ease to communicate with diverse audience segments through brand collaborations.

Partnering with micro-influencers to foster social media posts, or even visual content is very common in 2021. It’s a type of content marketing that takes product and service endorsement to the next level by indulging in celebrity-based promotions. Digital Marketing Institute informs that more than 49% of shoppers rely on influencer recommendations to make a purchase.

Collaborations offer a win-win situation for both parties as they get increased exposure and also get the chance to secure a handful of conversions too.

In order to promote your brand, product, or service, you need to leverage SEO, invest in visuals, use various content marketing channels such as social media, Q&A sessions, podcasts and digital events to promote your work.

A study by Backlinko suggests that only 1.2% of the published content gets more than 75% of the total social shares. It happens because vast amounts of content get published each day, and marketers fail to adequately promote their masterpieces.

Once you put in efforts to promote and advertise your content, only then you can expect the internet users to do the same. For any content marketing campaign to succeed, the steps you take after the content is published hold high value. Content promotion is one such aspect you should make a practice of following.

There are several types of content marketing tactics, but one element remains consistent throughout – content optimization. To keep your articles and social media posts up to date, you need to visit them from time to time and do the necessary optimization.

It can be related to updating the latest information, adding trendy hashtags, and more, depending on the particular content piece. Remember, content marketing never follows a one-and-done approach, and only the ones willing to up their game make it to the top of the search engines and social platforms.

You can also craft new content copies out of your published ones through repurposing. Convert a blog post into a webinar, create infographics out of PPTs – you have the power to do it all in the content marketing niche.

You must have come across various kickass content marketing examples on the internet. Now, it’s your turn to improve your content marketing strategy by following the tips we discussed.

Always understand your audience and market to prepare your marketing campaign accordingly. Solve a problem with your brand and never-say-never to brand collaborations. Promote your work smartly and optimize your content regularly to become the grandmaster of content marketing.

Which tip do you think would be the most useful for your business? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.