Are you an owner of a small business? Do you want to reach more people, increase your business turnover and be on top of the competition? One way you can do it is to use content marketing. Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves creating, publishing, and general sharing of information online. The valuable content you share can be in the form of audio, written articles, or even videos that explain more about your business products or services, the prices, and availability. Good content also focuses on why the customer needs your products and services and their value from buying from you. That said, let us dive into the best ways to produce valuable content that will sell your business.
Have a clear content marketing goal
The first crucial step is to understand the why of creating the content. Do you want to inform more people about your brand? Do you want to create awareness about a particular product or service? Do you intend to increase sales? These are some of the crucial questions you might want to ask at the beginning. Answering these questions will inform you on the best type of content to create.
For example, if you intend to create brand awareness, you can create an explainer video complete with illustrations of what your business deals with. It may also include the location and contacts for your business.
Similarly, you should define a way of measuring whether your goal was achieved. If it is a video meant to create awareness, the number of views will be a good measure of visibility. The number of downloads or the number of times people listened will be a good measure for a podcast. That way, you will have results in the direction your business is taking.
Know your target audience
This point cannot be emphasized enough. Understanding the target market for your business is a great leap towards productive marketing. You can know the prospective buyers of your products or services by understanding their demographics and psychographics.
By demographics, you should know the age, gender, location, and even economic class of your target audience. These factors will enable you to create relatable content that your would-be clients can consume.
For example, you might want to create content that addresses business leaders aged 35-40 years. That would be different from marketing content for job seekers who just finished college. Understanding psychographics means you will establish the interests and attitudes as well as the beliefs of your target audience. This will help you blend your message for greater impact.
Build a mailing list
After creating your content, you need to take it to the people. The easiest way to reach an individual is through email. Emails are a great way of getting to communicate directly with a subscriber, right in their inbox. Many people check their email the first thing every day, increasing the likelihood of your message reaching many people.
Additionally, the email service provider will allow you to build a subscriber email list and get to check reports and analytics of how your emails are doing. Getting statistical feedback will come in handy while strategizing.
So what should be in your marketing email? Well, this will depend on the goal you wish to achieve. However, as part of the basics, you should have a catchy subject that invites someone to open the email. You may also use graphics and write in point form to be brief. In marketing, brevity is crucial as it triggers action from the audience. Also, you may link necessary addresses or your business website or blog for the audience to contact you.
Use videos
Research shows that most marketing professionals now agree that video has the best return on investment in content marketing. One research found 64% of customers make purchases after watching a video. Well, video marketing for business can help you create brand awareness, introduce a new product or connect with your clients. It tends to be easier to measure the impact of your video based on the number of views or even downloads.
Here are a few useful tips to help you nail with videos for content marketing:
- Brainstorm ideas: What do you want to achieve with the video? Do you want to explain a product?
- Focus on the customer: What benefits will the customer accrue by buying from you?
- Visuals: pair the ideas you articulate in the video with great visuals.
- Keep it short: brevity is king. It is crucial to keep your video short, maybe two minutes maximum.
Leverage your social media
More than four billion people are active social media users across the globe. Statistics show that 67% of shoppers get their leads from social media. They are also likely to learn about a product from social media. Also, customers report that their first destination whenever they need to check a product or read reviews is social media. Why not then leverage the power of social media to connect with your clients and market your business?
Here’s how to push your content on social media for greater impact:
- Discover your voice: how you interact with your clients will very much depend on your ability to catch their attention. You can do so by posting write-ups, creating visuals and audio posts. Your social media voice should reflect your brand and interests.
- Choose your platforms: from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter to WhatsApp, you have an array of channels to choose from. You can research on which platform your target customers are present.
- Generate content to the platform: each platform has different content formats that work. For example, videos and product photos are likely to do better than posts on Instagram.
Final Remarks
Creating marketing content for your small business comes in handy when you want to create brand awareness for your small business and convert consumers. The key is knowing the kind of content you need to create for your business and the channels to distribute it. It is also important to measure the success of your content. If you do it right, you will certainly convert more customers!