If you own a small business or a brand, you should be looking at “content marketing”. Why? Content marketing allows you to gain trust, generate leads and create customer loyalty which helps you grow your business online and offline.

What is content marketing? Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract, engage, and retain an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other such media. This approach establishes expertise, promotes brand awareness, and keeps your business top of mind when it’s time to buy what you sell.

Below are some (of our fave) valuable tips when it comes to content marketing:

Get Blogging

Creating a blog is one of the simplest tasks you can do when it comes to content marketing. A blog is a free and easy way to showcase your knowledge of your industry, and connect with your target audience.

Let’s look at some of the advantages of creating a blog:

A blog improves SEO – Google and other search engines love content. The more content on your website, the more chance of your website being crawled by Google for new keywords within your industry; improving your chances of being found by new potential customers.
A blog helps generate leads – Blogs are a great way to gain new leads. All you need to do is add a contact form at the end of your post, and you will potentially find people who will be signing up; this could be through a newsletter sign up or a coupon code.
A blog builds trust – Creating a feeling of trust with your audience is golden, but it isn’t something you’re going to obtain instantly on a blog. It will however be developed over time, through regular news and factual articles. Creating trust will potentially bring regular customers through the door in the medium to long term.
A blog is great for sharing company news – If you have a new product that has just launched, or you want to share some company information about your brand, having a blog is the go-to for this! Think of it as a PR release.

If you need some help with your content writing, we got you; just drop us a message. We have extensive experience in copywriting and blogging, and we have researched, planned and created quality content (fully optimised and with SEO in mind) for a host of brands and industries!

Create Visual Content

When it comes to content marketing, visual content is king. This is because people are generally ‘visual beings’ and we are more likely to consume content that’s aesthetically appealing, rather than look at the text.

For some reason (often due to time or design skills), visual content can get overlooked by small businesses. Creating visual content is a great idea! When we purchase a product, we are often sold by how it looks.

Visual content can come in many forms but a really popular choice for content marketing is infographics. An infographic could be a chart, diagram, or illustration (as in a book or magazine, or on a website) that uses graphic elements to present information in a visually striking way. For example, an infographic showing how much time the average person spends reading some popular novels.

Infographics are a great way to stand out from the crowd. For example, if you have a very text-heavy blog, why not turn it into an infographic? You’ll have the best of both worlds; a piece of content that is indexed by Google and an infographic that potentially is shared across social media, creating social links.

Create a Newsletter

You may hear people saying “email newsletters do not work in 2021”, but we will politely disagree. Here’s why…

Think about the time people (your customers) are glancing down at their mobile phones, or the time spent on other devices. These devices will be connected to an email account, all you have to do is come up with an eye-catching headline (FYI including the person’s name will help with the open rate) and it’s likely going to be clicked upon if they see a notification.

Let’s look at some of the advantages to Email campaigns:

Lead generating – People nowadays are very conscious of giving data away. If people are already signing up for your mailing list, they will have a general interest in your small business or brand as they want to know more.
Driving traffic – Having an email newsletter means you can drive traffic to any page on your website whilst also tracking clicks from individual users (depending on your e-marketing platform).
Building relationships – Not many people think about creating relationships on email campaigns, but it’s easy to do. You can personalise emails rather than address the email newsletter to everyone. You can also work on creating referrals, by engaging well with your audience and providing some value, you can then ask their friends and family to come on board, too.

Invest in Social Media

We mention this all the time, but if you want to have success at content marketing, you need to invest in your social media. This doesn’t mean just having a presence on social media, you also NEED to be active on these platforms; providing quality, regular content.

First off, make sure you choose the correct social media channel for your brand or small business. Choosing the correct social media channel for your brand is essential if you want to have any success. Take a look at your competitors and find out which platform(s) they are using. Look at your customer demographics and see what content you have available. If your brand has a lot of visual content, Instagram could be the way forward.

Once you have decided on the correct social media channels, it’s time to look at creating a social media strategy.

Content is King

Content Marketing will continue to be a vital piece of the marketing mix over the coming years. Having a successful content marketing strategy means that even your small business can take on larger competitors.

When you compare it to other marketing options, it’s cost-effective and it allows you to set yourself apart from the rest of your competitors if done correctly.

If you need some help kick-starting your content marketing; perhaps creating a professional looking blog, setting up your social media channels, or a newsletter template, we can help. For a free quote, drop us a message!