Regardless of the size of your business, content marketing is an integral part of any company.
Content marketing helps companies to develop their brand and create a robust online presence. Depending on your business goals, it can aid with growth, reach, and engagement.
Content marketing is arguably the best marketing technique for your small business. Not only does it cost less than traditional marketing, but it generates around 3 times as many leads.
In this post, we explore the best content marketing ideas for small businesses.
Are you ready to dive in?
The fundamental elements of content marketing
Content marketing is, in essence, the act of creating content and sharing it with potential customers, visitors, or clients. The core aspects of content marketing are:
- The website – This is where you will showcase your company, and always send your customers towards.
- Blog – As you may have imagined, a blog is a crucial aspect of any business. It’s the perfect way to gain traffic to your site, and create more potential leads. Even if you only post once a week.
- Social media – Now, social media is a necessary part of content marketing. Not only should all your marketing efforts be showcased on your blog, but content should also be created primarily for social media.
- Email – You can now share content directly into your target audience’s inbox.
Let’s take a look at some of the best content marketing ideas for your small business.
Videos
Videos have fast become one of the most popular means of content marketing, especially in the past few years. In fact, it’s estimated that 82% of all web traffic will be online video by 2020. Your small business should consider creating videos, this could be:
- Tour around the office
- Product reviews
- Animated videos
- Tutorials
- A day in the life
- Screen record
Podcasts
Another big marketing trend at the moment is podcasts, these have definitely picked up a lot of momentum in the past couple of years, and aren’t showing any signs of stopping soon. Podcasts are engaging, mobile-friendly, and listeners tend to be extremely loyal.
User-Generated Content
If you’re really struggling for content, why not let your users create it themselves?User-generated content (UGC) can be anything from reviews, all the way to fan art and videos.
Many companies, both small and large, have taken advantage of UGI, and have significantly benefited from doing so. Not only does it give your website and social media platforms valuable content, but it involves your audience.
Take CocaCola’s name bottles as a great example. Customers posted photos of their named bottles, which created a proved to be a fantastic piece of advertisement.
It’s important to underline that user-generated content has to be edited. There is a variety of tools you can use to do that. Here are a few examples — Grammarly can help you with checking your spelling and punctuation, Trust My Paper can consult you on style and SEO optimization, Studicus is great with editing and Hemingway is a tool that can help you increase readability.
Coupons/voucher codes
Everybody loves a deal and using a coupon, voucher, or sale can really resonate with your customers or online visitors. Create posts and blogs revolving around your limited time deal, which will create a sense of urgency amongst your users. It’s a great way to push out content and generate leads. Of course, this is only for the companies that have a product or service to offer.
Blog posts
Obviously, the main form of content marketing has to be the most popular form of content marketing. We highly recommend that your company starts a blog, this will not only increase the traffic to your site but give your users and followers something to engage with.
If you’re stuck for ideas on what to blog about, there’s always a wide array of topics for you to choose from. The most popular blog posts offer valuable information, possibly tutorials, how-to’s or “xx of the best” style of articles. Why not ask your users what they would like you to write about? Perhaps they want to know how you started your company, or the top 10 products on your site.
Infographics
Infographics are visual representations of information, usually created to explain complex information straightforwardly. They are particularly popular on Pinterest and work really well with blogs. Providing a “clickbait” type of graphic. Every niche could make an infographic, whether it’s how to blend eyeshadow, the different types of coffee available, or how to install a plugin on your website.
Social media
Don’t neglect social media when it comes to your content marketing. Remember, every blog post, video, infographic, and coupon code should be posted on all your social media.
Social platforms give you a great opportunity to reach new people and fill up your social feed. Ensuring that you’re active on social media will in turn guarantee that you reach more people.
You could also try influencer marketing, which goes hand in hand with content marketing. Why not team up with influencers and create content together? This could be blogs, podcasts, or simply just photographs.
You could also try something a little more creative and use Instagram stories as a way to engage with your followers.
SEO
Content marketing will be more successful if you incorporate SEO with it. Of course, you’ll know all about the SEO in regards to blog posts, this is an imperative aspect. However, you can also make all other pieces of content SEO friendly – from podcasts to infographics.
Make sure that you optimize:
- Meta tags
- Meta Titles
- Content on all pages
- Meta descriptions
This will help you appear at the top of all search results, regardless of what people are searching for.
Top tip: If you’re trying to make your podcast SEO friendly, you should consider writing a short blog post alongside it, with all the keywords necessary.
Online publications
Some businesses have decided to create an online publication alongside their website. For instance, if you’re a business that focuses on surfing items, you could start a surfing digital magazine. This could be a great way to promote your brand.
Email marketing
Your content can be shared in multiple ways, through emails is one of the most effective ones. Spend time building up an email list – something that you can do whenever you make a sale, or somebody signs up to your service. Also, you should consider writing weekly newsletters – these should be filled with valuable information and facts.
Top tip: You shouldn’t bombard your subscribers with too many emails, or they will either unsubscribe, or they’ll consider your email as spam and won’t open them.
Set up an editorial calendar
The next step for you is to bring an editorial calendar; this will help you move towards your content marketing goals. Any small business that is looking for new ways to use content marketing to their advantage should consider getting some help from a customary editorial content calendar. A calendar will bring you any clarity that you need, and help you tackle any task that needs to be completed.
“An editorial calendar will give you a clear idea of what content needs to be created when it should be posted, where it should be published, and the goals of each piece of content.” — Diana Adjadj, a marketer and writer at Supreme Dissertation and Best Essay Education.
Conclusion
Content marketing is an excellent option for all small businesses, which can ultimately elevate your brand and reach new people. Content marketing can improve your conversions and allow you to connect with your audience and customers in new ways. Which ideas do you think you’ll try?
Guest Post: About the Author
Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks, and empowers using the magic of a word. She is a writer at Grab My Essay and WoWGrade. Kristin is pursuing a degree in Creative Writing. Along with that, she has a lot of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors.