Why content marketing is a small business’s secret weapon

Do you want to attract more customers and retain current ones?

Do you want to stay ahead of your competitors?

Do you want to be known as an expert in your field?

Do you want to strengthen your brand identity?

If you answered YES to these questions then you need to be enlisting the power of online content marketing!

Content marketing is the lifeblood of any small business’s marketing. It uses content to provide consumers with helpful information and to help you build stronger relationships with your audience, capture their attention, generate interest in you and your business, increase customer engagement and connect people to your brand. The fact of the matter is if you don’t invest in content marketing, your business will simply be left behind and you’ll watch your competitors surpass you.

If you’re running a small business, you might think of content marketing as an extra job you just don’t have time for at the moment, but for success small businesses must integrate content marketing into their overall business strategy and see it as key to reaching their goals.

What is content marketing?

Have you heard the phrase ‘content is king’? Well, it’s absolutely true!

Content marketing is all about information – information that communicates a message to a clearly defined audience. This content is used as a way of meeting company goals such as retaining current customers, acquiring new customers, building awareness of and trust in your brand, generating interest in your products or services and driving traffic to your website.

You market your business by sharing information that is engaging, educational, relevant, entertaining and valuable, with one ultimate goal: to help your audience in some way. It is a powerful marketing approach designed to attract, build and retain a specific audience with a view to driving profitable customer action.

How do you reach your audience?

In the past, marketers distributed pamphlets to educate the public while modern marketers use blog articles, social media posts, and other online content delivery platforms.

The internet has become the main source of information for the average consumer. It is where people go to find information about products or services they are interested in or answers to their questions. By posting on social media, creating blog articles, uploading videos and generating other types of helpful content, you can reach out to your target audience.

The purpose of online content is to engage people, and the road to long-term business success is through engaging your audience.

What counts as content?

Content can include any or all of the following:

• Blog posts
• Social media posts
• Images/graphics/videos
• Emails and newsletters
• Infographics
• Ebooks
• Case studies
• Checklists
• Podcasts
• Messages and communications
• And more!

What are the benefits?

Here are just a few of the key benefits to content marketing your business online:

1. Target your audience on their preferred platforms

Reach your current and potential customers from anywhere in the world on the platforms they are likely to use most often. Let them know you are there to help them, encourage them to reach out to you if they have any questions, share your knowledge and expertise and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Inform them of company and product news, updates and changes to the business.

2. Increase your rankings on search results pages

Your online and content marketing efforts will boost your search engine optimisation (SEO). Google and other search engines rank pages based on their relevance to specific search queries. By generating relevant content, your pages may appear higher on the search results pages.

Regularly adding fresh content to your site will entice your visitors to return to your site again and again.

Remember that Google loves consistent content, and if you publish regular content you will boost your SEO. Google will crawl and index your website more frequently.

3. Increase brand recognition

You simply cannot understate the importance of brand recognition. Online content marketing can skyrocket your brand and propel your business to success. In a highly saturated business market, it can be tough, as a small business, to get your voice heard. If you want more exposure for your business, you have to dedicate time to building your online presence.

No time to do content marketing?

As a business owner your time is your most valuable commodity and it’s imperative that you use it wisely. The key to success with content marketing is consistency. You need to show up every day and consistently publish and share quality content. The aim is for your audience to come to rely on you as a valuable and reliable source of quality content, help and information. The more consistent you are, the faster you’ll start to see results.

Of course, consistent marketing effort and activity means a serious time investment. There is no getting around it: content production and promotion is time draining. Just think about how much time goes into regularly crafting, publishing, sharing and promoting social media posts, blog posts, email marketing newsletters, website lead and landing pages, ebooks and lead magnets – to name a few!

One solution is to outsource your content marketing to an expert consultancy, freeing up your time and ensuring you have a reliable, professional content flow. Outsourcing your content marketing can mean:

1. The turnaround time to generate a steady stream of fresh content will be much faster.
   You’ll be able to stick to a regular publishing schedule, with no worries about falling behind if you take a holiday or are simply too busy.
2. You’ll save money as it’ll enable you to spend your time on doing what you’re best at rather than spending too much time on content marketing.
3. You won’t have to pay employee benefits, overtime, and sick and holiday pay for an in-house employee to handle this, so it’s cheaper, plus the support can be as and when you need it.
4. You can keep up with your competition. They’re likely to be outsourcing as content marketing is a demanding task. Are you currently able to produce and publish at the same speed as your competitors?
5. You’ll save masses of time! Generating quality and regular content is a seriously time-demanding task. As your business grows and you get busier, you will find it harder to find the time to produce content regularly

Whether you handle content marketing in-house or outsource, it’s important you make the most of its potential. It’s a marketing weapon no small business serious about growth can afford to ignore.

Book a free, no obligation consultation to find out more about Pinc Marketing’s content marketing support.