How Can I Use Content Marketing in My Business?
Content marketing is exactly what it sounds like—creating content that engages and creates user interest. This is one of the giant rocks of your marketing funnel because it will primarily be made up of content.
When you build out content and work through this blog post, think of relevancy. How does your content relate to what your audience needs to know or concepts that might interest them? The more you tap into these needs and pain points, the more likely your audience will be interested in what you offer.
Remember, your ROI is not only found in leads and sales but also in engagement and brand loyalty!
Reflect Your Brand
Before we work on how to generate sound, engaging content, you need to understand that you reflect your brand. Mainly because it is so easy to look up who owns what company and what their values might be.
You probably already know that brands have lived and died based on the ethics of their founders. The same is true for a small business.
What is a Personal Brand?
There are two different ways to consider how you reflect your small business. First, you are the company owner, and this company sells products or services.
Then, there is what is known as a personal brand. A personal brand is not the same as a business brand. A personal brand refers to the practice of marketing yourself, your career, or your specific experience. For example, a consultant has a personal brand, as do many lawyers. We have also worked with plenty of authors who sold books and did many speaking engagements, making that their brand.
This may tie into your business’s products or services, but the focus should be on you. Whether you are showcasing your brand through email marketing or social media, you need to understand how you present to others.
That is because any small business owner can have a personal brand or be a recognizable part of their company.
Consider, for instance, the fact that Mark Zuckerberg has become the face of Meta. So has Jeff Bezos from Amazon. These two are not just CEOs of billion-dollar companies, but they are distinguishable from their created companies. They have spoken at seminars and conferences, given quotes, and even become memes.
Whether good or bad, people know who they are.
You should keep this in mind with the content you produce and how you present yourself on social media, in blogs, etc.
People want to know who you are, not just what your company does.
Why Content Marketing?
Now that you understand that you and your brand are closely related, it is time to dive into content marketing. This marketing method isn’t just about creating fun social media posts or writing articles on your favorite industry topic.
It is also about strategy.
The first part of the strategy is understanding what content does for you. Here are a few reasons how content marketing helps your brand:
Cost-Effective
Even if you decide to outsource your content to a digital marketing agency, content marketing is more affordable than traditional marketing. Consider, for instance, how much it costs to get your business on the radio ($500 - $5000), on a local television station (approx. $5 per 1,000 viewers), or on a billboard (upwards of $5,000/month).
Traditional marketing can be expensive, but content marketing can run low (if you decide to use ads to boost the assets), or it can even be free!
When every dollar counts, there is simply no beating free.
Establish Trust
The more content you produce, the more you establish a pattern with your target audience. They begin to expect high-quality, engaging content that provides education and value. Your audience trusts you to help them with their challenges in their industry because you have established a sense of authority.
This means that your audience trusts the content you provide, but it also means that their confidence in the brand itself is boosted.
Understand Your Customers
Finding new customers can be hard. However, with content marketing, you better understand how your customers think.
For instance, if you provide business blog posts, you can see which posts are getting the most attention. The highest-read posts will reflect the most significant needs the customer has.
You can then tailor future content and your brand to this pain point. For example, if you run a daycare business and your highest viewed content is about activities to do with children, then it makes sense that you will continue producing content on this topic.
It’s easy to replicate success in this way.
When you provide what customers want and better understand this need, they will respond accordingly.
Great Content Increases SEO
When individuals use a search engine, such as Google or Explorer, they are typing in specific keywords or phrases.
If you have content that matches those keywords and phrases (and the content is high quality), then the search results will show your website first. This is what it means to outrank your competitors.
More visitors mean more customers!
Evergreen Content
The term evergreen content refers to the ability to use content at any time. For example, it is likely that someone may stumble across this blog post in five years and may still find it helpful to their small business. That would make this post “evergreen.”
There are some cases where the content you create has a time limit, such as when you are talking about something no longer applicable, like holiday specials, or range with old or outdated information, such as an older version of a product.
You should strive to create content that can provide relevant information in the future, and any content you make has a term limit.
Always use both content types!
Consider what kind of needs your customers have and choose something that is not likely to change later. For example, if you are an insurance company, a good topic may be the various types of insurance that someone might need (life insurance, car insurance, house, etc.).
This would be evergreen content.
You can draw from this content whenever you need to without worrying whether it makes sense or is no longer relevant to your brand.
Another good idea is to have ready-to-go evergreen content used when you are not able to make new content, such as when you are in between designers or when the person who approves all content is on vacation in cases when you cannot.
Content Can Be Used in Different Ways
Almost all content can be reused for different platforms or applied to other mediums. To illustrate the point, suppose the insurance company mentioned previously wrote the article “The 5 Types of Insurance Policy Riders Everyone Will Need in their Lifetime.”
This article can be shared on Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. This blog post also does not have to stay an article.
This insurance company can turn this post into a video, talk about it in a podcast, make an infographic, etc. Those different mediums can also be new content on social media. Although the core information is the same, the audience can benefit from a new way of examining the advice.
Great Content Can Be Shared
It is a high chance you are familiar with a piece of content going viral. A post, image, or graphic gets shared thousands of times, if not millions. One of the best aspects of content marketing is that it allows information to be shared. Thus, if your customer comes across something that resonates with them, they are likely to share it with their inner circle, who then share it with their inner circle.
Ready to start creating content for your website? Let’s see how we can make your business shine!