What may to a small business seem like the simplest and most straightforward marketing method is actually one of the hardest and most time consuming marketing strategies. Content marketing is highly beneficial to a business, but also a complex strategy.
Small business owners and companies especially have a strong need to successfully establish themselves through content marketing methods. Nevertheless, small businesses often feel very overwhelmed by content marketing. Where to start, how to start and manage content marketing efforts are often the questions asked.
The key to remember is that when starting with content marketing, quantity is very important along side of quality and relevance. A large amount of content has to be created, published, and distributed. Small businesses have to get used to publishing regularly in various forms such as articles, press releases, videos, images, and so on. To help out, here are 10 methods to improve small business content marketing efforts.
10 Methods To Improve Small Business Content Marketing Efforts
1. Publish something each day as a small business.
To create momentum a small business should set a goal to publish something each day as a small business. Companies should use multiple channels such as social media, blogs, and industry sites to publish some content every day.
2. Contract out the writing if needed too.
Small businesses quickly realize that writing articles, blog posts, and press releases take lots of time. Contracting out this work can be a smart move for most companies. It is often worth the cost, since professionals can create content much faster and often with better quality.
3. Set goals and realistic timelines.
It takes time to market a small business for any industry. Goals and timelines to achieve those goals should be set realistic and accurately for best outcomes.
4. Diversify content marketing efforts.
For best results, small businesses should diversify content marketing efforts by producing different types of content such as blog entries, slideshows, videos, interviews, news, and so on.
5. Use reporting tools and statistics.
To many small businesses operate blindly. Any size company, but especially small businesses should use reporting tools and statistics to get clarity and make the necessary adjustments for improvement of results. Tools such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Central are great starting tools.
6. Know the target audience well.
To create compelling content, a business needs to really know the target audience well. The better a business understands their target audience, the better the marketing approach will be and therefore the results, if executed properly.
7. Use the business blog properly.
Most company blogs are not properly setup, maintained, optimized, or managed. Business blogs are extremely powerful when properly done. Most business website pages are indexed by over 400% more by search engines such as Google with a business blog.
8. Use videos and images regularly.
Text is great but an image speaks a thousand words. A video does even more because it engages more of the senses. Videos and images are very powerful in content marketing strategies. They should be created regularly, published, and distributed across a variety of channels and platforms. They quickly improve small business marketing efforts.
9. Share content across social media.
Social media works best when content is available to share. Sharing content by other organizations does not necessary benefit a business. A business must create their own content, publish it, and distribute it across social media channels and platforms. A business should get used to share content across social media for best results.
10. Consult with experts for better results.
A small business or start-up venture should certainly entertain the idea to consult with experts for better results. Online marketing and content marketing are complex fields and proper guidance can save lots of time, money, and provide better results. Marketing consulting services are a great temporarily solution to increase chances of success.
