Find out why great small business content is more important than any other part of your digital marketing strategy. Then, let’s work together to clean up your content.
Your small business needs great content. Here are the first 3 things you must do.
Your small business has unique strengths and challenges. But every small business has the same 3 barriers to great content creation.
These are simple questions to answer at a conference table or in a Zoom meeting. Framing their answers through a content marketing lens is a little trickier.
The answers to these 3 questions are the building blocks to every great small business content marketing strategy. Taking the time to master them will put you ahead of your competitors (even many with bigger marketing budgets).
Content marketing step 1: Identify your small business content goals
Facebook for Business offers advice for its customers in 4 words: “Start with your goal.”
It sounds like simple advice, but it’s shocking how many people don’t clearly identify their goals before getting to work.
Think back to that one project that keeps you awake at night. You know which one we’re talking about. The project where everyone realized halfway through that the strategy was all wrong, hours of work were allocated to useless tasks, and a ton of money had been wasted.
You didn’t intend for things to go so wrong. You put some of your best work into that project. And it still went wrong — because nobody stopped to define the end goals of your project before you started.
How can you start a content creation strategy if you don’t know where the finish line is?
Let’s talk about how to turn a vague business dream into a specific, measurable content marketing goal.
Great small business content must support specific, measurable goals
“Make sure your goal is worth your effort. Think about how you would design goals if you were certain that they would be successful.”
Notre Dame Online
Your content marketing goals have to be specific and measurable. Many marketing experts refer to benchmarks called key performance indicators (KPIs) as ways to measure your content’s effectiveness.
Every small business has different KPIs. Here are 5 possible metrics your unique business might target as KPIs:
A percentage increase in website traffic
Specific financial gains and sales targets
Quarterly email signups and subscriptions
Boost in Google and other search engine rankings
Increased social media conversions (social-to-sale, social-to-site, etc.)
The goal you select defines the content strategy you create. If you want to boost sales, content that drives email signups holds less value. If your primary marketing goal is improving your Google page rank, then optimizing your webpage copy with a strong content audit is a more useful strategy.
A specific, measurable content marketing goal makes the journey to quality content creation straightforward and simple.
Now that you know exactly where you’re going, it’s time to move to step 2 of the content marketing journey — let’s figure out who your target audience is.
Content marketing step 2: Discover who you’re actually trying to talk to
If you want an effective small business content marketing strategy, you have to know your target audience.
According to click fraud prevention firm PPC Protect, the average consumer sees 6,000-10,000 ads per day. Trying to shout your message into that crowd is the equivalent of setting your marketing budget on fire.
Small business content marketing strategy must be as specific as possible. Your target customer base has to be just as defined. When every marketing dollar counts, your budget has to be spent on reaching the right demographics.
But what are the right demographics for you? It’s important to separate the customer you think you want from the one you really need.
The audience you think you want may not be the audience you need
Content marketing isn't about the audience you want. It's about the audience that wants you.
perk copywriting
We’ve seen so many businesses go crazy chasing their “dream client”. That pursuit is a waste of time, money, and energy that your small business cannot afford.
Your target audience is the audience that wants you — not the other way around. There’s already a group of potential leads waiting to fall in love with you. Why ignore them in favor of disinterested consumers?
It’s okay to spend a small amount of time chasing the “big fish”. But the majority of your energy and content creation must be focused on retaining your repeat customers and identifying potential leads.
How do you tell the difference between the clients you want and the clients your small business needs? There are 4 simple digital marketing strategies that help identify your target audience.
4 simple ways to identify your target audience
Here are 4 simple ways to use information you already have to identify your target audience.
Study demographics of your social media followers
Take the time to interact/respond to comments
Offer clients incentives for contact information (email signups, etc.)
Host your website on a platform that offers demographic breakdowns
Content marketing step 3: Learn what your target audience really needs to hear
Good content creation focuses on people first. The keywords and phrases you implement in your content marketing strategy depend on who you’re speaking to.
Are you a company with a B2B focus? You’ll want to lean on industry keywords and business-oriented language. If your target client is a suburban mother of 2, then digital content full of buzzwords is just wasted text.
Your leads will only become customers if they feel spoken to. Craft your copy to fit their world, and watch potential customers become long-term clients.
Your clients must feel in control of the conversation
Make your clients the center of your business conversation. Remember these 2 things when creating a content marketing strategy:
People want to be heard, not spoken to.
People want to buy, not be sold to.
You must create content that puts the audience first. Make your sales copy interesting. Make it interactive. And always add value.
Ready to set clear marketing goals, discover your true target audience, and create powerful, valuable content? Let’s talk. We’d love to become your partner and create a great user experience for your clients.
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