“Content marketing” is a buzzword that you’ve probably heard thrown around on the web and social media sites. What exactly is content marketing and why is it important for small businesses?
Basically content marketing is creation and delivery of valuable and relevant content from a business website, social media accounts or email campaigns. Recent Google search engine changes make fresh online content an extremely critical aspect of your website’s position on search engine results. Effective content marketing can dramatically impact your website traffic and engagement and also affects a company’s image and reputation. For these reasons, content marketing matters!
Outlined below are some basic principles guiding good content marketing strategies.
What are the key content marketing avenues?
–Website: product/company information, photos, videos, testimonials, blog posts
–Facebook Business Page: Regular posts, boosted posts, engagement with others, surveys, contests, “likes” and “shares” campaigns, photos, videos, increase “followers” campaign, advertising
–Twitter: Regular tweets, “followers” campaign, retweets, advertising
–Pinterest and Instagram: if applicable for your business type or customer social media user profile, consistently post new photos and images relevant to your product/service mix.
-Email campaigns: attractive content to entice user clicks/opens to drive traffic to your website. Encourage customer purchase, sign up or download of content.
How often does content need to be created or updated?
–Website: keep it fresh looking; blog needs most attention on website-monthly blog posts may work for some companies, others may want to blog more frequently; also update with new products or services, and new videos or photos.
-Facebook: Should be updated more frequently than website varying by type of business and availability of new information to post; may try to post 1-2x per week.
–Twitter: Tweets should be made frequently; short and sweet messages 1-2x/week, especially if company is geared to young users who are heavy twitter users.
What are key points to consider in budgeting resources for content marketing?
-Invest well in a good website; it is worth doing well from the start; there are many companies that will create your website for you or if you own a small company, you may want to try to create your own basic website with a website software program.
-Identify a staff member to be responsible for social media posts and updates; if this is not possible, seek an outside firm to handle these tasks for you. Stagnant social media accounts will not generate desired results.
-Compare your sales and contacts generated by website and social media versus traditional marketing strategies. Are email campaigns more effective than direct mail in terms of generating leads and sales? Shift budgets accordingly.
What are good sources for ideas for blogs and social media posts?
-Sources of ideas include industry websites, experts and publications, current news, contests, weather or seasonal topics, industry topics, customer testimonials, videos, photos, special promotions, etc.
-Keep a notepad by your computer and jot down ideas that pop into your head; think about what topics might interest your customer base.
Content marketing is extremely important in the current business environment. It requires dedicated resources in terms of funding and staffing. The fact remains that more and more people rely exclusively on the Internet to locate businesses and gather information. For this reason, content marketing should be a top priority for all small businesses.
If you’re having difficulty delivering fresh content on a regular basis, it may be worthwhile to contract out with content marketing experts like The Price Group. We’re flexible in terms of budgeting and targeting areas where you can get the most bang for your buck. We’d love to help! Please feel free to contact us at 630.717.8332 or at info@thepricegroup.biz.
