5 content marketing strategies small businesses should use to boost sales

By Mmeje Chima

Content marketing creates a relationship between a brand and its customers. It is an effective strategy for engaging clients, generating leads and increasing conversions. Big companies have millions dedicated to digital marketing, small companies and startups use content marketing to sell their product and services

Every small business has a niche of customers they target with the right content. The owners know they should have some sort of online activity to promote their content and relate to their customers but most are unclear on what to do or how to proceed.

A 2013 US survey conducted by MailOnline shows that 77% of agencies and 70% of brands used content marketing for advertising in 2012. Another study by Insideview reveals that B2B companies who have a blog generate 67% more monthly leads when compared with those who don’t run a blog.

While you don’t need a big budget to run a successful campaign, you should be able to create engaging content and leverage social media platforms. The demand for useful content is greater than ever and producing quality content requires research and effort. To optimize your content marketing strategy, we’ve put together a guide to help you avoid errors, save time and boost sales online.

1.      Identify the needs of your target audience

Every content you create is for your target audience. Hence, you should research what they need, problems they are seeking solutions to and content they like to read. This will help you create valuable content that drives engagement. There is a 44% failure rate for digital strategies because of unaligned content.

A good way to get feedback from your audience is to prepare a survey for collecting comments and feedback on a topic. Survey Monkey is a free online tool that will help you create short surveys. The goal is to collate information on:

§  Audience demographics such as age, sex, location and occupation

§  Problems they would like to solve and if they’re willing to pay for working solutions

§  What content would they like your blog to create

2.      Capture email and generate leads with gated content

Gated content is a proven way to drive sales-qualified leads. Successful small business receive more ROI from content marketing by using a form to hide valuable resources. This helps you gain access to customers who have a clear desire to solve a problem. Examples include webinars, case studies, e-books, checklists and more. Generalized content is good for everyone; valuable content should be reserved for subscribers and those who fill your contact form to help you capture essential data such as phone numbers and email addresses.

3.      Use case studies to build trust

The one thing that sets successful brands from others is the trust customers have in them. Trustworthiness is what potential customers look for when spending money on a product or service. They want to see precedents that have established your product as reliable and dependable.

Create blog posts centred on the experience of customers who have witnessed results with your product. Businesses must earn the trust of customers to have any chance at success.

4.      Leverage social media for maximum visibility

Every brand needs a social media presence. While it can be an overwhelming marketplace for small businesses, those who have a powerful game plan enjoy great success. A few social media marketing tips include

•           Humanize your content for your followers to find it relatable
•          While Facebook is necessary, figure out the platform your target audience visits the most and channel your resources and efforts there.
•         Follow the competition and take your clues from them
•           Useful, entertaining content performs better than promotional content

-          Use a calendar to schedule your posts. Examples include schedule, Yesware and Docsend

-          Incorporate stunning visuals throughout your post to keep readers engaged in your content.

5.      Post share-worthy content

The fastest way to put your brand on people’s lips is to post viral content that customers/followers share with friends and family. When you give people great content, they can’t wait to discuss it with their friends, post a comment in the comment section or follow the conversation.

6.      Use video to demonstrate the efficacy of your product

Video should be part of every content marketing campaign. According to Alexa.com, YouTube is the second most trafficked site in the world and having your video there gives you a chance to rank high for keywords relating to your niche. TechCrunch reports reveal that Facebook users watch over 100 million hours of video per day and videos on Twitter enjoy more retweets than photos.

Video is ideal for showing potential customers how your product works. Always keep the length as short as possible or people won’t click the play button. Video lets people see that you are real and your product works. It builds trust in the customer, an essential element for conversion and is more personal than blog posts. It’s no wonder popular marketers like Neil Patel and Brian Dean are investing in video content to market their services.

Conclusion

When startups launch a content marketing campaign, it seems like a daunting task, but it shouldn’t if you take it step by step without overwhelming yourself, balancing too many tasks at once. You can outsource your content marketing needs if you feel like it’s not a task you’re equipped to handle or would like to focus on the operational side of business.

Send an email to antego2010@yahoo.com and I can help you create amazing blog post geared to your audience and guaranteed to drive shares and conversion.