Paid advertising is a popular strategy of many businesses. But surprisingly they are becoming less effective as customers today are more aware. They won’t buy something based on hyped advertisements that promise to do wonders. A modern-day customer prefers doing organic research about a product or a company and determine if it is something that meets requirements.
Content marketing has emerged to be a better strategy for establishing the credibility and authority of businesses and their products. A good strategy helps to discover the right audience and hence increases the chance of selling a product.
However, it needs a lot of resources which is most convenient for bigger brands as they have an entire team of marketers who work on e-books, webinars, blogs, and educational content. For a small business, such investments aren’t always feasible but they shouldn’t give up on content marketing. Let’s look at how a good content marketing strategy can benefit small businesses.
What Is Meant By Content Marketing?
Knowing what content marketing encompasses is important as it’s much more than the format of the content. It could be a blog article, a video, or an e-book. An entire strategy is a long-term approach that covers a variety of formats meant to develop a strong relationship with the audience.
As per definition, Content Marketing is defined as a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing relevant, consistent, and valuable content to attract customers and retain them. The ultimate motive is to drive profitable customer action.
Practically it is an approach that offers relevant and useful content to the customers instead of merely pitching a product or service. The information has to be in a way that solves the issues of the customers.
Reaping the Benefits of Content Marketing
Content marketing is powerful for both big and small businesses. Primary benefits include cost savings, loyal customers, and increased sales. However, the overall benefit is beyond the three key benefits. Other ways that it helps you include:
- Establishing a brand that connects with the audience and subsequently helps to maintain brand awareness and increasing recognition.
- Build a competitive advantage over your competitors who don’t have a content marketing strategy.
- Position your company as a thought leader and build a strong trustworthy relationship with prospects and customers.
- Drive more traffic to your website and get better exposure without substantial investment in paid advertisements.
- Increase conversion ratio of visitors to leads and sales.
Is Content Marketing Helpful For Small Businesses?
Approximately 70% of customers learn about a product or a company through articles over any advertisement. Today most customers are actively looking for valuable content before buying a product or a service.
For instance, Forks Over Knives delivers healthy, chef-prepared meals to customers. Their content strategy is to produce articles backed by scientific evidence. The most feature long articles like “five common misconceptions about food” written by a doctor shared over 43,000 times on Facebook. Besides being well-written and researched, the credentials of the author play a vital role.
Content marketing of the brand is primarily focused to show the thought leadership of Forks Over Knives and their expertise in the industry. It has helped them in building a positive, trustworthy and authoritative image among people.
Small businesses can replicate the same idea despite not having an expert readily available with them. You can connect with an expert or an influencer from your field. Some of them do not charge money but work out strategies for mutual benefit. This may include publishing and giving credits for the content they develop.
Another example is of MoveHub that is an online resource for people looking to relocate abroad. They started by designing map-based infographics providing at-a-glance insights for complex issues like the cost of living of a particular city or happiness index from across the world. They have also featured on reputed portals. Their infographics summarize and present complex information in easy-to-understand graphics.
How to Successfully Integrate Effective Content Marketing Strategy?
Smartphones and mobiles have transformed the way we read, entertain, and view different aspects of our lives. A substantial segment of users has switched to mobile instead of a laptop to browse the internet. This means small businesses need to shift focus to mobile-first content marketing plans. Your content should be easily accessible through mobile.
Besides developing a mobile-friendly website, you can create an app for your business. It is a useful way to serve your content in mobile format. Some ideas that are handy for mobile marketing include visual posts, mobile video, social media posts, mobile-optimized emails, and podcasts.
If you are looking for professional help to integrate effective content marketing strategies for your business, you can contact Affordable SEO Company. Their experts have been serving businesses across Tampa, FL for the past several years.