Everything You Need To Know About Content Marketing for Small Businesses

There are a lot of things to worry about when running a small business. Especially for first-time entrepreneurs. Setting up the right strategies and ideas to grow their businesses can be a tussle. An example of this would be the nonchalant attitude of any new business to invest its marketing budget in content marketing. Such a huge mistake!  

As a small business, you may have heard about content marketing before and wondered why a lot of big brands keep investing part of their marketing budget in it. Do you care to know why? It’s because it’s yielding the result many of these brands expect and is more reliable than other means of advertisement. 

Content marketing is a good effective way to promote any business —whether big or small— irrespective of which industry.

According to the Semrush statistics, 73% of businesses that used 10% to 70% of their marketing budget on content marketing in 2021 were very successful. This clearly shows the efficacy of content marketing for business development.

If you want to know about content marketing and how it can help grow your small business. Then you’re at the right place. This article will explain everything you need to know about content marketing and why it’s essential for your small business marketing.     

What is Content Marketing?

Let’s start by knowing what content marketing is before we discuss more about its importance to your small business growth. 

Content marketing can be defined as a business strategy, which involves the making and sharing of valuable content (such as videos, blogs, social media posts, etc), with clear aims: to create awareness, attract customers, drive sales, develop your business trust and credibility, or just for engagement.

This simply means every piece of content is created on purpose and has a goal to achieve, which is to help market your products and services to your customers and prospects in a targeted demographic.

Examples of Content Marketing

There are different types of content marketing available for the adoption of small businesses. If you’re ready to look into content marketing, then you’re looking into the following content to market your brand:

1. Video
2. Blogs or Articles (long-form and short-form)
3. Social media
4. Podcasts
5. E-books
6. Billboards
7. Paid Ads

Let’s look at some of these content marketing ideas to better understand how they can be used in a small business:

1. Video Content Marketing

   The creation of video is one of the most popular content marketing ideas adopted by different businesses to create awareness, attract customers and drive sales. The use of video content for marketing is very effective because people find visual content more appealing and relatable.

   You can market your products and create awareness for your brand by creating video content that can be posted on video platforms like Youtube, Tiktok, and social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

2. Blogs or Articles

   Blogging is another content marketing idea. If you’ve already created a website for your small business, then blogging should be part of your marketing strategy. Writing blogs weekly or Biweekly can sporadically increase the popularity of your business and generate organic traffic to your business website, which would improve your conversion rate.

3. Social Media

   Social media is another popular tool of content marketing. It allows you to disseminate information to thousands of people in real time and also get responses from them. Posting on social media presents many businesses with the opportunity to reach their target audience, establish their brands’ credibility, and guide customers till they make purchases.

   Social Media also assists businesses in better understanding their customers’ or prospects’ choices and preferences via online surveys and feedback. By leveraging social media marketing, your small business can succeed in gaining more customers and making more online sales.

4. Podcasts

   Podcasts are online audio content or radio you can create to discuss business issues and give useful advice to your audience. You can even use it to share valuable ideas or tips with your target audience. Podcasts are a very effective way to gain new customers and make sales. It’s also not expensive to operate which makes it a good marketing strategy for small businesses.

   There are other content marketing ideas you can try to advertise your brands to customers and create awareness for your small business. Some of these are Billboard, E-books, paid ads, etc. 

Why Content Marketing?

You must be asking yourself right now why your business needs content marketing to drive more sales and increase revenue.  You don’t have to worry much, the answer to that question is not far-fetched. 

Let me explain why you need content marketing as your small business marketing strategy:

What makes content marketing more popular and effective than every other marketing strategy is its storytelling nature. Unlike other marketing strategies that focus strictly on achieving their aim, content marketing utilizes storytelling techniques to introduce your brand to the market and persuade customers and prospects to buy your products.  The following are the reasons why your small business needs content marketing to grow:

1. For Revenue Increase

   Are you okay with what you generate monthly or weekly as income? If your answer is no, then there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t try something as effective as content marketing to increase your small business revenue.

   When you put in the right amount of effort in creating content for your business, nothing can stop your business from upscaling, leaving your competitors behind.

   Note that one way you can increase your revenue is through advertisement, and one of the most effective marketing campaigns you can use is content marketing.

2. For Awareness

   For you to make profits in your new business you need to make sales. For anyone to patronize your product or service, they must know what you do. If nobody knows your brand, your business can’t grow. This is where you need content marketing to assist you in creating awareness.

   According to the Semrush Survey, 45% of businesses that participated planned on increasing their brands’ awareness in 2022 through content marketing. You can only imagine the impact of content marketing on the growth of different businesses.

3. Research

   People are always searching for something online every day. They want a solution to their problems and seek the available ideas on the internet for this reason. Just like your prospective customers are looking for a brand that would provide them with what they want online.

   There are tons of brands actively providing the solutions these customers are looking for, the only obstacle on their way to reaching these prospects is a lack of content marketing.

   Content marketing is the right business strategy you can implement to win new customers in search of urgent solutions on the internet. When your content is well-optimized to meet the interest of these desperate prospects, your chances of converting them to customers are huge.

4. Consideration

   You’ll need content marketing to persuade your audience and prospects till they consider your brand over other businesses. Content marketing is the right tool you need to make suggestions, advise, or inform your audience on why your products or services are the best they could find out there.

   When your target audience locates your small business and gets to read about your inventories with the solution they can provide them, if this interests them, they’ll try to patronize you.

5. Buy

   Ultimately, the main reason you’re investing your resource and effort in content marketing is to ensure people buy your products. There is no other reason.

   You can use content to nurture your target audience from day one till the day they purchase your products. A lot of successful businesses invest hugely in content marketing because they know it’s effective in increasing the sales of their products.

   This is why you also have to invest in content marketing as a small business. Except if you’re not ready to grow and increase your revenue.

How to Use Content Marketing in Small Business

Now that you’ve realized the importance of content marketing in your small business. Your focus should be fixated on how you can use its effectiveness to get the right results you envisioned. 

Yes. There is a right way you can channel your content to gain the attention of your target audience and follow them up till they buy from you. Follow these two patterns while creating your content:

1. Map your content for customers

   Your content should have a focus, and that’s your customers. Effective content marketing prioritizes customers over products. You must understand your customers and address their pain points.

   Ensure everything you talk about is about them and not how huge your business is. To be honest, no one cares about how big or small your business is, but what you have to offer.

2. Add Value

   Your content must provide your audience with what they’re looking for: a solution. There is absolutely no reason for anybody to read your long-form article, video, or thread on social media when it doesn’t add any value to them or proffer solutions to their problems.

   Make sure your content is well prepared and fashioned to serve the interest of your audiences and add value. For example, you can occasionally publish how-to articles to teach your customers how to make use of some of their gadgets or home appliances. If you’re into the baking business, you can teach your customers how to bake from home.

Takeaway

Though there are many other marketing strategies you can try while planning to boost the sales of your business. However, the impact of content marketing can’t be overridden. You’ll always need to try it, especially when you want your business to experience rapid growth in revenue and become more popular among your target audience.