If you have a small business, then you may have already faced the problem of not having enough money to advertise to reach a bigger audience. Building a business requires a lot of effort and financial investment. But how do you get extra money when you need funds to engage people to buy?
Content Marketing Is the Answer
Content marketing has the ability to solve your problem. There are many content marketing approaches you can implement. But for beginning businesses, consider not only efficiency but also on cost.
Below we have listed several ideas. The cost of each idea is low and the usefulness of each method is high. Interested in success? Then let’s get started!
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a way to create interest in your brand and services or products without using ads to promote it. Like ads, the goal is conversions, revenue increase and to reach a bigger audience. So how do you do content marketing?
There are X ways to drive traffic using content:
- SEO
- Social Media
Website content like blog posts helps your SEO, and landing pages with lead capture forms (read on to find out more about lead capture) help you convert visitors to leads.
Launch a Blog for SEO
Blogs are an excellent option to show and tell readers about your brand and business. Sure, working on a blog requires a lot of effort, but if you want to succeed, you have to put in the work.
- A quality blog requires effort. If you already have a WordPress website, you can easily add a blog to it or have a developer do it for you. You’ll want the blog to do the following:
- Answer client pain points related to your product or service
- Convert visitors to subscribers or, better yet, inspire them to call you, set up a free appointment, or otherwise initiative a sales process
Let’s take a look at each one of the above in a little more detail.
Drive Traffic
The blog primarily drives traffic through SEO. If people are searching for things related to your business, your blog is an opportunity to introduce them to your work. Blogs give you the opportunity to reach a larger audience because you can use a wider range of keywords. Let’s say you work for a nanny agency in San Francisco, your main keywords would be “nanny agency” and “nanny agency san francisco” etc. But with blogs you can extend your keywords to “nanny tips and tricks”, “should i get a nanny” “what to expect from a nanny” and much more. By having a broader range of keywords, there are more options for people to click on your blog, which drives traffic to your website.
Answer Client Pain Points
One way to write engaging, memorable content is to respond directly to client pain points related to your products and services. For example, your potential client might have a dog that needs grooming, but they are nervous about the chemicals being used on their dogs. You could write about eco-friendly dog grooming and let potential clients know just how safe and earth friendly dog grooming can be.
Convert Visitors
Content marketing is about inbound marketing. That means you are attracting clients not pushing advertising at them. Once people get to your site, you’ll want them to begin a sales process. This is also called lead capture.
One example is an email signup form. Most people will not sign up just because there is a form. In this case, offering a free download in exchange for an email address is a good place to start. A more direct route is to request that they call you or sign up for a free assessment. In any case, conversion is the goal.
Use Social Media Posts
Social networks are a great way to reach an audience. They provide more opportunities to keep in touch with people, and also more effective in engaging attention to your business.
Here are some tips and considerations for using social media to boost your business:
- Video. Video is trending right now and is a highly converting content type, meaning that people are more likely to engage with your content when you use video. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Getting started by taking some video of yourself answering frequently asked questions about your products and services.
- Stories. Being on the same wavelength with potential customers creates a path to success. People love the openness of stories. Use stories to tell your followers about your plans for the future and show the behind the scenes of your business along with ways people have benefitted from your products and services.
- Captions. Without a good caption, your post is less likely to convert. You’ll often be posting your blogs and inviting readers to click through to your blog, where you can “capture” them as leads and convert them to new business. Here are some headline hacks.
- Images. Great images are engaging and converting. The visual part is important both for your blog and for your profile on social networks. Be both informative and visually interesting.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has the highest return on investment of all the digital marketing strategies. It’s a great way to boost brand loyalty and sales via special offers. One easy way to send out a newsletter is summarize and blog and link to it.
The formula is:
Short friendly info
Special offer
Link to blog post
For ecommerce sites, this should be done on a weekly basis.
Summing Up
Content marketing is an excellent tool for improving rankings, driving traffic to your website, cultivating brand loyalty, and growing small businesses. With a little sweat equity, it’s affordable for beginners. So try your hand at content marketing by writing a blog, upping your social media presence, and using email marketing.
Marie Barnes is a writer for LinksManagement and Bestforacar. She is an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs. She shares her insights through blogging. Follow her on Medium.