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I know, you’re getting sick of hearing it and I’m getting sick of writing it, but content is extremely important in any sort of marketing, and website content is becoming even more important than ever for online marketing. Does your website have quality content that is fresh, unique, and updated regularly? If not, here are ten fantastic content marketing tips for small business owners:
1) Content Is King
We had to put this as number 1 because content truly is king. It doesn’t matter if your business is a one-man operation or a large corporation or anything in between, content is king. If you’re looking to grow your business, especially on the internet, then you need to make sure you have quality content that is updated regularly.
2) There’s No Easy Way Out
Since content is king in marketing, it means you have to have regular, quality content. And what that means is that there is no easy way out of online marketing. Your options with content are write your own quality content on a regular basis or hire someone like us to handle the content production for you. There’s just no easy way out of producing website content.
3) Tell Your Story
Don’t just write content that is plain and boring or send out promotions that are outlining the same price discounts your dozens of competitors have. Tell your story and make your business unique. It doesn’t matter if you’re in what seems like a boring industry such as floor mats or in an exciting industry like aeronautical research, each and every business has a unique and interesting story, culture and background that should come out through your content.
4) We Don’t Have Time (Or Money) For Content…
Bull! Everyone has either enough time or enough money for content. Why? Because it’s going to lead to more customers! You spend money everyday on that newspaper ad, Google ad, radio ad, magazine coupon, or other promotion for your business (all of which are more expensive than content) so don’t say you don’t have the money for it. And time? Well, it only takes 30-60 minutes to produce a quality article if you know about your niche, so set the time aside and make it a habit and before long you’ll have the time (or money) for content marketing.
5) Be Visual
Black and white content gets boring after a while. Add images, infographics, video, and other forms of rich media. This will help your content reach a larger market and stay interesting, plus you’ll be reaching even more people in different verticals by expanding into different media forms.
6) Develop A Calendar
Let’s be honest, most of us don’t like writing day in and day out. I blog at least twice a week on our site and write dozens of other articles each week, yet I still do it because I have a content calendar that I hold myself to. Develop your own and hold yourself to it no matter what!
7) Spy On Your Competitors
Do you have a competitor who has way more Facebook followers than you? Or who has way more quality blog posts? Then spy on them! Don’t be afraid to take some of their ideas and spin them to make them your own. This is how any competitive market works, so get out there and find a competitor who is doing it better than you (maybe even a competitor in a different location or market) and use parts of their strategy to improve your own.
8) Remember Content Is Long Term
Content marketing and blogging takes time. I don’t care what anyone else tells you, it just takes time. You can’t put up 500 articles in one day and expect the same results as putting out 2 articles a day over a period of a year. Be patient and stick with it and you’ll see results!
9) Make Sure Your Content Doesn’t Fall On Deaf Ears
Is anyone even looking at your content? Most times just writing isn’t enough, so you may want to work with an online marketing company such as Simple SEO Group to market your content. Social sites, search engines, and email marketing exist because of content, but you have to market it properly to get traffic to your content and see results from your writing.
10) Track Your Results Over Time
Every quarter take a look at you website traffic, inquiries, and sales to track your progress over time. I know the first quarter or two that we became more aggressive with our content marketing we saw little results, but in the third quarter things exploded and have been moving upwards since then. Stay at it and keep an eye on your results over time.
Do you need help with content marketing or content production for your small business? If so contact us today at 888-918-1665 or submit a consultation request to the right!