Content marketing and inbound marketing are great equalizers for small businesses that can’t compete with the tremendous marketing and advertising budgets of larger corporations. With a well-developed content strategy and the right team of professional marketers and content creators — whether hired in-house or developed through outsourcing — content marketing can be cost-effective and generate a viable return-on-investment. Here’s what else you should know about content marketing for small businesses.
When Should Small Businesses Start With Content Marketing?
It’s never too early to start content marketing your small business start-up. You should begin developing a content marketing strategy at the same time you’re preparing your website for launch. In fact, the first content assets you prepare will likely be website service pages, landing pages, and blog posts.
From there, you can branch out to social media content, native advertising, and more. In the beginning, some of your key objectives will be getting your brand name out there for a new audience and driving new customer acquisition at scale.
Brand Recognition
When you use native advertising as one aspect of your content marketing campaign, you’ll reach users in an exploration mindset. They may not know they’re looking for your product or service, yet, but they have a problem and your content should provide the first step toward a solution. These consumers may not be ready to buy, but your content is planting seeds and putting your brand on their radar.
Customer Acquisition
Beyond building brand recognition, Aamir Chishtie, product manager at Thread, focuses on native advertising and other types of content marketing specifically to drive new customer acquisition.
“We actually use Taboola and other channels to drive users to perform specific actions,” he says. “It’s content marketing on a conversion-focused channel, instead of brand-building or brand-awareness or that sort of thing. The way we do this is by producing content that both informs and sells.”
How Should Small Businesses Start with Content Marketing?
As with any element of a new business, at some point you’ll need to jump right into content marketing. However, you’ll want to employ methodical steps to ensure the best results.
Create a Content Marketing Strategy
First, take steps to create a content marketing strategy. Your strategy should include:
- Setting goals and identifying KPIs.
- Establishing buyer personas.
- A competitive analysis.
- Identifying the best distribution channels.
- A content plan and content calendar.
Tie Content to KPIs
As you create your content plan, you’ll want to make sure every piece of content is tied to a KPI that can be measured.
“The goals around our campaigns are always around gross profit,” says Andrew Harkness, chief operating officer at MVF. “We measure that on a gross profit per campaign basis, but we also look to try and understand which inputs allow us to drive that exceptional performance. Too often, we find that people focus on the results of the campaign when actually, if you focus on what’s most important — your inputs — you can find the best performance in terms of your campaigns.”
Ensure Content is On Brand
Of course, you want your content to resonate with your audience and achieve its objectives. But it also must reflect your brand and values.
“For us, a good marketing strategy comes directly from our mission — what we want to do as a brand and what we want to say,” says Ellie Howard, VP marketing at Heist Studios. “Obviously, this will be tweaked for different audiences in different places, but really, we stay true to what we’re trying to do and what we’re about, which is disrupting the underwear industry.”
Choose the Right Distribution Channels
With your audience personas in place, you’ll want to choose distribution channels that deliver the greatest value, whether that’s social media, an email newsletter, your company blog, or native ads.
“We love social media,” says Jim Warren, marketing director at Bloom & Wild. “We find there are lots of key benefits to social media, particularly being able to talk to customers. Social media is just as important as any other form of customer contact, and we prioritize it.”
Howard points out that native ads have also become a great source of leads, which has sparked further investment in the format. “We have a bunch of traffic coming from native,” she says. “Hopefully it’s an indication of the strength of the brand and the fact that people want to consume our content. We’re under continuous pressure to produce great content moving forward and that’s something we will invest in.”
Test, Track, Revise
Ultimately, once you’ve established KPIs, you’ll want to test what works, continue tracking your results, and modify your efforts for continuous improvement. With so many options available for content creation, there’s no reason to let your efforts grow stagnant.
Don’t forget to repurpose high-performing, useful content. A survey can become an infographic. A live event can be transformed into video for those who couldn’t attend. Then, those video interviews can be crafted into an informative blog post (like this one)! Blog posts can become social media content. A white paper can become a series of blog posts. Customer testimonials can live in various places online to build your brand’s credibility. The possibilities are truly endless.
Does Your Small Business Need Content Marketing?
Per the content marketing statistics discussed in the linked article, the answer is very much yes. 97% of B2B marketing strategies involve content marketing, while nearly a quarter of B2C businesses are spending up to 24% of their total marketing budget on content marketing, and 17% of B2Cs are spending up to 74%. Email in particular is a worthwhile channel, with an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. For 67% of marketers, though, it’s sharing video on social channels that sees the biggest ROI.
Key Takeaways
For many organizations, content marketing efforts will be limited by time, staff, or budget. But, if you follow a carefully crafted content strategy and spend wisely, content marketing allows you to see tremendous results with a modest spend.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best marketing for small businesses?
Small businesses can boost their ROI by using content marketing tactics, which may include blogging, influencer campaigns, social media, and email marketing or a newsletter. 60% of small businesses said their best marketing strategy uses social media.
What percentage of small businesses have a monthly content marketing budget of under $1,000?
According to data from SEMRush, 71% of brands have a monthly content marketing budget of less than $1,000.
What is content marketing for beginners?
Content marketing uses a variety of online content — including blog posts, social media collateral, white papers, interviews, podcasts, and videos — to build a brand, attract an audience, and drive conversions. In content marketing, the goal is to build relationships and foster trust, rather than using hard sales techniques.
