Key Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses Featured.jpg

Key Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

With more businesses — and consumers — online than ever before, visibility has become the name of the game. There are lots of ways that your business can be more visible online, including paid advertising and content marketing.

Paid ads are probably the most direct and quickest way to get your business more visibility online; however, paid ads are always going to be just that — paid. With paid advertising, there’s a price to pay every time someone clicks through to your website. But, not to worry. There’s a much more cost-effective way to increase the visibility of your business.

Content marketing is the key to SEO (search engine optimization), which is an essential part of getting your website to rank organically in the SERPs (search engine results pages). When your site ranks organically, you’ll have greater visibility without the cost, and every click you earn will be free.

From a visibility standpoint — especially one where cost is a consideration — content marketing is a definite must. But, organic visibility is not something that happens overnight. SEO is the long game, and while it absolutely pays off in the end, it takes patience and consistent content marketing, which can be a challenge for many businesses.

Today, I hope to help you get it right.

5 tips to help small businesses get content marketing right

#1. Brainstorm great topics to write about

Most small business owners aren’t writers, and that’s OK. The good news is that you don’t have to be Hemmingway or Vonnegut to create great content for your website. In fact, it’s better that you’re not, because people want to read content they can connect with online, and that means it needs to be written in a way that’s clear and relatable. But, how you write your content is just one aspect of content marketing; it’s also about what you write.

Coming up with what to write about for your website isn’t easy. But, don’t worry. Once you start writing, coming up with topics will get easier and easier. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you get started:

  • What questions do your customers and prospects commonly have about your business, products or services, or industry?
  • What do your customers or prospects want to know or learn?
  • What types of things are your customers researching before they make a purchase decision?

Once you’ve started jotting down a few topics, make sure to optimize your topic headlines with relevant keywords. This will help your website and your article rank for those keywords in the SERPs. However, you should only do so if you can use keywords naturally. If you force keywords into your headlines that don’t naturally fit, it’s only going to end up making them look spammy.

Use Google’s keyword planner, as well as the Google and YouTube search auto-fill dropdown, to get keyword ideas. Also, think of what you might google if you were a customer looking for your services or products.

#2. Schedule out your topics

If possible, you’ll want to have a year’s worth of topics planned out, at a rate of one blog per week, so you’ll need 52 topics. Having topics planned out will ensure that you’ll always have something to talk about without having to think too much about it. But, don’t be afraid to move or change your topic list so that your blogs will stay relevant with the times.

Next, put someone in charge of creating content for each topic. If you’re going to do it yourself, make time in your schedule for it. Content marketing is incredibly important, and it’s not something you overlook or push aside when your schedule fills up.

How many words should your blogs be? Ideally, you should aim to create at least 1,000 words of written content, and you’ll also want to include professional, attractive visuals and video, if possible, to support that content.

#3. Post and share your content

Once you’ve got your 1,000-word blog written and posted on your website, you may think your job is done. However, posting your content on your website is just the starting point. You can do so much more with it!

When you’ve posted a new blog on your website, make it go further by also posting a link to it on any relevant social media platforms your business is listed on. You can also give your blog legs by including it in your monthly newsletter or marketing emails.

#4. Promote your content

A lot of people think of SEO and paid advertising as two, very separate things, but the reality is that they aren’t mutually exclusive. Believe it or not, a little paid advertising can help to make your organic strategy more effective, and vice versa.

When you optimize the content on your website with relevant keywords, share it on social media, and send it out via email, you’ll drive organic visibility and reach.

But, you should also consider allocating a small paid budget for each content piece to boost via search and social. Ideally, this is accomplished via retargeting campaigns, which provide your past visitors with valuable content. Retargeting is also very affordable, making it a great option.

#5. Consider getting help

Content marketing isn’t something that should be skipped or overlooked, and it’s important to recognize the reality of the situation. As a business owner, you may believe that you have plenty of time to produce your own content, but will you actually have time to produce it? Or, will you more likely end up pushing it down your to-do list or skipping it altogether when you get too busy?

If you’re not 100% sure that you’ll be able to produce your own content, consider working with someone who can. Marketing 360® offers professional, cost-effective content marketing and SEO services to make your business more visible.

Content marketing is a key part of SEO, but before you start building out content for SEO dominance, you need a great website. Start building your own website with the Websites 360® website builder today, and if you’re interested in affordable, professional content marketing solutions, learn more about how Marketing 360 can help.

Originally published on 3/30/20