14 Effective Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses (Part 1)

When conducting your business, you, of course, use some elements of content marketing. Whether it’s the updates you make on your Facebook page, the articles you write for the industry’s leading publication, or the posts you leave on your business blog. You can call it whatever you want, but when you actively “push” information to achieve your business goals, you are engaged in content marketing. Therefore, first of all, it is worth learning to do it right. What is meant by the word "right"? Tells Marya Jan. A word to the author.

I'm not talking about any striving for excellence, but if you make any decisions in the field of content marketing, then you should be fully aware of why you are doing this. To fully understand the consequences of publishing each piece of information, and then take certain actions to optimize the goals of your content marketing.

Sounds like some kind of nonsense? But this is not so, and in order to prove it, I am going to share with you very useful and effective tips in the field of content marketing, which you can begin to implement today.

Let's start!

# 1 Define your target audience with jewelry precision

If you do not understand this, then your entire strategy related to content marketing and its implementation will not save you. Who are you targeting? Who is your ideal reader? Who are the people you want to attract to your business in the hope of turning them into profitable customers and buyers in the future?

Focusing on these people, create for them one or many images of an ideal client for you. Imagine them in such detail that if you are writing articles, you are really talking to a living person. Choose a shortcut for these people with whom they will be associated with you.

Be as specific as possible. After all, you want to reach out to your target audience, and weed out those people for whom this information is not intended. Thanks to this, your content will not be considered ordinary, it will not seem to people that you are trying to please everyone.

# 2 Clearly understand the goals of your content marketing.

Your primary goal is to attract new potential customers to your business and make profit from it. How exactly does the content fit into this picture?

Well, content does a lot of things for you, which is why it exists. It helps you gain confidence and gives you a certain impact. He is what sets you apart from your competitors. It creates trust and understanding between you and your customers. And even more - he carries out preliminary sales, as a result of which a person is one step closer to making a purchase decision.

Think about your global content strategy, but don’t forget about individual goals for each piece of information that you publish. What do you want to achieve? Want to share your content on social networks? Maybe an increase in the number of comments? Want to conduct a business survey? Get the attention of the press?

Call for action with every bit of content that you publish.

# 3 Create an editorial calendar for each platform

By creating a very simple editorial calendar for each social media platform, you will bring your content strategy into action. Think of all the social networking sites on which you are registered. Think about the different channels that you use to promote your content, and then create a basic calendar on an individual basis.

Create one for your own blog. The calendar must contain the type of content that you will publish, the date of publication, and a working title. Create two more calendars: one for your business page on Facebook, the other for messages that you leave on other sites as a guest.

It’s easiest to set aside a few hours for each platform, and then sit down and outline ideas for content in advance. Since in the process you will sort through all the important categories, spend some time to delve into your bookmarks, links to Evernote.

So you can determine the plan for the publication of your content for several weeks. I would recommend not to paint it for months to come - the nature of things on the Internet is quite variable.

# 4 Follow the 80/20 rule when posting content.

The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results are based on 20% of your efforts. Apply this principle to your content marketing strategy.

First, you need to evaluate the current state of things: what works and what doesn't. If you have a dozen accounts on social networks, but you see that most of the traffic comes from two or three places, it may be worth focusing on the latter, and abandon the rest.

Secondly, apply this principle to your own blog. Spend 20% of your time on creating content, and the rest on promoting it. Especially at the beginning when your traffic is low enough or your audience is extremely small. For each post you write on your blog, post 3 or 4 on other sites. Apply this rule to the very essence of your content: 20% advertising and 80% educational.

Finally, always remember that quality is more important than quantity. Unlike the days gone by, when there were no millions of sites fighting on the Internet for every pair of eyes, now we are faced with a glut of content. More is not always better.

# 5 Create different types of content

You don’t want to be considered monotonous? This will certainly happen if you stick to one type of content. Feel free to change it from time to time. You can write blog posts or do audio podcasts. You can create video tutorials or do infographics.

Take advantage of all your strengths, but feel free to hire someone to create content in a different format. Especially if you have people who are good at it.

Other than that, think about the type of content you are creating.

You can publish educational content, or create one that inspires or entertains people. You can tell stories from life, you can cover the latest trends and news, even call on customers and buyers - you can too.

# 6 Learn to write killer headlines

Do you know a 100% working way to sabotage your own advertising tactics? This is spelling of bad headlines. It will be enough to destroy everything that you worked on in the bud.

As I said, identifying your potential audience is an important step, and drawing up an effective content plan is a necessity. However, the title is the last piece of the mosaic. People can forgive you for a mistake in formatting the text, even for boring prose, they shake their heads with disapproval at the sight of the pictures that you have chosen, will tell your friends about your new content, even if you didn’t ask for it (or rather, you forgot about it), but boring and meaningless headlines? They will be ignored before you can say: "content marketing."

Think carefully about your headlines, because this is a skill that takes time to develop. If you don’t understand anything about this, or if you are doing very poorly, hire someone who will do it for you!

Most people can make a pretty decent headline for themselves - you don’t need to launch rockets into space. All that is required of you is to make him profit and arouse curiosity.



# 7 Be interesting

Publish content that people really want to read. It can be educational, inspirational or funny. As long as it means something to people, they will consider it interesting.

Remember that you write on the Internet. Here, the rules are slightly different from those used when writing articles for print, or even from the corporate press. Pay attention to your expression and tone. Make your text more personal, try to find a connection with your readers at a deeper level.

Write in conversational style, as if you were talking with your friend. Do it, but don't forget about editing. Use short sentences and abbreviations.

Go quickly to the point, but remember to present it correctly. Use more paragraphs to break down your bulky paragraphs into easier-to-read paragraphs. Use images, markers, italics, and subtitles for your reader’s convenience.

If people find your text useful and easy to read, they will pay attention to what it says and, most likely, share it with their friends.

To be continued!