Content marketing takes on many forms, website articles, blogs, infographics, reviews, how-to-guides, even pictures and videos. According to new research by SmartInsights, the most important digital trend today is content marketing. In fact, half of all marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets. But without a successful strategy that creates demand for this type of material, it is merely words on a page and images on a screen.
There are some pretty dismal statistics out there that show an absence of readership for online content since only 2% of posts from major brands are reaching their followers on Facebook and Twitter. When it comes to paid internet advertising, even the mighty Google admits that over 56% of their online ads are never seen.
With this in mind, here are some important content marketing tips for small businesses:
Research First. Create Second.
Outspoken author and civil rights leader, Malcolm X was quoted as saying, “Education is the passport for the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Before looking at what you will be creating, examine what other types of content have been successfully utilized in the past.
Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools can be effectively utilized to find the pages with the largest amount of traffic and search queries used most often along with the keywords used to locate them.
Have a Plan.
An old proverb states, “A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery.” To avoid toiling without reward, set up a plan for your content marketing strategy. This should include the type of content that is relevant to your audience with accompanying pictures, images, videos or infographics. Remember, posts with images receive 94% more views than those without.
Set up a calendar for brainstorming and creating your material that includes when and where your content will be published. This will ensure your strategy is not overlooked, remains on track and goals are being met in a timely manner.
Social is Your Best Friend For Ideas and Promotion.
Sociologist, Michael Schudson stated, “Advertising generally works to reinforce consumer trends rather than to initiate them.” Writing content around trends on social media is a great way to get exposure since the topic is already popular. Facebook, Google and Twitter have trending topics available with just a few keystrokes and a mouse click. Make the most of these trending topics by recognizing them, taking a unique spin or twist on them and initiate conversations with readers. What is their opinion? This type of interactive content is more likely to be read and shared with others.
Images. Images. Images.
There are many statistics that prove content with images is more likely to be seen and consumed than those without, but when it comes to creating new content, images are actually easier for marketers to create. According to research, the time, expense and effort required to creating new content, and the degree of difficulty associated with it, 73% of marketers found images to be “not difficult,” compared to 25% saying they were “somewhat difficult.” So therefore, using images is easier for marketers and more effective for consumer use.
Repurpose Content.
Former US President Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have,” and this holds true for repurposing content. There are many different ways to recycle old material and information. Perhaps an old blog can be revisited and updated with more relevant information. Maybe a statistical article can be reimagined as an infographic. Often revamping existing material is less difficult and time consuming than reinventing content we already have.
Small businesses can still be seen online, even in a world where everyone is trying to get noticed, by using some clever tricks and creating more relevant content for audiences.
This guest post was written by Ivan Serrano. Ivan is a tech writer and photographer in San Francisco. If you’d like to write a guest post for us we’d like to hear from you.
