Marketing / Content Marketing

Why content marketing for small business is key

Laura Dolan

Updated: Dec 20, 2023 · 7 min read

Toolkit for download in this article

content marketing for small business


The importance of having robust, compelling content on your website has never been higher. While in the midst of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, many people who are quarantined are looking for ways to occupy and entertain themselves during times of isolation and social distancing.

As a small business owner, now’s the time to grab your audience’s attention by generating an influential marketing strategy to get your content noticed and drive traffic to your site, whether it’s in the form of a blog, photo essay, video, white paper, survey, etc. There are so many ideas out there that constitute great pieces of content.

Check out the following tips on how to leverage content marketing for small business to drive traffic to your site and increase conversions:

Webpage content

It’s always important to deem your webpage content as a lead generation tool. It’s just one aspect of your digital footprint that drives attention to your business with subtlety. Customers know when businesses try to sound overly promotional and disingenuous in the process of trying to increase conversions and make a profit.

Taking advantage of SEO tools by leveraging strong keywords that will help your content rank higher is also another subtle marketing strategy. You want to ensure your content is front and center with intentional tactics put in place such as an influential headline, subject line or call-to-action (CTA) that compels your target audience to click and read further. Paying attention to how you label your images’ alt tags and create campaign builder URLs within your copy will also improve your rankings and get your content to appear on the first page of a Google search.

Blogging

Think of your blog posts as a mecca for downloadable content. You can leverage your blogs to exhibit so much more than just text. (Just another helpful tip, breaking your text up into bullet points and lists are always great crowd pleasers, OK, carry on). With blogs, you can also link to other related articles within the text, post embed codes to videos, podcasts, white papers, etc. They’re also great sources for promoting events such as webinars or conferences you have coming up.

There’s no limit as to what you can do with blogs. Writing compelling content while sprinkling in some multimedia and visuals is not only a good way to break up the text, but it’s another subtle way to increase time on site and make the best use of your pay-per-click investment with multiple tabs that point to your webpages. Just remember to format your content so that your hyperlinks open in new windows.

Check out the landing page to Keap’s Success Blog below, notice the text box with Trending News in the right rail. If you elect to have this format on your site, ensure you’re rotating stories as frequently as possible so the content doesn’t appear stale.

Videos

Videos are another very powerful content marketing tool. Keap posts a series of videos on a weekly basis (you can subscribe to Keap’s YouTube channel any time) that are not only educational, but provide a decent amount of entertainment–I guess you could say they’re “edutainment.”

Keap publishes videos that provide information such as:

  • automation products and how they work
  • product comparisons
  • monthly release reports on how our proprietary products are improving and any updates our clients need to know so they can continue operating their businesses with fewer issues
  • audio files to our podcasts
  • advice on how to move your leads through a sales funnel
  • Videos are also a great way to reveal your company’s personality and close the gap between customers and business owners, creating synergy within the small business community.

    If you have a product that you can demo, that would also make for some effective video content. Consider creating a series so you can compile a playlist that you can also link to in your videos, resulting in a virtuous cycle of content.

    Email

    Creating email campaigns and sending email blasts are another great way to leverage content marketing. When done correctly, your emails can nurture leads and move people down the sales funnel. Be sure to generate designated lists for those who are in different stages of the funnel, as sending the same email to someone who just completed a contact form for more introductory information as you would to someone who just purchased from you wouldn’t be quite as effective and would make your company appear lazy in its communication tactics.

    One of my favorite small businesses, a peaceful little winery in Ramona, CA called Chuparosa Vineyards, sends a monthly newsletter that I consider the perfect example for content marketing via email.

    The screenshots below were taken from the most recent message that acknowledges measures the business is taking to keep its customers safe during the coronavirus crisis and how it’s still allowing its wine and other items to be purchased via pick-up or delivery. The winery also includes how to make the most of your time during forced isolation with a fun recipe that would pair well with one of its bottles of Malbec. The message is relevant, informative and considerate.

    Case studies

    Publishing your case studies on your website and calling attention to them will help your target audience get a better idea of the great affection your customers have for your business.

    Case studies provide new clients concrete evidence of past success stories to help them gain a fresh perspective as to what they can expect when doing business with you. It’s imperative to include all statistics that might be relevant, but also to tell a story of the buyer’s journey. Also always remember to include quotes from satisfied clients as often as you can. Check out Keap’s resource guide for how to build a case study.

    Interstitials

    As bad of a reputation interstitials, also known as pop-ups, get, they’re actually quite handy as lead generation tools. You can leverage pop-ups to direct your prospects and customers to complete a conversion with a simple CTA such as signing up for your newsletter, registering for a webinar or, as in the case below, signing up for a free trial, but putting some urgency on it, as March 31 is the deadline. It’s considered one of the least subtle ways to grab your audience’s attention when it comes to content marketing, but they’re easy to code, rotate and are conducive when the need comes for a more aggressive marketing ploy.

    Being content with your content

    At the end of the day, it all comes down to what kind of content is right for your business. Maybe your company benefits more from videos than from blogs. If your products are visually pleasing, perhaps create a rotating carousel of images at the top of your homepage linking to each respective item, creating a quicker shortcut for purchase. The possibilities are endless, it’s just a matter of producing an effective content marketing strategy that will best represent your business and keep your visitors coming back for more.

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