Most small businesses face big obstacles when it comes to working with tight budgets. (Especially in the middle of a pandemic.)
That’s why it’s important for small business owners to think strategically about their digital marketing strategy in order to do more with less.
Below, we’ll dive into some content marketing ideas and tips that help small businesses get the most out of their content marketing budget.
Importance of Content Marketing for Small Businesses
Over the past decade and a half, a revolution has taken place in marketing. The focal point of promoting a business has shifted online and begun to center around a strategy known as ‘content marketing’.
As a small business, however, you want to know what value this strategy has for you and your organization. You want to know if content marketing is worth your time and investment as you work to build your own business.
Here is what you should know about small business content marketing and its potential for your organization.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is an umbrella of marketing strategies. Brands who engage in content marketing use a variety of different techniques to create content that they believe their potential customers will appreciate and engage with throughout their buyer’s journey.
The central goal of content marketing lies in understanding the needs of potential customers and then creating content that offers them value and engages them based on these needs. Small businesses must take their insight and knowledge of what their customers are looking for and the pain points they want to address to create material that will clearly demonstrate that this is a business here to solve those problems.
The importance of content marketing lies in using a variety of strategies to engage with customers across the web through valuable content. While developing and implementing their content strategy, small business owners will build out their websites with pages and blog posts as well as create materials for other platforms such as social media and email marketing. This allows companies to meet and engage with customers wherever they might be online, building brand awareness and strengthening relationships with leads and customers.
When used effectively, these strategies play a critical role in marketing for businesses and offer a very valuable investment.
What is the importance of content marketing for my business?
Your customers today live online. Over a quarter of US adults describe themselves as ‘almost always’ online, while 81 percent will go online every day on average.
As the internet has changed such a significant portion of people’s lives, it has also influenced how they make purchases and interact with the brands that interest them.
Customers no longer wait for companies to reach out to them in the form of outbound advertising. Instead, they have taken control over many of the early stages of the buying process, performing research themselves through the search engines. Consumers turn to Google to learn more about their pain points, potential solutions, and the companies that are there to help them.
A full 87 percent of shoppers now begin their product searches online before they make a purchase. This means that if you want to attract the attention of new buyers, you need to have the content that will help you get out in front of them during their decision-making process.
If your small business does not have a strong content marketing strategy, then you will not be present online to engage these prospective customers when they are researching their pain points and potential solutions.
But you can count on your competitors being there with quality content!
In fact, ninety-one percent of B2B businesses report they use content marketing to engage with their target audience, and 86 percent of B2C brands report that it is an important part of their marketing strategy.
Businesses across the country recognize that content marketing plays a central role in their digital marketing strategy as it allows them to engage with their prospective customers online consistently and in valuable ways. Any brand that wants to keep attracting new customers and continue to build their business will find content marketing to be an important step in that plan.
Why should I invest in content marketing?
Businesses that want to grow and lay the foundation for their success will find content marketing to be a critical component. From a small business perspective, not only does content marketing allow you to build a digital presence for your business, which helps you continue to connect with the modern consumer, but it also provides a cost-effective means of marketing your business and reaching customers from multiple directions.
For example, blogging has been listed as a top priority for more than half of marketers, and for good reason. B2B businesses that create blog articles can bring in 67 percent more leads than those who do not. Similarly, 69 percent of marketers attribute their lead generation success to their blogging strategy. These brands recognize that creating helpful, quality content that customers appreciate increases the attention they receive online and increases the number of customers who engage with their organization.
Content marketing also allows brands to create a cross-channel presence where they engage customers through social media as well. On Twitter, 66 percent of people have found a new business that they like based on tweets and engagement on the platform, and 69 percent have bought something because of a tweet.
Social media has become the modern watercooler where customers go to discuss the latest trends and pain points of the day. With this in mind, businesses increasingly turn to social channels to participate in these conversations and guide potential customers to their organization.
Altogether, content marketing demonstrates an effective means of promoting a business. Seventy-two percent of marketers say that it increases their engagement and leads. Meanwhile, the costs of participating in any of these channels can be minimal. Unlike older forms of advertising that require large upfront investments, content marketing helps keep costs down. In fact, it generates an average of three times as many leads as traditional forms of marketing, but it costs 62 percent less.
Organizations that want to grow their business should not overlook the importance and value that small business content marketing can offer them. This strategy of connecting with customers based on their needs and searches online and then demonstrating how the company can be valuable offers organizations a fantastic way to build their digital presence and generate excellent ROI.
9 Ideas for Small Business Content Marketing
Many small business owners hesitate to get started with content marketing because they worry they can’t produce high-quality content on a long-term basis.
Nothing could be farther from the truth!
While you might be working with limited resources and a small in-house team, you can still produce great content that your audience will find valuable.
Here are nine small business marketing ideas to help you get inspired.
1. Publish blog posts.
As long as your content is providing value, blogging can be a low-cost way to share your story with new customers and existing clients.
To get the most out of your blog, focus on creating evergreen content that delivers value regardless of the time it was published. While it’s fine to incorporate blog posts that address current events in your industry, these posts may no longer be relevant after a few weeks. In contrast, a well-optimized piece of evergreen content can stay relevant and drive target traffic to your site long after its publication date.
2. Develop e-books, white papers, and reports.
This tactic especially applies to small B2B brands. Business buyers need detailed information to make and justify their purchase decisions. Make their job easier by providing comprehensive resources.
Valuable content like well-researched white papers and reports is exactly what potential customers need when considering your business. In addition to putting all the necessary information into a tidy package, content like e-books and case studies provide an opportunity to show off your industry expertise.
3. Make videos.
These days you can make a good quality video with little more than your smart device, a decent mic, and some video editing software (of which there are many free options). This is great news because video is now an important format for your content strategy – especially for social media marketing.
Video content keeps viewers engaged across multiple devices and is great for teaching. For instance, you can create instructional videos for a potential customer showing how your product operates by using real-world examples.
4. Create graphics and images.
A well-chosen image can increase viewer engagement and reinforce your content message. It can even help boost your SEO. For instance, infographics are a great way to turn statistical data into visually interesting content. Or an amusing photo can illustrate your example while injecting some humor into the discussion.
Remember to always include “alt” attributes that briefly describe the image and its function on the page. This improves website accessibility and makes it easier for a search engine like Google to determine how the graphic relates to the overall relevancy of your content.
5. Curate content.
Demonstrate expertise in your field by sifting through industry-related content and letting readers know what they should pay attention to. In addition to saving time for your audience, a curated post can help fill in gaps in your content marketing schedule. For instance, listicles are a very popular format and can be created relatively easily.
Make sure to add some personal insights to curated posts. Your aim should be to help the reader understand your purpose for including this content and why you believe it is relevant for them.
Do your due diligence to reference high quality, reputable work. By sharing information from credible sources, your marketing efforts as a content curator will resonate with your target audience.
6. Conduct interviews.
Interviews are another great way of using content to grow brand awareness. In addition to talking about your industry from your perspective, you can provide value to your audience by sharing insights from other influencers in your field. When promoted correctly, all members of the interview will benefit from cross exposure to your respective audiences. These discussions can also spark other content ideas or even lead to future collaborations.
While setting up an interview requires some preparation, execution is a relatively simple affair. You can talk over the phone, use video conferencing, or even just email back and forth with questions and answers.
7. Record podcasts.
Podcasts have become another popular content format since they have the benefit of being personal and portable. A podcast allows you to engage listeners when they are going about their daily lives, in the car, cooking dinner, exercising, doing spreadsheet work, etc.
The entry barriers for producing a podcast are also relatively low. Similar to video, technological advancements mean you no longer have to invest in an entire sound studio to record a good quality podcast. Indeed, many popular podcast brands – such as the Nerdist – were originally recorded in people’s living rooms or an empty office.
8. Produce webinars or live streams.
You can use a virtual platform to host a webinar or live stream a workshop. This can be a great route for small businesses since it means you can engage with your audience in real-time, regardless of physical location (and without having to pay for a venue).
As with other types of content, your webinars shouldn’t solely focus on a sales pitch. Rather, design them to be instructional for both you and the audience – these events can be great opportunities to learn more about issues your audience faces.
9. Repurpose content.
You’ll find that you can refresh and reuse a lot of previous work for your content marketing strategy. For instance, pieces created for holidays, annual industry events, etc. Also, something might come up that makes an old piece of content relevant again.
Another tactic is to divide the same piece of content across a variety of platforms. For example, you interview some industry influencers. You can post the video on YouTube, share clips on your social media platforms, write an analysis post on LinkedIn, and integrate interview sound bites into a podcast episode.
You can also transform information you already have, rather than creating content from scratch. For instance, turn a blog post into a webinar or take report data and make it into an infographic. Doing so ensures you don’t need to reinvent the content creation wheel every time you want to publish something.
What Are Some Best Examples of Small Business Content Marketing?
It’s easy to see a big brand’s high-production-value digital marketing campaign and decide that content marketing is beyond your capabilities. However, as you’ve seen, there are multiple ways you can get started with content creation, even if you’re on a tight budget.
When possible, exploit the advantages you have as a small business – and yes, you do have some.
Perhaps it’s the personal attention you provide each customer or that you’re a local business dedicated to improving your community. These are all things that can differentiate you from bigger competitors and explain why you are a better choice.
There are numerous examples of small brands that successfully used content marketing to grow their audience. For instance, check outUgly Produce, Blogilates, River Pools, or MKBHD. In some cases, they literally started with videos shot on their smartphone, a silly picture, or a thoughtful blog.They didn’t need to put a massive investment behind content production because they focused on content value.
You can do the exact same thing for your business.
Now let’s talk about how you can get started with identifying your audience (and what types of content will best meet their needs).
What Types of Content Marketing Will Work for Your Target Audience
Now that we know why small business content marketing is so important, we need to look at who you are targeting. Not all audiences are going to appreciate the same kinds of content. To determine what content will work, we will look at audience types and content formats.
Know Your Audience
The first step to determine good content for your brand is to take a close look at your audience. Understanding your target audience will narrow the content forms and topics you choose to spend time on.
What Kind of Customer are You Targeting?
Are you serving individuals or professionals connected to a company? Even though you still want to target your buyer persona in the same way, it is essential to consider the differences between B2B content marketing and B2C content marketing.
B2C (Business to Consumer) content marketing focuses on the individual in more of a mentor role.
When you are selling products or services to individual consumers, your approach should be authoritative and providing solutions. Valuable content for the individual consumer is more likely going to be in helping them with support, providing product details, and offering content that isn’t over branded that they can share with friends and family.
Individuals tend to appreciate humor, wit, and creativity more than most B2B target audiences. You may play a part in their entertainment, inspiration, or contemplation, so your content will do well to evoke emotion.
B2B (Business to Business) content marketing focuses on the individual as a professional.
You are still writing to people with B2B content, but the focus is in a professional setting. Your buyer personas will be more focused on key positions and pain points they are feeling within their company instead of their home.
Most professionals you will be targeting aren’t going to spend much time on emotional content—they want stats, details, and proof. They will likely need to prove ROI or value before making a purchase. Content for the B2B target will be authoritative and cut to the point.
Organization-focused content is similar to B2B, but with more of a grandiose approach.
Institutions, non-profits, and other organizations are dedicated to key stakeholders that may consist of a board, officials, donors, and the community as a whole. While they will have some focus on the numbers, they are more concerned about aligning themselves with good businesses that support their cause.
Content designed to appeal to professionals in these organizations should be aligned with their messaging and focused on how you support their target clientele or mission.
Who are You Targeting?
Create a buyer persona to help you determine who you are writing content for and ensure that each piece of content is created specifically for that audience.
If you are marketing for the individual (B2C), then you are choosing your ideal customers. The best B2C customers are easy to convert, loyal to your brand, return for frequent repurchasing, or make big purchases.
If you are targeting a B2B audience, then your top customers are going to be the decision-makers, the ones with purchasing power/budgets or the professionals who are feeling the pain you solve.
When you have identified your best customers, you should create a detailed persona for each distinct type. These personas will help you create content really focused on an individual. Aim for 3-5 buyer personas that give you insight into who you serve in a broader sense.
Buyer personas should include information like:
- Name (this is essentially a classification name for the type of person and can be generic)
- Age
- Position
- Personal details
- Likes/dislikes
- Goals
- Pain
- Potential concerns
- Why your company is a good fit
- Ideal content and channels
Buyer Persona Examples
Let’s look at a couple of examples of fake buyer personas. Imagine you sell home defense systems. You sell to small businesses and individuals. First, we will look at a make-believe individual buyer persona. You’ve heard of “a Karen” right? For fun, we will imagine that stereotype in buyer persona format:
Karen Rutt
55-65
- Divorced with grown children that have moved out and graduated college already. Has a small yappy lap dog and spends time watching birds at her feeder as well as the neighbors. Has paid off her home.
- Schoolteacher who spends free time tutoring
- Does not like things out of place, “trendy” topics or slang. Appreciates the holidays and shares political memes.
- Wants to feel comfortable, important, and secure.
- Feels nervous in her home, despite living in a low-crime neighborhood and having a yappy dog.
- Does not want to feel her privacy could be at risk and may be nit-picky with your service team. Will likely call customer service at every sign of the smallest concern. Rarely searches online for answers, but does read ads and blog posts shared on her feed.
- Your company can offer security to a home that can meet your budget and doesn’t have a high threat of theft or vandalism.
- Motivated by emotion-evoking content (focused on the fear of home invasion and security of a working system). Likely to read long articles and memes. Will click on ads that align with her beliefs/fears/likes.
So, you get the idea of how this persona will look and the insight it could provide. Let’s look at another fake buyer persona. This one is for those small businesses you are targeting with your home defense system.
Joe Schmoe
45-55
- Has grown children with one in college. Has hired family to help with the business. Likes sports but didn’t play past high school. Owns his own home, but still makes mortgage payments.
- Owns a small business he built from the ground up and hopes to pass on to his kids.
- Wants a straightforward answer. Has no time for long blog articles or videos. Feels lost and irritated with too many numbers or long sentences. Likes the idea of supporting local.
- Wants to keep his business in the black and stable.
- Always concerned about crime and vandalism. Doesn’t fully trust some of the high schoolers he hires to work on the property (mowing, stocking, cashier). Has a hard time feeling comfortable when he isn’t there during business hours.
- Doesn’t want to spend a fortune. Wants to make sure the system is worth the cost and hassle.
- Your company offers a security system that could allow Joe to check in from home and look back at any questionable activity. With cloud storage, Joe will not accidentally erase tapes or lose data.
- May click on an ad or hear about your company from a friend or commercial, piquing his interest. Will want to get right to the meat of pricing and capabilities. Will not admit he is motivated by images of security and happiness, but the right visual aids will set the mood and help break up the text. Infographics that aren’t overly trendy (more straight-lined) and simple graphs can be great visual aids as well.
Based on personas like this, you can start to see various content ideas that would help support your target audience. If you apply this method to your own company and customers, you will have the insights you need to pinpoint ideal content.
Social Listening
You can listen to your customers as well. Watch for social mentions by setting up alerts if your brand, product or industry niche is mentioned. Check out what customers are sharing and asking. Don’t respond directly unless they are directly mentioning your company in a public way. If you do respond on social media, always be professional because others will see your responses. Social listening can help you determine who is talking about your brand, products or niche industry, helping you know who to target. These are the parts of your audience that could increase brand awareness by posting publically to their respective audience.
Content Formats
When considering the best content ideas for your audience, you should consider the formats available. You will find that certain audiences are going to spend time on different content formats (like Karen likes long blog posts and Joe prefers simple infographics paired with short blog posts). Different content types will perform different ways on various platforms. Something that gets a lot of attention on Pinterest or Instagram might get little-to-no attention on Facebook.
Here are just a few different types of content marketing that you can use to engage your audience across marketing channels. While each type of content has its own benefits, it’s best to use a mix of many different types of content to ensure you’re covering all your bases.
- Blog Posts
- Images
- Guest Articles
- Infographics
- Social Media Posts
- Email Newsletters
- Magazines
- Videos
- Case Studies
- Podcasts
- White Papers
- Ebooks
- Slide Presentations
- Checklists
- Thought Leadership Articles
- Reviews
- Interactive Tools
- Webinars
- Games
- In-Person Events
Gather More Information
As you go, keep trying to learn about your target audience and what appeals to them. Make sure you aren’t making assumptions about your target audience. These are real people and your understanding of them will shape your content.
Continue to take the pulse of your audience by sending out periodic surveys and working on social listening to see what your customers and leads are saying about you online.
Look at FAQs
What are your buyers asking? There are probably very common questions that your sales team gets asked regarding product specs, pricing, and support. Flesh these out into content pieces that are designed to appeal to those target buyers. Not all buyers will go out searching for answers, but those that do can find them more easily without contacting you or your team.
Don’t assume anyone knows who your company is, what you stand for, or what you sell. Your content marketing efforts will serve as a representation of your company, presenting the first impression to new leads.
Read Reviews
What your customers say about your products, customer service, and the company will tell you a lot about how people may be perceiving your brand.
If you are getting good customer reviews, focus on pushing those aspects of your business to set yourself apart from the competition (market differentiation). If you are not getting stellar reviews, work on addressing these issues in your content marketing goals.
Surveys
You can directly ask customers for their feedback. Use surveys to check in with your customers. You can even send special requests to your top buyers to get feedback from those ideal customers.
Your surveys should be quick and to-the-point. Use automated survey forms to fill in all the information you know about your contact, making it less work for them to fill out.
You can entice more people to fill these surveys out by offering a coupon or freebie after completion. This is especially a good idea if you are trying to get those target buyers to respond.
Ask what blog content would appeal to them or what content formats they like best. Provide a number of options so they can just check the boxes and submit.
You can use what you learn about your audience to segment your contacts. Not all buyers are going to have the same priorities or preferences. If you remember our fake buyer personas, it would be ideal to have a list of “Karens” identified to get long-form content and “Joes” to send short-form emails.
While some content would differ, both Karens and Joes might both get seasonal/holiday highlights and content that focuses on security and legacy. You might send a lot more content at a higher frequency to a “Karen” contact than a “Joe,” because the Karen will take some consistency for convincing, while the Joe wouldn’t appreciate a filled inbox.
Key Metrics to Measure
As you use quality content to appeal to your target customers, don’t make assumptions about what they like or what types of content perform best. Instead, learn about the people you want to attract and develop a small business content marketing strategy that incorporates the type of content that appeals to them most.
Certain metrics are going to be vital for checking those assumptions. Over time, you will want to track the success of your content to see what actually performs with your target audience, and what content is not getting the love you thought it would.
There are so many different types of metrics to measure, and choosing the right metrics will depend on what you are trying to track. For email, you might look at email open rates and click-through rates. For blog posts, you may want to look at bounce rate, post comments, shared posts, and time on page.
The goal to tracking metrics effectively is to create KPIs that make sense for the marketing goals and business objectives you are trying to achieve.
To learn more about how to measure your content, check out our guide to measuring content marketing success with metrics that matter.
10 Small Business Content Marketing Tips
Now that you know why content marketing is essential for small business owners and you’ve learned a bit about what types of content you can use to engage your audience, it’s time to put all that information into action!
Whether you are developing web content or writing blog posts, these small business content marketing tips are a lifesaver.
1. Know your audience.
I know we talked a lot about this in the last section, but it’s important to reiterate how vital it is to know your audience well before you create a content marketing strategy.
While you probably already have a good handle on your target audience from working with customers and clients every day, there are always going to be some things that you have not considered. Audience research and really talking with clients helps you discover what’s really important to your audience and their success.
It’s also worth mentioning that audiences are never static. They change and grow, whether due to personal or professional experiences or the environment and culture they are a part of. As they change, your content strategy will need to evolve to ensure your business continues to create valuable, relevant content.
By the same token, your business is very likely to grow and change as well. You may find that you appeal to other audiences as well as your initial one. So, it helps to do a check now and then to get to know your audience all over again and incorporate that information into your content development.
2. Write things that your customers want to read.
As far as content marketing tips go, you probably think this one is a no-brainer.
Write about what your customers want to read? Of course!
Some content marketers just don’t get it though. They slog on writing copy that appeals to them rather than the customers they serve. They fill their blog with posts about their company and products instead of showing how their products solve customer problems or offer authoritative information on topics related to their products and services.
The first rule of writing is “Show; don’t tell.” Use great storytelling to give your audience what they want to read. Engage them so that they connect with your brand, not just read a cool article or watch a great video.
Give them something to think about, to talk about, to question. Intrigue them so that they want to know more about you. Remember, you are building a relationship and that requires useful content that adds value to your readers’ lives.
3. Use social listening to gather intel.
If you aren’t using social listening yet, you need to get on the ball now!
Monitoring your social media channels is a great way to listen to your customers’ questions, concerns, accolades, and frustrations. You can get a lot of information that is invaluable to your content creation process.
Look for trends. If several customers are having the same problem or question, you can address it in your content. When you create optimized content on a popular topic, this increases your chances of being found by customers on a search engine like Google.
You can also do a FAQ on your social media as well as your website. You can link the social media FAQ to your website, making the website version more comprehensive. This way, customers seeking a quick answer may be able to get it right on your site, but if not, they are easily directed right to the page that has the answers they need.
4. Engage, engage, engage
Engagement should be a primary goal for any piece of content that you create. You want your readers to like your content, share your blog posts, and ask questions or leave comments. The more dialogue you can have with your readers, the more engaged they become and the more connected they feel to your brand.
Discuss trends, tell awesome stories, and ask provocative questions. You want to make your audience think and make them feel like they are being heard. Those are both pretty tall orders, but they are necessary elements in creating great content that’s engaging.
Even if you are writing in a very professional style you can still be engaging without coming off as a Borg. Your conversation may be a bit more formal but still talk to your potential customers, not at them. Instead of telling them what they are doing wrong, tell them the right thing to do and the rest will fall in place.
5. Don’t sell to your audience.
Have you ever visited a blog that was nothing but sales pitch after sales pitch for the company’s products or services?
How long did you stay on that site?
Chances are, you didn’t stay long because there wasn’t any valuable content there. If you really want your audience to pay attention to your brand and engage with your content, you need to develop pieces of content that speak to your customers’ pain points instead of trying to sell immediately.
Avoid the sales-speak in your content, especially your blog and social media posts. Yes, you want your content to ultimately lead to sales, but being so overt about it will only run your readers off.
Try telling a story instead. Don’t tell your readers how much they’ll love your product. Show them how your products or services will solve their problems. You can always add a call-to-action at the end of the post that leads them to your sales page. But first, you’ve got to show them why they should buy in the first place.
Keep in mind that a product review is not sales copy. It shouldn’t be anyway. When writing it, stick to the facts, show how it solves a problem, but avoid salesy speech. Just give your readers something interesting and engaging to read.
6. Use the heck out of video
We live in a visually-driven society and when it comes to marketing, video is king. In case you didn’t know:
- 54% of internet users wish marketers would use more video content.
- On average, about 37% of viewers watch a video to the end.
- The average retention rate for videos 90 seconds or less is 53%.
- The average retention rate for videos 30 minutes or longer is 10%.
- 92% of people who watch a video on mobile will share it.
Video can take your business in the right direction – and it is useful content too. Take some time to create compelling, engaging videos or hire a professional to write your script and help you complete it. Either way, if you don’t already have great video content, it’s time to create some.
7. Use case studies to tell your story.
Case studies are a great way to give your customers the ability to see your product or service in action. You walk them through the problem, discuss the solution, and present the outcome.
Remember, you want content that is engaging and interesting. The last thing you want to do is put your audience to sleep. Don’t be afraid to inject a little personality into your case study. Consider your brand persona and use that voice to speak to your readers.
8. Be consistent.
Consistency is a real problem with many small businesses. If you want to remain visible within your target audience, you need to be creating valuable content on a regular basis.
One way that you need to remain consistent is when it comes to publishing frequency. Too many companies will go months without posting on their blog or social media channels. However, consistent publishing frequency is not only important for SEO, but it’s also an essential part of staying on top of mind for your audience. If they only hear from you once a month or go too long between seeing your content, they may forget about you and move on to a competitor.
You also need to ensure that your branding is consistent across each piece of content. Branding consistency doesn’t just mean using the same font or colors across your content. You also need to maintain a consistent brand voice and tone in all of your messaging. Inconsistent branding can be confusing or offputting to your audience. Your potential customers want a seamless experience when using a brand’s site or reading their content. Make sure that each piece of content you create sounds like it’s coming from the same brand.
Hint, creating a style guide helps improve consistency tremendously.
9. Freshen up old content.
Even the best content can get stale and outdated. Make it a point to freshen up older content periodically to make sure that the content is still accurate, up-to-date, relevant, and useful. Not only does this ensure that your visitors are reading your best work, but it could help improve your SEO. Google loves content that is freshened up on a regular basis.
Here are a few ways that you can freshen up old content to improve its value and give it another life:
- Revisit your old blog posts to see if you need to update any statistics or information.
- Update both internal and external links to ensure they are the most up-to-date and accurate pages.
- Add fresh graphics and videos to posts that are lacking visually.
- Repurpose old content by turning it into social posts or visual content.
After you’ve freshened up your old content, share it again across your social media channels to give it new life. (There’s a good chance some of your current followers haven’t seen it yet!)
10. Monitor your results.
All your marketing efforts mean nothing if you aren’t measuring them. You have to monitor your content’s performance in order to know what is working and what isn’t. Look for patterns and trends in content that is doing well and incorporate those elements into your new content.
If there are elements that don’t seem to be doing well, eliminate or rework them. You can’t just create a blog or website then sit back and watch it work. It won’t do it. Sure, it may start great but over time your rankings will slip. By monitoring your content and making the necessary adjustments, you are giving life to it, keeping it moving and growing.
No matter how limited your budget may be, you can get a lot of value out of creating and sharing relevant, useful content with your customers. Small businesses that aren’t taking advantage of content marketing are missing out on a HUGE oppportunity to attract, engage, convert, and delight their target audience.
So what are you waiting for?
Create 👏 That 👏 Content 👏
Special thanks to the WriterAccess freelancers who contributed to this post: Jessica B., Lessa K., Alethea M., and Stephanie M.
Sarah Jane Burt is Sr. Content Strategist at WriterAccess. For the past decade, she’s helped brands big and small, from tech giant IBM to the local plumber, tell their stories and create strategies for customer-driven content. When she’s not working on developing and implementing our content strategy, she’s writing blog posts that help demystify content marketing and strategy for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and enterprise content teams.
