Local Content Marketing for Your Small Business

Content marketing is a very popular phrase for those who work with internet marketing, but few small business owners know what it is or how to apply it to your needs. We’ll cover that in just a minute…

But first, let’s debunk some pesky misconceptions about content marketing…

• It’s not just articles. Videos/podcasts, images/infographics, case studies, newsletters, and ebooks are also effective ways to market your brand.
• With that being said, content marketing is not about promoting your brand. (At least, not in any obvious way…)

How Does A Small Business Benefit From Content Marketing?

Every bit of brand exposure counts, right?
Well, content marketing gives you exposure to a targeted audience, often creating a great first impression. To cram it all into a nutshell, content marketing allows you to introduce your brand as an authority and establish credibility for a product or service.
This is done by publishing content (in any format) with a relevant, authoritative publication. It could be an article in a magazine or newspaper, a video on a website, or an infographic in a trade publication. It’s more attention-grabbing than a traditional advertisement and the potential to reach an even larger audience through sharing. (Online and offline!)
The following tips will help you create a small-business-sized content marketing strategy…

Choose a publication.

Where does your core audience go for information? If they are more likely to read the Sunday newspaper than an online blog, you should work with that!
Once you know where to publish, you’ll also want to…

Know what type of content to publish.

A local newspaper is likelier to publish a press release or news story that caters to their specific demographics. A trade magazine may be more interested in publishing an infographic, and a targeted website may be more interested in a guest blog exchange.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc., allow you to share images and videos as content to capture the attention of the targeted audience. Online utilities like Facebook video downloader allow you to gather resources to use in creating videos for your content marketing. You can take its assistance to download Facebook videos in a matter of seconds.

Pick a Point.

All quality content begins with a point. It could be a timeless topic of relevant interest or even a time-sensitive perspective on a current trend.
As a rule of thumb, you are not the point. Your brand takes a back seat in content marketing, but it reaches a larger audience this way. “How to _____” or “__ Money Saving Tips for _____” make great headlines for content marketing.
On the other hand, “How {Business Name} Can Help You ____” is an easier title to ignore.

Highlight Happy Customers.

There’s nothing a customer will relate to more than the story of another customer with a similar situation or need and how your product or service provided the ultimate solution.

Close with an appropriate call to action.

Consider where you are publishing your content. Internet users are more likely to click a link to your website while people reading a newspaper article are more likely to call a number. It goes without saying that forgetting to close out with a call to action will entirely defeat the purpose of content marketing to begin with!
In fact, it’s not uncommon to ask your readers to “Click Share”, which is one of the easiest actions to take online… and will get the largest reach possible for your content!