If you haven’t organized a content marketing campaign for your small business, you should probably get started.
Content marketing is trending this year, according to Inc. A solid campaign can be a huge boon to your online presence. This is achieved by using content marketing to position yourself, and your business, as experts within a certain field, and by improving your search engine rankings.
While corporate marketers often use content marketing in order to grow their presence, small businesses have been slow to catch on, Search Engine Watch noted. However, in order to compete in search engine rankings, small businesses would be wise to begin strategizing a content marketing campaign. If climbing the search engine rankings is an aspiration for you and your business, then learn a little bit more about content marketing below and then begin devising a plan.
1. Organize a content marketing calendar
Put together a calendar so that your content is released in a timely and consistent manner, Search Engine Watch suggests. This will help you allot time to plan and create content on a dependable timetable.
A TechValidate survey found that 61 percent of marketers believe that content creation just takes too much time. Though the majority of marketers believe that content creation is overly time-consuming, less than half actually have a calendar in place.
2. Set up goals
Why are people going to check out your content? Set up a goal for your content marketing strategy – what should it provide? And how will that affect the way people think about your business? Similar to how you determine the steps you take in your content marketing journey, you should identify its end as well, according to Inc. Make sure that your design, content and delivery medium are reflective of your desired demographic and the ideas you’d like to impress upon its members.
3. Stay up-to-date on trends
Whether you’re writing about commercial loans or puppies, make sure you are up-to-date on social trends so that your content remains timely. This will help you with what Search Engine Watch calls newsjacking, or writing content based on topics that are trending. Twitter and Facebook are two great ways to stay up-to-date on trending topics and find subjects for stories, videos or infographics. Search Engine Watch suggested enhancing the trend-based content by taking a controversial stance, including multiple points of view or using multimedia to supplement the story.
4. Test and make changes as you go
Use analytics in order to test how your audience reacts to various versions of a similar message, Inc suggested. These tests early in your content marketing campaign will help you determine what sort of voice and subject matter your readers will be most responsive to. This is a great way to hone down a style and enhance future content.
5. Repurpose older content
Running a small business can be time-consuming, and if you don’t feel like you’ll be able to create and release completely new content according to your calendar’s timetable, it may be a good idea to simply repurpose old material, Search Engine Watch explained. For example, gather pieces of content with an underlying theme and organize the best parts into a single post built around a unified message.
In this same vein, Inc recommends recirculating your content down the road. In the beginning stages progress will not be immediately recognized – content marketing is long term. This means in due time, the articles you posted previously, if still timely, may bring in more readers now.