Content Marketing Types for Small Businesses

Sep 14, 2022

Content marketing offers many benefits, but today there’s plenty of noise in the marketplace as more businesses crank out large amounts of content to increase their customer base and improve search engine rankings. If you don’t have the right content marketing strategy, your money and efforts could be wasted. Some local businesses make the mistake of building their content marketing strategy around one or two forms of content. However, you need to use multiple content marketing types to see the most significant return on investment.

Different forms of content reach different people, and a strategy that uses multiple formats works best. Blogging, infographics, audio, and video are all excellent forms of content you can use to promote your local business.

What does your content marketing need if you’re going to bring in a return on investment? You must create quality content if your marketing efforts are going to succeed. The web is packed with content today, and if you have poor content, people will just move along to the next piece of content. Poor content also can damage your reputation. You must make sure that each piece of content is of high quality.

Creating Different Types Of Content Marketing

Bottom line? The content you create for marketing your business needs to speak directly to your customers without giving off a one-size-fits-all vibe. What works well on Facebook might not translate to LinkedIn engagement, a more professional networking site. Likewise, short quippy tweets about fast-moving trends might fall flat on less dynamic Facebook.

The content you create shouldn’t just be limited to regular social media posts, although those are a great place to start. Getting creative with content types is a fantastic way to cut through the noise of your competitor’s content. Here’s a list of ideas to help get those creative juices flowing.

Blogs

Regular, high-quality blogs are a popular business marketing tool, and for a good reason. Human-centered, SEO-friendly blog posts establish and nurture trust between your business and your customers. Your website is also more likely to appear on the first page of search engine results, helping boost organic traffic counts.

Customer Testimonials

There’s no denying the power of word-of-mouth marketing for your small business, which these days comes in the form of customer testimonials and reviews. Shoppers want proof that their business can solve their problems before they invest their money. Sharing this content builds trust and showcases your leadership and abilities within your industry or field.

Videos

Now more than ever, your customers crave transparency and authenticity. What better way to do that than video content? It’s a great visual aid to help people understand how your products work and what your services can do to help them. Video content is easily broken down into bite-sized pieces of easily digestible tidbits and is versatile for desktop computer and mobile device viewing.

Checklists

This type of marketing content is awesome because it’s ubiquitous across industries. This means that virtually any business or entrepreneur can create a checklist using their services or products. Checklists are actionable and easy to follow and allow you to lay out more information about how your skills can help them complete those checklists.

Make a Content Marketing Plan

Of course, you also need a strategic keyword plan for your content. Without a good keyword plan, your content will never bring in traffic or further your reach online. Before you begin investing money in content, ensure you have a good keyword plan that will allow you to make the most of each piece of content you invest in.

While managing your content marketing strategy for your company can be done, it will require time, technical know-how, and skills you may not want to devote to making it work. That’s why so many companies outsource their content marketing to professionals. If you’d like to talk about the role content marketing could play in filling your sales funnel, we’d be delighted to have that conversation. Contact us today to get started !

Forecasting the Next Ten Years of Marketing

10 Apr, 2024
Marketing is gearing up for significant changes as we enter the new decade. With new technologies, shifts in buyer behavior, and changes in consumption culture, the way businesses reach out to customers will look very different in the coming years. While we can't say what marketing will look like in 10 years, we can examine emerging trends and strategies to forecast its future. Here are some predictions experts are suggesting could take shape moving forward. Increasing Personalized Advertising Personalized marketing should undergo even more profound transformations in the coming decade, leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics to forge deeper customer connections. With the ability to glean insights from vast amounts of data, companies will craft highly tailored ads and messages that resonate with individual preferences and behaviors, fostering stronger brand-consumer relationships. From dynamic content customization to predictive marketing algorithms, the era of hyper-personalization will redefine how businesses engage with their target audiences on a one-to-one level. Advanced Device Communication The proliferation of voice-enabled devices and virtual assistants heralds a new era in consumer engagement, requiring marketers to adapt their strategies to communicate effectively through these mediums. As voice technology continues to gain traction, companies must anticipate the rise of voice commerce and tailor their approaches to accommodate this emerging trend. By leveraging conversational AI and natural language processing, brands can deliver seamless, personalized experiences that resonate with consumers, whether shopping, seeking information, or interacting with digital assistants. Wider Use of Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) is poised to become a ubiquitous tool in the marketer's arsenal, offering immersive experiences that transcend traditional advertising methods. With VR, brands can transport consumers into captivating virtual environments where they can interact with products and services unprecedentedly, fostering deeper engagement and brand loyalty. As VR technology becomes more accessible and sophisticated, expect to see a proliferation of immersive marketing campaigns that leverage the power of virtual experiences to captivate audiences and drive conversions.

The Power of Storytelling

12 Mar, 2024
Marketing tends to focus on analytics and systems, but we sometimes forget about one powerful tool that has existed since the beginning: storytelling. From our ancestors telling ancient myths to be passed down for the generations to come to modern-day brand narratives, stories have held the power to inspire and connect in all different ways. Today, consumers face a constant bombardment of advertisements and catered content; using the power of storytelling in marketing campaigns has become critical for businesses, especially smaller firms aiming to create meaningful connections with their target clients. Why Storytelling is an Effective Strategy When a brand uses storytelling to convey its message, it connects with the audience emotionally. By telling a compelling story, marketers can create a memorable experience for consumers, making them more likely to remember and engage with the brand. Additionally, storytelling allows marketers to communicate the brand's values and personality more authentically. Instead of bombarding consumers with sales pitches, storytelling enables brands to share their stories and build trust with their audience, increasing brand loyalty and customer engagement. The Emotional Resonance of Stories At the heart of storytelling lies its ability to bring out emotions and create profound connections on a human level. Unlike traditional marketing messages focusing solely on product features or sales pitches, stories can engage the audience's imagination, stir empathy, and spark genuine interest. By weaving narratives that resonate with their target audience's hopes, dreams, and challenges, small marketing firms can create a powerful emotional bond that transcends transactional relationships. Building Brand Identity and Authenticity Storytelling is a potent tool for small businesses to authentically define and express their brand identity. Through compelling narratives that reflect their values, mission, and vision, small firms can differentiate themselves from competitors and carve out a distinct identity in the minds of consumers. Whether recounting the founder's journey, highlighting customer success stories, or showcasing the company's commitment to social responsibility, storytelling allows small businesses to humanize their brand and foster customer trust and loyalty.

A Guide to Employee-Generated Content

13 Feb, 2024
In a world of "influencer marketing" and brand deals, companies can easily overspend their marketing budgets and get caught up in the frenzy. An influencer may feature your product or brand only for their videos to perform poorly. At best, you lose out on the money spent sending the product to the influencer and whatever you spent on hiring them. At worst, your business gets a bad reputation online, and customers don't take your brand seriously. Consider that influencer marketing is just the "shiny new toy" in marketing. In that case, companies should continue to produce consistent, cost-effective outcome. One source for this? Your Employees. Employee-generated content refers to any videos, pictures, or copy that employees publicly post about their position and the company. Find out the benefits of employee-generated content (EGC), what this content can look like, and how to implement EGC into your overall strategy. What Does Employee-Generated Content Look Like? The beauty of employee-generated content is that it can take many forms. Any content your employees make that involves details about their role, the company itself, or the relationships they've developed with coworkers or customers/clients can be EGC. A simple, straightforward EGC piece can be an employee spotlight for new hires or veteran employees. You can choose to craft employee spotlights as infographics with a picture of the employee along with some fun facts about them, write a long-form piece from an interview with the employee speaking about their time at the company, or even long or short-form videos with the employee speaking on their experiences. While these methods may require the help of a graphic designer, copywriter, or videographer, the idea is that the employees generate the content by speaking about their experiences and introducing themselves. Other ideas for EGC pieces might be "day in the life" videos following a specific employee throughout their day, reflections employees have from conferences or professional development opportunities, employment milestones or recognitions, or even just pictures employees take with each other or showing what happened that day. There are limitless options and iterations for employee-generated content, and the key is to find out what works well for your business and why.
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