According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), half of all small businesses fail after five years.

One of the main reasons they fail? Unsuccessful marketing initiatives. Long gone are the days when word-of-mouth marketing is enough to sustain your business.

The good news is this is something you can control. While digital marketing is a vast field, exploring it can be exciting. From building marketing campaigns to creating impactful website content, there is so much you can leverage to ensure potential customers can find your business online.

Today, we will guide you on how to make a small business content marketing strategy. Let’s get into what you need to know about content marketing for small business owners!

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a broad term that includes many types of online marketing, such as:

  • Email marketing
  • Influencer marketing
  • Online marketing
  • Search engine marketing
  • Social media marketing
  • Thought leadership marketing

Further, there are many types of content that you can create in content marketing, like:

  • Articles and blog posts
  • Case studies
  • Checklists
  • Customer testimonials and reviews
  • eBooks
  • Email newsletters
  • Infographics
  • Landing pages
  • Memes
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Social media posts
  • Templates
  • Video content
  • Webinars

The possibilities are truly endless and offer lots of opportunities for you to connect with your intended audience.

Is Content Marketing Effective for Small Businesses?

Yes, content marketing for small businesses is incredibly effective compared to other types of marketing. You’ll especially reap the rewards when you focus on creating a consistent tone and high-quality content that delivers value to your customers.

What do we mean by that? Creating a content marketing strategy that solves a problem, answers a question, or gives something of value to your customers ensures they don’t feel “sold to” or like you’re pawning off a gimmick on them. Read on for tips to feel authentic and not like a sales pitch.

Key Questions to Ask Before Starting Content Marketing

To create the best content, there are some questions you should ask yourself before crafting your strategy. Consider the following:

  1. What is my expertise?
  2. Who is my target audience?
  3. How can I make exciting and valuable content for my audience?
  4. Which channels should I post on?

7 Tips for Content Marketing for Small Business Owners

After you answer the questions above, you can start drafting your content marketing strategy. We’ve compiled some content marketing tips based on our expertise and some of the industry experts to help your small business succeed:

1. Determine Your Target Audience

Who do you want to attract? By understanding your customer base, you can retain existing customers and attract new ones. Think about what they like to read or what content they want to consume. What are their pain points? What platforms do they like to hang out on? How do they share information?

The more you know about your target audience, the better you can speak directly to their needs and desires. This helps refine your content and better connect with viewers.

2. Create a Content Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is essential so you can create a calendar of content to follow. A content calendar allows you to create content in bulk and have it read to post without needing to stress about it last minute. It also allows you to be strategic in how you post.

Whether you plan to focus on search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research or following TikTok trends, by creating a content marketing plan, you can then track what is working and what isn’t. Then, you can alter the strategy to ensure the best results.

3. Determine the Correct Channels to Use

Knowing where to focus your content marketing efforts can be confusing with so many social media platforms. While being on several platforms is helpful, you don’t need to be active on every single one.

For instance, if you offer business consulting services and want to connect with other professionals, LinkedIn is a great place to be. But if you’re an eCommerce store selling vegan, cruelty-free makeup, you probably want to be active on Instagram and TikTok.

If you plan on being active on multiple platforms, repurpose your content. There is no reason you can’t change the format of the content and cross-post it on numerous channels to reach a wider audience with minimal effort. Adjust your tone and format to reflect that platform’s style.

Then, use social media metrics and Google Analytics to track the progress of your content. This ensures you’re posting in the right places.

4. Solve Real-World Problems

This is a biggie: every piece of content you create should serve a purpose. Great content always presents a solution or provides a helpful suggestion to the audience.

Remember, your audience trusts you and views you as a thought leader. Thus, it’s better to create in-depth content that doesn’t sound generic or repetitive.

When you solve problems for your customers, they’ll stick with your business as it evolves.

5. Use a Variety of Engaging Content Forms

With so many types of content you can create, don’t stick to just one format. Mix it up to keep customers interested and reach a broader audience. But, again, you don’t need to make every type of content.

For example, create an email list so you can talk to customers directly in their inboxes instead of waiting for them to see you on social media. Post a mix of infographics, videos, and photos on your social media pages.

Whatever content you create, always include a call-to-action (CTA). This encourages viewers to interact further with your business long after they’ve viewed the content.

6. Be Consistent

Building brand awareness through consistency is essential to building trust with your audience. If your message or quality starts to slip, your viewers will notice, and they may abandon your company. It makes you come off as untrustworthy.

Yes – we know you may run out of ideas or lose your enthusiasm as you continue with content marketing. But this is precisely why creating a plan and calendar is crucial to keep your efforts on track and consistent. If you have a plan in place, you can keep your momentum going when you feel uninspired or perhaps your last post didn’t do as well as you’d hoped. Not every post will go viral. And that’s ok! Some are a springboard for your heavy hitters.

7. Be Careful Creating Content With AI

Creating content with AI can seem like an easy and effective way to create relevant content while staying on top of marketing trends. But you do still need a human touch. Search engines notice AI content creation when it feels mechanical, and they don’t like it.

No need to be wary about trying new AI marketing tools, but make adjustments and leverage AI tools in the right way to get effective content. Purely AI-generated content is typically not “out of the box” publishable, so make sure you are bringing life to your content so that it will perform well on search engine rankings.

Work With Content Marketing Experts

With this guide on content marketing for small business owners, you can develop a winning content marketing plan that shows results.

But we know you may still feel overwhelmed by all the information. So whether you’re all out of marketing ideas or just have no idea where to begin, let’s have a chat! We happen to be a very personable group of creative enthusiasts who love talking about all things marketing and digital!

Contact us at EraserFarm to learn how our team of marketing experts can help your business with its content marketing strategy. We’re happy to help.