Generating Leads With Small Business Content Marketing

As your customers and prospects research their professional and personal purchases online, content marketing provides a framework for you to publish information that positions your company as a reliable and informed provider.

Developing educational content to help your customers and prospects answer questions, solve problems, and understand emerging industry and marketplace trends positions you as an expert and builds trust in your small business.

Producing content consistently helps you attract leads, build brand awareness, and inform prospects so they advance to the next step in your sales process. Increasing your visibility in the market leads to awareness, and then to leads and potentially sales.

Publishing content also helps you build trust because each article, video or other asset highlights your marketplace expertise - both individually and collectively as part of a robust library of thought leadership content.

Variety of Formats

Because people in your audience are likely to have different preferences for how they consume content, it’s important to provide the same information in different formats to reach as broad of an audience as possible.

The most common formats for marketing contact include:

• Articles and blog posts. These will help your company rank for the keywords your prospects are searching for.
• E-books. Similar to articles, but with more detail. E-books can also serve as lead magnets to obtain prospects’ contact information.
• Videos can add a personal touch that highlights your personality as well as your expertise. You can start with the basics - shooting videos on your phone - and get more sophisticated over time.
• Checklists provide handy reminders to your customers and prospects.
• Newsletters provide a direct route to your customers’ and prospects’ inboxes - perhaps the most valuable real estate in marketing.
• Podcasts provide similar benefits as videos, adding the ability of your audience to access this content while they are driving.
• Webinars offer a format for providing in-depth information, and answering participant questions during a live session.

And whatever format you choose, it’s beneficial to repurpose that information into other formats to broaden its reach. Similarly, it’s important to provide a mix of general content for prospects who are conducting initial research, as well as more detailed content for customers further in the selection process.

Understand Your Customers

A critical early step in the content marketing process is thinking about your prospects and customers. Who are they? What are their needs and challenges? What social media platforms do they use?

Understanding where they are conducting their online research, and the search terms they are using, can provide valuable insights into where you should be publishing to meet their needs.

Develop a Schedule

While the idea of producing content on a consistent basis may appear imposing at first glance, developing a process and schedule can make it easier. It will be helpful to:

• Make a list of potential ideas
• Research those ideas online and develop short outlines for each article or video
• Think about the important keywords for each idea
• Develop a calendar outlining when you will publish each piece of content

Most companies try to publish content at least once a week. As you develop content and establish a rhythm, this will become easier. And as your audience grows, you’ll start to see the benefits of an effective small business content marketing program.