When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them that I am a “content marketer,” the next question that invariably follows is, “But what does that actually mean?” Even family members are sometimes puzzled at times.

Perhaps the best way to explain it is to use real-life examples that most people can relate to.

Learning a New Language

What if you were interested in learning a new language?

Would you dive straight in and purchase a language learning program, or would you check out a few language learning websites first? Perhaps one website tickles your fancy and you dig deeper by signing up for the company newsletter. The blog page on the website is also well designed and attractive looking and you read a few posts.

After a few weeks in, you’re getting more interested. You just found an interesting blog post that explains why traditional phrase books are not the best way to learn a new language. Halfway through the post, there’s information about a free course that you can take.

Are you hooked yet?

Creating informative blog posts and offering up free information is all part of the content marketing process. Whether we know it or not, we are being exposed to content marketing on a near-daily basis

What is a Content Marketing Strategy?

If this is something that you think your business should be offering, then you need to first think about a content marketing strategy.

This is especially useful (and indeed critical) if you want to reach new customers using content marketing and at the same time, create awareness for your brand.

And if you do, you will need to figure out how to go about that.

First, you should decide who you are creating the content for.

Let’s pretend that you are an insurance broker. You may have a few different types of customers. One might be individuals who purchase home insurance and auto insurance plans while another customer might be a construction business that needs workers’ compensation insurance coverage.

Secondly, you need to think about the problems that your current and prospective customers might be experiencing and use this as the basis for your content marketing strategy.

A  sudden increase in car insurance rates is not uncommon. A blog post explaining the most common reasons why would come in useful for someone browsing the Internet looking for a new insurance agent and would be particularly helpful for someone whose car insurance rates have increased without warning.

Lastly, you’ll need to consider what makes you unique as a business owner. How will you stand out from the pack? Delivering free, helpful content on a regular basis will set you apart from many of your competitors.

How to Start a Content Marketing Campaign

Now that you know what a content marketing strategy is, it’s time to think about creating a content marketing campaign.

Before you get ahead of yourself, it’s best to first come up with a goal.

Is it to drive traffic to your website, create brand awareness, build up the credibility of your business, generate leads, or sell a particular product or service?

It could be a combination of two or more of these things. However, be sure about what you want the content marketing campaign to do for you before you embark on it.

As I mentioned above, knowing the pain points of your target audience is crucial. That will determine the kind of content you create.

But you should also know where they hang out. If you already have a Facebook page with a decent following you know that pushing your blog posts to that page will at least create some awareness among your followers and maybe even a few shares, too.

If you have a substantial email list, then pushing your content via email is also a good idea.

Sharing your content on Google My Business is free advertising from Google. You shouldn’t pass it up.

What Types of Content to Create for Your Business?

Most businesses start off with blogging, and if done consistently, this will help elevate your brand.

When looking for content ideas, think about surveying your customers, checking out your competitors to see what they’re sharing, and then coming up with something better, or using some free idea-generating tools.

The ones I like include Blog About; Feedly, which lets you keep track of topics in your industry while at the same time providing you with plenty of ideas for your own content marketing strategy; BuzzSumo, and Answer the Public. These are all great tools to use for the exploratory phase of your content marketing strategy.

Different Types of Content Marketing

Besides blogging, your small business can also engage in other types of content marketing.

They include the following:

• E-books – these are more work for sure but are excellent lead generation tools. Most are not much longer than 2,500 words and if you’re offering your e-book for free, this is a great way to get potential customers to sign up for your email list. You could place the e-book offer at the end of a blog post, for example, which makes for a great Call to Action strategy.
• Case Studies – these are ideal if you want to showcase your problem-solving capabilities.
• Infographic – this tool will allow you to organize and visualize data that is more compelling than a report. These are great for sharing on social media platforms like Pinterest.
• Videos – either by creating a YouTube account or by posting videos on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. This is becoming more popular, but like other forms of content marketing, don’t expect to make a sale after your first video.
• Podcasting – if you are comfortable interviewing people, this is a great way to get your brand out there. Podcasts have grown in popularity as users see them as a flexible way to gather information on a wide variety of topics.

I hope by now that you understand what content marketing is and how it can help your small business. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of the above strategies and what kinds of results you got.

As always, feel free to sign up for my free e-newsletter below.