Since the COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty among all businesses, the small business owners are trying to figure out ways to survive and continue their business operations. Some businesses have stopped their marketing altogether, while some have temporarily shut down their services. However, you need not panic and overthink about how your business is going to survive this pandemic. Now is the time to create a solid content marketing strategy and put all your marketing ideas into action. Also, content marketing for small businesses is an absolute must in the time of corona. Why? Now is the best time to build a solid customer base when your competitors have slowed down.
Purpose of content marketing for small businesses
- Gain a competitive advantage and get more customers in your sales funnel when your competitors are not using content marketing.
- Continue to boost and maintain your brand identity by advertising on relevant social media platforms.
- Create a long term business by building a relationship with your existing customers as well as potential clients
- Content marketing helps you prove your expertise and position yourself as an expert in your industry
- Enhances your brand awareness and gets you a higher return on your money as well as time invested
- Experience a substantial increase in website traffic at a faster pace and rise above your competitors
- Also, content marketing helps convert your website visitors into potential customers
How to use content marketing to grow your business?
The best way to connect with your target audience is by being helpful to them. In other words, you need to create highly engaging and informative content on a consistent basis. How do small businesses achieve this? Define your target audience, figure out what they are looking for, and provide solutions to their queries throughout your content. Also, people tend to buy products/services from brands they trust and connect with. Building your brand identity is not an overnight process, so define your content marketing objectives and get started now so that you will reap the benefits at the right time.
1. Define your target audience
Understanding your target audience is the first step to get started with content marketing. Now that you have enough time, do thorough research, and figure out your target audience’s motivations, problems, and pain points. This will help you create a buyer persona and tailor your marketing tasks accordingly. Also, user research helps you get an idea and analyze customers’ journeys in the sales funnel.
2.Create content to demonstrate your expertise
How do you attract prospective customers to your product/service? The answer is to create awareness about your services by publishing informative content in your niche. Pick your targeted keywords and blog topics and get your team working on it right away. Since most small businesses have shut down and narrowed the public’s options, grab this chance to promote your services. Also, you can prove your expertise by sharing what makes your business unique and your services different from your competitors. When you showcase your expertise, your audience connects with you instantly. Use this time to publish blog posts, eBooks, newsletters, case studies, client testimonial videos, etc.
3. Produce sharable content
The best answer to how to use content marketing to grow your business is to create sharable content. Find out what triggers your target audience to share your content on social media, and then produce relevant content accordingly. According to a study, 61% of people tend to share interesting content, 43% share entertaining content, while the other 29% of people share unique content. Also, most of the social media users share content that is useful and informative. Make sure your blog post headlines generate a sense of curiosity among the readers. Creating “How-to” guides is yet another excellent blog post idea to generate more shares on social media. Make sure your content answers the questions and provides solutions to your target audience’s queries. Sharable content not only builds your brand identity but also attracts search engine traffic to your website.
4. Keep a track of your content marketing performance
Now that you have enough time to focus on content marketing, pay attention to every minute detail, and keep a track of your key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics will give you clarity on the changes to be made in your content marketing strategy.
The 3 major KPIs that you should keep a track of are:
Total visits - In order to understand how your content is performing, check out the total number of visits. In case your content is not attracting your target audience, make changes in your content creation strategy accordingly. For instance, focus on keyword research and incorporate the relevant long-tail keywords in your content.
Bounce rate – Bounce rate is yet another important KPI you cannot ignore. If your visitors are hitting the exit button without exploring the other web pages on your website, it is an indication that you need to focus on internal linking.
Conversion rate – This is an ideal time to take the necessary steps to increase your conversion rate, as you have lesser brands to compete with. Conversion rate is the percentage of your target audience converting into your potential client.
Final words…
Do not let this global pandemic stop you from continuing your marketing efforts Instead, you need to double down on content marketing when others are not. Define your content marketing objectives, focus on creating quality content, and make your marketing efforts count. Coronavirus shall pass, so use this time wisely to market your business digitally and make your business stay ahead.
Penned By: Aanchal Patil
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