Running a profitable, in demand, and value providing small business is no easy task.
There’s operations to watch over, finances to control and customers to keep happy.
So it’s no surprise that one of the most important parts of building and growing a small business, marketing, is often pushed to the back burner by mistakenly focusing all your attention on putting out the day to day fires that come along with doing business in todays age.
But sadly this short term thinking and focusing on the urgent at the expense of the important leads to the eventual demise and ultimate failure of the business. So what’s the solution?
Well seeing as you can’t do everything, the key is to focus on the highest value marketing activity for your business.
The one that will provide the greatest returns, happiest customers, and position your business as the best in your market. And that strategy is content marketing.
Focus on the best and ignore the rest.
This simple motto may actually be the answer to your busy, overworked, and stressed out business self.
You see with more options available today than ever before it’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting, or thinking you need to do everything.
But everything just isn’t possible, not to mention not a lot of fun, and not terribly effective as a simple look at Paretos principle, or the 80/20 rule will clearly show that 80% of your results will come from just 20% of your efforts.
So the key then is to find the top 20% activities that you can do that will provide those incredible 80% results. And the odds are pretty darn good that these 20% activities will contain some form of content marketing.
Because time and time again content marketing delivers more, and higher quality leads and customers than just about any other strategy out there.
It also builds long term trust, fosters relationships, and increases the lifetime value of your customers, all of which add to your bottom line and make business and life a whole lot more enjoyable.
So with all that said, how can you get started using a content marketing strategy in your small business, and do it as early as today?
1. Find Your Channel
A simple task performed consistently will outperform even the most complicated marketing funnels used randomly or given up on completely when the eventual overwhelm and frustration kicks in.
So the key is to start small, and build from there. And this means focusing on one channel and mastering it before moving on to the next shiny object.
When it comes to finding the best content channel for your business the key is to take a look at your target market and try to find the one that best aligns with their content consumption habits.
Does your audience read blogs, listen to podcasts, or watch videos? And where do they like to do this? On social media? Through email? Or by stumbling across it on their favourite websites?
Once this is done it’s time to match this up with the channel that you feel most comfortable on.
Do you prefer writing over speaking? If so a text based blog is likely the best channel for your business.
Or do you prefer speaking over writing, but are terrified of being on video? If that’s the case, then a podcast will likely do the trick.
Or, are you fine being on video and talking directly to the camera, but the thought of sitting down and typing sounds like an absolute nightmare? Because if that’s the case then a video based channel is going to provide you the best results, and provide the most flexibility in regards to repurposing and syndicating your content across other channels later.
The key though is to find the channel you feel most comfortable on so you’ll stay consistent and committed to your content marketing strategy.
2. Find Your Voice
Once you’ve found your channel it’s time to find your voice.
And this means identifying you or your businesses unique selling proposition, or in simple terms, what makes you better or different from the competition.
A common myth is that you need to be funny or entertaining or produce Hollywood style content that rivals the pros.
But this simply isn’t the case.
The main thing to focus on is value, and ensuring that your content helps, educates, and informs your market.
Your customers don’t require that level of content sophistication, but they do require answers to their questions, and solutions to their problems.
So focus on providing value, and being yourself which together provide an unequaled level of authenticity and connection.
3. Find Your Frequency
So just how much content is enough?
Well like most things in business and in life, you get back what you put into it, so the more time, money, and energy you’re able to dedicate to your content marketing strategy the greater and faster your returns will be.
But there’s something even more important than just pumping out as much content as you can, and that’s focusing on being consistent.
Because consistently and regularly producing content over time works just like compounding interest by building up your audience, increasing your perceived level of expertise, building massive trust, and creating a content database that will continue to provide value for months and years to come.
So the key here is to find the right level of frequency for you and your business, and then do your best to stick to it, whether this is once a week, or once a month, though once a week is a good place to start. And don’t forget to always focus on quality over quantity.
And when you do you’ll being to build up an incredible foundation of content that will make marketing and growing your business faster, easier, and more profitable than ever before.
