Getting Started with your Small Business Content Marketing

10 Tips to Help Launch Your Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is about telling stories that reach your target audience and inspire them to engage with your brand. But there is no knight in shining armor that will make your content magically connect with your audience. In fact, taking your business’s story and using it to convert loyal customers is not as easy as it looks—especially for businesses who are just getting started in content marketing.  

To help you get started, we put together a list of 10 steps to make launching a content marketing strategy more effective. Check it out and let us know if you have any questions.

Top Ten Tips to Help Your Small Business Launch an Effective Content Marketing Strategy:

1. Get clear on your target audience: Research and understand the customer-base that your product or service helps the most so you can develop relevant content that is valuable and keeps your audience back for more.
2. Document and get organized: Start with a massive brainstorm to get all of your thoughts down in one place. Then organize your ideas into a content or editorial calendar. Read more about how to create an editorial calendar.
3. Pick content channels: How will you deliver your message? This may seem intuitive, but it requires some research to fully understand where your audience is virtually “hanging out.” Mix and match the proper platforms and special forms of delivery like newsletters, webinars, and podcasts.
4. Commit to consistency: Creating consistent content is the basis for building trust and confidence. Put together a strategy that will work for you. Your editorial calendar will help you stay on track. Develop batches of content ahead of time then schedule it to be released so you know you’re keeping your word on consistency.
5. Be realistic: Stick to a realistic schedule, but keep it consistent. If you can produce a post every single day, great. Stick to that and your audience will be thrilled. If you can only produce a post once a week, that’s great too. Stick to that and your audience will be equally as thrilled. If creating content is too daunting for you, work with a third party like Yakkety Yak to outsource the content creation. Any way you spin it, there is a solution for your content marketing strategy.
6. Create timeless content: The goal for every content marketing strategy is to create evergreen content. This means your content is relevant throughout time and continues to work for you by drawing in an audience no matter the publication date.
7. Repurpose content: Once you start developing your evergreen content, you can republish across different content types and delivery platforms to increase your reach. Perhaps you already have a previously published work that’s been drawing lots of attention for someone else. This is the perfect content to repurpose for your own marketing use.
8. Give value first – promote second: The 80/20 rule for give/take, respectively, applies to your content marketing strategy. Give value 80% of the time, then promote your product, service, and organization’s work 20% of the time.
9. Measure and report: Use web analytics to learn what content works and what might fall flat. Become aware on the type of content and delivery your audience prefers. If you have a team, report this information so they comprehend the importance of content marketing.
10. Revisit the weak and repeat the strong: Repeat and repurpose the content that is working for you. Why fix it if it’s not broken? Then, revisit your weaker content. Decide if you can rework to make it stronger, or if it ultimately needs to be dumped.

Content marketing is simple, but it’s not easy. The goal for your content is to build trust by being consistent, relevant, and informative. Your content should add value and manifest an engaged audience that wants to buy your stuff because they trust you. We know getting started can be overwhelming. Our 10 tips will help you build trust and engage your audience.If you think you’ll need more assistance, contact us at Yakkety Yak.