Why Your Small Business Needs to Invest in Content Marketing

Feb 23, 2017

Why Your Small Business Needs to Invest in Content Marketing

When it comes to developing a small business’ media marketing strategy, many entrepreneurs struggle when deciding how much they should invest in content marketing. As one of the only successful marketing strategies that carries very little up-front cost, content marketing has the potential to offer a significant return on investment for businesses willing to commit.

Developing your own content offers a unique opportunity for your business to increase sales by tapping into previously underutilized revenue streams. Whether you publish a couple of blog posts a week, film an original video, or record a podcast, any type of original content can help transform potential customers seeking information into actual customers. Here’s how:

Content marketing can help boost your current media marketing strategy.

For many small businesses, the idea of content marketing seems far removed from the strategies they’re currently using. However, take a step back and you’ll probably notice they actually go hand-in-hand. Are you currently focusing on growing your business through social media? Have you made local SEO part of your core marketing strategy? Does your business run a PPC campaign? If you’re running a successful media marketing strategy, you probably answered “yes” to at least a few of these questions.

Content marketing actually compliments all three of these type of marketing strategies. How you ask? Well, if you’ve already worked to implement the best SEO strategies on your website, you understand the important role keywords play in improving your ranking in organic search results. By writing content for a blog, you can continue to add additional keywords in a way that search engines like Google simply adore. The more content you create, the more your rankings will improve in an inexpensive and organic way.

Content marketing also provides you with additional landing page opportunities when developing your PPC strategy. Customers who visit your website may not always be at the buying stage of the sales funnel, but they are actively seeking out additional information. Publishing blog posts that cover a variety of industry topics can offer the ideal place to direct these types of customers to find the answers they are looking for while also making them aware of your business. Once a potential customer lands on your blog, you can show them additional advertisements through an Adwords Remarketing campaign.

A robust social media presence ranks as a prominent marketing strategy for most business, but finding relevant material to post can often be problematic. By developing your own content, however, you can easily boost your social media presence and direct an already intrigued customer directly to your website.

Directing traffic to your website.

Content marketing can help drive additional traffic to your website through all of the marketing strategies mentioned above. More importantly, this type of traffic is often of the highest quality.

Studies have found that content marketing proves more effective at creating leads than traditional forms of messaging. Content marketing has also been shown to have a better conversion rate, doubling the average website conversion rate from 6 percent to 12 percent. Why is content marketing so effective? Simple. You’re connecting with customers at a time when they desire information about what your business can provide. Rather than pushing an advertisement, you instead provide helpful content that works to foster trust. That trust in turn creates a relationship between the customer and your business.

Very little financial risk.

Most successful marketing strategies require an upfront cost. Whether you direct your marketing budget towards developing a PPC campaign, buying boosted posts on Facebook, or improving your local SEO rankings, you’re going to be spending some money. Depending on how much trial and error it takes before you start gaining traction, these types of strategies could cost quite a bit before you start seeing the type of ROI you were hoping for.

Conversely, content marketing carries very little upfront cost. And since you’re publishing posts on your own website’s blog, you don’t have to paying anything to keep your content marketing strategy up and running. Additionally, running your own content marketing strategy allows you to fail without much consequence. If your target audience doesn’t respond well to your podcast, videos, or posts, you can simply start over and try a different strategy without losing much along the way.

Don’t get left behind.

When it comes to running a successful media marketing strategy you often need to embrace your inner lemming. That is to say, if everyone else is doing it, you should to.

Studies have found that 88 percent of business-to-business organizations and 76 percent of business-to-customer organizations are leveraging content marketing, in some form, to boost their business. Nearly 50 percent of businesses plan on actually expanding their content marketing strategy in the future. If you haven’t yet gotten on board, you’re going to find yourself significantly behind when you eventually realize you need to take the plunge.

Don’t get left behind as the lasting lemming on the ledge. Take the plunge into developing your own content marketing strategy with the help of Local Fresh. Our small business marketing experts have the ability to help develop blog content, social media posts, and email marketing strategies customized to individual business. To find out more about how Local Fresh can help jumpstart your content marketing strategy, click here.

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