7 Actionable Content Marketing Strategies for Small Business to Increase Sales

Not enough small businesses are implementing content marketing strategies. And those doing it are not getting it right. Of course, a handful of small businesses are driving sales with their content marketing strategies, but the number is few.

In fact, it has been found that 60% of small businesses don’t have any information listed online.

Blame it on the limited resources and high competition.

But as a small business manager, you have to understand that content marketing is both a reality and a necessity today.

(Image Source – Lyfe Marketing)

Though it might cost you initially, it builds trust, increases traffic, promotes your brand, and generates leads that impact your ROI. Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the content marketing strategies that you can implement for your small business to drive sales.

1. Have a Clear Objectives

If you don’t know what you want your audience to do after they read the content, your content marketing strategy is not going to work. You need to identify your content marketing goals before you start to create content.

A good content marketing objective should outline the target audience, the content you’ll use to reach them, and the benefit they will derive.

Note that your objectives will be specific to your business and what you want to achieve. Are you using content marketing to build up your email marketing list?  Do you plan to implement content marketing to boost the credibility of your company? Utilize these goal-setting resources to identify your goals.

2. Understand Your Audience To Create Engaging Content

According to stats, 65% of companies find it difficult to come up with engaging content.

(Image Source – OptinMonster)

The solution?

Understand your audience and be clear about who they are and what they want. Only then, you can create accurate content to reach them.

For instance, you can collect your audience’s demographic data via email and social media. Web, social media, and email subscriber analytics will help you collect your audience’s age, gender, education, and income.

You can also gain insight into their key interests by using tools like Google Analytics and use them to create content that your readers will find engaging.

(Image Source – OptinMonster)

Even social media sites like Facebook offer similar data. You can gather the demographic information of your audience.

(Image Source – OptinMonster)

To understand your audience, getting feedback is equally important. For that, you can implement different strategies like conducting a survey, putting a feedback button on your site, offering an incentive to gather feedback, and so on. But remember to ask the right question at the right time.

Once you obtain the demographic data and customer feedback, you create buyer personas so as to target content better. When you do that, you will get to know your customer’s pain points, challenges, and behavioral motivators, which will ultimately boost sales.

3. Leverage Video Content Marketing

In a content marketing ROI case study of Tiger Fitness, there was a 60% returning customer rate with video content marketing. So you will be missing out on a lot if you don’t leverage it. There are varied types of videos you can make- tutorials, webinars, interviews, product reviews, and so on. By understanding what your audience wants, you can create engaging video content that can drive sales.

As per Demo Duck, the explainer video they created for Crazy Egg, a web app designed to help users understand how people interact with your website, ended up helping them make $21,000 monthly in extra income and increase conversion rates by 64%.

Knowing how to optimize your landing page video will also greatly benefit you. Keeping the video short, limiting the copy around your video, optimizing videos for SEO, placing the video at the top and center, and adding post-roll animation, are some great tips.

4. Find The Right Social Media To Promote Your Content

Twitter is, without a doubt, one of the most effective social media platforms. According to statistics, 69% of people purchased something after they saw a tweet, while 94% has plans to buy from a business they follow.

When it comes to platforms like Facebook, it is a hub for young users. If you look at the statistics, you will know where to place your informative content.

(Image Source – Sprout Social)

It doesn’t mean that you will have to be present on every single social network out there but learn what each social platform offers and choose those that fit your business and your content.

Knowing where your customers are can help you choose the right platform. Or you can also take a look at what your competitors are doing.

For instance, content like images and infographics are suitable for networks like Pinterest and Instagram, while links to blog posts are contents that you can share on Twitter. You can save the white papers and case studies for sharing on LinkedIn.

5. Invest in productive content marketing tools

Have a little cash to spare? Invest in something productive like content marketing tools that will help you streamline your content marketing efforts. You will find a plethora of tools to help you plan content, research content, measure your content, and also share your content. In fact, tools can even help with writing your content.

Make sure to go for only the best content marketing tools out there. For instance, Evernote or Trello is great for content organization; small businesses often use Contently or Skyword for content development; HootSuite or Buffer are go-to tools for social distribution, while tools such as MailChimp or Constant Contact are suitable for email marketing.

ClickMagick is an online tool that allows you to track and optimize all of your marketing, it pretty much works with all of the big advertising platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google Adwords, and more, read more about ClickMagick and if it is worth it on this ClickMagick Review.

6. Outsource Your Content

Even if you wear many hats, you can’t do everything at the same time. Content marketing is not only about brainstorming original ideas and writing content. There’s a lot more involved when it comes to the entire content marketing strategy.

That’s why it’s a better idea to look for freelancers on sites like UpWork and Fiverr, where you can find affordable outsourcing and freelance options.

You can also connect with other small business owners in your industry. If you are a copywriter, you can find a graphic designer to help you with creating an infographic in exchange for web copy.

Small businesses also team up with other industry professionals and create co-branded content to gain an advantage of both a diverse skill set and different audiences.

7. Product SEO-Friendly Content

SEO is the gateway to a successful content marketing strategy. If you don’t know how it works, there are professionals to help you out. Even if you write the best content, without proper SEO optimization, your content won’t be visible to the prospects that are looking for information online.

Take Strolleria, for instance.

(Image Source – Keap)

This company that sells high-quality baby gear online and locally, effectively quiz-targets moms-to-be in the Phoenix area while promoting the local store.

On Pinterest, they quiz-targets product keywords on a national level.

(Image Source – Keap)

This SEO-optimized content helped the company rank on page one for several content pieces.

The result? They were able to attract more customers, which eventually lead to more sales and revenue.

Winding-Up

Content marketing is not a child’s play. It demands plenty of time, effort, and resources to get it right.

But in the end, it is all worth it.

Is your business planning to leverage content marketing to drive ROI? If yes, then hopefully, this article will help you effectively plan out your strategies and implement them to ensure the revenue to gain is more than what you spend.

Though you can’t measure content marketing success solely by the money you generate, undoubtedly, it is one of the most critical aspects.

Follow these 7 actionable content marketing strategies for small businesses today and improve your revenue generation.