How to Build a Content Strategy for Your Small Business By Atif Khan Tech

One of the best ways to promote your products and services is through a quality content Strategy. Nearly 70% of SMBs who publish a blog get more leads than other non-blogging small businesses. And that's just one statistic. This article explains how to build a content strategy for small businesses that deliver consistent results over time.

What is a content strategy?

• A content strategy is a long-term approach to setting the expectations of your audience and allowing you to choose the types of content you want to create, promote, and publish. It also helps allocate the necessary resources for content development.

• A content strategy can also drive business growth by helping you uncover new ideas, explore new market segments, and build relationships.

• For example, if you run a hardware store and publish a blog with DIY tips, you'll find that the most popular articles are those that teach readers about wall-mounted TVs. You can use this data to run LCD screen ads on your blog.

• Having a content strategy can simplify your business as you need to review your goals, discover your audience, and discover what they care about. You can then create content tailored to their needs and promote it where your audience travels the most.

• If you do your content strategy right, you can drive qualified leads to your website and boost your brand in the long run.

How to Build an SMB Content Strategy

A content strategy for small businesses has three broad goals:

1. First, you must have a vision. That's why you need to create content. You also need to know who your content is for. 
2. Second, select the content type. 
3. Third, you need to decide how to promote your content and measure results.

Let's look at the specifics.

Goal and Audience Definition

Start by getting a clear picture of who your audience is. This should include everything from demographics to the vocabulary and types of voices they respond to.

Select prospects based on your business goals and market research. But even if your previous content marketing efforts have failed, don't overlook historical data. Other factors to consider include competitor analysis and social media analysis.

Numerous online tools make data collection easy and economical. As your business grows and more data pours in, you can use it to fine-tune your marketing strategy and achieve better results.

Analytics aside, you need to keep your ideal customer in mind. For a hardware store, it could be a 50-60-year-old male, a contractor, or a DIY enthusiast.

A real example is a Cosmopolitan magazine, which sees women between the ages of 18 and 34 as their key target audience. Magazines and websites have a variety of marketing strategies, but they primarily appeal to this audience.

Determine the content type

There are several types of content you can create for your business.

• So far we have talked about creating articles and blogs, i.e. text. It's a pervasive concept that people don't read as much as they used to, but text content remains relevant, especially if you're doing search engine optimization (SEO).

• Audio content is another popular format. It's less demanding than text because it doesn't require full focus. People listen to their favorite podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher during lunch break or while driving or exercising. You might also consider starting a podcast for your company.

• Then you have visual content with images and videos. Visual content can be used on its own (eg Instagram posts) or used to enhance text content (eg infographics in blog posts). Needless to say, images are also important for SEO.

• Finally, video is trendy these days and is probably the most performing type of content. All major platforms support video content, including LinkedIn. And live streaming is common in online marketing to drive audience engagement.

The type of content you choose depends on your marketing goals and audience. It is best to use a combination of formats.

Competitor research and positioning

You can't have a comprehensive content strategy without looking at your competitors. Check out their websites, social media pages, and blogs to see what kind of content and effectiveness they share. The latter is necessary because observing the results will help you create effective content.

Of course, competitor research is more than just imitating peers. You can also see what doesn't work and come up with something better.

Select content channel

A successful content marketing strategy is one with a clearly defined target. Instead of targeting a general audience, we recommend writing specific messages for specific market segments that are most likely to buy.

Google Analytics is one place to see where most of your traffic and engagement is coming from, and you can promote more content through that channel.

Each platform is suitable for different audiences and topics, and tools like BuzzSumo can help you find the content channels that are most relevant to your business. One of the features BuzzSumo offers is the ability to see which content is performing best on which channels.

Organize The Production and Publication Process

Strategies don't stop at creating content. Because you also need to organize how you publish your content. At a very basic level, this requires an editorial calendar to plan when each piece of content is created, edited, published, and promoted.

It's best for new content marketers to create a calendar and keep it for at least 2-3 months.

Experienced marketers, on the other hand, aren't too obsessed with schedules and don't leave room for flexibility. They are willing to change their schedule based on feedback and willingness to try new ideas.

Start building your content library as you continue to publish content and collect data. With a library, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you need to launch a marketing campaign.

Your content library isn't just a collection of articles and videos you've created. It can also contain images, icons, and contract templates.

Measurement Result

Modern analytics tools allow you to measure strategy outcomes within hours of publishing content. Insights include page views, likes, comments, and shares. The long-term, more in-depth analysis includes conversion rates, qualified leads, and closes.

The fancy term here is KPIs or key performance indicators. KPIs measure how effective a strategy is. You can measure KPIs using tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Page Manager, and Databox.

Some marketers prefer outdated spreadsheets, especially for metrics like revenue, subscriptions, or referrals.

If you promote your content via email lists and tracking results, you should organize your email address list for more accurate metrics.

Examples of great content strategies for inspiration

• Now that you know the components of an effective SMB content strategy, let's take a look at some of these principles in action.

Evernote

• With an impressive suite of apps, hardware, laptops, and prominent logos, Evernote also uses a smart content strategy. It mainly consists of high-traffic blogs and many followers on several social networking channels.
• Evernote blogs target a specific niche of productivity. They produce informative and creative content throughout the year and update top-performing posts. We target this niche because people searching for content about productivity are more likely to download the Evernote app.
• Evernote's marketing team continues to focus on this niche. That's why I rarely read about the latest cultural fads on blogs.
• They also have niche audiences that they discover through regular surveys. Their core audience includes professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and cooks, typically in their mid-30s to mid-40s.
• Evernote posts most of its content to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• A perfect example of a content strategy that aligns with your company's goals. Evernote seeks to nurture leads through blogs, videos, and social media posts in its productivity niche and provide its readers with solutions in the form of note-taking apps. Learn more about our B2C content strategy here.

Evernote's blog was introduced when I did a search for "how to maintain discipline" on page 1 of Google's SERP.

Hub Spot

HubSpot is a prime example of a market leader who has built a brand through content strategy. They actually coined the term "inbound marketing". Their strategy is streamlined and scalable.

They publish tons of valuable content for marketers to attract readers and ultimately convert them into customers for their tools and services.

HubSpot also strategically places CTAs across blog posts.

HubSpot offers free at each stage of the marketing funnel: ebooks, marketing kits, user guides, webinars, and video courses. If you haven't already, we recommend that you subscribe to the HubSpot blog and take courses on content strategy.

McDonald's

Although not a small business, McDonald's has repeatedly shown how important a content strategy is to build a brand.

A few years ago, McDonald's Canada decided to answer all of its customers' questions. They answered more than 10,000 questions and built strong relationships in the process. This was part of the brand's attempt to be more transparent.

This campaign teaches you how to use customer service to increase insight, increase engagement, and build a solid reputation.

This is just one example of McDonald's multifaceted content strategy. It also includes artistic Instagram stories and innovative YouTube content.

The brand is so serious about the content strategy that it spent $300 million to acquire Dynamic Yield Ltd. to leverage AI in its marketing.

Best practices for content strategy from industry experts

Before I wrap up this article, here are five content strategy best practices provided by the experts.

1. Ask the public

As a small business owner, it's hard to be critical of your brand. That's why you should invite your audience to speak their minds. You can create quizzes or surveys, or edit popular comments in blog articles or social media posts. You can then use the relevant citations in articles, Facebook ads, or white papers.

Such content can be highly engaged by providing real-world examples that your customers can relate to.

Here are some examples:

Share A Cola

The Australian Coca-Cola marketing team launched a 'Share Coke' campaign in 2011 through social media and paid advertising. Coca-Cola printed around 150 of the most common and popular names on bottles, asking people to 'share a Coke' with a loved one. The campaign went viral in 80 countries.

Adobe

The design software company launched the Art Maker Series, where creative designers were asked to share their creative artwork and highlight their skills through video using Adobe products like Illustrator, Photoshop, and more. The company then used the user-created artwork for recommendations, product/feature promotions, and other expert recommendations.

Citizen of Mankind

Denim brand Citizens of Humanity has launched the #WEAREALLHUMANITY campaign with a social message. When a user posted a photo with this hashtag, the brand donated $10 to a relief organization. The campaign has not only served a social cause, but has also created a socially responsible image for the brand, and 75% of millennials want to be associated with these brands.

2. Don't limit yourself to blogging

Invest in as many content types as your budget allows. Some content types build SEO (blogs), others increase engagement (social media posts), and some content types end sales (whitepapers, chat support).

3. Boost Your Occasional Posts

You need to combine free organic publishing with paid marketing. Promote social media content or run pay-per-click ads on Google SERP. After all, there's no point in developing quality content if no one is watching. For just $30 per month, you can spread your content.

4. Create interactive content

This is similar to #1. Examples of interactive content include surveys, webinars, games, and quizzes to increase engagement. Interactive content wins on social media, but content such as webinars and explanatory videos has also performed well on platforms like LinkedIn.

The foundation finder by beauty brand Clinique is a great example of using surveys to guide customers to purchase decisions. Buyers can choose the right product based on their skin type, preferred coverage, desired finish, and skincare goals.

Interactive content not only fosters engagement but also helps sales and customer support teams close more deals and interact with customers using personalized data. It also helps build trust.

5. Conduct a content audit

Finally, creating a successful content strategy requires looking at what is currently working. If this year has gone by without a content plan, your library may have a lot of underperforming or dead content.

• When conducting an audit, you should ensure that:
• Content that performs best
• underperforming content
• Best time to publish content
• Keywords currently ranking
• Content with Worst Field Indicators
• Content that makes visitors leave your site

When you know what content is performing poorly or not performing at all, you can revise your strategy to create more quality and meaningful content.

Conclusion.

Marketing is a challenge that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must overcome. When you're on a tight budget, having a good content strategy can help simplify your content marketing efforts and maximize cost-effectiveness. You should review your strategy regularly, assessing KPIs and making changes as necessary.