Small business owners are obsessed with creating and publishing content, and rightfully so. But, if you’re an entrepreneur and have no clue what content marketing is, if you’re doing it, or if you’re doing it well, let’s start from the beginning. What is content marketing?
Simply put, content marketing is the technique brands use to provide relevant and content to their target audience consistently. It’s a method of brand storytelling that is beneficial to us all.
If you are publishing blog posts, videos, and social media posts, you’re partaking in content marketing. Whether you are doing so with intent or not is what we want to discuss.
Here are three content marketing moves you can make right now to be intentional about marketing your business, brand, or organization.
Create a content marketing strategy.
If you’re already publishing content but haven’t paused to determine how that content will motivate your target audience to commit, you should change that as soon as possible.
Building a content marketing strategy forces you to create and consider your business goals and if the content you are producing and publishing aligns with and supports those goals.
Create a content marketing process.
Having a plan is only half the battle. As entrepreneurs who don’t have much time, processes can make or break your consistency.
Determine in advance when you will plan for a particular time frame, when you will create the content, when you will schedule or publish the content, and when you will measure the success of that content. The goal is to have cohesive content planning and execution.
Review content marketing in your industry.
If you do nothing else, look around how others in your industry are using content marketing. It’s always important in marketing to understand what your audience is accustomed to so you know what the industry standard is.
Choose which elements you want to attempt in your content marketing and work it into your content marketing strategy.
Creating value for your target audience is one of the most effective ways to get them to know, like, and trust your brand. Use content marketing to attract and maintain your audience to see increased brand awareness, increased lead generation, and more.
If doing all of this overwhelms you, please know that you are not alone. Consider outsourcing your content marketing needs like social media management, email marketing, or website maintenance to achieve the consistency you’re looking to achieve.
