As we rapidly approach the halfway mark of 2020, you may be asking yourself, “What else could possibly happen?” While some things may be out of your control, there are a number of ways to give you small business a boost. In this article, we unpack 5 tips to help you revitalise your content marketing efforts.
1. Try a new content marketing approach
Marketing guru, Seth Godin calls content marketing “the only marketing left.” This is because it’s authentic, useful, and ready-made for the internet generation.
So, what can you do to spice things up? Think of content as the voice of your company. Developing a strong, recognisable voice takes time. It also means you have to listen to your customers and respond to what they’re telling you. If you’ve been only producing blogs for a while, try injecting your strategy with more video content. And this can be done on the cheap, too!
For example, there are a lot of different types of video content you can choose from. You might decide to use simple ‘How to’ videos – shot your smart phone – to educate consumers about your products or services. Or, you may use live videos – recorded on your computer from your home office – to interact with your audience.
2. Refresh your existing content
You could be sitting on a gold mine of existing content. All the more reason to excavate this from the depths of your archives.
Let’s say you already have a number of blogs on your small business website. To update your blogs, you may decide to:
- check for broken links and outdated research
- craft more attention-grabbing headlines
- update images and finesse your copy e.g. change meta-data and your call-to-action copy.
You can complete these simple actions on your landing page copy and any other forms of digital content, too.
3. Keep an eye on your analytics
Statistics and numbers can provide insights into the success of your content marketing efforts. For example, these might include:
- Email click-through rates (CTRs). If your website visitors are subscribing steadily, it shows that you’re enticing them with strong, persuasive copy. If it’s not, then you need to figure what changes you can make to the copy. Or broadly speaking, how you can market your product offering in a more appealing way.
- Social media shares. The more shares, the more value your content is providing to your audience. Likes and comments are great, but so are shares and retweets, which can help you reach a larger audience.
4. Focus on building your audience
Your online audience expects valuable content-driven experiences. And you’ve been given a unique opportunity to build a relationship. Here’s are a couple of ways you can add more value and continue to build your audience:
- Get feedback. Listen to what your audience is saying and act upon it. You could create customer surveys or a feedback form at the end of your landing page.
- Develop audience personas. This can help you target the right audience. You may develop a few personas that contain different attributes. Maybe your audience persona is an ‘entrepreneurial type’ customer. Use what data you have to leverage customer demographics and insights.
- Grow your newsletter list. It may come as a surprise, but the humble newsletter has a significantly higher organic reach than social media.
As always, be sure to evaluate how your audience receives your content. That way, you can continually improve and iterate your content as needed.
5. Write conversationally
The way you write has a huge impact on how your message is received. By making your content conversational and personal, you’re showing that you understand your audience and care about their experience. Writing in a conversational way may include:
- using contractions e.g. you’re, they’re, we’re
- avoiding third person, instead using words such as I, me, we and you
- using shorter sentences at a grade 5 or 6 reading level. The Hemingway App is a helpful resource.
There are many ways to boost your content marketing efforts, but these are five effective and easy things you can action now. If you’d like to know more about creating fresh, engaging and inspiring content, get in touch with the small business marketing team at Shuttle Rocket.