Entrepreneurs in the 21st century don’t kid themselves that an online presence is a fun novelty. While a website may have made small businesses appear cutting edge in 1997, digital accessibility is more important than ever even for businesses that don’t require ecommerce or digital interactions as part of their core operations. Whether you’re a fledgling entrepreneur or a seasoned veteran, there’s no doubt that a digital presence incorporating a website and social media presence is vital to the growth and ongoing success of small businesses.
As useful as a slick and well designed website is, it’s only part of the picture. It must be supplemented with regularly published and engaging content that draws new leads to your business and establishes your business’ aims and core principles. It should also showcase the knowledge, experience and winning personality that you bring to your business on a daily basis to give a sense of dimension and personality to your business persona.
While a content marketing strategy is important, you can give yourself a leg up by outsourcing to an external company for affordable search engine optimization. Here are some tips that will ensure that your content marketing efforts yield a sizeable return on investment.
Invest, Outsource Or Allocate
Every entrepreneur wants to drive down overheads but investing in the right tools, talent and resources is one of the surest ways to build your marketing strategy on a strong foundation. Shop around for a decent marketing automation suite, internal task management system and a CRM solution to catalog online interactions with customers and leads. While it may be tempting to handle everything yourself, it’s important to allocate all content marketing duties to a full time employee if you can or outsource if you can’t.
Start With Cornerstone Content
Cornerstone content is the foundation on which everything else is based, and should reflect your knowledge and business acumen. Cornerstone content usually includes a landing page, a white paper or an e-book. Cornerstone content is your manifesto, it’s a go-to resource that comprehensively explains what makes your business superior to your competitors.
Create A Blog
A blog is the mouthpiece of your company’s content strategy, in which users can follow the business’ development and operations. To get the most out of a blog it should be updated at least 4-5 days a week to ensure reader engagement. Nothing puts leads off like an unkempt or abandoned blog.
Aim For Quality
As important as regular content is, regularity should not supercede quality. Lazily written blogs padded out with boring filler content is anathema to a curious reader. That’s why it’s important to delegate or outsource to talented writers who understand what makes good content and have the esoteric information and specificity that your users are looking for.
Variety Is The Spice Of Life
Variety is essential both in both content and construction. Users don’t tend to react well to monolithic slabs of text, so ensure that your content is appealing to look at and easy to navigate with text split into digestible paragraphs and broken up with vibrant images and videos.
You should also vary the subject matter and format of your content to keep the attention of capricious readers. Cycle between product reviews, informative pieces, lists and opinion pieces to ensure that your content remains varied and engaging!