In this post, I’m discussing the top 3 reasons why content marketing is important for small businesses and some tips for sharing good quality content that helps you build authority in your industry.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is an effective way to build brand awareness, drive traffic, and generate leads for your business. It involves creating and sharing valuable information, data and tutorials that people will want to read, watch, or listen to.

Content Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

In traditional marketing, you push ads to people to let them know where they can buy your products.

Content marketing is about sharing valuable content that helps people solve a problem and pulls them to your website to learn more. Using the “attract – delight – engage” formula, content marketing to each stage in your buyer readiness: looking for inspiration, weighing the pros&cons, studying competitors, and readiness to purchase.

As a content marketer, I focus on creating great content that attracts & delivers value to readers. 

3 Reasons Why Content Marketing is Important for Small Businesses

If you’re not familiar with content marketing, here’s a quick overview of the types of content that it covers. 

Content marketing is a type of marketing where businesses share valuable information with customers through various forms of media. 

This includes: blog posts, social media updates, ebooks, white papers, infographics, etc.

#1: Content marketing helps businesses increase leads by 31% 

Content marketing has become increasingly popular among small business owners because it allows them to connect with potential clients and build relationships with current ones. In fact, according to HubSpot, companies who use content marketing see a 31% increase in leads.

#2: Content marketing helps you reach your customers without paying for ads

A large number of people tend to avoid ads because they’re annoying and disrupt their online experience. Instead, content marketing attracts people organically by offering them something valuable like a tip or solution to solve a problem.

#3: Great content helps position your brand as an authority in your market 

When you share quality educational content and data you are building authority. And your audience is more likely to trust you and your expertise when they constantly see good content being published on your website or social media. 

Types of Content Marketing for Small Businesses

There are three main types of content marketing:

1) Inbound Content– This refers to creating content that people find interesting and relevant to them. It helps build trust and authority in the eyes of potential customers.

2) Outbound Content – This involves sharing content published by other businesses. You can use this as an opportunity to promote yourself by providing value and being helpful to your audience.

3) Cross-Channel Content– This includes sharing content to different channels to reach your audience. For example, you might write a blog post and then tweet about it.

Ideally, you should use a combination of all these types of content.

How to Create Great Content in 2023

If you’re looking to improve your business’s online visibility, you need to start with content marketing. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to attract new visitors to your website and keep existing ones coming back.

1. Understand your audience 
2. Do a Google search (People also ask) to find out what questions people are asking in your industry
3. Study what your competitors are posting
4. Do a social media audit to find the most engaging posts
5. Create a monthly content plan using an 80:20 content mix ratio (80% – blogs, tips, tutorials and valuable content for your followers, and 20% – promos & sales posts that focus on conversions)
6. Schedule your social media posts to all channels using a scheduling tool like Pallyy (It’s FREE for up to 10 posts/month)

How to Measure the Success of Content Marketing

To measure success with content marketing, you first need to understand how much effort you put into creating quality content. You also need to determine whether your efforts are paying off by measuring the number of people who visit your site as well as the number of conversions (e.g., sales).

Tip: The metrics for success depend on your social media goals. For eg: if your goal is to increase engagement with existing followers, you should track the engagement rate, and post interactions (likes, comments, shares, saves).  

Conclusion: Why Content Marketing is Important for Small Businesses

Content marketing is an effective strategy for businesses because it helps them reach out to potential customers through different channels. 

It allows companies to connect with their audiences in new ways and build relationships with them instead of posting only salesy content that will scare them away.