Successful small businesses use a data-informed digital content strategy to meet business goals for growth.
A data-informed strategy helps small businesses define target audiences, content types, distribution channels, and success metrics. The plan is always documented and measured to ensure alignment with brand voice and trust, maximum online visibility, and sales enablement.
Translation: You can't identify successful online marketing without specific goals and measurements. With modern analytics, marketers don't rely on creativity alone; they rely on metrics and data points that help them connect with the right target audience on the proper channels.
Small businesses face unique challenges with marketing, but the payoff for implementing the right strategy is worth the effort. When a small business reaches profitability status (usually in two-three years), it's critical that other "marketing success factors" are in place for long-term success and future profitability.
Make sure these marketing trends strategies are part of your growing business:*
There are five main pillars of a digital content strategy for small businesses:
1. Question & Answer Content
Search engines exist to answer questions. Creating content to answer the most popular questions from your target audience will give you the most visibility online. Small businesses can answer these questions in a variety of formats:
- Articles & blog posts
- Podcasts & videos
- Strategic placements on local blogs & news sites
- Webinars (Live or On-Demand)
- eBooks & One Page Reports
How do marketing teams choose questions to answer online? They use a mix of keyword research tools and Google Trends and talk to sales and intake teams.
2. Local & Verified Listings
Optimize your local listings and maintain consistent brand & niche messaging online. Even if your business is regional, national, or global, optimizing local listings for your Google Business Profile and Bing Places will improve visibility on mobile devices.
Take advantage of business directory listings, too. Focus on location-specific and product/service keyword descriptions, and create many online listings that lead back to your website.
Verified online listings is #1 on the list of Forbes' Small Business Must Haves. It's a quick win and most of them are free. If you see your business name associated with a free listing service, be sure to claim your profile and fill it out completely. If your Google Profile is missing information, potential customers are likely to use a competitor's profile if it has everything they need (hours, website link, photos). Here are a few places to start:
Verified Listings
Many verified listing sites gather reviews, offer maps, phone numbers, and links back to your business website. Use caution when selecting these sites; some of them are designed to collect high fees that don't provide much benefit. Not all sites that charge a flat fee are bad, but use caution. Beware of YELP; they have a very large telemarketing team designed as 'customer service' to use your listing as a revenue stream.
Here are a few authoritative business listing sites to help you get started:
→ Inc.com
State, Regional, and Map Listings
Even if your business is national or regional, it's still relevant to list it in your headquarter or branch location state directories. For example, in South Carolina, SCIWAY gets over 7 MILLION visits per year and lists over 50,000 businesses. The best part? The site has been active on the internet since the late 90's, making it a powerful and valuable source of referrals for businesses with offices in South Carolina.
If you have a Google Business Profile (which connects to Maps), do you maintain it? Post updates, add links to Facebook & Instagram, and post photos. Click here to manage your Google Business Profile, or reach out if you have questions or need help.
3. Email Content
Email subscribers enable you to create a relationship with prospects and stay top of mind in a busy online marketplace.
The best way to succeed with email nurturing is to start with an irresistible, memorable, or unique offer. The sole purpose of the offer: Provide value to the subscriber. By providing an asset or information that helps your target audience, you're gaining an invitation to their inbox. Email nurturing still creates value, especially for service based businesses.
Get ideas from reallygoodemails.com or sign up for use templates from beefree.io.
4. Social Media Proof & Trust Content
Fill social media channels with content demonstrating your expertise and letting your happy customers and clients do the talking.
Social Media Listings
Even if you don't plan to update or use social media very often, creating a listing with a link back to your website, phone number, and other contact information can generate customers. Think about it; if you type a small business name into a search engine, many times you'll see their Facebook or LinkedIn page before you'll notice the website.
Not sure which channels to use? Type your biggest competitor's name into Google and see which social media channels populate with their name or their competitor. Start with that list, and keep typing in competitor brand names to see if anything else pops up. Bottom line, you want to show up where they are.
Isn't There a Shortcut?
Yes there is! Yext or Synup can help you save time and generate local and map listings in bulk.
Trust Content
Build online reviews with automation tools like https://pathpro.co/ or https://moregoodreviews.com/.
5. Content for Micro-Communities
Where does your target audience "hang out" online? Use persona research and referral traffic reports to find out where your ideal customer is searching, visiting, and interacting. If you're just starting out, make sure your company is visible in today's hottest micro-communities.
What about Paid Ads?
Small business failure rates are still bleak; 50% fail within the first five years. If you have a budget to run paid ads, work with a pro who can maximize your return on investment and doesn't make false promises. Work with a consultant or agency who isn't afraid to tell you NO. You may see competitors running ads, but if you can't compete with their ad budget, they will overpower your ad campaigns.
Retargeting is the best strategy for small businesses who are new to paid ad campaigns. Monitor key metrics like conversion rates and cost per acquisition to optimize campaign performance.
Small businesses face unique challenges with marketing, but the payoff for implementing the right strategy is worth the effort. When a small business reaches profitability status (usually in two-three years), it's critical that other "marketing success factors" are in place for long-term success and future profitability.
*Marketing trends can be fun and create temporary buzz for your business, but if they're truly valuable, they'll become part of the pillar strategies that are already in place. An experienced, thoughtful marketing agency will help you identify reliable a reliable strategy over trends, and will ALWAYS measure the value of a strategy against the cost per lead, lifetime customer value, and recommend a marketing P&L sheet.
