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Content marketing is one of the most important tools you have at your disposal as a small business owner. It involves creating consistent content for your website that can help you promote your products and services through articles, videos, eBooks, and the like. Content marketing can help you draw in your target audience and ultimately get more sales!
It’s important to regularly assess your content marketing efforts and improve your strategy for the best results. In this article, we’re going to outline some different ways you can take your content marketing to the next level.
Let’s get started.
Always have a goal in mind
Before you start a new piece of content, you should always know what you’re trying to achieve with it. There are a lot of different business goals you could have in mind. Here are just a few suggestions:
- To improve your search engine optimization (SEO)
- To showcase your expertise
- To sell your products
- To build your brand authority
- To encourage customer loyalty
- To help your customers solve a problem
It’s important that, when you create content, you keep your goals in mind rather than creating a ton of content without much direction. Doing so can help you take your business in the direction that makes the most sense at the time.
Focus on addressing customer pain points
Customer pain points are problems that current or prospective customers have, related to your field of work. If you address them with your content, not only will you help customers solve their problems, but you’ll build trust with them and encourage them to spend money with you in the future. Additionally, addressing pain points in your content can help you reach more of your ideal customers through search engines like Google. This is because you’ll be more likely to pop up on the search engine results pages when someone is researching a topic you know a lot about.
When identifying customer pain points, start by checking in with your customer service team. See if there are any questions or concerns that customers frequently speak to them about — targeting these in your content will not only help save your team time but bring your content strategy to the next level.
Let’s take a look at a few businesses that target customer pain points in their content for inspiration.
FreshBooks, an online accounting software company, addresses customer pain points throughout their blog. For instance, in their guide to writing invoice letters, they outline who needs to write these letters, how to format them, what to include in the body copy, and more.
This guide is great at helping FreshBooks’ audience, who are primarily small business owners and freelancers. Many of these people do their accounting themselves and have to send invoices and invoice letters. If they aren’t sure how to write or create these, FreshBooks can help.
On your website, consider writing how-to guides that address customer pain points, as FreshBooks has. Doing so will build trust with your customers and encourage them to use your products or services down the line.
Similarly, The Law Offices of Steven M. Bishop, a family law firm in California, has an article that outlines how to help children cope with divorce. The article explains that this process can be difficult for families, but there are ways to mitigate the stress, including keeping lines of communication open, encouraging children to share emotions, and more.
This article is excellent at addressing customer pain points relevant to the firm — The Law Offices of Steven M. Bishop specialises in family law, so they deal with a lot of divorces. Providing prospective clients with these articles can put them at ease and build trust with the company’s website visitors.
For your website, create content that helps people who are struggling with issues related to your niche. Even if you can’t solve all of their problems, showing that you care about their pain points will build trust with them.
Old Spice, a brand of male grooming products, addresses customer pain points on their blog, as well. In one particular article, they discuss the top aluminum-free deodorants from their brand. They outline the benefits of a variety of their products, including spray deodorant, 48-hour deodorant, different scents, and more. This article is great at targeting customer pain points, particularly for those concerned about aluminum content in their deodorant. If someone is looking for an alternative, Old Spice makes it easy for customers to find an option they’ll love.
On your website, you can also address your customers’ pain points by helping them to make informed purchases. It’s a great way to build trust with your customers and earn more sales.
Start incorporating video content
Video content is becoming more popular year after year. In fact, nearly 9 out of 10 people report wanting to see more videos from brands — this means that, if you’re looking for a way to take your content marketing to the next level, video should definitely factor into that.
There are lots of different types of video content you could create. Here are just a few:
- Behind-the-scenes vlogs that show what it’s like to work for your company
- Product reveals to get people excited about new releases
- Product demonstrations that show what specific items can do
- Tutorials related to your products, services, or niche
- “Meet the team” videos
- Maintenance tutorials
Let’s look at a few examples of businesses that are already doing a good job of using video content on their websites for inspiration.
Aerial Wakeboarding, a retailer of ski towers and wakeboarding equipment, uses video content right on their homepage. This video, which shows people on the water, is exciting, engaging, and gets the viewer excited about Aerial Wakeboarding’s products. It serves as great video content that promotes their products and encourages sales!
On your website, use your video content to show off a little! Doing so will get website visitors excited about your products and encourage them to make a purchase.
American International University, a higher education institution in Kuwait, also uses video content on their film production program page. This video shows different students in recording studios, working with other students, and more. It will get prospective students to imagine themselves at AIU and ensure they’re excited to apply, making it very effective!
On your website, think about how you could create content that gets the viewers to imagine themselves using your products or services. Doing so will help them engage with your website and hopefully spend money with you down the road.
Finally, Helix Hearing Care, a supplier of hearing aids, uses video content on their hearing aid solutions page. Their video uses a whiteboard to promote their small and discreet hearing aids in different colors. It’s a charming video that puts the website visitor’s mind at ease about their potential need for hearing aids, building trust with them and encouraging them to spend money with Helix Hearing Care in the future.
On your website, don’t be afraid to get creative with your videos. Doing so can keep people engaged, so they’ll stick around long enough to make a purchase.
Aim to improve your site’s E-A-T
E-A-T stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. It’s a term that comes from Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines, and is something that the search engine has been paying a lot more attention to since 2018! Essentially, Google only wants to send its searchers to high-quality resources that can help them find the information they’re looking for. This means that part of your content strategy needs to involve publishing expert content that shows you’re a knowledgeable and experienced source of information. If you do, you’ll boost your rankings on the SERPs.
To come up with ideas for expert content, think about what people come to your business for over everyone else. What topics do you know inside and out? Basing your content off of these topics can show off your E-A-T and get you a boost on the SERPs.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of businesses that do a good job of producing expert content for inspiration.
Florin Roebig, a trial attorney law firm in Florida, shows off their E-A-T on their car accident lawyer service page. The content on this page covers just about everything someone would need to know about car accidents in Florida, including factors that affect claims, the types of claims that can be filed, and more. The article shows off their expertise due to its thoroughness and helpfulness to the reader. It builds trust and shows that Florin Roebig is a leader in their state when it comes to handling these claims.
On your website, create comprehensive content that shows off your expertise. Doing so will get you a boost in the search results and get more eyes on your content!
Moz, a digital marketing company, also shows off their expert content in their ultimate guide to digital PR. In it, they cover what digital PR is, different types of campaigns, how it ties into backlink building, and more. It’s a great article that shows that Moz is a leader in digital marketing and that they’re always on top of the latest trends, making it great for boosting their E-A-T.
On your website, create content based on industry trends and show off your expertise. Doing so will show your website visitors and search engines that you’re always on top of the latest industry developments, demonstrating your expertise. This will boost your E-A-T and SEO as a result!
Finally, Web Eminence shows off their E-A-T in their guide to creating a user-centered website. The guide covers the key factors a designer should consider when creating their website, including keeping design elements consistent, targeting audience needs, and more. The article is very helpful for designers who might not be familiar with some of the more user-centric aspects important to creating a website today. Because it’s a very helpful expert guide, it’s great for boosting the site’s E-A-T.
On your website, don’t be afraid to create thorough guides that teach people about your niche or industry. Sharing knowledge will build trust with readers and show search engines that you’re an expert in your field, boosting your E-A-T and SEO in the process.
Continue to tweak your strategy
Monitoring the performance of your content is vital to improving your strategy over time. You can do this in part by checking your website’s analytics and SEO metrics. They can tell you what kinds of content work well, who your posts are reaching, and how your content tends to be discovered.
With these details in mind, tweak your content strategy going forward. Focus on creating content that your website visitors like, and content that you know leads to conversions. Doing this will help you ensure that you’re improving your strategy all of the time.
Summary
Content marketing is a complex tool — there are so many ways to tweak your strategy to get it right. In this article, we outlined how you can take your content marketing to the next level, including incorporating video, showing off your E-A-T, setting proper goals, and more.