You are a yoga instructor and nutritionist. Lately, you are having trouble getting more students to fill up your classes. Many of your previous students may have lost motivation and you are aware that there is a handful of yoga studios in your area. So, you decide to do some free 30-minute tutorial videos and offer free nutrition guides and recipes sent to their inboxes in exchange for their name and email address. You do a few posts a week, share it to your existing students so they can share it with their friends. Eventually, with consistency and some out of studio hard work, those posts make their way to Google searches and other search engines.

When people google yoga studios in your city, they stumble upon your tutorials and free nutritious recipes. You are able to gather information and have a list of target customers. You are now able to connect with your ideal customers. You care able to send them invites to promotional events to your studio and give them free one-time trials to encourage more enrollees. Through your weekly emails, you are also able to stay in touch with your existing clients.

What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing is the creation and sharing of different types of content (in our example above, tutorial videos and newsletters) to get new customers and retain existing ones. Content Marketing is different from traditional marketing in that it seeks to involve the audience. Its aim is to inform first before any promotion happens. While traditional marketing tells customers to buy a product, content marketing engages and educates customers about what challenges a product can solve for them.

Content Marketing and your Small Business

The internet is full of clutter. Among those clutter are impersonal ads, keyword stuffing and other forms of interruption marketing. Because of this, going back to the basics - building relationships - helps companies stand out. Just like any other forms of relationships, your relationship with your customers require consistent communication. This communication is in the content (blogs, newsletters, videos) you create for them and the feedback (likes, shares, comments and purchases) that they give you.

Where to start

When starting out with your content marketing, it can be tempting to post something just for the sake of posting. Content marketing is about consistent content that is informative, entertaining and convenient. Before starting (or doing a rehash of) the content marketing journey for your small business, answer these questions.

What is your goal for creating content? eg. Getting more leads, repeat purchases from existing customers.

Who are you creating content for? eg. Your ideal customers, the profile of the clients you currently have.

What pain points can you help solve for them? eg. Solutions that can help them save time, improve their health.

What resources are available to you? eg. Existing content, creative employees

Who consists your content marketing team? eg. You if you are a one man show

What resources outside of your company can you tap? eg. Bloggers and designers in your neighborhood. Outsourcing?

Now that you have answered these questions, you are now ready to start planning the content marketing strategy for your small business. To help you out, you can access these content marketing blogs below that we have previously published. You can also ask us a question here.

What is Content Marketing

Writing an outline for your content

Blogging for small businesses

How to select a writer for your next job

Content Marketing how to get started

Content Marketing options for small business

Content Marketing building a strategy

About the Author

 

About Angelica Manlunas

Angelica lives off of coffee and pizza. She spends her time online tinkering on social media, watching short films and poetry slams. Her offline time is devoted to trips to the beach or spending lazy days indoors with a book in her hand. Also, she writes at least 1000 words every day. Email Angelica at angelica.manlunas@transeo.com.au and follow Angelica @ang_transeo.