What does content marketing give to a business? What is content marketing, or how useful content helps increase sales

Are you using content marketing effectively to connect with customers and grow your business?

Nowadays, content is one of the the best ways increase brand awareness among the target audience. Content marketing campaigns can also bring you online exposure, web traffic, leads, and sales.

There is only one problem.

Without the right content strategy, techniques, and tools, you won't reap all of these benefits.

So what should you do to avoid wasting time with the wrong marketing approach?

It's simple. Read this guide.

We've collected the latest content marketing techniques that will help you promote your business through content.

With this information you can attract the audience's attention and encourage her to contact you. In the long term this means more leads and sales.

Be warned: there is a LOT of information here. So we've created a table of contents so you can jump straight to the area of ​​content marketing you want to learn first.

Let's start by defining content marketing so that everyone is clear on what we're talking about.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing means promoting your business through content. It sounds deceptively simple, but this definition makes a lot of sense.

First, there is the content part. This includes content like blog posts, articles, podcasts, and videos. In general, it is information in written, audio or visual form.

So what about the marketing part? It has not changed since marketing came to the markets. The main thing is how to tell your target audience about your products and services so that people want to become your customers. In content marketing, you do this with content.

However, there is one difference from the good old methods. Unlike other types of sales and marketing, content marketing gets people to come to you rather than you reaching out to them. Although there is a certain parallel. Therefore, content marketing is part of engagement marketing.

Content marketers create, curate, publish and distribute quality content. As you'll see below, quality content is content that is relevant, trustworthy, optimized for search, and gives the audience what they want.

Content helps sellers:

• Attract a specific target audience.
• Inform her about the business.
• Engage and train her.
• Generate leads and ensure sales.
• Convert your audience into customers, fans and brand advocates.

Now let's look at some content marketing statistics that show why this type of marketing is so popular.

Content marketing statistics. Does this really work?

Why do so many people use content when trying to build an audience? The most main reason– content reaches people where they are – online.

The best way to reach people who are always online is to leverage content that appears directly on the mobile devices and social networks that people use. After all, that's where they look for information.

This is why content is such a popular marketing tool. Latest statistics The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) shows that 91% of B2B market participants and 86% of B2C market participants view content marketing as a primary strategy.

And it works. According to CMI, 72% of market participants agree that content marketing increases engagement and is an excellent lead generation tool. But no one wants to miss out on leads, right?

Ready to get your share? Let's start by formulating a content strategy. And if you want to learn more about content marketing statistics, check out our great statistics overview.

How to Create a Content Strategy

Creating content without a plan is like driving a car without a GPS: you might get to your destination eventually, but you'll definitely make a few wrong turns along the way. Indeed, you may end up wandering around aimlessly, dejected, wasting time and money.

Statistics show that content strategy is an area where market participants struggle:

• 63% of businesses do not have a documented content strategy.
• 64% of salespeople need help creating a better content strategy.
• 60% of salespeople find it difficult to create content consistently.

Pictured: What are the biggest content marketing challenges your company has faced?

65% find it difficult to produce engaging content.

62% don't know how to measure the ROI of marketing campaigns.

60% say they can't produce content continuously.

So here are some tips on how to create a flawless content strategy.

1. Define your mission, goals and KPIs

One of the first steps is to develop a content marketing mission. This is a short statement about who your audience is, how you will reach them, and what they will get from your content. Here good example missions from CIO.com:

In the picture: About us

CIO attracts close attention of directors information technology and business leaders by providing unparalleled expert analysis, as well as professional knowledge about business strategies, innovation and leadership. CIO readers gain insights on developing their careers and those of their employees, including certifications, hiring and skills development techniques, and a strong foundation in digitally enabled business transformation.

Here's a formula you can use to define your own content marketing mission:

We reach [target audience] with [content type] to help people [business goals]

Business goals are an important part of the process. They determine what your business will gain from content marketing. Typical content marketing goals include: increasing sales, generating more leads, and increasing traffic.

This formula will work for B2C marketing too, because your target audience always has goals. For example, trademark A medical B2C could produce informational articles (this is a content type) for women over 50 (the target audience) to help them cope with menopause (the goal).

And of course, you need to tell how you will measure the result. These are your KPIs (key performance indicators). These may include sales target, number of subscribers, increased number of visitors, etc.

2. Know your audience

The most important step in any content strategy is knowing who you are selling to. This will help you target your content properly. This is important because marketing works better when it is relevant. If you create content for everyone, you are creating content for no one.

The starting point is to collect demographic data through web analytics, social media analytics, and email analytics. This data will tell you about the age, gender, education and income of your target audience.

You can also collect feedback from customers to understand their priorities, decide where to communicate with them, and refine customer avatars.

Buyer avatars will bring together two sets of data so you know what content to create, how it will help your target audience, and what will make them take it seriously.

3. Plan your processes

It is very important to plan your content creation process. In particular, you should know:

• Who is responsible for creating content.
• Who is responsible for maintaining existing and releasing new materials.
• What resources do you need to create content?
• What will be the publication schedule?
• Who will approve the final version of the content.
• What is the content production process?

4. Start a blog

Your blog is the centerpiece of any content strategy. It will be the core for all your other marketing efforts. In fact, it is the most important marketing tool. So if you don't have a blog yet, start one.

To get the most out of your blog, you'll need post ideas. Some ideas that work well include:

• Guides on how to do it.
• Educational lessons.
• Industry news and valuable thoughts.
• Checklists.
• Case studies that we will look at more closely next.
• Interview.
• Expert advice.

Want to dive into the details of generating blog post ideas? Then keep in mind posts that:

• Helpful.
• Educational.
• Entertaining.
• Controversial.

You can also publish reviews, personal stories, and lifestyle posts.

If you already have content, it's important to determine whether it's helping you achieve your goals and KPIs. Therefore, it makes sense to conduct a content audit. It's a three-step process:

• 1. Write down what you have.
  2. Evaluate whether it works.
  3. Find gaps in content.

A good tool for performing content revision is the Screaming Frog service. It's an SEO tool, but it's also good for quickly collecting all the URLs from your site. You can also easily find duplicate pages and see missing metadata - titles and descriptions.

Another useful tool is SEMRush. It includes a content audit tool that evaluates content volume, incoming links, and social shares.

Once you get the data from these two services, it's easy to see what's working, what needs to be improved, and what needs to be replaced. You'll also be able to quickly identify content gaps where creating new content will help achieve your goals.

6. Perform Keyword Research and Create Content

One of the most important stages of content creation is analysis. keywords. You want people to find your content online and click through to your website. Keywords are phrases that people use to search for content. Google uses them to determine what your content is about.

There are 3 main types of keywords to include in your content.

• Short keys that define a general concept or group of items, like “socks.”
• Medium-length keys that can be 2 or 3 words that narrow the area, such as "women's socks."
• Long key phrases. These phrases are longer and more specific, such as “women's cotton hiking socks.”

Keywords in your content also help Google and people match your content with what they are searching for. This is called the search intent. There are 4 types of goals:

• Navigational when people search for a specific site.
• Information when they try to find the answer to a question.
• Research when they are trying to narrow down their choices before purchasing.
• Transactional when people are ready to buy.

Keyword analysis for content marketing includes:

• Brainstorming for good ideas.
• Check in Google Analytics And Google Search Console to see which keywords are already bringing people to your site.
• Using keyword analysis tools to find the right keywords and insert them into your content. One of our favorite tools is SEMrush.

Once you find the required keys, you will need to include them in the content. Some important positions where you need to insert keys are:

• The title of your page and your content.
• The SEO title of your content or page, which may vary.
• Meta description of your content.
• Throughout the entire content.
• In links to content and updates on social networks.

How long should your content be?

You need to know that content is one of the most important ranking factors, so it’s important to get it right. And although Google does not indicate content length as an SEO ranking factor, the analysis shows that longer articles that delve into the depth of the issue are more likely to appear in the TOP 10 search results.

In Fig. TOP 10 results and average article length

They also get more links and shares, additional social signals to boost rankings even later.

When you write long articles, the same rules apply. Optimize your text by scattering key phrases where appropriate. Avoid black hat SEO methods by stuffing the text with keywords.

7. Design a lead magnet

Content is the perfect lead generation tool. One way to generate more leads with content is to create a lead magnet. Ideal Lead Magnet:

• Solves a real problem for your customers.
• Provides a solution that can be quickly and easily applied.
• Valuable, but understandable.
• Shows your expertise.

Some of the best lead magnets include e-books, case studies and webinars. We'll look at them further in the guide. Other effective lead magnets include:

• Checklists and resource lists.
• Reports.
• Free trials.
• Tests.
• Mini courses.

8. Promote content

Another important aspect of content strategy is promoting the content you create to achieve your marketing goals. There are several ways to do this. These include:

• Social media marketing.
• Email marketing.
• Getting links.

We will look at each of these methods in more detail in the next article.

Originalpublications https://optinmonster.com/content-marketing-guide/

Translated Tatiana Pushkina especially for Convert Monster

You should not start creating content if the company does not understand why content marketing is needed for business.

“Our competitors started a blog. We want it too” - that won’t do.

Nothing will work. You will simply throw away money and time, and you will not get any return. First, understand why you need this, and only then, build a strategy, create content and get results.

Your articles, letters and videos must fit into the company's purpose, and you must know and always remember the answer to the question: “why are we doing content marketing?”

If you're blogging solely for creative expression, keep it up without limiting yourself in any way.

But if you're blogging for business, you need a reason, a purpose, and a strategy. Otherwise it's all in vain.

This article contains 7 points that explain why content marketing is necessary for a business. Choose one, two, several or all for yourself. And only after that, if you understand and agree that you need it, act.

Generally, content marketing can help every business. With the right approach, everything will work out.

Reason 1 - Build audience trust

Without benefit there is no trust

This is the most important reason and the purpose of content marketing.

When you create content for your audience that helps solve problems, the audience trusts you. Your website becomes their friend and advisor. They see that you understand your topic and share your knowledge.

This creates an image of you as a specialist they can trust. When the time comes, they will turn to you with money and become buyers.

When there is no trust, a person will not spend money. Is it dangerous. So create valuable content that solves problems.

Reason 2 - Attract new clients

Your readers are potential clients. They haven’t bought anything yet, but they are already reading your articles to solve their problems. And if they can solve problems with your content, over time they will become customers. Or at least they will bring in new readers who will also become clients.

To get readers to share your posts, create content that your competitors aren't creating. Articles should be convenient, attractive and self-sufficient. Videos are clear and detailed.

Your goal is to make sure that the reader does not have to go to other sites for additional information to solve your problem. All information should be on your website.

No matter how many clients you currently have, create a constant stream of new ones to grow your business and make more profit.

Create content that will complete the tasks of readers in one place. Preferably on one page.

Reason 3 - Get to know your customers better

Communicate with customers to find out what worries them

Successful companies thrive because they help clients solve problems with health, parents, children, and business.

You know what content to create for clients when you have clearly identified what problems they care about. Just create content with which the user will solve the problem and come to you again in the future, because you are now his friend.

When you help readers solve problems, they see you as a trusted advisor and come with other problems. Ask questions in the comments or by email. In addition, you can conduct lectures or webinars to answer user questions and get new questions, tasks and problems that customers have.

This way you will get to know your customers better and get information for new useful content to attract even more potential customers.

Create content to help your audience solve problems and gain even more information to create new content and attract new audiences.

Reason 4 - Demonstrate benefits

When creating content, start with problems and talk about solutions. This is why users go to the site.

When creating content, offer ways to solve problems. Reveal methods, give tips, hacks, different approaches.

For example, if a person has a toothache, he will look for information on how to get rid of the pain.

In this case, write a detailed article with the title “10 ways to get rid of toothache.” And if you imagine dental clinic, insert an appointment form at the end of the article. Because this is the most reliable and proven way to solve the problem of bad teeth. This is how you get a client through content marketing.

The right content strategy is not to talk about how good your product is, but to demonstrate how you help people solve problems with your product.

Demonstrate the benefits of the product - this is the basis of sales in content marketing.

Reason 5 - Remove objections

When your potential customers want to buy a product, they compare information from multiple sources. They choose whether they want to save money or get guarantees. As a result, they choose the seller who managed to close the majority of objections.

Content marketing is an excellent method to remove customer objections that prevent you from buying.

If objections are common in your business high price, create content that shows how buying a product at this price actually saves the customer money in the long run. Tell stories of other clients, count with the reader using examples.

It is important that he sees that buying a quality product at a higher price means saving money in the future.

If customers think your product is difficult to use, talk about how people between the ages of 8 and 70 use the product. Train the client to use the product. This way you will remove objections and get buyers.

Think about what objections buyers of your products have and build a content marketing strategy that addresses those objections.

Reason 6 - Strengthen the loyalty of existing customers

Every company strives to attract new customers. But the greatest potential lies in existing clients.

Selling to an existing client is easier than winning the trust of a new one.

Repeat sales - distinguishing feature successful business from unsuccessful one.

If you haven't created content for existing clients before, start now. This way you can increase your profits.

Create useful knowledge for people who have already purchased from you. Your products and services will be more effective if you combine them with useful and user-friendly content.

Reason 7 - SEO as a flow of new clients

There are companies that create content just to attract new users. They insert dozens of keywords into the text and expect search engines to bring traffic.

Traffic comes and goes immediately - users see that the article is of low quality.
They need to turn to other sources to solve their problems. This means the content they found is useless. Search engines monitor user behavior and demote useless articles in search results.

Benefits come first, optimization comes next.

If you are creating useful content, which solves problems, search engines see that users find a solution in your material, regard it as useful and raise it in search results.

SEO is an important part when creating content, but the benefit is more important. Therefore, this point comes last in the article.

Start Content Marketing

You now have a reason to start.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments. If you want to argue with me or add something useful to the article, also in the comments.

If this article is useful to you, I would be grateful if you transfer it to your page using social network buttons.

We've released a new book, Social Media Content Marketing: How to Get Inside Your Followers' Heads and Make Them Fall in Love with Your Brand.

Content marketing is a set of marketing techniques based on the dissemination and creation of information useful to consumers. This is necessary to attract new potential customers and build trust among the consumer audience.

More videos on our channel - learn internet marketing with SEMANTICA

To make it easier to explain what content marketing is for business, let’s look at a simple example.

When you're watching TV and your favorite series is interrupted by annoying advertisements, it's terribly annoying. Naturally, you only develop negativity towards the advertised product or service. And now another situation: you are watching an interesting show, for example a beauty contest. One of the participants talks about how she prepares for performances, what products she uses, gives advice and mentions XXX shampoo. How will you feel about the product? Surely you will want to buy it and try it. Do you feel difference? Likewise on the Internet, content marketing does not use direct advertising, it indirectly convinces people to choose a product or service.

How does KM work?

Content marketing for sales growth works like this: specialists create high-quality content and use it to attract an audience. It is necessary to build a strategy and clearly work on it. Let's figure out how to do this and what tools you can use.

Content Marketing Tools

Author's publications

You can write articles about how to choose household appliances, what trends are on the market, talk about the results of surveys and studies, about algorithms for solving problems, about comparing products, and so on. For SEO of an author's publication to be effective, it must unobtrusively contain keywords and consumer requests. These can be informational requests (“which smartphone is better XXX or UUU”) or commercial (“buy a smartphone”). You can select the optimal queries using the services MegaIndex, Key Collector, and Pastukhov’s Keyword Database.

White Paper

This is a book that contains all the useful information regarding a particular request. For example, a person entered the request “buy a tablet.” The search results will contain a bunch of similar offers and a non-standard snippet: “10 deceptions by the seller, how to choose the right tablet.” Where do you think the user will click? That's right, to the original snippet. He will then go to a website where he will be asked for his email. Next, he will receive a whole magazine with detailed recommendations.

Visual materials

These can be videos, images, photographs that provide useful information. Infographics are especially relevant today.

Video content

These are video materials that are posted on the company’s own Youtube channel.

Webinars and online conferences

On them, users can gain new knowledge on their profile and exchange experiences.

Examples of content marketing that work are everywhere. One of them is the Svyaznoy online store. Experts have created informative product descriptions and written useful reviews of upcoming new products. Today it is not even an online store, but a real information portal where you can find comprehensive information about gadgets. The result: an increase in visitors to the site and an increase in sales.

The benefits of content marketing for different types of businesses

Regardless of the specifics and essence of the business, content marketing methods allow you to achieve the following goals:

• Create an image of an expert. If a company is an active participant in the market and shares its experience, the audience gets the impression: “These guys know what they are talking about, they are pros - I’ll order from them.”
• Increase the importance of an Internet resource for a search engine. Thanks to useful and high-quality content, the importance of the site increases, and promotion becomes more effective.
• Increase loyalty. The company begins to provide assistance in solving customer problems and providing the necessary information. The consumer realizes that here they can satisfy his need and solve his issue. The price fades into the background, and a loyal attitude is developed towards it.
• Strengthen capitalization efficiency. Content marketing allows you to work to create and develop a company brand. As a result, sales and final profits increase.

How content marketing differs from traditional promotion

1. From SEO. With this type of promotion, the company pays to occupy high positions on the search results pages of various search engines. CM takes into account the current market situation, the real needs of the target audience, and categories of potential clients.
2. From Email Marketing. With content marketing, potential clients provide the address themselves Email and expect to receive useful materials in the future. In no case should you force magazines or e-books.
3. From SMM. If the content is truly high-quality and useful, then with CM there is no need to distribute it. Interested users will do everything for you: they will forward articles, recommend an interesting resource to friends, and share their impressions.
4. From traditional PR. KM takes into account the user’s profile, analyzes his requests, visits, and readings. This allows you to see the correct picture as a whole.

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy

A content marketing strategy consists of several stages. Let's look at them using the example of an online store selling household appliances.

1. Formulation of goals. Determine why you need a strategy, what tasks you set for yourself. For example, you want to make this or that product more in demand, increase the number of orders, and so on.
2. Dividing the target audience into groups. It is necessary not only to segment the target audience, but also to find out what the needs of each group are.
3. Search for sites where the target audience is concentrated. These could be thematic forums, YouTube channels, events (both online and offline), groups on social networks, search engines, and so on.
4. Market analysis. Analyze your competitors' resources: how often do they update content, what is the level of quality, what is the semantics.
5. Selection of instruments and channels. Determine the location of the target audience concentration.
6. Development of a plan for periods: week, month, year. Divide goals and objectives into small subperiods, determine the frequency of publication of materials, and outline topics. At the very beginning, determining the amount of content needed is difficult. You need to be guided by the experience of your colleagues. In about six months, it will be possible to work out the optimal volume and frequency of publications based on sales data, conversions and completed applications.

Content marketing effectively attracts and retains the attention of users, while effectively promoting a service or product on the market. The emphasis is on the future; there is no immediate attraction of traffic. But in the end, it attracts high-quality traffic and increases conversion.

This is our favorite topic - what should a small business do, how to implement the techniques demonstrated by industry monsters? How to live and work in a small factory, a modest shop, a lonely kiosk by the road. Are the mechanics that colleagues so delightfully describe at conferences applicable to them?

(At the end of the article there is a short interview - with a rather unexpected ending).

In 2014 and 2015, we were used to hearing categorical statements about the benefits of content marketing for everyone and everything. Sometimes we were even shown cases of how content marketing brought in thousands of leads and a lot of money. The only problem is that the bulk of successful examples of the implementation of content marketing are cases of agencies and consultants who earn their living from this very content marketing.

What about real business? Where is the proven benefit of content marketing for the manufacturer of anything sane, and not just marketing services? Is this benefit possible in principle?

Before we begin to deal with these issues, let's agree on the shore that our conversation will not be about consultants and agencies. When you see the phrase “small business” in an article, think of cinder blocks. For clarity, let’s add to the article the main character – Vasily Petrovich, the owner of a small enterprise producing cinder blocks “Romashka”.

A picture for those who have not seen cinder blocks. Or didn't know they were cinder blocks.

This will help us all focus on real problems, and not philosophize about yet another way to make an information business out of nothing just through a blog and newsletter.

Matches are not toys for children.
Why those who believe that content marketing is useless for small businesses are right

When Vasily Petrovich becomes imbued with the desire to promote his business using content marketing, he is faced with a difficult choice: buy services from agencies or do everything himself. Now we, together with Vasily Petrovich, will see why any choice will not be in his favor.

Problem 1.
When you go to buy content marketing, it's hard to buy exactly that.

If it seems to you that now every third agency provides services related to content marketing, and buying them is as easy as pie, then you are very mistaken. This is what they will offer Vasily Petrovich in 99% of cases.

• SMM. Under the guise of content marketing, yesterday's SMM agencies offer businesses the management of communities. From their point of view, content marketing is a content plan for a community or group and short texts with branded images. The responsibility of such agencies now begins with the stage of “people joining your community.” Where they come from, why they join, what to do with them next - no one cares. They will not tell Vasily Petrovich that social networks are only one channel for distributing content, and that there are others.

Oh, who is this?

• SEO. Under the guise of content marketing, mutated SEO agencies offer the same articles loaded with keywords, but in thematic series. Everyone is modestly silent about the fact that content is a tactic, and that you need to think about the channels for its distribution, about the connection with business objectives. Only a few such agencies are developing towards search marketing, and it will be very difficult for the inexperienced Vasily Petrovich to find them in the crowd of mutants.

• Copywriting. Here, under the guise of content marketing, they will no longer sell individual selling articles, but blogging or newsletters. Vasily Petrovich does not realize that content is not only texts, and that even his loving grandmother will not voluntarily read a blog about cinder blocks. But there is no choice!

What happens if a small business representative chooses any of these solutions? Nothing good - everything you paid for yesterday, and what has already stopped working, you will get today, but more expensive.

Problem 2.
Content marketing is too expensive a toy

But what will happen if Vasily Petrovich decides to engage in content marketing on his own.

• Plan A: Every good thing comes with a price.

If Vasily Petrovich has a budget, he can hire full-time specialists. He will need someone who can develop a strategy and implement it. The cost of an Internet marketer with experience in content marketing can easily exceed the monthly income of Vasily Petrovich himself. Of course, you can save money and hire a newcomer, but the effect of such an employee’s work will be negligible for a long time.

• Plan B: you can pay with other resources

Content marketing can be budget-free. Small business owners have a very valuable thing - expertise. Therefore, they are quite capable of working according to a ready-made strategy without the help of agencies. There is only one “but” - it takes time. Content marketing cannot be done occasionally and everything cannot be reduced to filling external and internal platforms with content. This is difficult daily work to transform meanings into useful experiences for the audience. There is a great risk that Vasily Petrovich simply will not have time left to manage the Romashka plant.

Whatever one may say, so far we see that small businesses have almost no chance of getting any benefit from content marketing. But this is only one way of looking at the problem. There is another one.

Why are those who believe that content marketing is as necessary for small businesses as air right?

The answer is simple: this is the only sustainable platform on which business promotion can be built. It is especially important to have such a platform for small companies that cannot afford competing budgets. contextual advertising.

Firstly, as already mentioned, the owners and their employees have necessary expertise. This is a deep knowledge of your product and area, which is very different from the emasculated Wikipedia articles. This is a unique experience that is not always obvious to the audience. This is an opportunity to really help your clients.

Secondly, It is small businesses that can afford such experiments. Large companies are losing flexibility; it’s difficult for them to even try new approach in promotion - it takes time to agree, time to implement, time to discuss each step. While large companies are just beginning to coordinate actions, small businesses are already skimming the cream at this time, and without significant investments. Look at the work of subwoofer manufacturers Pride on VK, on the approach of Mosigra or Alexey Zemskov. Yes, each of them has flaws, and you can find fault with each of them from a content marketing point of view. But they do what remains impossible for many large companies: attract and, much more importantly, engage their audience in the long-term dialogue that made their business successful. And the main thing in their success is not money, but deep meaning and real benefits, which are obvious to every client.

Third, Nowadays, there is no other way to attract and retain an audience other than through useful content. Advertising will not force your customers to stay with you, will not make them more loyal, will not influence the decision when demand has not yet been formed.

Who's right in the end?

The one who sees both risks and opportunities for small businesses in promotion using content marketing is right.

This is the set you should have if you want to achieve results:

• Your product must be selected for some time before purchase. If they buy it spontaneously, content marketing will not help you.

• You must be a bearer of meaning and a source of expertise. If you only copy other people's solutions and ideas, you can make money from this, but it will be more useful for you to advance with the help of advertising and SEO. Content marketing does not allow you to imitate benefit, so the essence of the business will quickly come to the surface.

• You must have sufficient resources. It’s either money, or time, knowledge and experience, but without them nothing will work.

If you think you have something to talk about with your audience, and if your product can change people's lives for the better, then the second part of this guide will help you take action and get results.

We sing a song to the madness of the brave.
Action plan for owners and managers of small companies

Let's bring Vasily Petrovich and his Romashka cinder block plant back into the game. We will build a content marketing promotion strategy based on his example.

1. Decide on your goals

Small businesses should leave behind the scenes all the image activities that are characteristic of giants. You need specific business goals so that promotion is not an interesting hobby or a sunk expense.

Let's assume that our Vasily Petrovich needs to increase sales. It's unoriginal.

The catch is that content marketing excludes direct advertising. With the help of content marketing, we will work to receive more incoming requests and applications, and specially trained managers will ultimately fight for sales.

2. Decide on your target audience

Who buys cinder blocks? Who doesn't buy them! People build houses and cottages, construction companies use cinder blocks. The problem is that no one will consume content about such a product.

What new can be said about cinder block? The way it is produced is of no interest to anyone. Everyone or almost everyone knows how it can be used. And even if you target an audience with unformed demand, it will quickly become clear that topics for content of the required quality have run out within a month or two. So, what is next?

Vasily Petrovich needs an audience that will bring in money, and to whom he has something to say for a long time. Therefore, we abandoned the obvious solutions and targeted dealers: those who buy cinder blocks in bulk from manufacturers for resale.

3. Find out what your target audience really wants

In the case of Vasily Petrovich, the needs of the target audience are obvious. Dealers want to know how to make more money by reselling cinder blocks. This and only this really excites the target audience.

In other cases, the needs will be different. There are many ways to find out the preferences of potential clients: you can analyze search queries, you can turn websites, forums, social networks inside out and get real questions real people. There is a lot of information on this topic. It’s just important not to choose what’s easier for you. Only the acute and relevant information needs of your target audience matter. And if they care about money, don't sell them on the properties of cinder blocks - it won't work.

4. Consider in what form your audience would be comfortable consuming content.

When it comes to content marketing, texts are the first thing that comes to mind. But in addition to texts, there are also videos, audio, presentations, illustrations, short messages, games. What in your case will be more familiar to your potential clients, and what will help better reveal the essence of your business?

Vasily Petrovich will train dealers on how they can increase their income by selling cinder blocks. He will present some of the information in text form, but sometimes he will conduct webinars, and it is better to present statistics in the form of infographics. He will also need presentations.

If Vasily Petrovich is the owner of not a factory, but a cosmetology clinic, he cannot do without photographs. And if he is the owner of an atelier, the main content will be video, because many secrets of sewing and cutting are easier to show than to explain in words. Think about what would be best in your case.

5. Choose the best content distribution channels

For simplicity, we will divide the channels into external and internal.

The external channels for content distribution that Vasily Petrovich will use are partners and their platforms. Partners will be everyone with whom Vasily Petrovich’s target audience coincides, who has developed online platforms, a need for quality content, and with whom he does not compete.

It can be:

• clubs and support centers for entrepreneurs;
• sellers of equipment for the production of cinder blocks;
• manufacturers of equipment for the production of cinder blocks;
• banks serving small businesses;
• transport companies;
• + specialized printed and electronic publications for owners and managers of construction businesses and so on;
• ...and so on, there are a million options.

Internal channels that Vasily Petrovich can use:

• blog on the site;
• email newsletter;
• groups on social networks (FB and VK);
• YouTube channel;
• channel on Slideshare.

When choosing channels for distributing content, it is important to think not in stereotypes like those that tell us that VKontakte is social network for schoolchildren. The important thing is to simply be where your target audience is.

6. Write down chains of targeted actions

Everything that happened before was just preparation for content marketing. It starts from this moment - from the moment of planning the movement of the target audience from the first contact with you to the goal. Without chains of targeted actions provided in advance, Vasily Petrovich will not be able to manage the behavior of visitors on his resources and will publish useful information at random.

As we remember, our main goal is to increase sales. An achievable goal is to increase incoming applications and requests. We work precisely towards an achievable goal, because sales, in the end, are the responsibility of managers. If a manager can’t put two words together, all our wonderful content marketing will fall apart on this obstacle. But we believe that Vasily Petrovich’s managers are professional and that everything will be fine.

As an example, let’s give a simple chain of targeted actions, which can be one of dozens of simultaneously launched chains in Vasily Petrovich’s strategy.

7. Create a content plan

Once you have decided who, where, and why you will distribute the content, it’s time to decide on the topics. Here is the simplest yet very effective content plan template that includes all the important details about each type of publication. Be sure to include dates and responsible people in your plan.

For content plans to make sense and work, create them for the period that each chain of targeted actions lasts. Some will need a content plan for a couple of weeks, while others will need it for six months in advance - there are no universal solutions.

8. Measure!

So that Vasily Petrovich understands how effective his promotion is, he will track key indicators every week. In his case, these indicators will be targeted actions.

Of course, views, their depth, and time spent on the site are important. But for businesses, the priority KPIs will be the number of newsletter subscribers, the number of webinar registrations and the number of incoming applications. The remaining indicators are secondary. This means that Vasily Petrovich will not fight for the number of “likes” on social networks. And he will be right.

Results

Of course, in one article it is impossible to cover the entire topic of content marketing for small businesses, just as it is impossible to demonstrate a complete content strategy (the content book that we give to clients on average contains 70-100 pages of neat text and graphics), but, in general, the picture is clear.

It's easy for a small business to start marketing in a meaningful and effective way with useful content. But only the best will get the results: those who do not imitate the benefit, those who have the resources, those who move consistently, and those who do not stop.

Want to main secret content marketing last? Just keep going when others give up. This is enough for success, if, of course, you started with a competent content strategy, and not with intuitive decisions.

Interview following the article

Kotoeditor:

I read the text with growing interest - what will you offer to the Romashka plant?
But it seemed to me that the proposal was ambiguous. He is the owner of the production, how will he teach someone sales, that’s it.
And: there will be enough stories about sales for a couple of months - that’s two.

Sales, promotion, development - inexhaustible topics, in general. And owners are usually aware of the details, especially in small businesses. The main thing here is the author’s view and approach, and not a canonical retelling of books. Take the same “Power of Mind” and Fyodor Ovchinnikov - he writes about everything, but the topics don’t end there. And they are unlikely to end as long as the company grows.

Well, when business development ends, then what about content marketing?

Kotoeditor:

It's clear. But this is not “Power of Mind”, but an ordinary factory churning out cinder blocks.

So this is not particularly important. If the owner has useful experience, expert knowledge, his own vision, then he has something to say. Well, or from its specialists. Or both him and his specialists) Another question is that usually there is nothing like that. But then again – what kind of content marketing is that?)

We bet you are familiar with content marketing firsthand? When in doubt, check your email, Instagram and YouTube. We send you 3-4 times a week useful articles about website promotion, fitness club shares secrets effective training and recipes for low-calorie treats, and the auto store talks about protecting your car from theft.

Posts, photographs, videos, e-books, educational materials, texts on websites are content marketing - messages with a specific message for the target audience. Working with content helps:

• find new clients and retain old ones, attract partners - you will become an expert in the eyes of the target audience;
• increase brand awareness without advertising - regular publications will remind you of you;
• talk about the benefits of the product - show why you are better than your competitors;
• overcome the fears and doubts of buyers - push people to buy;
• promote your site in search results and increase search traffic - get natural links that Yandex and Google love so much.

Content marketing is 21st century marketing. It is used by world market sharks, regional companies and even single businessmen. There is only one reason for this: the technology works. Judge for yourself: in 1 day a person sees hundreds advertisements and at best perceives a couple of them. A non-standard approach helps you stand out among the masses - do not impose your services and products, but talk about them in a gentle and interesting way.

How it works?

Let's explain with an example: you need to get a haircut, a friend recommended two hairdressers. Their prices are the same, both can come to your home at a time convenient for you.

And this is Sasha, she runs Instagram and the VKontakte group: publishes photographs of her work, gives advice on hair care, talks about fashion and answers clients’ questions

Which girl will you book your haircut with? Surely to Sasha - because photographs and articles told you about her professionalism.

It’s the same in other areas of business: we choose those companies that have won our trust. To do this, companies need not to sell, but to form relationships with clients - so that people know about them, are convinced of their professionalism and therefore turn to them.

The main weapon in such a battle is high-quality information. And the first goal that needs to be achieved is to regularly fill the website/profile on social networks with content. The second is distributing materials and attracting users.

This technology is more effective than other promotion methods: it eliminates the client’s “resistance” and forces him to trust you. After all, people themselves are looking for information that will help solve their problems.

Content was, is and will remain king. What's the point of contextual advertising if the content forces you to hastily close the site? A person will click on the ad, see nothing important for himself and go to competitors.

There is one “but”: content marketing is not suitable for every business.

There are two types of sales: transactional - when the client more important is the price and convenience (bread, fruit, milk), consulting - if you need expert advice before purchasing (refrigerator, sink, car). Content marketing works best in consultative sales environments in B2B and B2C environments.

Complex product Intellectual services, technological equipment and all other areas where you need to talk about the product before selling and educate the client	Regional business A canteen in Irkutsk, a regional network of gas stations - many people will know about you, but it will not bring very big profits. It is unlikely that anyone will come to you from Moscow
Unformed demand, startups Something new with a value unknown to the consumer - it is necessary to introduce people to the product	Consumer goods Everything we buy on the way home - buns, milk, butter, etc. They look at price and convenience
Premium products and services Expensive shoes, furniture, cosmetics, etc. - you need to explain their cost and talk about the advantages	Impulse purchases Chocolate, magazine - when the purchasing decision is based on a sudden desire. What is more important here is a beautiful display of goods and the atmosphere in place
Long sales cycle Computers, agricultural machinery, consulting and Banking services- it is important to keep the client “hooked”	Situational services Funeral agency, animal cremation - services that are needed due to the current situation. Then people don't choose for a long time
Own production You can build trust in the product - talk about its features, manufacturing stages	Low quality product Products and services are objectively worse than those of competitors - it will be problematic to stand out from them and gain the trust of consumers

It will be difficult, but you can try content marketing:

• Overheated market. It is difficult for a website promotion agency to stand out from its competitors - after all, there are thousands of promoted blogs in this area. To achieve success, you need to be the best and connect advertising to content marketing.
• Resale. It will be especially difficult for unofficial distributors. Before purchasing, a person considers many factors: price, terms and conditions of delivery, availability of guarantees, etc. You will have to know exactly why they should choose you.

The scale of the business does not matter: content marketing can be carried out by a household appliance store with branches throughout Russia and by a confectioner at home. The main thing is to soberly assess your capabilities, build a strategy, choose channels and go towards the goal.

Webinars. Organizing them is quite difficult, but there is a point: good webinars help sell. It is important to talk interestingly and usefully, to be concise - then people will watch you.

Example: stylist Inna Belova. A couple of times a month, the girl shares her style secrets with her subscribers for free. After all, this is a great opportunity to show your professionalism and... indirectly sell coaching programs.

Profile publications and blogs on your topic. It would seem completely illogical to publish materials created with such difficulty on someone else’s resource: the content will develop it, bring traffic and improve behavioral factors. In this case, you usually cannot make links to your product, often even UTM tags are prohibited. Plus, you have to pay for placement on some sites.

The game is worth the candle - you will increase your reach and awareness, increase engagement and loyalty, improve SEO indicators and prove your expertise. This method is especially effective if you have a blog, but there is not enough traffic.

Example: Bright Mobile. The company has its own blog, but posts articles on SPARK, a communication platform for small and medium-sized businesses. The goal is to tell about yourself, find clients and business partners, and answer questions from the target audience.

As you can see, many companies use content marketing. But this does not mean that you urgently need to start your own blog and start sending out your newsletter. Better think about whether this will help your business - clearly understand what you want to achieve and why. If you decide to try, get ready: it will be a lot of work, and the results will not be noticeable in a week.

How and when to evaluate the results of content marketing

Every barrel of honey has a small fly in the ointment: content marketing is a game of the future. If you are not afraid of this, then you can gradually become one of the leaders in your niche - the first result from promotion can be assessed in at least 1-3 months.

Select KPIs in advance that will help you determine your performance. In total, 11 metrics are used to analyze content marketing: you need to use those that relate to your goals and the type of published materials. For example, you want to understand whether it makes sense to post articles on a partner’s site - to do this, track the clicks on links from your text.

The main thing is not to try to immediately bite off more than you are capable of - otherwise you will be disappointed. Start small: consultations with experts, website and competitor analysis, strategy development. We advise you to hurry - before your competitors get ahead.

Conclusions:

What is this	Technology for creating and distributing content that will attract the target audience. Essentially, content marketing is the indirect sale of goods and services.
How does it work	Helps to gain trust: shows the professionalism of the company, removes fears and concerns, increases brand awareness. Plus it's good for SEO - you'll get natural links
The better than other promotion methods	Works for the future and is not perceived as advertising - people see the brand’s care and become more loyal to it
Who is it suitable for?	B2B and B2C areas where consultative sales are used: complex products, manufacturing, premium goods and services, startups
Where to begin	Audit of the site and competitors → development of strategy and plan → creation of content → publication of materials → monitoring of results
How to evaluate the result	In at least 1-3 months, look at Yandex.Metrica data and track the achievement of goals, count the number of likes and dislikes, shares, read comments

If you want to try content marketing, but don’t have time to delve into the details, contact us. Let's develop marketing strategy and create texts that will help increase sales, increase audience loyalty and boost the site in search results.