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Launching a business is such a gratifying experience! You\u2019ve pulled all-nighters and probably drank far too much coffee to, finally, get everything set to launch<\/a>. You\u2019re ready for people to start engaging with your brand, but a little stuck on how to actually make this happen.<\/p>\n Marketing your product or service and generating demand is one of the biggest challenges new businesses face. Resources are slim, budgets are low, and paid marketing channels are usually too expensive. So you\u2019ve got to get scrappy!<\/p>\n That is where content marketing can prove to be the difference between a successful business and one that struggles to stay afloat. While it does take time to get started \u2014 and you have to commit to doing it consistently over time \u2014 it’s an inexpensive solution that can help you grow your reach.<\/p>\n Simply put, content marketing is a strategy designed for the creation and distribution of valuable content to attract potential customers. Valuable content can take on many forms:<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Basically, it\u2019s any content that has the ability to attract and engage your target audience.<\/p>\n As people grow more and more averse to traditional marketing methods like TV advertisements (who even has cable anymore?) content marketing has stepped in as the new way to attract a relevant audience.<\/p>\n Imperfect Produce is a company on a mission to fight food waste. The company turns ugly food that wouldn\u2019t regularly be bought at supermarkets into adorable characters on their social media to develop a connection between its brand and its audience.<\/p>\n The company also has a highly engaged blog, aptly named \u201cThe Imperfect Digest\u201d that delivers educational pieces like: \u201c4 Seasonal Squashes and What to Do with Them\u201d as well as more lifestyle-related articles like \u201cComposting 101\u201d. This kind of thoughtful content is not only fun but very helpful for people who want to better understand the produce they cook with.<\/p>\n There are so many ways content marketing can help new businesses \u2013 here are some of them:<\/p>\n Often the first place a person asks a question is on Google. If your business is one of the first to answer those questions, those readers will begin to trust you and might come back for more of your helpful content. Now you have an audience! A well-maintained blog on your website is one of the most cost-effective ways to interact with your audience, provide valuable information, and gain leads.<\/p>\n In fact, companies with a blog receive 55% more website traffic<\/a>, hence why so many businesses have their own blogs these days. Now, around 79% of b2b (business to business) companies<\/a> and 70% of business to consumer (B2C) brands have an active blog to reel in customers.<\/p>\n In order to educate and reach more people, new businesses also need to publish new content on other blogs to gain traction. This is commonly referred to as \u201cguest posting\u201d.<\/p>\n Good magazines and blog platforms routinely accept guest posts from industry leaders with niche expertise. In return for an article, you get exposure to their readers as well as links that direct people back to your website. There are many benefits of guest blogging, but one of the most important for new businesses is expanding your audience.<\/p>\n Content is a vehicle to develop a relationship with your consumers and cement your presence in the market. This relationship will create a sense of loyalty between you and your customers.<\/p>\n Check out Bad Girl\u2019s Collective<\/a>, a book-club based out of Toronto, Canada. It\u2019s on a mission to make reading novels trendy, and cool, and this is expressed through its powerful brand voice. It’s clear Bad Girl\u2019s Collective knows its audience by using a witty and empowered voice that speaks to smart, city-dwelling women with busy careers and lives. This voice is consistent across its website, social media, and even call to actions (CTAs), creating a reliable connection between brand and customer.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve got regular content streaming from your business and have developed an audience as a result, a helpful next step is to build an email subscriber list<\/a>. This list contains the names and email addresses of people who have opted-in and permitted you to send them business-related and promotional emails. It keeps your brand top of mind and helps move people with a vague interest in what you\u2019re doing toward an eventual purchase with you.<\/p>\n To begin, include CTAs in your content for people to subscribe to your emails and stay up to date on the content you\u2019ve produced.<\/p>\n Your content marketing strategy will make you stand out \u2014 but only if you create valuable and actionable content. Here\u2019s how you can do that:<\/p>\n As a new business, deciding what content to create can feel like swimming through a void. There\u2019s already so many how-to blogs, thought leadership articles, and product guides out there. It\u2019s easy to become paralyzed after doing some competitive research.<\/p>\n Ironically, the best thing to do when starting out is to try and mimic ideas from content that are already successful. Make a list of the most common questions people might google relevant to your business and then research them yourself. Take a look at the top search results and ask yourself how you could improve them. Are they visually impressive? Do they use solid examples? Do they answer the question in a clear and direct way? You can create a new post with your own unique insights and updated information.<\/p>\n A buyer journey is a business concept that emulates the various stages a consumer goes through before the final \u201cconversion\u201d, or desired action, with your business. Essentially, it\u2019s the process a visitor goes through to become aware of your business, consider, evaluate, and compare, and ultimately decide to purchase your product or service.<\/p>\n There should be content directed towards each stage of this funnel, from high-level posts for people in the research phase, followed by in-depth pieces that address their problem directly.\u00a0 Lastly, product guides (or even a detailed explanation of the services or packages you offer) are extremely important as they help position you as the best solution.<\/p>\n The details may vary from niche to niche, but the idea is the same; create consumer touch-points to ensure they don\u2019t drop off because they couldn\u2019t find the information they were looking for.<\/p>\n Most future customers look for social proof before engaging with a new business. This could be as simple as google or yelp reviews, or testimonials on your website. If you want to take this a step further, you could create content (think: social media graphics, blog posts, video ads<\/a>, etc.) around your customer\u2019s stories. People look for themselves in these stories. If they can relate to the problem you solved, or how you helped another person, they will be compelled to move forward with you.<\/p>\n Content marketing is not just about creating quality articles and webpages, it\u2019s about the entire process that includes promoting and distributing your content through different channels. Choosing where to distribute content is overwhelming\u2014 social media, email marketing, Pay-Per-Click advertising, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), display advertising, etc., how\u2019s an entrepreneur supposed to choose?<\/p>\n While you may be inclined to work on one dedicated platform for the sake of time (and sanity) this strategy can limit your opportunity to connect with audiences who are on different channels.<\/p>\n It\u2019s best to focus on a few channels most relevant to your audience. We\u2019ll give you the lowdown of the most popular distribution channels here to help you decide which one to start with.<\/p>\nWhat is content marketing \u2014 and why is it useful?<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nIt helps you establish an audience and promote your website<\/h3>\n
It helps you develop a brand voice<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nIt helps you build an email subscriber list<\/h3>\n
How to get started with content marketing<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nAnswer questions your readers are looking for<\/h3>\n
Plan content for each stage of the buyer journey<\/h3>\n
Make use of customer stories<\/h3>\n
<\/span>Tip: If you\u2019re worried about not having real \u201ccustomers\u201d yet, start with testimonials from friends and family! <\/div><\/p>\nHow to distribute your content for maximum impact<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nBuild an email list for newsletters<\/h3>\n