Why Content Marketing Is So Important to Your Small Business

Content marketing is something every business should take part in, but something few successful manage to do. It is especially important for brands that are just starting out, as content marketing is a great way to first, get your name out into the industry and second, to prove your worth. It is what drives conversions in both the early and mature days of a business, and while some have decried content marketing as difficult to track and quantify, there is no doubt that those who do it successfully gain value from it—so much so that across all industries, businesses are going to expand their budgets for this type of marketing by nearly 60%.

With more than five billion pieces of content being shared, 500 million Tweets Tweeted, and billions of pictures uploaded, there are constantly conversations going on. Your business just has to find a way to get in on one of those conversations—content marketing being the easiest and most effective way. This is perhaps the only marketing channel for which startups have a leg up over more established companies. How? Startups have more passion and are much more persistent. Here are some suggestions for how to utilize your content creation abilities to attract the attention of your audience.

Make Videos

Video has overtaken written content as the most influential type of content you can create. Even search engines are starting to favor video over text, and videos have a much higher engagement and share rate than written content. If you’re looking for an easy way to get into the content marketing game, making videos is a great place to start.

First, you can make videos to explain your products or service. Page visitors are much more likely to watch a video, especially if that video is made with personality, than they are to read written content about the same topic. Second, you can create a video introducing the people behind the product or service. Make videos about your staff, about your office, about how your products work, about the benefits of your service, etc., etc.

Most people have a perfectly good camera built right into their smartphones. Digital cameras are also not very expensive, and both types of video can be edited using free or inexpensive software available on both Macs and PCs.

Create Infographics

Infographics are a great way to convey a large amount of content and data, in a very short, concise, and visual way. The visual component of this types of content marketing helps viewers process the data or information they are presented with and if the visuals are good, they can help you both attract attention and encourage sharing.

In an infographic, it is also important to use compelling writing and to avoid cluttering up the graphic with too many words or too many pictures. Infographics should be clean, concise, and modern-looking. Focus on numbers, interesting ways of displaying those numbers, and explanations to show why those numbers are important and why the viewer should care.

Visuals

While written content definitely has its place, it’s important to remember that visual content often performs better, especially when trying to communicate complicated concepts. Videos are usually better than blog posts when it comes to explaining a product or introducing a service. Most people are visual learners and will understand much better when they are shown something than when they simply read about it.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t also invest in written blog posts. Written content is great for deeply and thoroughly explaining all of the intricacies of a topic—something that would take a very long video or infographic to achieve. However, even your written blog posts should include some sort of visual and they should be written with the visual reader in mind. This means ample white space and scan-able subheadings, on top of relevant visuals.

The Bottom Line

Content marketing is important for your startup because it is the best way for your readers to connect with and understand your business. Giving them the opportunity to see your value and your authority, long before they actually spend any money on you is always a good thing. Further, your search rankings will be rewarded when you’re providing relevant, informative content on your website.

You will need, however, a conversion funnel to go along with your content marketing campaign (and remember that it is a campaign. It should have a goal). Don’t just create and fling content out into the void. It should be created with your audience in mind, about topics that they care about, and presented to them in a format they will engage with. This requires some trial and error, but it will all be worth the extra time and testing in the end.