Almost every business, especially small and medium enterprises, have two common concerns – how they will attract new customers or clients and how they will keep the clients they already have.
The good news is, there is a simple solution that can help businesses both large and small, attract new clients and keep the existing ones coming back for more. That solution comes in the form of content marketing.
There are many ways in which we can define content, but when we are talking about the goals we’ve mentioned before (attracting new customers and maintaining existing clients), content is all about relevant and interesting information.
Some of the popular types of content used today are informative articles just like this one, online how-to-guides, YouTube videos, white papers, blog posts, infographics, podcasts, recipes etc. Your expert knowledge and information can be presented in an infinite amount of ways and it is up to you to choose the one that suits your business the best.
Of course, this content should be highly shareable and this is something that you can achieve if you understand your audience, their needs and objectives.
As we have mentioned, you must publish expert knowledge and information that is valuable to your audience and ideally, this expert knowledge and information should be free.
Hang on! Why would you offer something so valuable for free?
Content marketing allows publishers to establish themselves as authorities and experts in specific areas and industries. Your educational and informative content, should highlight ways that your audience can use your products and services, knowledge and information to solve their problems.
If done well, your followers will more than likely use your help to overcome these problems. Sharing free content makes your business trustworthy. It allows people to see that even though your main business goal is to make profit, you are still prepared to help them for free when it comes to specific questions.
Let’s take the blog or news page of a website for example. Many websites have a dedicated blog section (check out ours HERE) where they publish blog posts related to their business and industry. These blog posts allow business owners to express themselves and their expertise in a more direct way.
I NEED TO SPEAK TO A PRO
Blog posts should not be used for direct promotion.
This is an area where you can address your clients in a less formal manner and present your thoughts and ideas on your niche or industry, as well as valuable information that will solve their problems.
This article for example, is hopefully helping business owners understand the importance of content marketing and how developing a content marketing strategy can help attract and maintain client relationships.
I haven’t tried to sell anything, but if only one or two business owners decides to start a website blog, or share a valuable infographic on Facebook or video on YouTube, then my time writing this article was worth it!
Finally, it goes without saying there are many more advantages of using content marketing. To start with, big search engines are particularly fond of content marketing and this is especially true for Google. Check out our thoughts on why Blogging is about more than just SEO
So now you should be at least a little more aware of the advantages of content marketing and you should be inspired to work on its creation. There are also many professionals (like us) with years of experience in this field who are more than happy to help you get your first blog post, infographic, explainer video or how-to-guide underway.
If you need assistance with creating a blog for your business or perhaps some topics your business could cover on your website blog, get in touch with Warrnambool’s BEST web design company, WestVic Web today!
