How Content Marketing Can Help SMEs

Whether you’re a start-up or have already established your brand online, continuing to develop your content marketing should be at the forefront of your business.

Content marketing is all about communication. It’s about engaging, listening and building a relationship with your customers.

We’ve put together a simple guide to content marketing and developing your brand online.

How Can Content Help You Grow Your Business Organically?

In today’s digital society, we spend an average of 6 hours and 42 minutes per day online. This increased time browsing the web is an open opportunity to communicate and engage with your customers. It’s important to represent your brand online with rich content and strong marketing copy, no matter your marketing budget.

The best content for a smaller marketing budget would be well optimised on-site content, blogs, tutorial videos, collaborations with other companies and a strong social media presence.

Whether you’re sending a personalised email or posting a ‘how to’ video on Instagram, you can grow your business by speaking directly with your customers and listening to what they have to say.

What is Marketing Copy?

Marketing copy is generally written with a specific goal in mind, often to compel the reader to do something. It could be to sign up for your newsletter, become a follower of your social media accounts, or make a purchase – we call these ‘conversions’.

There are lots of different ways to create compelling marketing copy, depending on your goal. A digital marketing agency can help you generate more valuable conversions using expertly written marketing copy.

What is On-Site Content?

A great place to start is by making sure your on-site content speaks to your target audience. On-site content generally refers to everything you write on your website. This includes help guides, FAQs or web page copy.

Good on-site content should speak your audience’s language. If you’re unsure where to start, read our article 5 ways to strike the perfect tone in your content.

How Can Blogs Help My Business?

There are many benefits of writing blogs; they’re a great way to showcase your expertise and help build relationships with your customers. But writing an effective blog is about more than just sharing your thoughts or business updates with your audience.

Applying a robust SEO strategy to your blog content can attract more visitors to your website, which ultimately means more customers. A well-optimised blog will appear in search engine results when people search for the terms (or keywords) your blog addresses. Your blog will attract visitors who are more likely to be interested in your products or services.

Blog writing is a key part of any content strategy, so if you’re not already doing it, you probably should be.

How Do I Make Sure My Website is Optimised for SEO?

As well as speaking your audience’s language, the content on your website also needs to speak Google’s language – this is where SEO comes in. SEO (search engine optimisation) will enhance a good content strategy. It ensures that the right people can find all the great content you’re creating.

 

By including keywords, meta-data, images, links and alt-tags in your blogs and articles, you can start to increase your website ranking on search engines like Google. Posting relevant, well-optimised content regularly is the key.

You can read more about how to optimise your content in our 10 SEO quick wins article.

How Do I Build My Brand Identity

Posting content about your business online helps you build a clear brand identity and share your company ethos with your followers. If you only have a limited marketing budget, it’s still a good idea to build a portfolio of blogs or videos and use your social media channels effectively to share your content.

By creating this online identity, your customers have a chance to get to know you better and communicate with your business. By being clear, visual and unique, you can set your brand apart from others. Applying a well-thought-out content strategy will establish a brand reputation, tone of voice and return business potential.

How do I Get a Bigger Return on my Investment

While it can take some time to see an impact from your content marketing efforts, PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, as well as paid social campaigns, can deliver more immediate results.

What’s the Difference Between PPC and Paid Social?

PPC advertising puts your business in front of people who may already be interested in your products or services. In return, you pay a small fee whenever your PPC advert is clicked. The goal is for the revenue generated from the increased visits to your website to be higher than the cost of the clicks. So, there is a risk to running a PPC campaign, and it needs to be right for your business. Why not check out the pros and cons of running PPC campaigns?

On the other hand, a paid social media campaign can give you more options for targeting your audiences, like age demographics, location, and specific interests. This means you can be much more specific about who sees your ads, ensuring you get the best return on your investment.

If you’re interested in finding out more about developing your brand online from a content marketing agency, please get in touch. We could talk all day about the benefits of content marketing!