Learning All About Marketing Techniques

Posted on: 9 April 2015

Many small business owners hear about content marketing and think it could be a good way to get more traffic to their websites and more attention from potential and existing customers. While that's true, content marketing is more than just throwing words on a webpage or making a video.

Truly effective content marketing solves a problem for the reader. It answers a question that potential customers are likely to be searching for.

So, how does a small service business, like a plumber or a roofing company, create content that returns the investment of time and money spent?

The Value of an FAQ Page

One of the most effective pieces of content that a small business owner can include on their website is a frequently asked questions page. This is a place where you can gather information to answer the questions that many customers or clients have about doing business with you.

Questions should take about 2 to 4 short paragraphs to answer. Anything that can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no," or take just a couple words to answer, is not going to help you with your content marketing. You're looking for questions that people in your target audience of potential customers may be typing into search engines.

You can add to an FAQ page on a regular basis. Also, some frequently asked questions are great for expanding on and turning into a blog post or short video. You can link to the longer article from the FAQ page, or embed the video.

Frequency of Adding Content

Most small business owners are not going to be able to add new content daily, or even weekly. While it is ideal to post at least once a week, the key is to be consistent, and add new content regularly. If that's every two weeks, or every month, that's okay.

One tip for small business owners who are wearing a lot of hats: Find one time every week or month when you can sit down and create content. Grab a cup of coffee and write several posts at one time, which you can post as needed. You can also delegate the writing to an employee who has the skills and interest in content creation.

Plan for Promotion

Every blog post, article or other piece of content marketing should have a plan for how, when and where to share it. Some business owners have a checklist for how to manage every new piece of content; this can include posting to social media on a specific schedule, adding a link to an email newsletter and advertising the new information locally and in search engines. Depending on the time you have, there are many ideas for how to promote your content.

However you choose to do this promotion, make sure that you have a plan and follow it. It's very easy to write a blog post and then forget about putting in the effort to get it found by the people who can benefit.