Saturday 25 August 2012

Content Marketing For Small Businesses

The benefit of content marketing for any business is well documented. Customers receive useful and valuable content absolutely free and in return, become loyal champions of the company, returning with their business time and time again.
For large companies this is straightforward; entire sections of a marketing team can be dedicated towards providing useful content on a day by day basis. For smaller companies this can be much more difficult, especially with constraints on man power, resources and time.
This article, however, takes a look at some techniques and methods small companies can use to kick off their own content marketing campaigns.


Blogging
Blogging is one of the most popular and effective methods of content marketing. Through the use of social media and blogging sites, a small business can release short blogs daily and quickly build up an online community of readers.
A blog should share things like success stories, industry breakthroughs and interesting news developments in the company’s industry. It should not contain direct attempts to sell products or services, however, as these will quickly drive away readers.
Podcasts
Podcasts are essentially mini-radio shows that typically last between 10 and 30 minutes. They should be useful, informative and interesting so, like a blog, should not attempt to sell products or services.
Instead a podcast should be used to keep customers and clients up to date with industry happenings, breakthroughs in science and suchlike. The more creative podcasts will quickly build up an online following.
White Papers
An old school form of content marketing, a white paper is a document put to together to detail a company’s research or scientific breakthroughs. Typically between 5 and 10 pages long, a white paper can promote a company’s brand and reputation within an industry; particularly to other businesses.
A white paper could analyse a recent industry trend or event, predict areas for future growth in a specific industry or comment on new, industry relevant legislation. Usually, smaller companies should focus on a specific industry niche rather then head for groundbreaking, industry wide research.
Outsourcing
A viable option for many small companies is for outsourced marketing to marketing companies. By entering into a contract with such a company, a small business can access all the benefits of content marketing without having to take on more staff.
In addition, internet marketing companies employ consultants with marketing knowledge and expertise beyond that of most staff at a small business. They also keep up to date with the very latest techniques and methods.
At the end of the day, there are certainly several content marketing techniques that a small business can employ to boost their online reputation. By enlisting the help of an internet marketing company, this reputation could be dramatically increased, without the need to expand or take on more staff.

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