Even if you’re a small local business, you still have to compete with the giants of the internet for advertising and brand awareness. One of the most effective and engaging ways to do this is with content marketing. But how important is content marketing for small businesses, and does it really make that much difference? Let’s take a look at the main ways in which content marketing will affect your local business.
Traffic
The more content-filled and engaging your website is, the more likely that people are going to stick around. If your content marketing material is plastered on social media streams and other websites where your customer base tend to frequent, then you’re naturally going to be able to divert traffic to your website as people click through to find out more.
Even a simple blog can see your website experiencing 434% more indexed pages than if it didn’t have one, and Google’s algorithms tend to rank you more highly if your website is constantly being updated with new content. As a result, you’re more likely to get in front of consumers and drive even more traffic to your website, hopefully converting it to leads once they arrive!
Brand awareness and recognition
Rather than trying to cram your business down people’s throats, try entertaining them or teaching them something which relates to your product. For example, if you’re a local mechanic, maybe create a short video or blog post which tells people how to fix minor faults with their car. This gets people sharing your content and talking about it (because it’s useful) and thus naturally grows your brand awareness and recognition.
Credibility
Why should someone trust your business over your local competitors? Well, good content can help to demonstrate that you “know your stuff” and that your customers can trust you when it comes to providing solutions in your field of expertise. You want to be viewed as an industry leader, and proper content marketing can help with this.
Lead building
Content marketing can be a great way to build up a database of leads, providing you with information about your customer base and demographics. Once you have your leads, you can then follow up with them via email marketing campaigns. Alternatively, if you prefer to be less intrusive, you could tailor Facebook ads and other social media ads to specifically target your leads and key demographics who will already be aware of your brand due to your strong content.
So, just how important is content marketing for local businesses? Very! If you want to build strong relationships with your customers and increase your brand awareness in your local area without plastering ads all over the town, then you had best start developing a strong content marketing campaign which is informative, entertaining, and attractive to your core customer base.
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