A common question that is frequently asked as a web designer by small business website designer is “why do I need a blog on my website aren’t those only for big businesses”. This statement couldn’t be further from the truth as small businesses have the most to gain from developing an online content marketing strategy. Small businesses quite often have the best stories to tell.
You are what you publish: Building out a content strategy for your small businesses
When it comes to online content or even print media in many ways you are what you publish.
For many companies out there the only publishing that they do is usually all about their products. Everyone is guilty of this from time to time lets say that you have just built a new direct drilling sowing machine.
You need to get the news out there as quickly as possible as sowing time is just around the corner. Usually, you would print a few thousand fliers and buy up as many add spots within the local paper as humanly possible.
Now, what if I was to tell you that in many ways we have our content marketing strategy backward. We start with bombarding our customer with the product instead of targeting the problem that our product solves.
Advertisement content example
Let’s take the following sales pitches that you may write in your local papers add section.
The new Super Seeder 1000 by Bobs Machinery is finally hear. For just $30,000 to help you reduce this year’s sowing time by 50%. Aren’t you sick and tired of the machinery breakdowns and the old combine that is more weld these days then machine?
The key to writing great content is to place the needs of the customer as your first priority. Explain how your product was built to help ease their stress levels during busy the busy time of year which is usually either sowing or harvest for local farmers.
So with this in mind lets rewrite the advert with your customers in mind.
At Bob’s machinery, nothing frustrates us more during sowing time than machinery breakdowns when you’re out trying to get the job done. These frustrations have helped us design the new Super Seeder 1000 that is more structurally sound and designed to withstand the wear and tear of sowing operations. Call Bobs Machinery today to discover how we can make this year’s sowing operations a hell of a lot less stressful.
At the end of the day, Tom, Dick and Harry’s machinery all make great seeders. Its the business that has shown that they have built products with their customers in mind that will succeed.
Because at the end of the day people aren’t buying a product they are buying a solution to a problem. Success is met when the goals or your product development neatly align with the problems and frustrations raised by your customers.
Crunch Time: Developing content to reach your buyers
Now its crunch time its time to start creating great content for your customers you grab a pen, a piece of paper and pour yourself a fresh cup of coffee.
You put pen to paper, then nothing happens you have drawn a blank. Now don’t worry this happens quite frequently and more importantly, it’s fixable. Heres what I want you to do.
Grab that scrap piece of paper and write down as many customer challenges as you can possibly think of. These will form the title for your articles.
Now under these titles think of times where you have experienced these frustrations as these are most likely the very things that inspired you to build the product in the first place.
With this in mind tell your story whether it be your seeder tangling up with sticks or that gate latch that never seemed to work the way that it was meant to. You may be surprised how many customers have been in the exact same situation.
Stick to your content strategy: Nows the time to stick to your guns and continue to tell your story
Now its time for probably the most difficult task of all. Sticking to your guns and developing a regular flow of content for your customers.
The best way to keep the story flowing is to maintain a routine to produce your content. A great way to do this is to sit down every Friday afternoon.
Even every second Friday afternoon and write a new article for your website that you will distribute on social media. It could be an article on solving a customer’s challenges or even an article about how the rain is affecting the crop this year.
It is the constant flow of content that will ensure that your business continues to grow online.
If you need a hand developing out your content strategy we run a organic SEO studio that can help you crunch out some incredibly stick SEO optimised content.
