My Top 5 Content Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners & E-Commerce Creators
Content is king, and content will always be king. Content is what sets you apart from your competitors, and captivates your audience to believe in your product, your service, or your general expertise.
Creating content the right way will make or break or marketing and sales efforts, so I’ve put together my top 5 content marketing tips that apply to small business owners, e-commerce sellers, and creators looking to monetize in the future:
Keep the conversation CASUAL
Your content should feel like a conversation between you and the reader. It’s commonplace to find blog, articles, and advice columns that feel stiff and technical to the point of no return. If I am giving you information, you want to be able to understand and enjoy what you’re reading with a casual tone. This makes it not only easier to read and scan through an article (which we all do), it means you as a reader can focus on the golden nuggets of information.
If you’re a small business owner or a content creator, the last thing you should do is write only what is easy and what is obvious. A person came to your blog, your video, or your 15-second TikTok to gain something of value, advice or knowledge with your expert take on it to include a perspective they haven’t heard before. If you simply remake what is out there, don’t bother…but bonus points if you can had some sort of entertainment component!
Start by checking out what the latest trends of content in your industry/vertical are, forecasting what trends will be, what content your competition is creating, and what questions your following or customer base is asking. Collecting a list what is out there and what is timely will help you to identify what content you can create to stand out with your two-cents, while staying on-trend.
Pair your new list of content ideas with your newly found casual tone and value-giving perspective, and you’ve got the recipe for content creation success!!
Platform perspective: Are you posting your content on the RIGHT platforms?
If you’re trying to be everywhere, you’re actually nowhere. How? Posting successfully to TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, your blog, Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, Reddit, local news sites, and any creative updates to advertising on any of these platforms for a one man show is near impossible. If you think you’re going to have time to repurpose content for each platform AND be engaged on each platform just enough to build a community to generate leads or sales, think again.
Rather than trying to conquer all mediums, do a bit of research up front on what platforms your target demographic are most actively engaging on.
A quick research checklist could include:
Researching what platforms your competitors are on AND the platforms that also have followers engaging with their content the most (pick 3 to start).
Completing a quick audit on your own following (if you have one) and checking your platform analytics to scan your engagement levels (and website visits if available).
Assess if the platform is “dying” or if the platform is “growing” in size of your target market.
Analyze your industry as a whole (not just your competition, but complimentary business/creators) and see which platforms they are most active on. If you ever want to partner with like-minded businesses/creators in your space, it’s important to be on a platform that has an active and robust industry community.
Understand what you can actually commit to time-wise. A blog or long-form podcast takes much more prep + production time to complete versus an Instagram Reel or TikTok.
Platform and people pairings:
Business owners want to be on LinkedIn and YouTube
E-commerce stores want to be on Pinterest and Instagram
Creators in formal industries want to be on Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit
Creators in lifestyle industries want to be on YouTube and Instagram
Local businesses should be on local forums/sites, Google My Business, and Reddit
Everyone should be on TikTok due to its explosive potential for organic growth
And Facebook…Facebook who?
My rule of thumb is to pick one long-form content style that you know you can strategically repurpose bite-size morsels of for short-form content on another platform, e.g. a YouTube script and video can easily be spliced into short clips for a weeks worth of TikTok posts.
Do it BETTER than your competitors
If you want to give your potential and current audience a reason to follow, sign-up, and purchase/partner with your over your competitor, you have to do it better than them. While this is important in every aspect of your business, it’s especially true for the information you put out there in the digital realm. Even if your product/service/expertise is superior in all aspects to your competitor, it doesn’t matter if your competitors capture the attention of your prospects before you do.
While we’ve briefly touched on taking a look at the competition to brainstorm some content creation ideas, there are a few more steps you can take to do it better than them:
Complete an audit on their current content to see not only what content you can create better, but what content they are missing altogether. An easy way to assess what’s missing is typing in specific FAQs into Google and seeing what comes up in your space.
Subscribe to their middle and bottom of funnel content via their guides, emails, SMS subscription, and even going as far as contacting their customer support to gain an in-depth understanding of the information and they put out their for their customers/following. You should be their biggest fan, in stealth mode.
Step up your FAQ game by creating answers and a knowledge base that is more interactive in comparison. Think short video content to answer questions, infographics, instructions, how-tos, etc. to beat the basic info the competition gives. Here are a few examples for inspiration!
Short of stalking your competition, you should know their content inside and out so you can produce something that is more interactive and of higher value, winning over any undecided prospects.
Long-form content is a MUST
From 3-hour podcasts to articles and blogs that are 1000 words minimum, there’s no escaping the utility and value of long-form content. The obvious disadvantage is the time, planning, and general skillset it takes to create long-form content your prospects will find takeaways from. Long-form content is also the basis of your bite size social clips, quotes, and screenshots that can usually be distributed 10-fold.
There simply isn’t a way around creating this content, so it’s important to go in with a plan of action to make your creation process as efficient as possible:
Aim for 2-4 pieces of long form content a month. Start with two so your audience has fresh content to come minimum every two weeks.
Utilize already created illustrative, graphics, and embedding short YouTube videos (or timestamp the video) into your blogs and video content to cut down on the content creation time and to help summarize your primary points from other authoritative sources.
If you have the means, outsource the hard parts such as grammar and syntax proofing, content optimization, and video/photo/infographic producing and editing. As long as your subject matter expertise and your authentic voice lays the foundation for your long-form content, you’re golden.
If you don’t have the means, take advantage of free tools such as Canva for thumbnails, Venngage for infographics, and Piktochart for informative videos.
Set aside a specific day of the week and time you can use to commit to your long-form content. If you don’t, “finding the time” will never happen.
Give your audience a REASON to get in touch
This is the most important, but often most overlooked aspect of content creation! Too many times have I seen websites, subject matter experts, or social media content without a call to action to follow their published content.
If you don’t give your prospects an obvious, low-commitment next step, they likely won’t take one. Even then, each one of your prospects may prefer a different method of next steps; the more the merrier.
If it’s top-of-funnel content such as bite-size social, encourage them to simply like, follow, or subscribe if you want to grow your following. If it’s middle- or bottom-of-funnel audiences already familiar with you and your content, encourage them to sign up for your e-newsletter, entice them with a discount or free offer, or have them book a call with you. Adding in multiple reminders to encourage your prospects to complete a call-to-action, enhanced with visual aids, is crucial.
There are tools you can utilize to help you offer multiple communication methods or contact information capturing, including OptinMonster and ConvertFlow for your website, and Linkpop or LinkTree for your social profiles.
Recap: Content is king, and content will always remain king. Do your research and brainstorm a list of content superior to your competitors and highly valuable to your prospect. Try and create at least two long-form pieces of content per month, that can be repurposed for no more than 1-2 platforms if you are just starting out. Lastly, make sure there are call-to-action baked into your content to encourage prospects to follow you, sign-up for your e-newsletter, or make a purchase with your discount offer.
If you have specific questions about creating content for your industry, to entice people to buy from your online store, or to grow your following, get in touch with an email to ask me anything at Alyssa@socialhaus.company. I’ll give you a detailed and industry-specific response, while keeping your end-goal in mind!