Content is “king”. Bill Gates has made it clear since he wrote an essay way back in 1996. In connection with this, designing a small business content strategy will bring results as well as aid important aspects of your business, such as marketing and brand management.
Branding plays an essential role in success when it comes to businesses. It helps your clients recognize your brand in a certain way– and if done right, your branding can help your target market see you the way you want them to see you.
That said, branding goes beyond your company name, colors, and logo. It is more than just your pretty website and taglines. In more ways than one, your branding is your company’s promise to your clients. Because you need to live up to the image that your branding shows.
The core of a brand does not just revolve around its aesthetic, you need to ensure that your clients are getting the best experience while providing them valuable information and resources. Having a nice logo and a fun website is not enough– you need to invest in caliber small business content strategy along with effective marketing and SEO strategies.
Small Business Content Strategy + Effective SEO: A paramount Formula of Success
No matter how beautiful your website is– it will never be enough to keep your loyal clients or get new ones. All beauty and no brains should not be the image you want for your brand.
Imagine trying to look for useful information on a website, only to find that it just looks professional but with no other value. It is like going on a date with a person whom you think is attractive— until they open their mouth and raise a couple of red flags.
Small business content strategy along with SEO efforts will put your website on search engines’ radars while consistent quality content will keep you relevant to both your potential clients and loyal customers.
The main keywords here are “consistency” and “quality”. Branding is all about consistency. This reason is why you need your designs to have consistent colors to your logo or why brand collateral should make sense for your business. If you want anything to be consistent with your brand– it is quality. Especially when it comes to content.
Quality content will let your target market know that you understand what you are doing and that you are an expert in your field. On top of that, quality content gives your audience the opportunity or even the push to engage with your brand.
Content includes your social media, website, and print marketing efforts. You need to maintain a particular style and voice to maintain strong branding. And you want quality to be a part of your brand image.
How Can You Create Quality Content for Your Website?
Although you need consistent quality content for better branding and a better website, the process of getting to where you need to be is not consistent.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for creating quality content. It is a process of trial and error. You need to find the perfect balance between communicating your brand message, engaging your audience, and attracting new clients.
Here are some ways to create quality content for your brand:
Inspire your audience to create content for you.
How does that work? User-generated content is one of the most effective ways to create content for your brand. All you need to do is to create posts that inspire and encourage your audience to generate content around your brand. This type of content is one of the most valuable forms of content.
User-generated content includes reviews, comments, and images that your clients and customers post about your products and services. By taking their contents and using them to create your unique quality content– you are not just including and engaging with your clients, but you are also letting them speak for your brand.
Why is that a good thing? Letting your audience speak for you can help attract new clients and customers. Because by letting your clients or customer speak– you are no longer blowing your own horn and you have proof of just how good you are at what you do.
Invest in keyword research.
This part of content creation is normally one of the things that SEO can take care of for you. Keywords can be used for many things but these are two of the main reasons:
- finding out the trends or popular topics
- improving your SEO ranking
However, keep in mind that you need to make sure that your keywords are relevant to your brand, your audience, and the world. For instance, even if a particular keyword is a trending topic in the world, if it’s not relevant to your brand or your audience– then what’s the point? It is like talking about trending Netflix movies, but you are running a plumbing business. It will take incredible skills to make those two things connect.
Consider content that will work well with social media.
Social media has become a marketing staple since it is widely used all over the globe. That said, your branding and content should also be available on social media platforms.
Social media will allow you to engage with your audience, ONLY IF your content is good enough to encourage your audience to engage. Take some time to find social cues and current trends that are relevant to your brand.
Take time to get to know your audience.
Regardless if you are just beginning to put your brand together or if you have been around for years– you need to get to know your audience. Understanding who you are is definitely a part of brand creation, but you also need to consider your audience.
For instance, you are starting a small law firm and you are working on your logo with a designer, you cannot just decide that you want your company colors to be neon orange and baby pink then and there. You need to consider if those colors represent your business effectively. On top of that, you also need to consider if your audience will perceive your company the way you want them to if you choose those colors.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to stand out, and neon orange will surely do the job. However, if you want to be perceived as an approachable law firm brand, a striking bold color may not be able to convey that feeling to your audience.
The same principle applies when you are writing content for your website. “Quality content” can mean different things depending on who you are targeting. For instance, if you are targeting the younger generation for your new mobile app, then a fun or conversational type of content will do nicely. However, the same type of content may not be taken seriously if you are talking about financial trends or new laws in your area.
Quality content is written with the target audience in mind.
Do not sleep on SEO.
SEO can do wonders for your website. DO NOT SKIP IT. No matter how amazing your content is, it does not matter if no one is reading it. Simply put, SEO is an essential component of a strong small business content strategy.
Optimizing your content should be one of your priorities. Why? Because without Search Engine Optimization, you will not be able to pull in new readers.
Here are some of the things you need for better SEO ranking:
- Write a brief but descriptive meta description.
- Use images with ALT text.
- Use subheadings and bullet-point lists.
- Include outbound links.
- Add links to internal pages.
All Things Considered
Consistent quality content will reassure your loyal clients that they made the right decision by choosing you. It will also help convince potential clients that they can trust you. Quality content shows that you know what you are doing and if done right— you can even be an authority in your industry. And that’s the kind of brand image you want your clients to see.
Remember to get to know your clients and to try and involve them in your content creation. Social media platforms are great for marketing your brand, so it should be one of the things you consider when creating content. And of course, do not skip on long-term SEO services if you want to put your brand on Google’s radar.