What is successful small business content marketing?
Your customers come looking for your products and services because of a challenge that’s arisen; to earn their business, focus on earning their trust and—most importantly—their attention. Successful small business content marketing involves the creation of content that earns attention, trust, and conversions. Furthermore, it contains at least one of what I call the 3 I’s: inspiration, immediacy, and indispensability. Add at least one of these elements to the content you create and share to increase your business’s chances of success.
The 3 I’s of successful small business content marketing
1 – Immediacy
Content that’s immediately relevant is a huge boon to your audience. It hits them in a way that says you know them, their needs, and feel their pain. The simplest way to bake immediacy into your content is to think of a single person your product or service is uniquely suited for, then ask yourself, “What’s the No. 1 question they have when selecting a product or service such as mine.”
A great example of how brands used immediacy to win customers to their business what how small businesses advertised their safety protocols—e.g., “We require masks,” “We practice safe distancing,” etc.—during the COVID-19 pandemic. This had the effect of making customers feel immediately at ease should they venture out to shop or dine. By focusing on immediacy, you’re making your customers’ needs a priority, the hallmark of successful brands.
2 – Inspiration
I’ve written before that your content needs meaning to stand out in the crowded digital world, where millions of blog posts are published daily. When you create and share content that inspires, you’re elevating your brand above the noise with a message that makes would-be customers not only feel good about themselves, but they also feel good about your brand as well.
Columbia Sportswear, for example, does an excellent job of inspiring customers with their videos, which make you forget they are trying to sell apparel and footwear as you’re caught up in the excitement of the activities taking place on the screen. Whether you own a restaurant, a dental office or a retail store, you can create similarly inspiring content with a little forethought and a iPhone.
3 – Indispensability
As a consultant, I’m always asking business owners to think about life for their customers or prospects if the former’s business did not exist. Start applying the same logic to the information you share. Make certain that each blog, video, or social media post you share adds value to prospects and customers’ lives, whether in answering a question, solving a challenge or helping them in some meaningful way.
The simplest way to achieve this goal consistently is to think, while creating content, “What can I do to make this content so valuable that prospects think they’d be worse off if they didn’t read, watch or listen to it?”
What’s your opinion on my three I’s concept of successful small business content marketing.
(Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash)
