It’s A Great Day To Be A Small Business Owner

Being a small business owner can be stressful, but luckily your marketing doesn’t have to be. It’s the golden age for marketing. There are so many platforms and opportunities available in today’s world that our ancestors couldn’t have even imagined.

  • Social media gives us free access to a global audience
  • YouTube is like a free TV spot. You can post your own content for the entire world to see.
  • Ebooks allow us to publish our own content without a publisher or contract.
  • Website Building Sites like Wix or WordPress allow us to create our own website for little to no cost!
  • Podcasts give us our own radio station – were we can pick who talks and what is said.

All of these sources are available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Smartphones have changed the game so now you can reach your customers with just the click of a button. The great part about all of these options is that you are in charge. There’s no TV producer, no magazine editor, no news reporter to pick you. You pick yourself, and that is the beautiful thing about the golden age of marketing.

With these new technologies you can reach a wider audience, move at a faster pace, tell more interactive stories, and customize your content. Research and analytics can show you who buys what, and how and why. You can get inside your customers head and tailor your message specifically for them. You are able to give the customers what they need and value based on the power of analytics.

With platforms like Twitter, you can market real-time to real people. Customers can engage with your brand in front of the entire world. You can interact with global issues that are happening now to make your brand seem more “human”. Your marketing now not only gives customers information, but also gives them an experience.

Transparency is everything. Show your customers who you really are and give them a behind the scenes peek at what you do. New platforms make marketing much less formal so your customers can get to know the real you and what your brand is all about.

With technology ever changing and the global market growing, you have a lot to consider when creating a marketing strategy. Luckily, many platforms make it simple to express your brand in any way you want. The next age of marketing is yours to do with what you want. You have the freedom and the power to define your own marketing.

The Scoop On Content Marketing

Content marketing. We’ve all heard of it, but what exactly is it? You’ve made an educated guess about content marketing, but you’re still not sure about the ins and outs. And you’re too embarrassed to ask anyone. This post is for you!

The dictionary definition of content marketing is:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

The goal of content marketing isn’t to create as many ads as possible – it is to add value to the customer with the goal of encouraging customer behavior. Content marketers create the media people actually want to consume. It is not about selling the product, it is about delivering valuable information to the clients in hopes that they will use their newfound intelligence to purchase your product.

Do not think of content marketing as being a separate entity of your current marketing strategy, but rather intertwined with your current tactics. Content marketing should be involved in most all of your marketing strategies. Social media uses content marketing because it is all about making the audience connect with your brand by delivering relevant information. SEO uses content marketing because search engines look for quality content. PR strategies cover the issues customers care about, blogging delivers relevant content, and many other strategies utilize content marketing as well.

So what are some examples of content marketing?

1. Blogging: The most obvious example of content marketing is creating a blog post. Blogging fits all of the descriptions of content marketing. It delivers valuable, relevant, and consistent content to an audience.

2. Infographics: Infographics are exactly what they sound like – info and graphics. They may include statistics, charts, facts, and timelines. Infographics are extremely useful because they can be easily posted on social media and websites.

3. Videos and podcasts: These are often underutilized because it seems intimidating to create a video, but don’t underestimate your ability! Create a high-quality video that never goes out of style so you can reuse it over the years.

4. Ebooks: These speak for themselves. Lots of information in an easy to access format. Give your customers some valuable insight to make them keep coming back to you every time!

Those are just a few examples of content marketing, but the possibilities are endless. There is no cookie cutter example of what is or isn’t content marketing. The main takeaway is to always remember to add value to your customers. Think like your customers and try to imagine what information would be most useful to them. For more tips, contact us today!