Pick me!
As a micro business, one of your biggest problems is finding and attracting customers. Then persuading them to choose you.
After all, you don’t have the budget of a big company, and it’s hard deciding where to invest your marketing cash to make the biggest splash.
Content marketing (things like blogs, ebooks, white papers) is a cost effective strategy for smart micro business owners like you.
What’s more, it’s an effective way to build brand awareness, grow your authority and spread the word about how you can help.
Give me the remote!
Here’s why. As a society we’re pretty immune to “interruption marketing”. Perhaps you’re like me. I love talent competitions, but when the ads come on, I’ll tune out or make a cup of tea!
In comparison, I am very interested in articles, podcasts and links that convince me they’ll help grow my business. That type of information certainly grabs my attention. In fact I’m grateful for it and I’ll devour it!
What’s more, when a content marketer really gets under my skin, I’ll even look forward to reading what they publish next.
For example, when a post from Stan at @PushingSocial pings through, I’ll make the time to read it properly. What’s more I’ll comment, share it and persuade other people to check him out (I’ve even brought his blogging products – how did that happen!)
How it works?
Over time, I’d read enough content from Pushing Social to like him, trust him and value what he had to say.
Look, I’m not a stalker. I’m using Stan to make a crucial point.
If you write great content – stuff that actually benefits your target market, you’ll start a slow burn to generating sales. You will attract attention and you will draw traffic to your website (of course, you’ve then got to convert that attention).
What’s more, you build your credibility as an expert and become “the one to go to”. Even better, other people will market your business for you by sharing your great content. The result? You get to reach even more potential customers.
Quality not quantity.
I hate cliches but this one is true. Content marketing only gets results if you invest the time and effort to create top notch content. Please don’t make the mistake of rushing out a blog post or throwing together a freebie. Just because you’ve written something, it doesn’t automatically follow that customers will swamp your inbox. That’s because what you write must be useful, relevant and interesting. If you don’t, content marketing will disappoint.
Instead you need to :
- Solve your customers’ pain points.
- Entertain them.
- Give them a valuable idea that they can use etc.
The trick is to get under their skin and work out what makes them tick – then deliver it.
Take this action.
If you run a micro business, take some time out of your incredibly chaotic schedule today and create / review your content marketing strategy. It will be worth it (give me a shout if you want a hand). Try these 5 ideas:
- Bash out some innovative ways to communicate with your customers (I’ve got 25 for you here).
- If you hate writing, either get someone to do it for you or share your message through videos, infographics and images.
- If you want to improve your writing, subscribe to my blog and you’ll receive a free copy of 7 Steps to Writing Copy that Sells. If you’re a microbiz owner who writes your own copy, you’re going to love it!
- Plan for the long-term. It can take up to 7 times for a prospect to see your message before they’ll respond. Don’t expect results immediately. Be in it for the ride!
- Create an editorial calendar to plan when you’ll release your content. Then commit to it.
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