As a small business owner and entrepreneur, now is the best time to solidify your 2012 business plans, goals and strategies. It’s also a great time for you to look back over the marketing techniques you used in 2011 and determine where you can make improvements.
With the ever increasing changes of internet marketing, there are always new strategies to test out and try but at the same time; there are also some sound, tried and true methods that continue to hold ground.
From the very beginning of my business, there has been one strategy I have used and will continue to use to grow my business and establish my brand online and that is…Content Marketing.
What is content marketing?
Wikipedia defines content marketing as an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.
What’s really great about using content marketing as the primary method to establish your brand and build your business online is that you can be authentic and utilize your creative skills.
There are many options available when it comes to choosing the best format to distribute your content such as: articles, blogging, newsletters, email, digital content, video, webinar, teleseminars, live events, and graphic images to name a few.
Using content to market your business on a consistent basis can help you create more awareness for your brand as well as position yourself as a thought leader and expert in your industry. The more quality resource filled content you put out, the easier it becomes to attract your ideal clients and develop a loyal and engaged community around your brand.
Since content marketing can make a huge impact on the way people embrace your brand, it’s important to take the time to plan the foundational content pieces that will represent your brand to the core.
What to do before creating your content marketing strategy
- Clearly identify and determine who your target audience is. When you know who it is you will market your content to, it makes planning the actual content, that much easier.
- Have a strong understanding of the benefits, or results, your products and services offer your ideal clients. When you know exactly how you can provide a solution, you can create content that reflects that.
- Plan to produce 7-10 high quality, information packed content pieces that will educate, inform and encourage readers to take further action.
- Determine the best content delivery methods and then, design and outline the steps of your process.
Blogging for business has proven to be a highly effective way of content marketing and is the method I chose to build my business in 2009 and has shown very favorable for me. Not only that, it is easy to get started and requires very little money to begin.
Interested in learning more about content marketing?
Very soon, I’m launching my NEW website and will be sharing some of my best blogging and content marketing tips and strategies. You can sign up here to be the first to know when the site launches.
I’m also going to release my latest ebook: How to Build Your Business with Blogging, to those who subscribe…(did I mention it is FREE?!?)
So, if you are someone who wants to establish your brand and business by blogging and content marketing, click here to sign up and let’s ROCK the New Year together!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tamyka Washington
Social Media Marketing
www.theceomamma.com
Comments