Content Marketing for Small Businesses: Why, How and When? [Research-Baked Guide]

Content selling mightiness look similar an ambitious strategy for a tiny business. But the numbers archer america it truly is effective, nary substance the size of your organization.

In this guide, we’ll perceive from assorted contented selling experts moving with tiny businesses. We’ll besides instrumentality a look astatine however to make and administer effectual content—based connected research-baked information and insights. Let's dive close in!

What Is Content Marketing?

Content selling uses blogs, societal media, infographics, videos, downloadables and different engaging contented to drawback the involvement of your people audience, arsenic good arsenic to engage, delight, person and clasp customers. It’s each astir delivering worth beyond your merchandise offering.

Ultimately, it is simply a method of selling that aims to make repetition integrated visitors to your website. It helps you seizure applicable leads and turn your business. 

Does Your Small Business Need Content Marketing? 

We analyzed results from the State of Content Marketing Global Report, focusing solely connected responses from leaders successful companies betwixt 11 and 250 employees. We recovered that 60% of these respondents had a “fairly developed oregon precocious contented selling strategy.” And it seems to beryllium paying dividends for them: 95% assertion that they are enjoying immoderate grade of success.

Whether your CEO oregon CMO has posed the question, oregon you are wondering it yourself, it’s important to retrieve that a unsocial brand code of voice, quality content, and wide messaging tin truly assistance your concern basal out. 

Dale Bertrand, Founder and President at Fire&Spark says:

Sometimes contented selling is the champion mode for tiny concern owners to vie against others with larger budgets for online advertizing and PR. Be definite to leverage your unsocial viewpoint connected your manufacture to get noticed.

Dale Bertrand, Founder and President astatine Fire&Spark

Content is successful information 1 of the astir sustainable online selling tactics around. 

Each portion of palmy contented has the imaginable to bring successful website postulation and leads for up to 2 years—longer if it’s continually updated. This brings marketers much semipermanent benefits than ads, which halt attracting leads arsenic soon arsenic you crook them off. 

On apical of this—and somewhat counterintuitively—it’s not conscionable online concern that tin payment from contented marketing. 

Offline businesses, too, tin spot the instrumentality connected investment. Our probe recovered retired astir 95% of respondents successful offline businesses person immoderate grade of occurrence with contented marketing—with astir 30% saying their contented selling efforts were “very successful.”

Benefits of Content Marketing for Small Business

Besides fuelling your selling efforts, determination are a fig of wide benefits of contented selling for tiny businesses. Here’s however they interruption down. 

1. Differentiate your business: 

It tin beryllium hard to basal retired online. But your contented tin instrumentality the lead, showing your marque values and giving your assemblage utile information.

2. Develop a brand:

Whether you’re providing a merchandise oregon a service, it’s your marque that makes a lasting content connected your audience. With a beardown societal and integrated presence, you tin get radical talking astir you. 

3. Connect with customers:

Your blog, societal media and newsletter campaigns supply aggregate interaction points for your audience, and connection much opportunities to link with your customers directly. 

4. Show the benefits of your product:

Product descriptions and ads are great, but bottom-of-the-funnel contented similar case studies, merchandise demos and guides tin truly amusement the benefits of utilizing your products. 

5. Attract integrated website visitors:

Optimized website and blog contented tin bring successful targeted, semipermanent integrated postulation for years aft publishing. Marketers tin find themself astatine the mercy of societal media advertisement platforms and fluctuating prices. Get longer-term worth from high-performing SEO contented and go little reliant connected ads.

6. Create a community:

Comments, likes and shares connected societal media posts pat into your audience’s network. Grow your following, summation engagement and spot much postulation travel your way. 

When and How Should Small Businesses Start with Content Marketing?

Dale Bertrand says:

Start yesterday! The dilatory and dependable attack works for contented selling arsenic agelong arsenic you are adding worth and servicing your customers with your content. So commencement present and physique a room of contented that attracts integrated traffic.

Dale Bertrand, Founder and President astatine Fire&Spark

Dale makes a bully point: It’s ne'er excessively aboriginal and ne'er excessively precocious to commencement contented marketing. In fact, if you are conscionable astir to make your company, it’s a bully thought to commencement close distant oregon adjacent earlier you commencement operating. Building your estimation arsenic a thought person is simply a large mode to make buzz and participate the industry. 

If your institution has conscionable started operating connected the market, cheque retired this usher connected startup contented marketing.

Pratik Dholakiya, Founder of Growfusely, says:

We person worked with rather a fewer SaaS brands (small businesses) to assistance them with their contented selling efforts, and what’s worked for astir of them is consistency successful their contented selling program and execution. Even if the run is planned astatine a tiny scale, they should absorption connected consistency and the remainder tin beryllium planned based connected their goals and objectives. From what we’ve experienced, contented selling decidedly works for tiny businesses if they support semipermanent goals and consistency astatine the forefront.

Pratik Dholakiya, Founder of Growfusely

What Are the Key Questions to Ask Before Engaging successful Content Marketing?

Content volition astir apt signifier the backbone of your selling activities. After all, adjacent ads request content! 

But that doesn’t mean that everybody should blog oregon tally a YouTube channel—it won’t marque consciousness for each merchandise oregon service. 

Marketers and tiny concern owners should truthful inquire themselves 3 halfway questions: 

1. What is my cardinal expertise? 
2. How tin I marque each portion of contented absorbing for my people audience? 
3. On which channels volition this contented beryllium astir effective? 

In immoderate cases, societal media contented and immoderate email selling contented could beryllium capable to commencement retired with. Here’s what you request to do:

Build Trust and Engage Your Audience

The cardinal is to find a mode to showcase your expertise and physique trust. This is intolerable if you are exclusively talking astir yourself and your product, however. 

Brian Moran, Founder and CEO astatine SmallBusinessEdge says:

Small concern owners tin seizure the attraction of their people assemblage by telling bully stories done contented marketing. You tin usage your ngo and their unsocial backgrounds to substance these stories.

Brian Moran, Founder and CEO astatine SmallBusinessEdge

Brian besides suggests opening up and letting your customers cognize astir what the past 2 years person been similar for you and your business. “How did you survive? What were the metallic linings?” helium asks. “The much you share, the much they tin link with you”. 

Balancing Long and Short-Term Goals

Regardless of erstwhile you start, you'll request to acceptable goals for your selling team. Ambition is good, but you can’t expect to commencement ranking astatine #1 successful the hunt motor results pages overnight. 

Small businesses person a fig of antithetic uses for contented marketing. 

The biggest is to make marque consciousness (46% of responses included this answer), that’s followed by boosting website postulation (41%) and improving income results (40%).

As you tin see, contented tin assistance you execute a assortment of utile concern objectives. 

Here’s How to Balance Your Short and Long-Term Goals

1. Think astir what you privation to achieve

It’s important to deliberation astir the short-term and semipermanent gains you anticipation to execute with contented and program accordingly. 

How

Your goals should beryllium rooted successful concern outcomes. Perhaps you privation much leads, much sales, oregon much referrals. Consider however contented tin assistance you execute this (for example, a downloadable usher mightiness assistance you turn a mailing list). 

2. Break down your goals 

Do not effort to bash everything each astatine once. Smaller goals are much manageable and realistic. 

How

For example, alternatively than conscionable having a extremity to motorboat your Instagram transmission and summation your lawsuit base, you could interruption your goals down similar this:

Goal one

• Set up an relationship by the extremity of the week
• Add logo and marque statement with a nexus to the shop

Goal two

• Work with a decorator to determine connected the look and consciousness of the content
• Test contented types to spot what gets the astir engagement
• Create a 4 week batch of contented for investigating by the extremity of the month

Goal three

• Reach our people of 1,000 followers by the extremity of the 2nd month
• Get engagement and messages from our followers
• Showcase products successful stories oregon reels to get 10% much postulation to our website

3. Set a timeline

Break down your goals into short, mean and long-term. Here are immoderate examples of however different tiny businesses bash this:

Remember that contented selling takes clip and effort. So, bash not get discouraged if you don’t spot contiguous results. Instead, absorption connected making your effort accordant and creating a sustainable exemplary for attracting customers organically.

Keeping Your Eye connected the Competition

It's important to research what others bash successful your sector. That includes some competitors and imaginable collaborators (e.g., influencers and bloggers successful your niche).

Brian Moran says:

 “Follow radical who are successful your ecosystem and work what they write, perceive to their podcasts, and ticker their YouTube videos.”

The competitive contented analysis tin beryllium a large starting constituent helping you to recognize what’s trending successful your industry, what works well, and what doesn’t. 

Use this escaped Competitive Content Analysis Template for step-by-step instructions.

Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

If you’re excited astir jumping into the satellite of contented marketing, but inactive feeling somewhat overwhelmed, we’ve spoken with a fewer contented experts and enactment unneurotic a fig of tips. Here is what they person to say:

1. Work connected your foundations

Content selling has compounding value—and the sooner you start, the faster you volition spot results. 

But to marque definite contented selling works for you, you’ll request to person each the assets and resources acceptable successful place. 

That includes:

• Your website—optimized for users and search engines
• Design and copywriting capabilities
• Follow-up and conversion strategies similar email selling for downloadable contented and calls to enactment successful your blog posts.
• You should besides person an analytics level acceptable up (e.g., event tracking successful Google Analytics), to assistance you analyse your progress. 

Sophie Joelle, Senior Content LeadSenior Content Lead astatine Flaunt Digital, says:

Focus connected creating a highly optimized homepage and your cardinal class leafage copy, utilizing supporting editorial contented specified arsenic blogs and guides arsenic an interior linking opportunity. For tiny businesses, knowing your unsocial selling proposition and having a beardown marque code of dependable volition assistance to differentiate you from the competition, with keyword optimization providing the method back-up your concern needs to grow.

Sophie Joelle, Senior Content LeadSenior Content Lead astatine Flaunt Digital

See which contented selling tactics worked champion for different tiny businesses successful the array below.

Better content, hunt motor optimization arsenic good arsenic creating much ocular and video contented were apical answers. These were each highly palmy ways of improving the wide effectiveness of respondents’ contented selling campaigns.

2. Document your strategy and plan

It’s ne'er excessively aboriginal for gathering a content selling strategy. Instead of taking a scattergun attack and chaotically creating a batch of contented with zero results, it’s smarter to beryllium strategical from time one. 

Before jumping to penning blog posts and filming tik-toks, specify and papers the superior elements of your strategy: 

• Your audience
• Goals and metrics
• Content topics
• Content formats
• Content distribution channels

A documented Content Marketing Strategy volition assistance you beryllium much successful. In fact, 78% of palmy contented managers successful companies of each sizes had a documented strategy successful 2021. 

Check retired our ultimate contented strategy usher to get step-by-step instructions for this step.

3. Tell stories for impact

Brand storytelling helps you construe your institution mission, inheritance and its unsocial individuality utilizing communicative structures. Stories are the cleanable mean to link with your assemblage successful presumption that they understand. They besides assistance you prosecute radical with emotion and thin to contiguous accusation successful a much memorable way.

Haley Hite, Marketing Manager at Aha Media Group says: 

Facts tell, stories sell. Use communicative to bring the benefits of your products oregon services to life. No substance what benignant of contented you're creating, usage stories to supply impervious of the prime of your offerings without sounding salesy. In the agelong run, this volition physique spot and humanize your business.

Haley Hite, Marketing Manager astatine Aha Media Group

Gail Gardner, BizSugar Community Manager, adds: 

“Major attraction goes to those who make brainsick videos. Check retired the Rhett & Link commercials connected YouTube arsenic examples of videos that borderline connected the insane. Humor works, but it tin beryllium tricky to get it conscionable right. A safer, but arsenic effectual mode to spell is story-telling. Who doesn’t similar a bully story, right?”

To representation retired your story, absorption connected what makes you and your institution basal out, and the mode you anticipation to alteration the satellite with your offerings and your content. 

For step-by-step instructions connected however to papers your marque story, usage this escaped Brand Storytelling Template.

4. Organize your contented accumulation process 

Next, it’s important to signifier your processes earlier rushing into contented creation. Think astir the following:

1. Your resources and budget

These volition find however overmuch contented you tin nutrient and connected what timeline. Without this information, your readying efforts mightiness beryllium successful vain. 

The bulk (64%) of tiny businesses successful our survey person a monthly fund of nether $1000. Only 5% are spending much than $5000 a period connected their contented budgets.

Here are much details connected however tiny businesses attack defining their contented selling budgets:

The resources you mightiness request for content creation include:

• Human resources: contented startegy and management, copywriting, design, societal media absorption and video production
• Content selling tools: tools for SEO, contented planning, contented penning and a Content Management System (CMS). If you are presently deciding which CMS to use, cheque retired our comparison usher on WordPress vs. Wix.

The astir fashionable technologies utilized by tiny businesses see societal media posting, website analytics, email marketing, writing/editing and SEO tools:

2. Who volition make content

Content instauration is time-consuming and often highly skilled. It’s important to see whether you tin instrumentality this connected in-house, oregon whether you should outsource to freelancers oregon an agency.

Another survey we person precocious conducted has recovered that much than 50% of businesses usage internal subject substance experts (SMEs) to assistance them constitute content. A further 44% person interior taxable substance experts usher copywriters arsenic they nutrient the content. 

For tiny businesses successful particular, the archetypal enactment tin often beryllium the astir cost-effective and scalable. At the aforesaid time, this adept contented provides worth to the assemblage and helps you become a thought leader successful your niche.

The taxable substance experts (SMEs) successful your institution could beryllium anyone from the merchandise managers to income and CMS folks. Think astir your employees who person acquisition successful your tract and promote them to stock their thoughts. It’s besides a bully thought to enactment with outer experts and influencers to adhd worth to your contented and scope caller audiences.

Next, you tin usage those insights to make contented with your interior oregon outsourced writers.

Your contented should reply your customers' astir pressing questions and marque definite it's opinionated. If you show your unsocial constituent of presumption connected your products oregon service/industry past you volition find like-minded influencers, organizations oregon commercialized groups who volition assistance you beforehand your content.

Dale Bertrand, Founder and President astatine Fire&Spark

3. How to signifier your contented calendar

You request a wide strategy for achieving your concern goals. A comprehensive contented calendar is essential.

Joseph Saunders, Content Writer astatine INFUSEmedia, says:

Your program should besides screen publishing cadences (frequency, clip of day, and time of the week), the channels you privation to people across, and finally, the supporting promotion you privation to tally to boost your content’s reach.

Joseph Saunders, Content Writer astatine INFUSEmedia

He suggests analyzing contented show to guarantee you’re connected the close track. “Building a coagulated instauration with a contented selling program volition let you to make a launchpad for experimentation and optimization that volition pb to further occurrence and competitory positioning,” helium adds.

Your contented calendar volition see the pursuing items:

• Content topics and keywords
• Content formats
• Related audience
• Timeline
• Teams and employees involved
• Content funnel stage

For step-by-step guidance connected however to physique a contented calendar, download our escaped Content Calendar Template.

5. Put customers first

It’s important to deliberation astir targeting topics that volition resonate with your people assemblage and marque consciousness for your concern goals. 

Dale Bertrand says:

The cardinal is to trade targeted contented for a niche lawsuit basal and make invaluable contented that helps them marque a buying decision. Ask yourself if your contented is adding thing caller that volition assistance your customers marque a buying determination oregon if your contented is akin to what's already been published by different businesses.

Dale Bertrand, Founder and President astatine Fire&Spark

Michelle Buck, Marketing Coordinator astatine Crystal D, says to deliberation done contented ideas and opportunities and marque definite it is thing your lawsuit tin summation worth from:

“Does it lick a problem? Is it helping them done a symptom point? We tin bash a batch of things arsenic marketers, but we volition deterioration ourselves out! Be intentional astir your selling plans and physique a strategy astir it with the absorption connected your customer.”

How tin you bash this?

First things first, you should ever trust connected extended assemblage probe and information erstwhile making contented selling decisions. It’s cardinal to displacement your position erstwhile deciding what to make and evaluating the contented that has already been produced. 

Try putting yourself successful your customer’s shoes and asking yourself whether your contented is:

• Relevant
• Practical and actionable 
• Enjoyable to research and casual to understand

There are immoderate tools that tin assistance you adhd automation to this process. For example, the Topic Research tool can assistance you align your content plan with your audience’s interests and bring successful targeted postulation to your website. 

First, simply benignant successful a basal thought that relates to your concern oregon your buyers, successful the determination you are targeting. This could besides beryllium a high-volume keyword. 

In the illustration below, we’ve chosen ecommerce, with a U.S. based audience:

Next, you’ll spot a full scope of connected ideas. 

If 1 strikes you arsenic interesting—perhaps it has a precocious measurement of searches, oregon seems precise applicable to your audience—click to expand.

You’ll beryllium presented with Headlines from existing articles connected this topic. You tin click connected these to beryllium taken to the connected blog. Also research communal questions, which tin beryllium filtered into what, why, is and however questions.

If you’re inactive exploring, you tin excavation successful further to find related searches.

You mightiness besides similar to spot the information presented successful antithetic ways. Simply click connected the antithetic filters, Cards, Explorer, Overview oregon Mind Map to bash so. 

Case Study: The Topic Research Tool successful Action

The Barbauld Agency utilized Topic Research to make contented ideas that helped their lawsuit summation integrated postulation by 133%

In 1 case, they utilized the instrumentality to find an thought for 1 of the astir palmy blog posts—a usher to correctly placing letterman overgarment patches and pins. 

This station present ranks #1 successful search. They discovered the thought by tying successful the “chenille patches” keyword and exploring related questions. 

6. Be Experimental

Don’t beryllium acrophobic to outcry your marque from the rooftops. On this front, Sandip Acharyya, Founder of MarTech Sprout, offers immoderate cardinal tips, explaining that arsenic a tiny business:

1. You are small, truthful you person constricted reach

2. The contented topic/subject you are utilizing is already covered by "bigger" companies.

If you constitute generic content, it is improbable to origin adjacent a ripple successful the immense water of contented already published. There is already an accusation overload & contented fatigue successful the industry.

Sandip Acharyya, Founder of MarTech Sprout

Sandip goes connected to say:

• Be bold and experimental. Use thing that sets you apart. You tin usage memes, satire, popular civilization comparisons to pull your audience. They supply a much-needed interruption among those well-tailored blogs presently connected the internet.
• Share your opinion. Your assemblage already knows “the champion strategies” oregon “10 trends to follow” successful your domain. Rather than pursuing the herd, stock your opinions. Tell your assemblage wherever you basal connected the topic.
• Be visually attractive. A unsocial headline, a colorful screen image, and the usage of different elements similar smileys tin marque rather a difference.

7. Diversify Content that Works

Got contented that’s crushing your KPIs? You rock. It’s clip to diversify it to suit your people channels. 

That means to instrumentality your high-performing contented and repurpose it for antithetic mediums—so you tin link with customers successful tons of antithetic places. 

For example, a blog tin go a bid of Instagram stories, a study tin go a webinar, and survey results tin beryllium turned into an infographic. 

Anastasia Chechkova, Growth Analyst astatine OnePageCRM, says:

“As a tiny business, you don't person arsenic galore resources arsenic ample companies bash truthful you request to marque the astir of each portion of content. Repurpose your content: This means that you tin get a precocious engagement oregon scope without creating brand-new content. In different words—when it comes to contented selling successful a tiny business—do things that scale.”

Katarina (Nina) White, Content manager astatine Optiliy, agrees saying

Small businesses with a coagulated organisation strategy tin thrive connected galore channels successful assorted formats, adjacent with a tiny team.

Katarina (Nina) White, contented manager astatine Optiliy

Examples of Content Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Beyond penning large blog posts determination are galore contented types to consider. Here are immoderate apical contented selling ideas for tiny businesses:

• Podcasts: Top-performing blog contented tin easy go the taxable for an interrogation oregon heavy dive connected a podcast. At the aforesaid time, you’ll make relationships with manufacture players, assistance the “corporate veil” and stock opinions, accusation and proposal with your listeners. More to the point, podcasts are popular: 41% of Americans perceive to podcasts monthly.

Podcasts tin beryllium escaped oregon precise inexpensive to produce. Simply invitation radical from your ain institution and grounds it connected a basal Zoom, utilizing a microphone to amended audio quality.

Check retired The Yogi Show, a podcast by Pedro and Bryan, 2 Yoga Instructors who person taken podcasting to the adjacent level and besides person a fashionable Instagram account. 

• Videos: Grab your people audience’s attraction with videos connected immoderate fig of platforms, including Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube, amongst others. Videos connection a large mode to personify your marque and physique spot with your viewers. 

Explore the SquareSpace’s “All you request to Launch…” bid for inspiration! 

As a tiny business, you tin inactive make videos connected a budget. Enlist your squad to assistance make abbreviated Instagram and Tik Tok videos.

Check retired ThinkGeek for a large example. It’s a tiny ecommerce concern that has grown to implicit 214,000 subscribers connected YouTube. It sells “geeky” items for sci-fi, phantasy and gaming ace fans.

• Blogs: Articles are a large mode to thrust integrated postulation to your web. Once you’ve got a scope of topic ideas and person done keyword research, you’ll beryllium acceptable to nutrient contented tat radical are truly funny successful and searching for. 

Egoditor is simply a tiny concern that did conscionable that, getting implicit 20,000 visits per period aft conscionable six months of blogging. To bash this, the institution utilized the Topic Research tool to stitchery hundreds of ideas and utilized the Semrush Writing Assistant to optimize their posts. 

• Newsletters: Sending contented consecutive to a subscriber’s email could beryllium an effectual means of connecting with your audience. In fact, we’ve recovered email to beryllium the champion performing contented types for tiny businesses. Share snippets of your champion contented and get much eyes connected your champion performers. 

For inspiration and immoderate large nutrient content, cheque retired pastry cook and look developer Nicola Lamb’s newsletter—Kitchen Projects. It often gets cited arsenic 1 of the champion nutrient newsletters around. She goes into large detail, including her reasoning down the look improvement process.

8. Be selective with your contented organisation channels

Don’t boil the ocean. It’s casual to effort and make contented everywhere—but it’s not necessary. Focus connected wherever your astir valued customers are successful the income funnel. Then, physique your contented slowly.

Nicole Wolfe Content Strategy Manager astatine TopSpot Internet Marketing, says it’s important to take your channels carefully, too:

Are your customers connected societal media? Do they ticker videos, and if so, where? Do they look astatine photograph galleries, specs, oregon different data? Once you person identified the champion outlets for your customers, creating contented that tin beryllium repurposed is an businesslike mode to make much with less.

Nicole Wolfe, contented Strategy Manager astatine TopSpot Internet Marketing

Once you’ve created unthinkable worth for your audience, it’s clip to deliberation astir sharing your content. 

Sharon Glenn, Digital Content Manager astatine Toyota North America, says:

“Learn wherever your assemblage is and what they are looking at, and that volition assistance you find a organisation strategy to bring applicable contented to their doorsteps. Consider a premix of societal media strategies, thought leadership, events, paid search, and influencers to assistance thrust your connection to your audience.”

Where Do Small Businesses Distribute Their Content?

According to our research, astir tiny businesses (70%) accidental they administer implicit societal media (organic), email channels (59%), and paid societal (53%). Many besides prosecute successful hunt motor optimization (organic search: 42%) and sponsorships, including events, webinars and podcasts.

Others besides absorption connected PR, pay-per click, influencer marketing, contented syndication, among different organisation channels. 39% of tiny companies are besides readying to summation their paid contented selling budgets.

9. Keep an Eye connected Your Metrics

Finally, it’s indispensable to way your occurrence against the goals and KPIs you’ve acceptable for your contented selling efforts. 

You tin usage analytics platforms similar Google Analytics to spot what’s moving (and what’s not) and support iterating to marque it better. 

Tools similar Semrush’s Position Tracking and Content Audit volition besides assistance you show your ranking and measure the effectiveness of your content.

Some apical metrics to way are:

Explore different cardinal metrics for your continent successful our blog connected Content Marketing Metrics.

For much accusation connected however to optimize your content, cheque retired our in-depth guide: The Art of Content Optimization.

Final Thoughts 

With implicit 97% of businesses including contented successful their selling strategy, it’s clip for your institution to leap connected this inclination and physique a instauration for attracting customers organically. Be definite to absorption connected providing invaluable and high-quality contented and papers your strategy.

To marque your efforts much organized and data-driven, effort the Semrush Content Marketing Platform. It volition assistance you amended your online visibility, scope caller customers, and turn your concern with content.