Content Marketing 101- the #3 Thing Missed by Most Small Businesses

Content Marketing 101: What Is Content & Why Does It Matter?

Are you confused about what content is and how to use it? Get the basics with this guide to content marketing 101 for small businesses.

Content is a form of communication to deliver marketing messages and build customer relationships. In this ultimate guide to content marketing for beginners, you’ll learn the importance of content in today’s digital world, how to create compelling content strategies, and tips on making your content stand out.

Understand the Different Types of Content

Content can come in many forms, including:

• blog posts,
• social media posts,
• infographics,
• videos,
• podcasts,
• website pages,
• tutorials,
• lead magnets, and
• more.

Understanding each type of content and how it works best in different scenarios is essential.

For example, an infographic could be a great way to share a complex idea or concept with your audience.

On the other hand, video is often used to grab people’s attention in a concise space of time. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each content form will help you make informed decisions when creating your content strategy.

Content is also language, visuals, or audio to convey a message. Content can be used in various ways and contexts, such as compelling web page copy, engaging social media posts, informative video tutorials, and entertaining podcasts.

When it comes to content marketing 101, the goal is to create content that serves both your audience and your business goals. This type of content should be attractive enough for people to consume and share with others while also appealing to your target audience and helping you reach key objectives such as generating leads or increasing conversions.

Properly leveraging different types of content will help you get more out of your content marketing efforts.

Learn the Benefits of Creating Valuable Content

Creating valuable content gives brands a competitive edge in search engine results. More importantly, it helps you establish credibility and trust with your audience.

When people see that you deliver valuable and relevant information consistently, they view your brand as an authority in your industry and grow to expect quality from you every time. This leads to more engagement and conversions in the short and long term.

Compelling content marketing also helps you stay on top of mind with your audience. By producing consistent, high-quality content in the form of blogs and social media posts, you make sure that potential customers or leads see your brand multiple times over a period of time.

When the occasion arises for them to purchase a product or service, chances are they’ll be drawn towards yours if they feel they know more about it and trust you as an authority.

Quality content helps brands create an emotional connection between them and their target market, boost SEO ranking, increase traffic to their website/social media platforms, and generate leads and conversions — ultimately leading to higher ROI.

More Content Marketing for Beginners-Decide on Your Platforms & Channels for Promotion

Knowing your audience is the first step in selecting promotion channels.

Different types of content will perform better on different channels.

For example, videos and infographics may be more successful on YouTube and Instagram than on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Once you understand which platform fits your content best, create a strategy for each channel to ensure consistent delivery of valuable content and measure its impact on follower growth and engagement.

The content itself is designed to start and drive conversations with your audience. It can be anything from text, visuals, audio, and video created to attract, inform, educate, entertain, or engage an audience.

This content should add value to the users’ lives; it should teach them something new or inspire action while encouraging brand recognition.

Content marketing 101…content should provide your target audience with helpful information so they can become more knowledgeable on a specific topic related to your industry.

Know the Elements That Make Great Content

Create an Editorial Calendar for Consistency & Quality Control

Creating content in a timely and consistent manner is key to success. To ensure you are always creating great content, it’s crucial to have an editorial calendar that outlines what type of content you plan to create on certain days.

This will help you schedule your research, writing, designing, and reviewing time wisely so that you don’t miss any opportunities or deadlines. Furthermore, setting a timeline also helps produce quality output by giving you enough time to perfect every project instead of rushing through it.

An editorial calendar helps plan and organize your content-creation process daily, weekly, or monthly. It also allows you to provide structure to your team’s workflow.

Everyone in the team knows what content needs to be created and when and why; therefore, everyone can work together to create the desired content types within the given time frame.

In addition, an editorial calendar also helps you anticipate market trends and brainstorm better ideas on specific days so that the content you are producing is relevant.

Here are some content marketing tools and resources that I use on righta daily basis and feel may help you uplevel your efforts on a daily basis.

My two favorite social media posting tools (I use them both):

1. Tailwind and
2. Smarterqueue

Other helpful resources:

• The Content Marketing Starter Kit
• The Top 10 Online Marketing Checklist
• Keyword Marketing Research: The #1 Thing Most Small Businesses Miss Entirely
• What Does Keyword Research Have to Do With Business Mastery?