How to Use Content Marketing for Local Businesses

Content marketing is the strategic production of quality content that is targeted to provide a benefit to your ideal customers. It is not spamming your audience with random blog posts or social media content, it’s methodical and serves a purpose. Most of all, putting content out there and just hoping that someone will see it is not at all beneficial to your time or your brand.

Content marketing is a great way to target different keywords to improve your SEO while also demonstrating your expertise by providing helpful information.

Producing quality content that is helpful to your audience benefits you in a couple of different ways. First of all, it allows you to provide valuable information to your audience that helps build trust between them as a consumer and you as a brand. As they engage with your content more and more, they come to realize that you are not only a reliable source, but an expert in your field. If they ever have a need for one of your products or services, they will go straight to you to buy it.

Content marketing also allows you to generate leads organically. As you publish consistent, quality content, you should promote a subscription to your blog, a follow on social media, or a like on Facebook. That way, audiences can stay up to date with new trends and information within your industry, as well as ask you questions about their needs.

As your audience grows, your ability to leverage content for leads grows with it. You can put out lead magnets on your website or social media and say, “Hey [all our loyal followers], check out this new step-by-step guide we just put out. It’ll tell you how do to this, this, and that! Sign up through the link to get your free copy now!” Your loyal fanbase who you have helped so often will flock to get your latest advice. They’ll submit their email address, name, and phone number and BOOM. Instant leads.

Producing consistent content also gives you real-time insight into what topics and content variations are generating engagement. This insight should help guide content for paid promotions, offers, and types of content to use.

Content marketing also allows you to optimize your website’s keywords. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to identify common searches that your ideal customer is making. From those keywords, determine what kind of helpful content you can create from them. If your customers are searching for "how to run Facebook Ads for a small business,” create content on all of your channels (especially your website) that tell your audience how to run Facebook Ads for a small business.

Keyword-targeted content allows you to demonstrate to not only your audience, but also to Google that you have extensive knowledge that is relevant to your ideal customers. If you stick with this strategy long enough and consistently enough, you’ll begin to see your website rank higher on search and more organic traffic finding you and visiting your website from Google.

Lastly, content marketing allows you to target very specific niche markets and customize a message that speaks directly to them and their needs. This works wonders when you establish your online presence, and allows you to drive more business without spending a fortune on ads. On the flip side, it also allows you to increase revenue so you can afford to spend a fortune on ads and launch your business into massive success.

So what does content marketing for small businesses look like? Let’s run through a couple examples.

Content is one of the best forms of marketing for accountants, insurance, legal services, and other consumer-based services. Best of all - it’s free.

Let’s say you’re a tax accountant who works from home. You’re struggling to find clients online but want to work with local small businesses who usually use an internet service to fill out their taxes automatically. How could you possibly use content marketing to convince your ideal clients to go through you instead?

You start a Facebook Page and create a logo. Good start, you’re about a tenth of a percentage point of your way there. You fill out all of your business information, link your website, and set up a profile with Google My Business, Yelp!, and Bing For Business. So what’s next?

You certainly don’t just sit around and wait for someone to find you, and you definitely don’t just start posting random content everywhere. There has to be a well thought-out strategy behind it.

Let’s start at square one. Who are your customers? Yes, they’re small business owners, but who are they really? They care about their money and are always looking for ways to save it. Start there and develop a profile of what they value, problems they face, interests they may have, and behaviors that you can observe. Use the HubSpot Buyer Persona Template as a guide to understanding your ideal customer better than anyone else - especially your competitors.

Once you understand who your customer is as a consumer, you can begin outlining your strategy. Search for keywords that relate to accounting, finding accountants, saving money, write-offs, and any other questions your customer would have. You can also use the SpyFu platform to check out what keywords your competitors target and generate the most traffic from.

Then, start writing content for social media and your website that speak to those search phrases, questions, and problems. Stick with your content and publish something new 2 or 3 times a week. Interact with your audience on different online platforms and answer any questions they may have directly. Use Facebook Groups to grow your audience and establish yourself as an industry expert.

Focus on creating helpful content that is relevant to your audience’s personal situation. You can better do this by understanding where they lie within your customer journey.

Customer journeys define where particular members of your audience segment into niche characteristics and help you understand their individual thought process.

Cold audiences usually refer to those who do not know about your brand. They are usually in what’s known as they awareness phase. They know they have a problem but are not aware of a solution. Your ability to identify ideal customers in this phase will allow you to be successful in grabbing their attention with helpful, targeted content that speaks directly to their situation.

Let’s say you find out that small business owners in your area feel like they are paying too much in taxes and aren’t aware of all the different write-offs that exist for them. You can create content that sounds something like “5 Tax loopholes that save small business owners thousands.” Don’t you think a member of this audience segment would be inclined to clicking on your link to learn more?

Once they get to that link, you have your second phase of audience members. A warm audience is a group of consumers who know about the solution, but don’t know how to achieve it. This is a group that you need to target by explaining the solutions and how it will make their lives better. “How to use tax write-offs to save your business thousands.”

Since this audience is actively looking for a solution, your content will provide them with the information they need to achieve it. You can engage with this audience more directly by letting them know you offer the same services that have helped clients just like them. This step in the customer journey is crucial for converting customers, since this audience is open to hearing any advice that will help them achieve their desired goals and solve their problems. If you can grab the attention of these customers, you’ll see your conversion rates multiply like you’ve only ever dreamed of.

A hot audience refers to consumers who are actively shopping. They are browsing websites, comparing prices, perhaps they even have items already added to their cart. This audience has been convinced that a personal tax accountant will save them more money and be easier to work with than a machine. This is where you swoop in with an offer or a credibility statement.

Your content in this phase becomes more promotional, but could still sound organic as well. “How we helped Joe’s Bookstore save $5,800 in taxes last month.” The link clicks to a case study and at the bottom you have a call to action button that says “Save Thousands On Taxes Today".”

On social media, you can create a post about how you helped Joe and include a review that he left you. The last sentence provides a link to where they can sign up for a free audit or contact you to learn more. This is the stage that you get to be more creative, but execution is key. Any miscalculated step and you’ll be losing those ready-to-buy customers to a competitor.

When you are producing content, it’s important to have a significant purpose behind it. How will this post specifically help you reach your goal? What type of consumer does it target? What are there needs? What keywords are they searching for on Google? How will your content directly benefit them? And most of all, how will you turn those clicks, likes, and reactions into follows and potential customers?

In order to do this effectively, you may want to consider creating a customer funnel that directs your audience from casual fans to loyal, paying customers. You can do this by taking advantage of our free sales funnel. When you submit your email, one of our marketing specialists will reach out to learn more about your business and create a customized funnel for free.