Content marketing is critical to the online success of small businesses due to three reasons: it doesn’t require a big budget to get started, it delivers tangible results in the long run, and it establishes the authority of small businesses in their respective industry. The third being the most important reason because no other means of online marketing can establish the authority in the way content marketing does. Many small businesses know the importance of content marketing very well. However, they don’t know where to start and what steps need to be taken to make it a success. Here is a quick guide to implementing an efficient content marketing strategy that delivers results:
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Develop a Calendar
Never start a content marketing campaign without a well-planned calendar. In content marketing, planning is more important than execution. If you don’t plan properly, there may be a lot of random thoughts on what needs to be done next. It creates confusion and makes the entire campaign directionless and ineffective. Therefore, it is better to plan a calendar that clearly spells out what kind of content needs to be curated and when and how the same will be promoted to gain maximum advantage out of it. A good calendar should include:
- The objective statement
- The topics for the blogs that need to be written
- The time and date of posting the blog, and
- The methods of promotion of blogs
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Hire a freelance expert writer
The content marketing includes not just blog posts and ebooks but also case studies, presentations, and research papers. Many small business owners repeatedly ask this question to themselves: “how to find an industry expert who can write a paper for me?” or “How a writer can pen down my thoughts and experiences about my industry?” Well, this is easy. You can hire expert writers from freelance marketplaces such as Upwork and Freelancer. If you have urgent custom writing task, you can find writers from exclusive writing portals such as Writer Per Hour, etc. You should assess the prospective freelancers based on their knowledge of your industry, creative ability and availability to deliver quality work on time. Once hired, prepare a layout of the content that includes your thoughts and desired output in bullet points. The instructions must be specific otherwise writers may come up with something that is entirely different from your views.
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Content Promotion
A sound content marketing strategy includes a robust content planning process. Research competitors to find out their blog promotion strategy. The social media platforms are the obvious choices to promote the blog. However, you need to explore other famous sites such as Quora, SlideShare, etc. to promote your content effectively. Prepare a step-by-step guide for promoting the content that is posted on your official site. The blogs without promotion will not serve the desired purpose.
Conclusion
Be patient with content marketing as it is a long-term marketing technique and doesn’t deliver results immediately. Three to six months is the ideal time to assess the results of efforts you have made. However, you should have a clear monitoring and optimization plan from day one. Use tools such as Google Analytics and Search Console to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. Maintaining consistency is the key to success in the long run through content marketing.