Effective content creation is essential to gain customer trust and build your brand. It’s how you market your products and services to your audience in a way that they understand. Make it clear you know what the audience wants while still showcasing what you’re advertising effectively. There are many ways to communicate when using content creation as a marketing strategy. Here are some of the key principles to consider, when dealing with content creation for small business.
Clear
Whatever you do in content creation for small business, don’t confuse your audience with your content. Remember, customers have several options for content day in and day out. When you look at your social media posts, articles, response posts, etc, all of your content should be very easy to understand. Consider the audience you’re talking to and speak to them at their level. For example, you wouldn’t promote a product to a child in the same language that you would their parents or an experienced tech CEO. According to KidsHealth, your average two-year-old has a vocabulary of about 50 words. An experienced adult professional has way more words than that to pull from. These are things to consider when creating clear content your target will be able to decipher and ideally do the actions that you want to do such as click on a website, make a purchase, sign up for an email, and more. Avoid using a ton of jargon and overly complex language, that would be confusing for even the smartest adult. Save the complex language for more internal content for more educational training material.
Trustworthiness and Accuracy
Always provide accurate information that is up-to-date and that your customers can trust. If you purposefully put misleading information in your content creation for small business, you will lose your audience before you gain them. Take, for example, online laser sensors, which are sensors commonly used in industrial atomization, robotics, and similar fields. When you market these in your content, be honest about how far they can detect the position of an object. Don’t say that it can detect further than it really can to make your laser stand out. If you give false information in your ads, your customers will eventually go online and post contradictory reviews that’ll make your company look bad. Plus, don’t be surprised if you would have several recalls which also won’t be good for your branding. With this type of product, you can focus your content creation around engaging video demonstrations that show how your online laser sensors work in real-world scenarios. You can even offer a tutorial on how you can install and troubleshoot them. That’s the type of content creation for small business that not only showcases what your product can do but shows how accurate it is and that it’s trustworthy to use.
Many people may not understand metal random packing. However, you could build blog posts and tutorials that show the installation process on different types of columns. After all, metal random packing is used throughout many industrial processes for various stripping and absorption applications. Create very educational animations and infographics, as well as post interviews and guest posts on your blog with experts in the field. These are all ways to establish trustworthiness with a topic many outsiders may not understand.
Context
When you showcase your content, you want to make it easier for your audience to understand the product and how well it applies to the bigger picture. In other words, what is the big deal about this particular product or service and how can it positively affect their life? The main way to do so is by explaining why this content and the product behind it is relevant. When you have what appears to be contrasting information, you can show how they relate. A good example is content creation for small business concerning an air duct cleaning and repair company. Cleaning your air ducts isn’t just about general spring cleaning.
Your content creation may focus on respiratory disorders. What do respiratory disorders have to do with your HVAC air ducts? Well quite a lot, if you don’t have regular cleaning maintenance, inspections, repairs, and timely replacement. Air ducts can harbor mold, contaminants, and allergens that can exacerbate and breed conditions like asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and lung infections. Show this correlation by way of a bar graph that shows the likelihood of respiratory illnesses from bad air, or malfunctioning HVAC systems. That’s an easy way for people to connect the relationship between physical health and AC maintenance.
Transparency
Always be transparent with your audience. Don’t be afraid to cite your sources as well as the purpose for creating your content. For example, if you’re having a product launch or you want to get more subscribers, it’s OK to show that in your social media posts. That’s why you notice many Youtubers constantly tell their audience, ” please like, comment, and subscribe”, in the beginning, middle, and end of their video content. While they may enjoy making their videos, one of the purposes is to gain followers and ensure they can build their network. You can do the same with any other content. For example, if you’re running a CDL driving academy, be transparent about wanting more people to sign up for your classes. You can be honest that the industry has a shortage of drivers and your Academy is eager to recruit more people so the American e-commerce network can have more truck drivers to rely on. People will respect honesty and content creation for small business.
Cohesiveness
Consider how well your content creation for small business ties together in style and messaging regardless of when and what you post, and what platform you use. Maintaining such cohesiveness is a part of your company brand. For example, if your company uses humor a lot, it would look weird if you suddenly have a drastically serious post on Facebook, but any other time, you’re constantly telling jokes, and using satire to promote your product. If you run a UV equipment manufacturing company and have direct content and informational content that relates to disinfecting water with UV light exposure, a random funny post about how UV rays fade furniture may not be cohesive to your brand.
Inclusive
Many different people may be interested in your services. If you want to reach these audiences, make your content creation for small business accessible. When it comes to accessibility, think about the different cultural backgrounds, demographics, age, and gender. For example, if you’re a small business that focuses on travel, don’t forget that people with mobility issues also like to take trips but may not always see themselves in related content. Showcase accessibility features on your travel vehicles or vacation excursions in your content creation.
Engagement
One of the best elements of content creation for small business is focusing on engaging your audience. Make your content stand out by creating compelling stories around your products and services. Your customer needs to be able to see themselves in the story that you’re telling. When you cater to their interests, needs, emotions, or background they’re much more likely to engage with your content further.
An epoxy flooring company can promote its services by showcasing how a homeowner can create a welcoming space for a loved one coming to live with them. Take that old garage or finish a basement with epoxy flooring. Showing how it can be the start of building a separate and comfortable suite for an elderly family member coming to live with their child can be a great way to engage somebody in the value of the service.
Another way to engage clients with the beauty of making your homework comfortable is showcasing, waterproof deck coatings. More people have fallen in love with the value of nature, especially from the comfort of their homes. In the week of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people understand how a deck or patio can add to the quality of life and provide nonstop access to nature and fresh air. Showcasing how coating your deck can give you that protective space to always have access to trees, birds, and nature without leaving your home can be an engaging way to promote this service.
Reading Accessibility
Accessibility in content creation for small businesses doesn’t just focus on demographics. You must focus on the direct accessibility someone needs when reading or listening to the continent. Remember, some people may be visually or hearing impaired. Ensure your posts have the accessible “alt” and metadata tags so if someone is using a screen reader, they can access your content as much as possible.
Production Model
Your content creation for small business model is part of a greater plan that includes your available resources and required expertise to create your content. The right marketing strategy services may include an in-house team or outsourced freelancers who can handle social media and web production. You may bring on external contributors, such as influencers who have a large amount of followers. Many such influencers on sites like TikTok and YouTube often get sponsorships to create content with other companies. You can also bring on subject matter experts, particularly for more intricate content that needs to be explained in Layman terms, such as anything dealing with industrialization.
Define Goals
Whatever you do, don’t just randomly post and create content. It should be part of your overall plan that has a purpose and goals. When you have goals for what your content can achieve, it gives you a metric to work from. In other words, you can analyze how well people engage with your content and see if you should create more content related to that. You can notice what isn’t working and switch gears. Understanding what does and doesn’t work based on the goals that you set can help you create more effective content as time goes on.
For example, if you’re advertising puppies for sale online, is the end goal to put your puppies in a temporary foster home for pet adoption or do you want the puppies to have a final home? Is your future goal also to bring in pet parents as regular customers for services like dog boarding, dog grooming, and accessories? If so, you may want to create content to encourage pet parents buying puppies to stay in contact with your business by signing up for your email or newsletter. Create content that will have a relevant call to action that encourages them to sign up for more services.
Content Strategy Planning
As you focus on your goals and who produces the content, you can finally get to the strategy stage. The content strategy stage can include creating a content calendar for each month throughout the year. Some people may plan a month, several months, or a year of content if they have enough bandwidth. By planning a content calendar, you can work toward a specific goal to ensure you don’t miss major milestones. For example, if you have an e-commerce business, you want a constant calendar that allows you to begin planning as early as September or October for your Christmas rush. Your strategy should include what distribution channels you focus on, how often to post on them, and what those posts will look like.
Topical Content
A good way to bring in new clients and engage existing ones is by being aware of topical content. Focusing on topical content and formats that you can work your service or product into is a good way to ensure your posts get into the online algorithms. For example, more people are worried about security in their homes and businesses. As crime is on the rise, people may be more interested in installing access control systems. Access control systems can help monitor employees at your business to prevent the likelihood of theft. You can also have various systems on your residence to monitor who’s coming and going in. Only people who have the right code or key card can access your space.
As you can see, you have many considerations when working with content creation for small business. The main thing to remember is certain standards for good content creation begin with relevant, trustworthy content and making it accessible to your audience. Plan these things accordingly, and you should be able to engage your audience throughout the year and beyond.