Practical tips to help SMEs do better with content marketing

CONTENT is king and can help brands, especially in the small and mid-sized enterprise (SME) space get a lot of traction.

Truth be told, the only way you can really draw consumers in is by providing value through content marketing.

A successful content marketing strategy, therefore, is one that delivers valuable information to the target audiences, not only boosting the brand’s credibility but also customer loyalty.

So what are the necessary ingredients for the creation of a successful content marketing campaign? Here are five practical tips:

# 1 | Don’t focus on your products

A common mistake that many companies make when carrying out their content marketing is focusing too much on themselves.

While promoting products or services and talking about how good they are should, of course, be part of a strategy, companies should also focus more on educating their audience.

Consumers want content that focuses on them- and for free. Companies that are doing this successfully are those that are winning over consumers.

# 2 | Become a data-driven marketer

Great content marketing is a blend of both creativity and data. Leveraging data can help make content richer and more insightful.

Data can educate marketers on post-distribution content effectiveness and can also inform content creation itself.

Key performance indicators (KPI’s) that help measure effectiveness include:

• Traffic: How many people is the content reaching? What kind of people?
• Engagement rates: Are people actually interacting with the content posted?
• Conversions: What actions did the audience take after seeing the content?

Having an effective, data-driven strategy can really help create successful content that reaches the right people.

# 3 | Experiment with different formats

There is a range of different formats to choose from when creating content, including a simple blog post, an infographic, interactive content, video, and more.

Companies should experiment with different formats to ensure that the audience doesn’t get bored.

To hone in on the right format, businesses should start with a clear goal, target audience, as well as the type of content.

# 4 | Distribution is the queen

If content is king, then distribution is the queen.

While creating exciting content is important, brands also need to understand that they must cultivate an audience in order to get the most out of that content.

Brands that want to expand their content reach must put in the effort to distribute it to as many relevant channels as possible. Such platforms include not only social media, but also news websites, blogs, research websites, and many more.

# 5 | Build good relations

In the journey to creating a great content strategy, it is important to build good relations with the wider ecosystem — such as influencers, platforms, and more.

It has been said that relationship marketing is the glue that holds content to the community. Building strong relationships with people both inside the industry and outside can make content far more successful.

Merchants that have their own e-commerce platforms can, for example, benefit from relations with influencers as well as e-commerce platforms to better distribute their content.

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