Content marketing for small business

Content Marketing for Small Businesses: Is It Still Worth It?

Short answer: Yes. 

Content marketing for small businesses is more important than ever before:

  • 54% of businesses will increase their content marketing budgets in 2024
  • Businesses that make blogging a main priority are 13x more likely to see a positive ROI
  • 75% of us use social media when researching brands

As consumers, we’re overwhelmed. There’s content everywhere we go — and most of it sucks! And because it sucks, you have a unique advantage: the chance to infuse your brand with personality, passion, and purpose. 

Let’s dive into what content marketing for small businesses should look like and the benefits you’ll reap when you do it well:

 

Content Marketing for Small Businesses

 

Believe it or not, content marketing isn’t about persuading someone to buy your product or service. It’s about sharing educational, entertaining, and engaging content that exemplifies you as a thought leader and strengthens the relationship between your brand and your audience. When your connections transcend transactions, you’re on the right track.

It’s also easier said than done, and there’s a lot of competition out there, and a lot of it is bigger and louder than you are. 

Luckily, that doesn’t matter nearly as much as you may think…

 

How to Break Through the Noise

 

How do you make your voice heard when everyone is vying for attention? It’s not about being the loudest; it’s about being consistent.

Be consistent in your message, authenticity, and when and how often you post. When creating something, ask yourself: What do I want my audience to get from this, and is it relevant to them? You should also be consistent in your follow-through. 

Being consistent makes you dependable, and being dependable makes you trustworthy. When you establish trust, you don’t have to worry about making your voice heard. Your audience will be listening for it. 

 

Content Marketing Benefits:

 

When you’re consistent in your content marketing, here are some of the benefits you’ll enjoy:

 

Forge Authentic Relationships

 

When crafting compelling content, you’re also shaping perceptions, sparking conversations, and (hopefully) forging genuine connections with your audience. Blogs, social media, and newsletters shouldn’t be forms of one-way communication. They exist to open a dialogue with your audience and build relationships with them. 

 

Increased Organic Traffic: 

 

Paid ads can give you a boost, but it comes at a price. No, literally. They cost you money. Also, when they’re gone, they’re gone. Organic traffic won’t give you instant gratification, but it’s free and pays in perpetuity. 

Organic traffic is when people find your website through natural search engine results, like Google. It’s free, and when it ranks high on a search engine query, it signals to users that the information is authoritative and relevant. 

 

Scalability

 

Organic traffic generates a higher volume of quality leads, catalyzing scalability. It’s simple math: When you have more people interested in your products or services, you’ll have a greater opportunity to grow and hire more people and/or free up time by outsourcing tasks you don’t need to do.

 

Is Content Marketing Still Worth It?

 

Long answer: Yes. 

Content marketing gives you a competitive advantage, creates and strengthens relationships, cost-effectively increases your visibility, and helps you scale your business. 

So yeah, I’d say it’s worth it. It’s just difficult and time-consuming.

However, it doesn’t have to be difficult and time-consuming for you. Do you want to save time, increase visibility, and get your marketing done? Check out my content creation package page, or send me a message!

 

content creation 101

Content Creation 101: The 3 E’s Your Content Needs

Content Creation 101 lesson #1: Most content sucks.

Why does it suck? Because it doesn’t provide value to your audience. 

Whether you’re writing a blog, email, web copy, or something on social media, you need to ask yourself if you’re following the three E’s of content creation. Is it…

  • Educational
  • Entertaining
  • Engaging

Not every piece of content will be all three (e.g., the information you find on PubMed will be educational, not entertaining), but you’ll start seeing results if you consistently create with the three Es in mind.

Let’s cover some content creation 101 basics, then explore each E further:

 

Content Creation 101

 

Here are a few general rules when creating content: 

 

 

Set Clear Objectives

 

 

Would you invest $10,000 in a stock because the name sounds pretty? Hopefully not. Before you even begin researching a company, its financial statements, and evaluating risks, you should understand your investment goals. 

Content creation is no different. 

What are your goals for creating content? Do you want to:

  • Boost brand visibility by 50%
  • Increase your organic traffic to your website by 80%
  • Double your current number of monthly leads

Whatever your goal may be, make it a SMART one. 

Don’t say, “I want to increase organic traffic to my website.” 

Say, “I want to increase organic traffic to my website by 80% within the next six months by writing a weekly blog post and posting on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram three times a week.” That’s a SMART goal. 

Also, start thinking about what you want to learn or do when engaging with your material. Knowing this ahead of time will drive the direction of your content.

 

Know Your Audience

 

How do you get your audience to view your content? Start by knowing who they are. 

  • How familiar are they with your product or service? 
  • What are their interests?
  • What platforms do they use? 

An audience interested in the latest in fashion will be different from those who follow the vast potential applications of gene editing. If your audience consists of CRISPR-loving fashionistas, then that, my friends, is what we call a niche. Now, find out where they are and what content they want to see. 

 

Encourage Feedback

 

Get your audience to participate in your posts. These types of interactions:

  • Help build brand trust
  • Strengthen customer relationships
  • Drive more engagement 

The easiest, most straightforward way to encourage feedback is by asking for it. End your post with a call to action, whether it’s to click a button or answer a question. 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s break down the three Es of Content Creation 101:

 

Educational Content

 

How do you get your audience to read and learn something? Make it enjoyable for them! 

Here’s how:

  • Know your audiences’ learning styles. What types of content does your audience engage with most? Do they enjoy graphs and charts? How-to videos? Informative blog posts? When you create content they enjoy absorbing, you’ll leave a lasting impression. 
  • Diversify your content. Customers typically need to see a message 7+ times before taking action. However, that doesn’t mean you should share the same content seven times. Communicate your information by sharing it in multiple formats. Use videos, infographics, charts, quizzes, etc. 
  • Provide relatable context. Don’t be bland. Use real-world examples, pop culture references, and demonstrations to let the knowledge sink in. It works for John Oliver, and it can work for you too!
 

Entertaining Content

 

Don’t bore your audience. Beguile them!

  • Hook your audience. Grab their attention from the get-go. Use humor, suspense, curiosity, or emotion to draw them in and keep them engaged. 
  • Tell stories. We love stories, so tell us one! It can be a personal experience, an anecdote, or a work of fiction. Whatever it is, it better be interesting!
  • Are you interested? If you’re writing something you find boring, your audience will find it boring, too. Even content that’s dry as hell has an interesting angle. If you’re writing about parking lots, hook your audience with an interesting fact like: Did you know that there are eight parking spots for every car in the US?
 

Engaging Content

 

Want your audience to engage with you? Make them want to!

  • Be authentic. Being authentic and relatable helps you build trust with your audience. Don’t just tell them about a product; show them how it works. Share personal experiences and behind-the-scenes content. People love that stuff!
  • Keep it short. As it turns out, Goldfish actually do have good memories — but we still don’t. Keep your posts short and sweet; by short, I mean cut the fluff. Your audience doesn’t have time for it! 
  • Stay current. Keep your content timely, fresh, and relevant. What’s going on in your CRISPR-loving fashionista niche? Talk about it! 
 

Altogether Now!

 

When creating your content strategy, you must set clear objectives by making SMART goals. You also need to know your audience and how you want them to interact with the educational, entertaining, and engaging content you’re producing. If you’re ever unsure whether or not you’re hitting the marks, ask yourself these questions:

  • Educational: Am I communicating what I want my readers to learn?
  • Entertaining: Is this something that my audience will find interesting? Do I?
  • Engaging: Will this content help build trust and encourage my audience to take action?

That’s it! 

So… Is your content educational, entertaining, and engaging? Don’t have time to create it?

Then here’s another way to save time, increase visibility, and get your marketing done: let’s create content together! 

Color in content marketing

Color in Content Marketing: How to Make Every Shade Count

content marketing
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Cool Colors

On the opposite side of the color wheel, cool colors—blues, greens, purples, and pinks—are calm and relaxing. For example,  Asprey’s quintessential purple branding appears in headings, footers, and product backdrops all throughout their site. Starbucks uses green in its company logo and website design to emphasize the earthiness of its brand.

Black and White

Black

Symbolizing class and luxury, black never goes out of style. However, it can overwhelm the eye if overused. When paired with white, it represents balance, akin to ‘Yin and Yang.’ Black also has a slimming effect, making it popular in fashion. 

White

White often sparks creativity because it acts as a clean slate or blank canvas, and emphasizes light and neutrality when paired with black. 

The University of Chicago Press states that “black-and-white images can lead consumers to focus on the abstract, essential, and defining components of a product. In contrast, color images can draw attention to the concrete, sometimes unimportant, and idiosyncratic features of the product.” For some brands, black-and-white is all they need.

Color in Content Marketing: Value

Light and dark shades, or a color’s value, convey different meanings.

Part of what makes blue so popular in Fortune 500 world is its versatility. Darker blues, like navy, convey importance and authority, while lighter shades, like cerulean, are calming and peaceful. By manipulating color value, you can elicit a full gambit of emotions in your design. 

Monochromatic and Analogous Color Schemes

Monochromatic Designs

Monochromatic designs create balanced interfaces focused on user experience by using varying shades of a single color. They are simple yet effective and easy on the eyes. 

Analogous Color Schemes

 

Analogous color schemes give a similar feel to monochromatic design but offer more variety, sophistication, and depth to your palette. These colors sit next to each other on the color wheel, such as red and orange, or blue and violet. Grouping analogous colors together results in harmonious designs. 

Complementary Color Schemes

Complementary color schemes use colors on opposite ends of the color wheel. In its simplest form, complementary colors consist of the primary colors + the secondary color that isn’t used to make that secondary color. 

  • Blue and red make purple, so purple’s complementary color is yellow. 
  • Red and yellow make orange, so orange’s complementary color is blue. 
  • Blue and yellow make green, so green’s complementary color is red.

Complementary colors can be dynamic and pleasing to the eye. Instead of their harmonious analogous counterparts, complementary colors demand attention and play off each other’s intensity.

Color in Content Marketing


By understanding the psychology of color in content marketing, you can create designs that are visually appealing and emotionally resonant. The better you master color usage, the more you can intrigue and engage your audience.