Spring is a time to make new beginnings. And what better place than your marketing plan? We’ll be talking about small businesses today and how to create strategies that help you market brighter than the overcrowded world of content.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses are not uncommon. Companies with less than five employees account for 62% of all U.S. businesses.
Capterra found that 76% of small business owners face marketing challenges. Marketing can seem overwhelming to non-marketing professionals, who often implement the strategies daily. Where should you begin?
Instead of spending much on traditional advertising or pay-per-click campaigns, you can use your expertise to generate content. Content is now more critical than ever. It nurtures leads and is not as hard-selly as an ad.
Keyword ResearchKeyword research is a fundamental SEO tactic. It involves identifying keywords your website ranks for in search engine result pages.
This research will help you identify your company’s strengths and weaknesses from a digital perspective. Keyword research can also help you set goals. What keywords would you like to rank higher in the future?
Google Search Console will verify your site before you can begin your research. This free tool provides organic search data. This will allow you to identify which keywords lead users to your pages. You can filter the data by keywords that drive clicks, impressions, and click-through rate (CTR). You can also track the site’s position for each search term.
SEO is all about creating content. Here’s the truth: SEO is everything related to creating content. You need to understand which keywords are the most important to website visitors to develop content topics that move the meters. To foster growth in your marketing, encourage collaboration between your digital manager (copywriter) and your digital manager.
Do a competitive analysis.
This is the question you keep asking yourself: What’s my competition doing? You can find out by checking your competitors’ websites and social media accounts. You can check out your competitors’ sites and social media accounts and note their latest content. To gain a complete understanding of your competitor’s strategy, you can assess things such as content format, frequency, and topics.
You can improve a well-executed article or topic by identifying a significant issue. Is there a critical point they missed? Can the subject be extended? Is there another angle?
The best defense is an effective offense.
Make an editorial calendar.
This brings us to the third strategy tactic, creating an editorial calendar. It would help if you first marked any important holidays, conferences, or company-wide events for which you would typically create content.
Next, find keywords you want to rank higher on Google’s SERP. If you are a logistics company and currently rank on the third page for “TMS,” that keyword would be a great one to target.
Consider a “long tail keyword” if the competition is high on the first page. A search term like “TMS chemical manufacturers” might be an example. It would have less competition but still offer plenty of clicks and impressions.
These keywords should be taken into consideration when creating content. Use them to create informative, evergreen content that appeals to your niche or industry professionals. This will allow you to make more targeted content on your website and increase traffic.
Plan your editorial calendar as far ahead as you can, and then review it each month to make sure you are taking full advantage of every opportunity.
Try newsjacking
Newsjacking is an excellent strategy for creating timely content. This term is used to refer to the act of jacking current news topics and applying them to your content. This tactic, often misunderstood as a negative strategy for small businesses, allows you to catch on to a more significant trend and engage in conversation.
If you included the phrase ” March Madness ” in your next blog post, it would be newsjacking since it already generates many newsworthy buzzes.
The true art of newsjacking lies in how you tie a search term to your content. This is similar to trending hashtags to boost visibility and reach potential fans on social media.
It would help if you kept your ears open for local and national trends that could offer unique content opportunities to your company.