When you initially made the decision to start your online business, everything was great. You had the drive and determination to succeed, you had a solid business plan, and a pricing plan that would knock competitors out of the park… business was good for a while there. In fact, your business was growing faster than you initially expected. But now, you haven’t seen that type of success in quite some time… Now you’re wondering what shifted?
This is something that all online business owners experience at some point during their careers. Just think about it… You have a great product or service, a great following on social media, impeccable customer service, and a nice customer base, so why is it that business isn’t booming? Well, as odd and as contradictory as it may sound, you might be the very reason your business has become so stagnant.
In your mind, you’re wondering how it’s your fault when you’ve done everything in your power to grow your business. Well, the truth of the matter is that sometimes you just need to re-evaluate your business in order to rebuild it.
You know how you can get stuck in a rut in how you look and dress and decide to give yourself a new look? Sometimes that’s the very thing that you need to do with your business. Businesses hit plateaus for various reasons, like an outdated business plan or not standing out among the competition… Those are typical reasons businesses can become stagnant and those are very fixable problems to get your business back growing again.
But what if you’re overlooking an area that could use some improvement? Really sit down and think of an area that could really help rebuild your business that you haven’t thought of… If you’ve sat long and thought hard about what you can do and haven’t come up with a resolution, consider looking at content marketing and how it can rebuild your business this year.
Why Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the act of creating, publishing, and distributing content to a target audience to acquire new customers, in short. If you were to ask 15 different content marketing experts what content marketing is, every single last one of those 15 experts would tell you 15 different versions of what content marketing is. And that’s perfectly fine because, at the end of the day, their versions are going to revert back to the roots of creating, publishing, and distributing content to a targeted audience.
Maybe you’ve been writing and creating content for some time now but it needs some updating… With the content on your site, you want to first see if your content is incorporating at least one of the three content types to engage your audience. According to medium.com, the three content types are also known as the 3 E’s: Entertainment, Emotional, and Educational.
- Entertainment is content specifically created to start or spark conversation and maintain the interest of your audience. It’s also sometimes the hardest thing to do.
- Emotional is content created that revolves around getting your audience to feel a deeper connection to your brand. This is content that’s relatable to your audience and ultimately humanizes your brand.
- Educational is content built on “how to’s” and “how did’s.” This is content that teaches your readers something and they gain some kind of knowledge about something… By your readers learning something, it will cause them to come back for more information.
Ideally, you want to be able to incorporate all three of these content types in your content but if you can incorporate only one type, it needs to be educational, so the reader will have at least learned something from your content and it was helpful.
So now that you know what content marketing is, you now need to know how it can help rebuild your business. Take a look at four ways content marketing can help rebuild your business this year.
1. Builds Brand Awareness
At this stage in your business, you have a nice customer base but you need more people to know about your business… content marketing can do just that if done correctly. Your content needs to speak to your audience, and when it does, it will increase traffic to your site significantly and generate more awareness about your brand to an audience you weren’t able to reach before.
2. Does Wonders For Organic SEO
When an internet user types in a phrase or keyword into a search engine, that search engine works hard to bring them the most relevant and up-to-date information on what they’re searching for.
When you create content for your business, you’re doing it to provide helpful information to your target audience. Because your intent is genuinely to provide helpful information, search engines like Google recognize that and rank your business higher on search engines.
That reason alone is why guest posting for SEO plays a significant role in how well your business ranks. Everything from reputation and relevancy to building authority, all affect how easy it will be for users to find your site, which will in turn increase traffic to your site.
3. Attracts Your Ideal Customers
With content marketing, you’re appealing only to an audience who will benefit from your products and services. You have to understand that when you built your business, whether consciously or subconsciously, you built it knowing that you’re an expert in your particular niche.
So when you produce content, only people interested in your niche will be typing specific keywords pertaining to your niche… they’re the ones who are going to be captivated by your landing pages and either putting items in their shopping cart or filling out subscription information to keep coming back to your site.
4. Builds a Relationship, Trust, and Authority With Visitors
Because you’re creating helpful and relevant content for visitors to your site, you’re actually building a relationship with them. When people are able to get helpful information from a site, they’re going to come back to it for more information… Why? Because they trust the site. And in the online world, when your business becomes a trusted resource, it’s building brand authority. This just reinforces your expertise in your field.
Content marketing is and will continue to be one of the most effective forms of marketing your business. When paired with a solid content promotion strategy, the sky’s the limit.
