Create a blog for your website If building a website is the first thing you do online for your business, creating a blog for it should be the second. Build social profiles and pages The only form of content marketing more popular than blogs is social media content, which accounts for 93% of B2B content. Contact local content creators You can create your own content, but user-generated content can help strengthen your local content marketing efforts. By employing local content creators, you get to use their influence and content to help promote your brand. Host events and experiences Event marketing (also known as experiential marketing) is the most effective strategy for B2B marketing, according to 67% of B2B content marketers. Build a content calendar and event schedule Studies show that both B2B and B2C businesses are focused on creating more original content this year over last. Start with a white board or calendar and start scheduling blog posts, social media promotion, and other content well in advance. I’m sure some are local to you. Contact local media One of the most effective local marketing strategies is to target local media. With a few simple processes, you can make content marketing a win for your business, especially among the locals.
Content marketing has generated quite a lot of buzz over the past few years.
More and more large corporations and notable brands are focusing on content marketing as an effective strategy.
It’s becoming the “It” thing to do.
In fact, HubSpot’s State of Inbound Report showed that content creation and distribution are very big priorities for marketing departments.
In fact, content marketing has gotten so big that earned media is no longer enough.
Some brands are even working on owning their own media empires!
I’m a proponent of content marketing, but even I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with how much is going on these days.
The lines between media and marketing are more blurred than ever.
Still, every day I feel like more and more innovative and creative ideas come down the pipeline.
That’s all well and good if you’re the CMO of Sony, but what does that have to do with you as a small business owner?
More than you’d think.
Content marketing is more than just a blog or some crazy sponsored stunt event.
It can be something as simple as rebranding yourself in a creative way.
At the bottom of the delivery franchise’s homepage is a slider with several offers, just like usual.
One of them caught my eye, however.
Instead of yet another offer for the average consumer, Dominos set up an entirely new website just for couples to register with them for wedding gifts.
Pizza, chicken, and breadsticks may not be your first thought for a wedding, but I bet you’re thinking about it now.
It’s a delicious idea that’s already being implemented in the nearly 14,000 locations Dominos serves.
If you want to avoid being crushed under the weight of Dominos, you’re going to have to create some local content marketing of your own.
Of course, you don’t have that giant corporate budget.
You already have an advantage, though, by living in the community.
First, you’ll need to start with the basics, and we’ll build out from there while keeping costs and resources at a minimum.
1. Create a blog for your website
If building a website is the first thing you do online for your business, creating a blog for it should be the second.
My blog is one of the main drivers of my site’s organic search traffic.
Blog post length continues to rise. In 2014, you only needed 800 words to fit in with the crowd.
That number is well over 1,100 words now, but it has to be quality content.
Personally, I aim for 3,000 words on each blog post, but I admittedly don’t always hit that.
My strategy doesn’t have to be yours. Twitter proved the effectiveness of the microblog. You have to find the sweet spot for your blog.
A blog gives you 434% more indexed pages and increases lead generation by 126%!
The more blog content you have, the better your chances of being found by customers, whether they’re local or not.
To gain more local traffic, focus your blogging efforts on local issues.
CPA and tax professional Annette Nellen publishes a simple Blogspot blog that’s filled with detailed federal and California tax information.
By providing both national and local information, she’s covering all her bases to bring local customers in with local needs.
Of course, you’ll need somewhere to promote your blog for it to be truly effective.
That’s where social media comes in.
2. Build social profiles and pages
The only form of content marketing more popular than blogs is social media content, which accounts for 93% of B2B content.
In fact, popular social platforms like YouTube and Facebook are used daily by the majority of account holders.
Many people use them multiple times throughout the day!
With so many social media users, it only makes sense to create and promote content here.
Not all of it has to be original. You can use social channels to promote long-form blog posts.
That takes care of some content, but you’ll need more.
Social is a great place to aggregate content from other sites.
This helps you come off as less promotional.
Just be sure to stick to your brand story, like Red Mango does with its Instagram account.
3. Contact local content creators
You can create your own content, but user-generated content can help strengthen your local content marketing efforts.
Influencers can be just as influential as friends in swaying buying decisions.
By employing local content creators, you get to use their influence and content to help promote your brand.
When Dollar Shave Club created its MEL magazine and website, nobody could have expected it would actually employ some solid freelancers with real journalistic chops.
Its writers have been featured in Entrepreneur, Vice, Wired, and more.
From political stories of immigration to explorations of high-tech like AI, MEL resonates because of the contributors.
You can’t fake a movement, so harvest quality content from local creators to help spread your brand message.
But don’t just stop there!
4. Partner with local businesses
We think of content marketing in terms of creating online content, but you can take it a step further.
Consider partnering with other local businesses to build off each other’s brands for an effective content marketing solution.
Backlinks help your SEO. Here’s a breakdown from Searchmetrics that shows how many backlinks the top search results have.
By partnering with local businesses, you can gain backlinks to each other’s sites.
This will help Google see that you’re part of a trusted network of local businesses instead of just a solo act.
Eharmony recently partnered with Mashable to provide a great piece of content marketing.
In the 20th century, we called these partnerships synergy.
Branded journalism was a buzzword for this specific type of partnership.
Whatever you call it, I call it a content marketing win!
Start thinking about partnerships you might leverage to get more traffic in the door.
5. Create offline materials
There are two top-level categories of content marketing.
I touched on this subject earlier, but online and offline marketing are both crucial to your content marketing strategy.
You can reach more people in the community if you’re active with local businesses and residents.
While I’ll continue touching on different offline techniques, it’s important to be prepared for offline marketing in general.
Get business cards made.
Research by Adobe found that, for every 2,000 business cards passed out, sales increased…
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