With inflation on the rise, small businesses remain on the hunt for marketing strategies that will compete without breaking the bank. If you think there’s no hope when brand giants and their bloated marketing budgets are in the picture, think again.
Content marketing is the ace up your sleeve. It has long remained the most affordable way to increase business and continues to be. For it to be successful, though, you’re going to need more than what money can buy: content strategy, best practices, and a decent amount of search engine know-how.
If you’ve been looking for content marketing ideas to increase sales, then luck’s already on your side. Keep reading, and we’ll show you how content marketing can get you the exposure you’re after. Because if there\’s one thing we know in marketing, how to increase sales is the top of the list!
Content is still king for increasing sales
Bill Gates told us back in ‘96 that ”Content is king,” and he even predicted that it would be an equalizer, meaning any business—regardless of its budget—could put content out there and generate revenue. Both of these lessons still ring true today.
Not just any content will do, though. With so many businesses online, there’s too much noise for basic, unoriginal copy to hold any weight. For your content to drive organic traffic and sales, your business should always shoot to:
- Offer the most useful, accurate, and engaging content possible.
- Ensure your content is SEO-optimized.
- Keep your content people-first.
- Infuse your content with brand storytelling.
Why content marketing?
The short answer? Your customers and leads have questions, and you may be the only one who can give them the answers. Creating high-quality content shows your target audience you’re a go-to source they can trust.
Also, search engines reward you when you produce quality content, pushing your web pages higher up in search engine results pages (SERPs). When this happens, you’ll reap the benefits of greater visibility and brand awareness.
Why is it that so many brands fail at content marketing, then? It boils down to not having the right content strategy—or at least not knowing how to create one. At Ranq, we team up with small to medium-sized businesses like yours to map out the best content marketing strategy to reach your business goals and help you execute it.
What makes a good content marketing strategy?
You don’t want to dive into content creation without a solid marketing strategy to help you along the way. So, how do you build a content strategy?
As far as must-haves go, you’ll want your content marketing strategy to include the following:
- Marketing objectives
- Customer profiles
- Brand guidelines
- Content plan/calendar
- Robust keyword research
4 content marketing ideas to increase sales
Now that we’ve covered the what and why of content marketing, let’s get into how to do it right. Here are five content marketing ideas you’ll want to get behind.
Start a blog on your website
Starting a blog for your business is one of the best and most affordable ways to spotlight your team’s expertise for your customers and leads. To do this effectively, you’ll need to create a steady flow of new content with your blog. When you post content regularly, your blog expands your visibility. You’re likely to appear more often in search results, driving web traffic in ways your website alone may not.
When it comes to content, there are three things to strive for:
- Well-researched information that benefits the reader
- An engaging voice that sounds like a human being
- Headings and subheadings with strategic keywords
You don’t always need to start from scratch with content, either. Any content from other platforms can be given renewed purpose when repurposed on a company blog. This is especially true for adding value to your evergreen content (i.e. content that stays relevant for a long time).
Consider your content a living, breathing resource, always adapting to bring more customers to your website over time.
Expand your content with videos and infographics
Dense, text-heavy content is a snore-fest for your target audience. You’ll want to revive your content with rich media to engage them. And “rich” doesn’t need to mean expensive, either.
The best content incorporates a multi-media approach: images, GIFs, videos, infographics, and more. While businesses are all flocking to AI tools to create a variety of content, a human approach might be the differentiator you need. In that case, take advantage of a content marketing service that includes this in their package.
Participate in the content on other websites
Forget about the six degrees of separation between us all. With content marketing, you can narrow that field and reap the benefits of greater exposure. But how?
You’ve got to join forces with other credible and high-authority websites. When you do, you’ll maximize your brand’s exposure and summon traffic to your website with the help of backlinks and referrals.
No idea where to begin? Add some of these ideas to your content marketing strategy:
- Interview as an expert guest for a high-traffic blog.
- Team up with a fellow industry professional to co-write an article.
- Reach out to influencers for collaboration.
- Co-produce a podcast or sit on a live think-tank panel of fellow experts.
- Sign up to participate in a relevant webinar.
- Go live on Facebook or Instagram with fellow industry gurus.
Optimize content for organic search
Relevant and relatable content isn’t enough to bring leads to your doorstep. You need SEO optimization. As far as your battle plan to do it affordably? Prepare to launch Operation Organic Keyword Research.
Here’s what we mean—incorporating the right organic keywords into your content will summon free traffic, meaning greater visibility for your content and website. Focusing on organic keywords is a lot more affordable than shelling out major dough for Google ads and pay-per-click (PPC) keywords.
Once you find the keywords that’ll help you rank high on SERPs and work them into your content, you’ll need to monitor your content’s performance. If it’s not cutting it, then you can return to it and optimize it with new (and better) organic keywords.
That’s something our team at Ranq can do for you, ensuring that your content remains at peak quality with our scheduled content re-optimization weeks included in your strategic content marketing plan.
Time is money! Have Ranq take care of content marketing for you
If you’re like most business owners, your plate’s full enough. Content marketing done the right way is a long-term commitment. There’s no amount of money or shortcuts to get past the velvet ropes of first-page search results. That’s why it’s best to get a little help from your friends.
Ranq’s SEO digital marketing agency is the answer. Our world-class team of SEO experts and marketing consultants will carve out your content marketing strategy from the beginning stages through execution and beyond. We invite you to reach out to Ranq and let us show you how to blow away the competition without blowing your budget.