Small businesses often have it tougher than corporations. They face competition, tighter budgets, and a long to-do list while lacking a workforce. While content marketing for small business might be a top priority, the quality of that content might not even come to mind, let alone appear on the list.
Still, there’s a lot to say about the importance of quality content strategy and the impact it can have on the business. It underscores every other effort. So, how do you know if your content is good enough to get you the desired results? Keep reading to find out.
How do you know if your content fits the bill of a quality post? Well, that shouldn’t be difficult once you know what metrics to check. Yep, you have to look at things like search rankings, click-through rates, shares, conversion rates, and backlinks. All of them are accurate indicators of content quality. After all, when those numbers are off the charts, it means that lots of people like what you have to say and feel it’s worth passing on to their friends.
Here are some of the questions you should ask yourself:
Still, always providing valuable content can be a lot for any business, let alone a small one, especially when you factor in all the work it takes to get quality links. Besides, not all sites link to yours. The solution is to buy backlinks, as the more people link to your site, the better your search rankings will be.
Of course, you could buy links like others, but it’s expensive (especially if we talk about high-authority pages). That's why you could write valuable and experience-based content that tends to attract links organically instead.
Every business that is serious about becoming profitable and maintaining its position in the foreseeable future takes its time to craft a strong marketing strategy. Much of the plan revolves around content creation, and here’s why quality is such a big deal:
Quality of content is one of the critical factors for improving your Google search rankings and finally getting the visibility your business deserves. The more valuable people consider your content, the more likely they are to engage with it, spend more time on your site, and link to it. All these factors signal to the search algorithm that your site is trustworthy and authoritative. In return, your web pages move higher in the search result pages, which creates a positive feedback loop, and you get more traffic to your website.
79% of content marketers rely on content to get leads, and this approach works considering that people now spend more time online than ever before. You should invest intensively in creating more relevant and trending content if you hope to gain more leads while cutting costs simultaneously.
Let’s be honest. Almost everyone first checks out a brand online before deciding to buy from it. The quality of content on your website can be pretty convincing. Just make sure it’s educational, informational, and engaging without being too salesy. 83% of content marketers even recommend posting higher quality content less often. Throw in a quality guest post or two on relevant sites, and you'll get even more opportunities to make sales. Of course, you might need to get the right tool for publishing guest posts, as this can be a very challenging task.
Competition is a normal part of digital marketing, even for small businesses. This doesn't mean you have to roll over and let the big guys with huge budgets dominate the market. If you spend time researching and improving the quality of your content, you will probably find exclusive gaps you can fill and use them to gain an edge over others in your niche. Still, you must get other things right, like optimising your site for responsiveness. Otherwise, you might alienate the 45% of consumers who wouldn’t read the poorly displayed content.
Most small businesses think of content only as blog posts detailing how to get the most out of products or services. Remember to include diverse content formats that present the latest news in your business or niche. Thus, you’ll bond with the customers.
81% of customers buy only from brands they trust, so how do you improve credibility so that your customers can trust you? Content plays a role here. When your articles match users’ questions, provide helpful solutions to their problems, and give comprehensive information, people will trust you. This trust results in more revenue and higher customer retention rates for you.
Social media is one of the most effective ways to advertise and promote your business without breaking the bank. With the popularity of social media, even small businesses need an active online presence with lots of engagement to boost trust. So, you should create quality content on scale to stand out. When lots of people interact with your posts, chances are that more will be encouraged to try your product.
A small business cannot afford to cut corners when it comes to the quality of content. If done correctly, you can rely on your content to generate leads, boost visibility and credibility, and support good brand-customer relationships.