Online content is becoming extremely relevant in the business world. Small businesses utilize this free and creative way of marketing more and more everyday. Online marketing has become an essential part of small business because of how accessible it is. It’s not exactly straight-forward though, so we have come up with what we think are the most important aspects of your online content.
Know your audience
This is and will always be the number 1 way to sell, market and grow your business. Period. Taking the time to research and get to know your audience will result in them investing their time in you. Of course, nothing is fool proof. When you are creating and currating content for an entire group of people, there will be a few who don't engage with your content, sometimes people really don't like it. That's the beauty of technology and social medai though isnt it? If you don't like something, you can say so and it goes directly to the source. This is the main reason businesses have started to market online, getting instant feedback from your audience will set you lightyears ahead of competition who aren't using this tool.
Create a calendar
Have you ever heard the phrace "planning makes perfect"? Well, I'm here to tell you that perfect does not exist, but if you want to get close, plan. A good marketing stratey takes time and has many steps, one of the most important being to create a content calendar. What I mean by this is, is to have a pool of content ideas first; articles, blog posts, eBooks, etc. After you have well-written content, put it into a tenative calendar based upon the topics of each piece of content; is it the busy season for your customers? Post things that directly relate to their busy season. When you have a plan of action months in advance, it's much more difficult to make silly mistakes like not having content to post.
Automate posts
If you have a pool of content that is set to be published- schedule your posts. Use a platform like Hubspot or Hootsuite to schedule, track and produce your content. Research the best times to schedule your posts; when is your audience most active on social media, when are they most likely to check their email and actually have time to read them? Schedule your emails and posts to be send out and published at the most opportune time so as to get the best results.
(Related: Automating your Green Industry Business)
Follow through
The most detrimental thing that can ruin your marketing strategy is unconsistency. If you plan to post 3 different pieces of content a day- do it. Marketing is not a sprint, especially in the case of online content production; it's most definitely a marathon. Pay attention to your calendar and check off each post as it is published- this will be much easier with automated posts. Always remember though, quality work is much more effective thatn a large quantity of work. If you don't have enough original content to post, scour the web for great and relevant pieces of content by other business. Our favorite place to find other content is Feedly.
(Related: 4 Ways to Market your Green Industry Business)
Engage your audience
Sometimes social media can seem like a one-way street. If you’re putting in all the work and no one is engaging with your content, it may be time to make a change. It’s not enough to be posting and producing consistent work, you need to consistently be receiving feedback from your audience. This can come in the form of; likes, comments or my personal favorite; shares. The reason behind my love for shares is that it tells us that the content we published was not only engaging to an audience member, they found it engaging enough to put their name on and share it with their own audience- score!
Knowing who your audience is comes particularly in handy in the way of engagement, that’s why it was number 1.
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