Drive Results with Content Marketing

Content marketing is a proven tactic to enhance relationships with small and medium businesses. It simply means providing advice and thought leadership on topics relevant to your offerings – for example, a bank might offer advice on creating a business plan. Content marketing helps you build rapport with your audience, creating a trusted relationship that supports your sales efforts.

Here's how to create an effective content marketing program:

• Develop a content plan. Create content on the topics to which your customers and prospects look to you for expertise, in the formats that SMBs prefer. Our research has shown that SMBs particularly like articles, email newsletters and interactive tools such as quizzes or calculators.
• Create effective content. Treat the reader as an informed peer. Avoid jargon, and respect their time and intelligence. Most importantly, provide tips they can put to work right away to improve their business.
• Align content with the sales cycle. SMBs need different information at different stages of the buying process. They first look for business management information and move toward more product- and service-specific information. Your goal is to provide the full spectrum so that you can catch prospects at any point on the purchase path and make it easy for them to move from interest to purchase.
• Promote your content. Don't limit all your great content to just your website. You can promote it via an email newsletter or Twitter; you can also post it to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or other social networks. Many SMBs like printed materials; consider converting some online content into a handbook or guide to distribute at retail locations, tradeshows, association meetings, sales calls and other in-person events.

Contact us to learn how BBI can help you achieve your SMB marketing goals through an effective content marketing program.