Small Business Saturday Content Marketing 101

Small Business Saturday Content Marketing 101 Traveling in the way-back machine, a new business would hang a shingle, get listed in the yellow pages, print up business cards and have some promotional material and Voila!   Oh, how things have changed! If you are looking to grow your business, the most popular solution today is content marketing. What exactly is content marketing According to Wikipedia: Content marketing is any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. Few people respond well to a hard-sell approach. Content marketing lures potential customers by providing educational information which will benefit them. Instead of selling or cramming your message down potential customers throats, you are gaining recognition and making them appreciate the value your business provides. With todays technology, content marketing is available and affordable to every business owner. What kind of content can you create? Your next question you need to answer is what type of content will you create. The options are endless. Blogs Video Newsletters (and eNewsletters) ebooks Infographics Case studies How-tos QA’s Photos Just take a look at the full slide deck from Content Marketing Institutes consumer market study to get more information and ideas.  How will you distribute the content Through social networks, of course! LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Slideshare and the host of other tools that exist to help you disseminate your message! I guess that means you are going to have to start figuring out how to use them. Youre in luck, because more will be here in the future. Where do you start? It may seem a tad overwhelming if you are not already using some of these tools. But just like learning a foreign language, once you learn one, it is easier to pick up the others. Start by adding a blog to your website! A blog provides you with the ability to create content you can share across social networks. Youve created content, now where will you share it? Where your customers are, of course. Check out this infographic to identify which social network your potential customers are using most. Hint: Facebook is great to market to consumers and LinkedIn is great for marketing to businesses. But it can get more granular, so check this out! Got other questions? Please add them in a comment below! This will provide me with information to write about in the future! And in case you didnt hear, Ill be launching a book this summer to help business owners leverage social networks! More details here!