For most people who run small businesses, it may seem like content marketing is only about posting blog posts and hoping that some of them stick with your target audience. The reality is much different: your content marketing efforts should focus on making content people want to read.
Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a huge marketing team, a big budget for search engine optimization tools, tons of content ideas or incredible talent. All it takes is a simple strategy and the right plan to create and promote content that gets results. We’ll show you how to tackle it today.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing means creating useful content – like blog posts, videos, or social media updates – that not only informs and entertains but also builds trust with your customers. Often, it's the very first touchpoint potential clients have with your business, setting the stage for their entire journey.
Think of it as guiding someone through a funnel. At the top, your content grabs attention and builds awareness. As clients learn more about your services, your content nurtures them – addressing their concerns, answering their questions, and gradually moving them closer to a purchase. This ‘controlled drive’ is a powerful tool because it helps shape your audience's journey from initial curiosity to loyal customer.
And while guiding prospects through the funnel is a major benefit, content marketing also:
- Supports cost-effective lead generation: It generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing and costs 62% less. Each dollar spent on content can produce triple the leads compared to paid ads
- Enhances brand awareness and loyalty: 63% of content marketers say it builds customer loyalty – and since loyalty is the new business currency, that’s a powerful win. Your content does double duty by both attracting new customers and keeping them coming back.
- Improves SEO and organic traffic: High-quality content attracts your audience and enhances your search engine visibility. You can attract a steady flow of organic traffic without spending a little fortune on pay-per-click campaigns.
- Drives conversions and sales: Good content can increase your sales by up to 600%. Focusing on your audience’s needs and guiding them through their buying journey makes it easier to turn interest into action.
Even if you’re not a marketing expert, you can tackle these pain points head-on. It’s about making your business more visible, trusted, and ultimately, more profitable.
Now that you see the benefits, here’s how to build a clear and practical content marketing strategy for your brand.
Try this simple content marketing strategy for your small business
1. Define your audience — Who are you writing for?
At the start of the content creation process, you should realize one thing: you're not putting words on an empty page to express your creative talent. You’re writing for your potential clients. Think about the people you want to attract and what that target audience will be interested in.
For example, suppose you have a small UX design product. In that case, you'll probably write for UI and UX designers, developers, product and product managers, and people who work on design while working online.
After pinpointing your target audience, find out which content resonates with them. You can run a survey with your existing customers to learn where they get industry updates and what content creators they think are outstanding. If you don’t have enough customer data, draw inspiration from competitor analysis, industry reports, and social media trends.
2. Set content goals — What do you want to achieve?
Creating content for the sake of creating content isn’t a winning strategy. Because small business owners like yourself don’t have much time, you should plan well to maximize time spent.
To make your content marketing efforts worthwhile, choose a goal with a set of key performance indicators. Here are some examples:
- Increasing organic traffic to your website
- Generating more leads for your business
- Getting prospects further in your business process
- Establishing your business as a thought leader in your field
- Creating sales enablement materials for your team
- Building a community around your product
For example, if you've just launched a new practice as a lawyer, your goal could be to establish yourself as a thought leader in your specific area of law and geographic area.
But don’t set goals just for the sake of it – make them matter.
Smart, measurable goals ensure you stay focused and improve over time. A strong plan lets you efficiently use your resources for lasting results.
3. Choose content types that fit your business — What do you want to publish?
Content marketing for small businesses doesn't necessarily imply filling up a content calendar with blog posts. Content marketing is a broader category, and there are various formats that you can use based on the previous two steps: your target audience and your goals.
The most common content marketing formats include:
- Blog posts
- Case studies
- Newsletters
- Social media posts
- Walkthroughs and guides
- Infographics
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Gated content like lead magnets
As you're just starting, don't spread yourself too thin and try to do everything. Instead, pick one format and master it before branching out to something else.
How to create content people read
You don't have to be an expert content writer to get your target audience excited. We’ll show you some content marketing tips that can help you create relevant content that makes people want to read, click, and purchase.
1. Research what your audience is searching for
The basis of every content strategy is data. You don't just randomly pick what you feel like writing about and get cracking with new blog content. Instead, you use keyword research tools that tell you information such as:
- How many people search for a specific keyword (e.g., beginner workout tips), and how many new visits you can hope for if you write something amazing on that topic
- How difficult it is to rank for this keyword in search engines
- Who your competitors are and what they have published
Before opting for paid tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush, make sure to try free ones such as Google Keyword Planner, AnswerThePublic, and Ubersuggest.
AnswerThePublic
If you don’t know if your audience is searching for a specific keyword, type it into one of these tools to see if there's interest. These tools can also help you discover new keywords you might never have thought of.
2. Write content that solves problems (not just promotes your business)
The first thing to remember about content marketing is that it's about providing value and NOT selling. You use content to build relationships, create an emotional connection, educate, and show how problems are solved. After consuming a great piece of content, the reader should walk away with a piece of information they can act on immediately.
You might not achieve that with self-promotion and explaining how great your product or service is.
If you own a jewelry store, a blog post about why your diamonds are the best in the district may not provide enough value. Instead, create an educational guide on choosing the perfect engagement ring, offering useful insights while subtly showcasing your expertise.
3. Make your content easy to read
Nobody likes seeing a wall of text. When you squint and look from afar, the best content looks... dispersed. It usually has a mix of different text formats to keep the reader engaged and entice them to go until the end.
Here are a few things that can help you write high performing and aesthetically great content:
- Don’t use long paragraphs. A short paragraph is a compact segment of writing – generally 1 to 3 sentences – that conveys one thought, which helps keep your content clear and accessible
- Mix up the length of your sentences. For optimal readability, keep most sentences to 15-20 words.
- Bullet points help break up information into digestible lists – just be sure not to overuse them.
- Add descriptive headings filled with crucial info; they’re great for both readability and SEO.
- Use images as visual pauses in your text to improve readability and create a more inviting user experience.
- Present essential info in table format to help people easily compare details.
Mind your content readability, which is a score that you can easily learn from free tools such as Hemingway. Ideally, keep your readability at grade 8 or better because your audience is not academics - it's regular people with everyday problems and common pain points, even in B2B.
Last but not least – avoid industry jargon. You want people to understand you. So, instead of 'Leverage AI-driven insights to optimize your sales pipeline and accelerate revenue growth.' try 'Use AI to analyze sales data, find better leads, and close deals faster.'
Write like you're talking to a friend.
How to use AI for content marketing — and why you still need to edit it
Speaking of AI, it's no secret that it made a major disruption in the way we create content. There's not a content creator nowadays that doesn't use AI in some part to make creating content faster and easier. AI is like knowledge: depending on what you use it for, it can be extremely beneficial or highly dangerous.
AI tools can help with many parts of the content creation process: idea generation, writing outlines or complete drafts, proofreading, fact-checking, improvements in formatting, simplifying complex ideas, summarizing them into tables – and much more.
They should serve as helpers, not substitutes, for your creative work. They can speed up your process and free up your time, but they’ll never know your business like you do.
Some of the best AI tools you can use for content marketing activities include:
- ChatGPT for content ideation, rough drafts, editing, summarization, and similar
- SurferSEO for AI-based content optimization
- Perplexity for getting accurate statistics and research data
- Jasper AI for creating first drafts of any content type from scratch
No matter what tool you pick, keep in mind that AI is only as good as the prompts you provide. With minimal data, its output can fall short of your needs. All of the content that AI produces should be edited to match your tone of voice, fact-check it for accuracy, avoid repetitions and fluff, and eliminate inaccurate data.
Here are some of our best tips for editing AI content to make it more engaging:
- Refine the tone and voice and make it match your brand guidelines
- Inject personality and emotion to prevent the content from sounding robotic and repetitive
- Keep the language simple and friendly so it reads like a casual conversation, not a formal paper.
- Add context and examples to make the content relatable and easier to understand
- Make sure there is a logical flow and coherence from start to finish
- Fact check and provide unique insights – AI tools can often make up their own data!
- Make it interactive to address the reader and talk to them
- Proofread and refine your work using tools like Hemingway or Grammarly to ensure it’s clear, concise, and error-free.
Simple ways to promote your content (without a big budget)
A content marketing strategy does not end at the creation part. To get the most out of your content, you need to promote it to get the maximum value. You don't need a massive online advertising budget to promote your content: there are actually tons of cost effective ways to promote the content you create.
Repurpose your content
Combine a couple of blog posts and turn them into an ebook. One blog can be a video with a few minutes in length. You could also chop it up into smaller videos or reels, several social media posts, an email (or a series of emails), a newsletter... You are only limited by your imagination and available time.
Share content on social media
Besides your typical channels for distributing content (your own profiles), there are other ways to share things on social platforms, such as:
- Facebook Groups: Share your content in groups that focus on your industry or niche. These communities often engage actively and can help spread your message.
- LinkedIn Groups: Participate in LinkedIn groups related to your field. While they may be less active than Facebook, they still offer valuable professional networking opportunities.
- Local Business Groups: Look for local business communities on social media. Sharing your content here can help you connect with nearby entrepreneurs and potential customers.
- Reddit Communities: Engage with relevant subreddits where users are interested in your niche. These communities can provide direct feedback and broaden your reach.
- Pinterest: If your product lends itself to visuals, use Pinterest to share your content. Create engaging boards that attract users who are looking for inspiration in your category.
Use email marketing
There’s no channel more powerful than email when it comes to ROI – studies show that for every $1 spent, you can expect an average return of $36 to $42. Turn your content into emails and deliver them to targeted segments. For instance, a recent article can become a multi-part email campaign that drives engagement and conversions.
Optimize content for SEO
If you're already producing content, you want it to rank—so getting good search engine visibility is a great bonus!
Get inexpensive SEO tools that help you choose the right keywords, suggest ideal content structure, headings, internal links, and more. Here are three great free options:
- Google Keyword Planner → Discover keyword ideas and search volume data straight from Google.
- Ubersuggest (Free Version) → Generate keyword suggestions, check SEO metrics, and even get content ideas.
- Answer the Public → Explore common search queries and phrases to inform your content strategy.
Common content marketing mistakes to avoid
Since it doesn't take much to get started, many businesses dip their toes in content marketing. The problem is that it also doesn't take much to make critical errors from the very start, such as:
Not having a plan
A content marketing plan can be as simple as a list of topics or as detailed as a breakdown of keywords organized into clusters and sales funnel sections. Every creator should develop a plan that best aligns with their goals.
The key part is: having that plan. It’s the foundation of success! Once you determine your target audience and goals, write it down – yes, even in a simple Google Doc – to guide your work and help onboard others.
Writing for yourself, not your audience
At the very beginning, you may be tempted to make all of your content about yourself. Who you are, what you do, what makes you amazing, and why customers should choose your business. But… who would want to read this?
Instead of thinking about ways to promote yourself, think of ways to make yourself useful to your target audience. Through helpful content, you'll show your audience what they stand to gain if they give you their trust and hard-earned cash. For instance, you could share a how-to guide that shows cost-saving tips using your product.
Publishing content but never promoting it
Your content might not be a TV program that someone will accidentally stumble onto while searching for something to watch. There are hundreds of thousands of new content pieces published each day and it takes consistent effort to get noticed.
Don't wait for your target audience to find out what you created. Promote everything you create on social media, emails, newsletters, co-marketing activities, and everywhere you see a new - and ideally free - opportunity. For example, a single blog post could be repurposed as:
- Social media posts highlighting key takeaways
- Email newsletter feature
- Guest article or contribution to a partner’s blog
- Infographic summarizing the main points
- Short video or live stream discussion based on the content.
Conclusion
Content marketing sounds complex, but it boils down to creating valuable content that solves real problems for a specific target audience. Understand the basics and keep at it; soon, you'll find customers recognizing your value, not merely your promotional tactics. Good luck!
