The small business owner’s guide to content marketing – Funding Circle

Over the last decade, content marketing has become an essential component of a strong business marketing plan. If you haven’t tried content marketing yet—or if you want to ramp up your content marketing efforts—it’s not too late to make an impact. 

Below, we’re sharing everything you need to know about content marketing, including what it is, why it’s effective, and step-by-step guidance on how to build a content marketing plan that works for your small business. 

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of different types of content to attract customers and convert leads. Successful content marketing helps increase traffic to your website, improve customer engagement and loyalty, grow your customer base, and generate more sales. 

Content marketing can take many forms—such as blog posts, videos, and infographics—and happen on a handful of different platforms, from your business’s website and social media accounts to digital and print publications, podcasts, and apps. 

What makes content marketing so effective? 

Unlike traditional advertisements, which often feel one-sided, content marketing offers the opportunity for interaction. Content is something people can read, watch, learn from, engage with, and share with others. According to recent data from MediaFly, content consumption is way up: the average number of views per piece of content shared increased 207% during 2020 and 2021.

While ads are great for short-term projects and immediate results, content marketing is more of a long game. Each piece of content is like a brick in your business’s marketing foundation, making your base stronger and stronger.

Content marketing is as much an opportunity to promote your brand as it is to forge a stronger customer connection. You can use content marketing to:

• Increase your business’s visibility and search presence online
• Build credibility and authority on a topic
• Demonstrate your expertise
• Showcase your business’s brand values
• Educate prospective customers about the products and services you offer
• Foster trust with current customers
• Create a community within your business 
• Convert leads and increase sales

3 types of content marketing

One of the main selling points of content marketing is how versatile it is. You can create a wide array of content, tailor it to your business specialty and customer needs, and distribute it on a handful of different platforms. 

Depending on your offerings and brand, you might want to release authoritative white papers and ebooks on niche subjects or lean into interactive polls and behind-the-scenes videos on TikTok and Instagram. 

Here are three types of content marketing, plus examples of the different formats your content can take:

1. Website content marketing: Website content marketing includes anything you post on your business’s own website or send from your business (like email). Think: landing pages, blog posts, case studies, ebooks, webinars, video tutorials, and downloadable PDFs. With the right execution, website content marketing can bring more traffic to your site, increase your business’s online visibility, and turn leads into paying customers. 
2. Social media content marketing: Social media content marketing refers to content you post on social media, such as infographics, images, live stream videos, pre-recorded videos, and interactive polls. Like website content marketing, social media content marketing is a good way to convert leads, attract new customers, and bring more people to your business’s site. 
3. External content marketing: External content marketing is when you create and publish content on other business’s websites, in digital or print publications, or for podcasts and apps. External content marketing helps you get in front of new audiences, expanding your reach and building more brand awareness. 

Content marketing examples for small businesses 

Because content marketing has a lot of different applications, it can be tricky to know where to start. According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound Marketing Trends 2022 report, the top five media formats content marketers use (in order from one to five) are videos, blogs, images, infographics, and case studies. Meanwhile, short-form video formats like TikToks and Instagram Reels are growing the fastest. 

 Here are some examples of types of content for each different format:

1. Videos: You can create live Q&A videos, product or service demos, video tutorials, brand videos, customer-generated videos, behind-the-scenes videos, and short-form videos jumping on TikTok trends or sharing memes. If you own a bakery, for example, you could release an at-home cooking tutorial your customers can learn from or share a behind-the-scenes video of how a croissant gets made. 
2. Blog posts: You can write lists, how-to articles, FAQ-style pieces, educational guides, product spotlights, business announcements, or news updates. If you run a dentistry practice, for example, you might want to create a series of blog posts answering frequently asked questions, like “Why do you need to get your teeth cleaned twice a year?” and “What are the daily habits that create good dental hygiene?”
3. Images: You can create and share brand photos, product images, behind-the-scenes photos, memes, reminders, seasonal images, quote-based images, customer-generated photos, stock photos, and business announcements. If you operate an online ecommerce store that sells jewelry, for example, you may want to post up-close product photos as well as user-generated photos of customers wearing your pieces. 
4. Infographics: You can produce checklist infographics, how-to infographics, statistics-based infographics, comparison infographics, flowchart infographics, or timeline infographics. For example, if you own a residential pest control company, you could create an infographic breaking down the most common pest infestations and how to prevent and solve each one. 
5. Case studies: Case studies, also called customer stories, are a great way to demonstrate your business’s value in a concrete way. You can write problem-solution case studies (showing how your business solved a unique customer problem), storytelling case studies (where you spotlight a customer and share their story, tying in your business along the way), or service case studies (where you share a customer’s story and extract tips from them to share with other customers). 

How to create a content marketing plan

As with any strategy development, building out a strong content marketing plan takes time, focus, and experimentation. However, with such a low barrier to entry, the good news is that you can get started at any time. Follow these eight steps to build a content marketing plan for your business:

1. Clarify your goals

Take some time to reflect on what you want to achieve with content marketing. Do you want to reach new customer demographics? Convert more of your leads? Improve loyalty with current customers? Garner more sales?

Your objectives will dictate the direction of your content marketing strategy and the metrics you track. 

2. Define your business’s expertise 

The easiest way to create compelling content is to rely on your expertise. Consider your industry, business model, and offerings. What are you most knowledgeable in? What unique perspective or products can your business offer? Defining your business’s expertise helps you determine which content marketing formats to use and which messages matter. 

For example, if you specialize in residential lawn care for homes located in the Midwest, you might want to focus on educational blog posts and easily digestible how-to infographics. On the other hand, if you make trendy T-shirts and bags for Gen-Z consumers, you may want to lean into interactive Instagram polls and downloadable shopping guides. 

3. Consider your customers’ needs and searches 

The next piece of the puzzle is your customers. What are their wants, problems, and interests? Which questions are they asking online and where do they spend their time? Revisit the market analysis section of your business plan, then conduct some up-to-date research on your target demographic. 

Not only does relevant market data give you ideas for what type of content to create, it also helps you figure out how to effectively relay your information to your audience, and on which platforms to do it. 

4. Determine your resources and budget

Before you begin creating content, make sure to review your budget and resources to ensure you have enough funds and people-power to execute your plans. Beyond just the creation phase, take into account how much time and money will go into brainstorming and planning, publishing and distribution—not to mention sharing and promoting your content. 

If someone on your team is a skilled copywriter, graphic designer, or video editor, you’re already one step ahead. However, if you don’t have the internal skills or bandwidth necessary to create the content you want, you may need to invest in hiring an outside expert. 

5. Set yourself up for success  

Lay the foundation for your content marketing success by fine-tuning some of your backend operations. It’s a good idea to:

• Optimize your website: Make sure your website is as engaging, helpful, and easy to use as possible. Update old information, re-design your landing page, add an FAQs section, and scrap any broken links or irrelevant information. Here are seven other smart ways to improve your website and increase traffic.
• Coordinate your social media accounts: If your social media accounts aren’t cohesive across platforms, update your business’s profile image, contact information, and pinned photos or posts. 
• Upgrade your business software: The right software systems can facilitate your content marketing plans. Think: customer relationship management software, email marketing software, project management software, and social media scheduling and publishing platforms (more on this later).

6. Choose one platform and content format to start

Choosing one content type and format to start can help prevent overwhelm—and maximize your chances of success. From there, you can break down the steps necessary to achieve your goals. 

Let’s say you want to create a blog for your business. Your first steps might be planning out the blog’s theme and topics, consulting with your web designer about blog hosting, and developing a blog homepage that’s cohesive with your brand. From there, you’ll want to brainstorm a list of initial blog topics, research capable writers, and review best SEO practices. 

If you decide to create video content on your social media accounts, you could start by consulting with your social media manager (or hiring an external social media expert if you don’t have one), then brainstorming different video formats and ideas. From there, you may want to research video editors for hire and start creating content. 

7. Distribute the content

Once you create your content and decide where it will live (like your website or Instagram page, for example), it’s time to distribute and promote it. That might involve posting about it on all your social media platforms, linking to it on your website, sending it out via email, promoting it via paid ads, and sending it to business partners or influencers to promote—or all of the above. 

8. Record your process and results 

It’s important to track and measure your content marketing result data, so you know what to change and improve upon going forward. Depending on your original content marketing goals and the platform you use, you may want to track any of the following KPIs: 

• Page views
• Content shares 
• Engagement 
• Inbound links
• Newsletter signups
• Returning visitors
• Gated content downloads
• Social media mentions
• Backlinks
• Daily sales
• Overall website traffic 
• Conversion rate

Tips for creating effective content

The content that works for your business depends on your customers and brand, but in general, people respond to content that’s original, helpful, and relatable. Here are some tips for achieving the right message and tone: 

• Center your customers: Make sure your content answers customers’ questions and addresses their needs first. 
• Bring value beyond your offerings: Give your customers something they can’t get with your products and services, whether it’s insider knowledge, expert suggestions, or funny ideas.
• Tailor content to customers at different stages: If you can, it’s helpful to create content for customers at different stages in their buying journey. If someone is still in the consideration phase, for example, they might need more information to make a decision, with your business’s product or service being presented as just one option among several. 
• Maintain consistency: Make sure to keep brand voice and messaging consistent across different content formats and platforms. Your customers should be able to recognize your business’s voice, no matter where it shows up. 
• Embrace consumer trends: Pay attention to consumer news and take advantage of social media trends with your content creation. HubSpot research showed that the top three most effective types of content are funny content, interactive content, and authentic or relatable content.  

Content marketing tools and resources

The right content marketing tools and resources can help you facilitate your plans and grow your knowledge. Here are some to consider:

Invest in a content marketing plan

If you need extra cash to invest in content marketing tools or hire a marketing expert, Funding Circle can help. Our business term loans give you upfront cash at an affordable interest rate, and our business lines of credit offer flexible financing available whenever you need it. Plus, funding is fast—if you’re approved, you can get money in your accounts in just a few days. Learn more about our options.

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