Small Business Content Marketing; How To Get More Clients, Part 2

Small business content marketing only works if you can get the materials you (lovingly) produce into the hands of the people that are meant to consume it.

In part one, I shared actionable steps to follow for creating the content. Now, I want to go deeper into the second cornerstone of this activity, how to market it.

Small Business Content Marketing – Marketing Your Materials

To reiterate something I said in part one, the purpose of content marketing is to leverage your expertise, passion(s) and knowledge to build trust and credibility with the aim of generating sales conversations. The flow of events from creating the material to serving more people is known as Attract, Engage and Convert.

In my eyes, successful content marketing can take place both online AND offline.

Yes, offline too.

Technology, social media and the like does make the online world a perfect place for attraction and distribution. However, I think it is a mistake to incorporate your small business content marketing offline.

I’ll share with you insights on how to get the material in to the hands of those that are meant to consume it in just a second. First, it is important to note who is meant to consume it AND what benefits they will receive from it.

Think about it, regardless of where you are raising awareness to the material (online and/or offline) there are certain people that will benefit from it, at certain times, because of certain situation and they are looking for something (knowledge, results etc.).

So, before you do anything else; answer these questions:

1. Who’s it for?


2. What are they looking for?


3. When do they look for this?


4. Where do they look for this?


5. Why should they consume your material?


6. How should they consume your material?

Now, you’re ready to get your ‘stuff’ into the hands of potential clients and more!

Small Business Content Marketing – Methods of Attraction

First, and partially because I emphasized that it shouldn’t be overlooked, let us look at offline activity.

If the content you’ve created is being leveraged as part of the sales cycle or it supporting the sales cycle offline activity comes into play more than not. Why? You’re likely to be in situations where you are having conversations with people and can mention that you have the perfect thing to share with them.

Just remember, your material serves a purpose. It will help people on some level and therefore it is desirable.

There are a myriad of opportunities for offline attraction:

• Meetings – During a meeting make it an action step on your part to share your material(s).


• Events – Whether you’re attending or exhibiting it doesn’t matter. There are opportunities to raise awareness to the material(s) you’ve created and to share it with people.


• Direct Mail – Yes! If you can create physical copies of your material then you can send it directly to people. If not, or if it is preferred you can send a letter or postcard to people informing them of what you have created and how they can get it.


• Traditional Mediums – Don’t forget about some of the old school avenues for promotion. Press, radio and more.


• Speaking – If you’re in front of the people that are meant to consume your materials…need I say more?


• Sponsorship – You can earn the right to have your name in front of your audience and incorporate a call to action for grabbing copies of your materials.

There are more.

This is a great start though and, of course, you don’t have to do everything (or anything). However, I would urge you to think about the opportunities that exist offline.

Now, online.

Online, a world of opportunity. Sure, it’s a noisy place these days. However, if you’ve answered the questions above then you will have a platform to work from.

For online attraction, I would like to refer to the 3 pillars of raising awareness to your material(s).

These are:

1. Organic - The primary mediums for organic attraction are blogging, SEO and personal invitation (a little personal touch can go a long way). Let’s look at blogging. Some emphasize blogging is content marketing, I like to think of it as secondary content to your primary materials. It’s helping to further build trust and credibility. It’s helping with SEO. I think it is mandatory to blog because of this and as it can be leveraged in the second pillar.


2. Referral – This is oftentimes the activity that is overlooked. Referral attraction is using other platforms to raise awareness to what you have available. Think about syndication (using your RSS feed from your blog to automatically publish, on approval, to other online publications and websites alike). Think about submission (creating original articles/blogs etc. and/or republishing on other online publications and websites alike). Think about guest posting (a powerful and personal touch to raising awareness of your ‘stuff’ on other trusted sites). Think about communities (forums, groups and a host of other areas you can help others and offer your materials). Think about social media.


3. Direct – I categorize Direct Attraction separately as I typically feel this is the results earned from paid activity. If you have some budget available for advertising look into advertising on association website, in the press, on social networks and more! Of course, paid Press Releases are also an avenue to explore.

There you have it, a myriad of options for raising awareness to your materials, attracting prospects and getting it into the hands of those that are meant to consume it.

In summary, I would like to reiterate that you don’t have to do everything. As with everything, test and measure what you are doing. If you aren’t seeing the results that you were expecting/hoping, evaluate if you need to modify what you are doing and/or adding more activity into the mix.

More information – If you would like to learn more about how to do this and to get more clients through content marketing you can watch this free feature length video I created that goes deeper into the subject.

Next week, I’ll address effective ways for managing the flow of leads and conversion.

Until then, happy selling!

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