Lindsay Farley, the owner of StrategyNest, led Part Two of the Boone EDC’s Summer Small Business Series discussion as we discussed the importance of content marketing and how to utilize it to boost online engagement. Lindsay shared many insights as we discussed what content marketing is and why small business owners should use it. Below are the top five things for you to consider:

  1. Content marketing can be defined as a strategic marketing approach that is consistent and relevant to the audience the business is trying to attract.
  2. The sweet spot for any content marketing strategy is to deliver the content in three unique ways: paid content, organic content, and business-owned content. To further explain, one piece of your content you will pay to be delivered (like a targeted advertisement on Google or Facebook), the next content delivery is deemed the business’ owned content. The content the company wrote and owns (like website content or a blog posting), and earned content is the final delivery method where a third party recognizes the businesses (like a social media shout out from a customer).
  3. If you choose to create a content strategy, first start with your budget, including both financial and time capacity. You will need to commit both time and energy to create content for it to work since a static website is a non-useful website. More than anything, if you start a content campaign, continue it. Make sure always to maintain frequency in your content outreach. Consistency is key.
  4. Finally, monitor your analytics and be prepared to pivot. Once you have a plan in place, you should check your google analytics at least once a month to see what is working and see how much you are spending. Additionally, you should also check once a week to see what posts reached more audiences, what times were more successful, and what images or verbiage worked best. This analysis will help you tailor both your weekly posts as well as adjust your monthly plan.
  5. Last but certainly not least, content marketing is a journey, and there is no finish line. Today’s content may not work tomorrow, and content that did not work last week may work next month. The secret ingredient is to find the right content at the right time with the right consistency. The only way to achieve this is through trial and error.

 For more insight into the conversation witLindsay Farley, the owner of StrategyNest, led Part Two of the Boone EDC’s Summer Small Business Series discussion as we discussed the importance of content marketing and how to utilize it to boost online engagement. Lindsay shared many insights as we discussed what content marketing is and why small business owners should use it. Below are the top five things for you to consider:h Lindsay, feel free to view the full discussion here. Additionally, feel free to content Lindsay at her site StrategyNest.