Small Business Content Marketing Trends to Try in 2019
June 12, 2019
It's no secret that high quality content helps to significantly increase revenue and build brand loyalty. Today, an effective content marketing strategy is considered a powerful instrument, which allows a small business to engage with and influence their target audience.
A well-planned content marketing strategy can increase your online exposure, bring new visitors to your site, and help you generate revenue by incentivizing visitors to engage with your product portfolio. According to statistics published by Cision, 40 percent of total B2B and 26 percent of total B2C budgets go toward content marketing alone, with 63 percent of marketers stating that generating leads and traffic remains a top challenge in their industries.
But the problem is that digital marketing is developing very fast, and it can be hard to keep up. If you want to know what kind of content will bring the best results in 2019, keep reading.
Importance of Personalization
If you know the name of your client, you have more chances to grab his or her attention. Personalized greetings in emails, accounts, and chats help to engage customers and drive sales. Modern customers want to feel valued, so generic marketing is no longer effective. According to surveys done by Econsultancy, 31 percent of customers wish that the promotional content they receive would be more personalized, which would incentivize them to make the final purchase decision much faster.
Let's consider an example. There are two similar emails, which inform a customer about the discount:
- "Hi, Jess! Are you ready to fly back to Paris? We have found special tickets for you at a 20% discount for you!"
- "This week all our clients have an opportunity to get 20% off flights to Paris"
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Which do you think will have a higher conversion rate? If you guessed the first one, then you're right. Studies done by HubSpot reveal that 50 percent of marketing influencers gain more success with individualized messages and email marketing than with generalized, mass-produced content.
Anderson Bradford, content editor for Free Essay Writers, emphasizes: "A customer wants to feel like he is the only person in this world who deserves this special offer. He doesn't want to share his virtual rewards with other clients."
The Necessity of Niche Content
If someone searches on Google "how to get fit," they usually find some basic recommendations like "do exercises and stick to a healthy diet." But is this information really helpful for a person who wants to lose extra weight?
You should analyze your market in more detail and find a tiny vacant niche. Your strategy will be more effective if you target a very specific audience. For instance, "weight loss programs for busy female entrepreneurs under 30" or "healthy diet for travel bloggers" will work better than more generic content.
According to Search Engine Watch, 52 percent of marketers agree that reaching a niche audience is almost as important as attracting a general audience. This means that you should appease both sides of the equation and mix up your content calendar so that you create approachable, easy-to-digest content as well as more robust, specific pieces.
High Demand for Video Content
Experts state that video traffic will be over 80 percent of all consumer internet traffic in the next two years. There is no room for doubt that video is becoming a new king of the digital world. The great news is that this change brings amazing opportunities for small business growth.
If you have never produced video content before, you can start from shooting explainers, how-to, and product reviews. Keep in mind that video for YouTube should last around two minutes, and video for other social platforms should last around one minute, if not shorter.
This information comes from HubSpot, which broke down each video content platform based on audience reactions and the way in which people generally engage with videos on each platform. Single Grain has also provided a list of video types which can be used to attract new visitors and customers to your website, so make sure to keep these in mind.
"Today, if you want to boost your marketing efforts, you should focus on video content production. One viral video clip on social media can increase your sales better than $20,000 spent on the paid advertisement," says Pat Fredshaw, co-founder of EssaySupply.
Post-Sale Marketing
Nowadays, a company should think not only about how to attract new customers but also how to retain them. If a buyer has made the first purchase, it's crucially important to make sure that he will repeat his action in the future. According to research done by Gainsight, 5 percent customer retention can increase your profits by up to 95 percent due to repeated engagement with your product portfolio. It's also worth noting that Forbes published an article in regards to content marketing trends in 2019, stating that post-sale marketing will become an essential part of content strategy.
If you want your small business to survive in the modern environment, you should build relationships of lasting trust with your clients. This will help you to continuously engage your buyers and form genuine partnerships. "Another study done by Search Engine Watch illustrates the point perfectly. Only 22 percent of global brands are trusted, with 83 percent of consumers stating that they consume and engage with certain brands and products judging by their peer recommendations," adds Prashant Sharma, founder and editor-in-chief of TechPluto. With that in mind, some of the ways to build audience trust include:
- Unique tone of voice, slogans, and design solutions
- Use of customer testimonials, quotes, and interviews in content marketing
- Community engagement, charity involvement, and other beneficiary activities
- Consistent product and/or service quality, with active and helpful customer support
- Discount offers, loyalty programs and freebies (added product value)
Content Diversity
Last but not least is content diversity. Modern users are spoiled with choices and they will undoubtedly lose interest in your company if you stick to only one type of content.
For this reason, you should produce various kinds of textual, visual and audio content to capture and retain the attention of your target audience. Some of the content types you can try out include:
- Long- and short-form blog posts
- Podcasts, interviews, and discussions
- Live videos, including product demonstration and Q and A sessions
- Short form social media content such as status updates, quotes and images
- Infographics, charts and other data visualization which you can use to illustrate the successful aspects of your business
- Comments on popular topics, memes, trending industry news and other relevant, "hot" topics
- Testimonials and social proof gathered from your customer base
- Results of email and online surveys discussing the findings you've gathered
- General content updates and announcements in regards to your products, future posts or questions for your followers
There are plenty of online tools and services which you can use to diversify your strategy. For example, you can utilize Canva to design infographics, Canada-Writers or WriteLoad to create a white paper, or Imgflip to generate funny memes.
Remember that new content marketing trends appear every day. You should always keep watching what is going on in your niche. You can do so by connecting with other companies and sites in your industry, by following news websites and forums, as well as by subscribing to emails and newsletters of prolific online publishers which talk about your line of work. There is no right or wrong outlet to follow, so make sure to expand your reach and income of information as much as possible.
Try to build a flexible content strategy, which can be adjusted to the changes in customers' preferences. Once you accomplish that, you will have a far easier time adjusting to current trends and crafting a content strategy which works both for your content creators and the audience you nurture.
Jessica Fender is a freelance writer with bylines at Hubworks and Next Generation.
The views and opinions expressed in Marketing Maestros are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.