My Top 5 Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

1. Think before you plan

Spend time white-boarding, brainstorming, talking to your team, your customers, whoever. Don't just jump right into content development, but vet why you're creating a new piece.

And be honest with yourself: Is this content that your consumer wants or needs? If not, why are you creating it?

I’m challenging you here — that’s right. Think before you start. Don’t just create a blog post because someone said, “We need a blog.” Understand why you need a blog first.

2. Ask questions before you write

If you’re a content marketer who came from journalism, like me, then you’re probably used to finding sources for your story and doing research and interviews before you pull everything together. If you don’t have that background, it’s OK, but it’s time to change your approach and start asking questions before you write.

Meet with your stakeholders, interview your customers and talk to your customer service team to find out what customers ask about most frequently. If you take time to understand what your customers need really, you'll create content that's so good, they'll want to read it — and maybe, just maybe, share it with you!

3. Invite someone else to be part of what you write

You're likely not the only expert on the subject you're covering. Find someone else and include them.

Partnering with influencers is great for several reasons. First, they’re going to add some credibility to your piece because their involvement is seen as a third-party endorsement of what you’re saying.

But beyond that, when you include someone in your content, they are likely to share it with their network, too, allowing for a bigger audience reach.

4. Share what you write

When you’re creating your content plans for the future, really focus on your distribution plan. If you’re currently only posting to your blog or website, branch out a bit, add in social channels, and invite influencers you’ve partnered with to share on their networks, too.

Take a look at your referring traffic sites in your analytics account; you may find new places you should distribute your content pieces too. You never know.

Spend a few minutes reviewing what your competition and industry leaders are doing to promote and distribute their content, and see what makes sense for you.

5. Do more with less

Yup, you read that right. It’s quite possible you’ll create less content if you follow these steps, and I believe that’s OK.

If you create content that's focused and provides great value to your consumer, you don't need to create tons of it. A few core pieces may do more for you than 20 pieces of mediocre content ever could.

What do you think? I’m curious to know if you agree or disagree with the tips I’ve outlined above. What do you think we should be doing differently as an industry?

If we focus on creating great content that our customers want and need, I think we'll see even bigger success.