Your small business may not have a huge budget to compete with bigger brands. However, there is no need to break your financial back in your content marketing campaign when you can very well look within your business to find tons of content.
If you think that content can be present only in the form of text, articles, blogs, or images then you have merely confined your strategy to its minimum potential. You should understand that content is present in your employees, your products, your services, the way your office, store, or workshop is designed, the values of your company, your clients, and even the menus/brochures that you hand out to potential clients.
Expanding the above point will make matters clear. How often have you read Tweets or comments or reviews about a shop, store, or restaurant that has helpful or friendly employees that walk that extra mile to provide a memorable experience or meal? Such reviews are increasing by the day thanks to the internet. Convincing your employees to provide extraordinary customer service is something that will quickly garner rave reviews and spread the message that your business cares for your clients.
In addition, providing unique outfits for your employees that make them stand out from other businesses can also go a long way in creating a memorable brand image. A quirky logo or slogan on their uniforms will also leave a lasting impact on your clients.
The very design of your small shop, store, café, or restaurant too can turn into content. For instance, you can stencil out your Twitter handle on a wall or can install a large monitor that displays the latest Tweets or can do the same manually on a whiteboard. A unique and surprising feature of your business premises will certainly get photographed or written about and shared within a short time in this digital era.
Your products and services too can turn into content, especially if you are in the consumer or fashion business. Some business such as restaurants have a better chance of using their products and services as content by way of creating uniquely shaped sandwiches, coffees that sport unique designs at the top in cream, etc. You too should let your creativity run wild and try to transform your products into content. Cake and pastry shops already use this strategy in a conscious or unconscious manner.
In case you own a small restaurant, pub, or café, then your menu is a wonderful content tool to display your imagination. A few restaurants provide menus that light up upon opening them, feature humorous or surprising content as they explain their dishes, and a select few even offer tablets or iPads where patrons can slide and tap to view the dishes as well as place their order. Such innovative techniques will find their way on to social media sites and can spread quickly to attract more business.
Tying up with charity organizations is also a wonderful way to pay back to the community as well as garner positive PR for you and your small business. Offering freebies as well as special discounts or encouraging your existing clients and potential ones to take part in online promotions too is another form of content. You can certainly create a buzz during specific events as well as end up with a lot of high quality links at the same time. You can also use the age-old barter system where you can trade your business products for articles or blogs about your business from related experts. In addition to blogs, you will also receive quality links while saving a lot of money at the same time.
You may have realized by now that good content is within and all around your small business. You merely need to identify the best type of content that can work for your business model and leverage it for effective use in your content marketing campaign.