How to Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy: Tips for Small Business Owners

Your content marketing strategy will underpin everything you create and say both online and offline for your business. The more we create content that aligns to our overall business goals, our values, our offer and our idea audience, the more we attract people with our content. Strategy can help us stay on track, and know the “why” and the ‘what” of what we’re doing to help us create content that really speaks to our ideal audience. 

When I’m working with a small business owner I don’t like looking at their website too early. I want them to tell me what makes their business special first. Nine times out of ten, what they say, and what their business marketing says are two very different things. 

Ask yourself these questions about your marketing content:

• When people come to your website, or read your company material what is their reaction to you? 

• Can they understand what you are saying easily and clearly 

• Or do you make their brains hurt with your jargon, company culture ‘wordage’ and over formality?

Maybe you have no idea. Have you ever got a bunch of people to just visit your site and tell you what they understand from the messages you’ve written?

Connection is everything in small business content marketing

You can write a technically beautiful sentences but if they aren’t understood by your clients, and you haven’t CONNECTED with them, it’s a waste of your time, and theirs. Even worse – you might be turning them OFF.

Twelve years ago I was living in Taiwan. I hadn’t made the effort to learn Chinese, and I had assumed in my arrogance that I’d be able to just speak English. Catastrophic idea.

I became one of those horrid people who instead of trying to communicate using a DIFFERENT method when my spoken English was not understood, I just spoke LOUDER and SLOWER.

It was never going to make a difference. I needed to change – instead of expecting everyone else around me to.

Creating quality content starts with the reader in mind.

Your company content needs to be understood. If someone who you want to work with reads it and doesn’t understand it, it’s not their issue – it’s yours.

We accidentally jargonise when we are too deeply enmeshed in our own industry, when we are trying to sound important, or when we forget who will be reading it.

Great content marketing is often just simple content. It tells a story, it clarifies, and most importantly, it COMMUNICATES the message you need to get to your potential clients.

Jargon is not your friend when it comes to converting content marketing

I have an active brain and love learning. I am always really disappointed when I read a blog or content from a “thought leader”, especially in marketing or social media that I just can’t understand because it is filled with jargon, and buzzwords. I wonder – has it been written that way to make me feel inferior? Or am I just really STOOPID? And then I turn off, because both of those things make me feel bad.

Take a fresh pair of eyes to your content marketing – and ask yourself – “If I knew nothing about my industry, would this interest me? Would it make any sense?”

It’s the first step towards creating killer content that cuts through all the wasted web space on your competitors websites and content marketing materials.

If you’re looking to improve your content marketing strategy and connect with your ideal audience, let’s talk! As a content marketing coach, I’m here to help small business owners like you create content that communicates your message clearly and effectively. Whether you’re struggling with jargon or just want to take your content to the next level, I’m here to guide you. Book a time  to talk with me and let’s work together to create killer content that sets you apart. from your competitors.