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Small businesses that aren’t using content marketing to attract new customers are missing out on a powerful marketing tactic. Digital marketing may seem confusing, time consuming and out of reach for many small businesses. However, it’s really not that hard to do and doesn’t take a lot of time. We reached out to an award-wining marketer to get her best advice for digital marketing for small businesses.

“The one digital marketing technique I recommend is content marketing, which is the practice of creating and distributing valuable content. It is leveraging the quality content you create to drive potential customers (leads) to your business. Content marketing components include videos, articles/press, blogs, case studies, social media, infographics, podcasts and so much more. It’s a great method of storytelling and establishing the narrative you want others to know about yourself and your business. Content marketing is trackable and measurable. So, it’s easy to see where or when changes need to be made to see your return on investment.” – Nekasha Pratt, award-winning marketer, Founder & Chief Strategy Brand Officer of Bright Advisory Group

Creating Sharable Content

Now that we know why content marketing is important, let’s discuss the easy and fun part. With the amount of content being produced daily, it’s important to stand out amongst the noise. Don’t be intimidated by worrying what to create or what type of content would be valuable to your audience. There are plenty of shortcuts to help you figure this out. The key is to find out what is already trending within the online communities your target audience frequents. It’s a good thing there are many platforms who have made this process fairly easy for you. Conduct a quick search using the platforms below and find your next topic to write about.

• BuzzSumo allows you to select particular topics, such as Shopping, Beyonce, or the WNBA, and then receive a notification every time something important happens around that subject.
• Twitter & Facebook Trending sections are full of topics that are a natural jumping off point for content creation and are more likely to create a buzz.
• BuzzFeed provides a wealth of social news and entertainment and shows what’s going on in popular culture.
• Google Trends can help you find trending searches and the most popular searches in a wide range of categories.
• Reddit we personally love this one for finding humorous topics to write about.
• Quora can be used to find trending topics but we like this platform because it allows you to answer questions in your areas of expertise.

Turning Sharable Content into Leads

Once you conduct your searches, the next thing you want to do is ask, “Is this relatable to my brand?” Just because a topic is trending and seems like it would get a lot of clicks, doesn’t mean it’s something you should use to represent your brand. Content should always serve a purpose and connect to a strategic goal for your brand. Will it help you capture new leads? Increase followers across social media? Simply creating and sharing content for likes or clicks is a waste of time. Unless you’re doing it just for fun and usually that’s not the case. Here are few ways to turn your exciting sharable content in new leads:

• Recognize your opportunities to convert leads
• Offer an email subscription on your blog
• Add a Welcome Pop-up to your website
• Add your own call-to-actions to your content “like the one we want you to fill out below” .

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That’s it! Now, you’re ready and one tactic stronger in the world of digital marketing. Go forth and create great content and we hope to see you on the digital marketing streets!

*Bright Advisory Group, is a boutique marketing firm offering brand identity and strategy services, content marketing, business coaching and multicultural campaign consulting. Visit brightadvisorygroup.com today.