Part of starting a new business is getting its name to potential customers through various marketing channels. Content marketing is one of those channels, and it’s an ideal way to raise awareness while building a business history and knowledge base that search engines pick up on. You’ll also achieve organic growth, become a resource for information and give your business an identity that customers get to know.

The following content marketing techniques are intended to help you grow your new business and give you a framework for a social media advertising strategy. Take your time with your efforts, but make sure to put up new content in a timely manner to please both search engines and social media algorithms. You’ll find that making steady efforts with your content marketing techniques is rewarded with audience growth and sales.

1. Target Your Audience

Part of starting a business is knowing who you’re selling to. That is, you’re selling a product to a specific demographic, as it’s rare to have a product that appeals to all people of all ages. It makes it easier to position your product, use language that appeals to the buyer and increases buyer satisfaction. The intended buyer for your product is made to feel like they’re buying something right for them and their lifestyle.

Keep in mind that you want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible to sell as much of your product as possible. That means appealing to an audience that may be interested in what you’re selling but is different from a final match. You should pay attention to marketing to the fringe audience; you also want to ensure your efforts count. Heavily targeting your core demographic needs to be your main focus, but it doesn’t hurt to add in audiences you might otherwise overlook.

2. Make a Podcast

Podcasts allow you to talk about your business, your offering and your hopes and dreams for your product. It gives you a platform to discuss how the product works while providing the listener with the information they’ll find valuable. You can keep your topics from what you’re selling, as you can explore issues related to the business, interview people who relate to the company in some way and discuss something that happens to be on your mind.

A good example of a business podcast is “Slack Variety Pack” by Slack. It’s a multi-topic podcast about what it’s like to work for Slack, how the teams work and more. The podcast is available on multiple podcasting platforms to maximize its reach.

Don’t be intimidated: Many podcasting sites allow you to record and edit your files with ease. You can use Audacity to record and edit your files with ease, use your phone for recording, or use the podcast website app on your phone. Making a podcast is easy, and you can do it at your own pace.

3. Build Content Silos on Your Blog

Content silos let you build out specific sections or categories on the blog portion of your website. Siloing your content makes your blog easier to read over the traditional date-stamped post layout. In other words, regardless of the topic, the latest blog is the first thing people read because it’s the latest content.

Check out Tailor Brands Blog to learn more about what content silos are and how to use them. The blog features different silos at the top of the page for quick navigation. The blogs are further sorted into separate silos underneath the top menu to easily find the latest post in that particular silo. Readers can find what they’re seeking with a mouse wheel scroll or peruse each section at their leisure. Creating content silos in a similar fashion to that of Tailor Brands Blog is an effective use of your and your reader’s time while driving user engagement.

4. Use Social Media

Social media is here to stay in one form or another, and you can’t overlook its reach when building your customer base. Ads are part of the user experience, as is the influencer. People are likely to click on an enticing ad as they scroll through their feed and are more inclined to check out a product their favorite influencer is talking about. Users also share posts with their friends on the platform and talk about your products with the ones who are not. They help expand your marketing efforts through word of mouth and other organic methods.

You can also tailor your marketing efforts to the social media platform you happen to be used for advertising. For example, if you’re marketing on Facebook, you can use the format to create a long-format ad that gives the viewer an image and text to read. In contrast, sites like Instagram are best with detailed photos and a small amount of text to grab a viewer’s attention.

Another advantage of knowing your audience is that social media platforms provide targeted advertising options. It makes aligning your advertising efforts with your targeted audience straightforward. You get to spend more time on other aspects of growing your business and less time wondering if your ads are reaching your intended audience.

5. Do Video Marketing

Video marketing is similar to podcasting, but it’s more scripted, and you’re using a script for your presentation. Making a video is also easy; you can film, edit and upload the completed file on a desktop computer or smartphone to YouTube or another video-sharing platform. You don’t need to be a great director or try to use the best production values to make a good video, but you do need to prepare yourself with the following items before filming.

• Camera(s) in the form of a smartphone, DSLR, or other portable cameras with image stabilization
  
• Tripod
  
• Script
  
• Lighting or well-lit area
  
• The clean setting for filming

Your video will center around the content contained in your script. The script helps you avoid making pause noises such as “uhms” and allows you straightforwardly deliver information. Creating a video ad, it’s an important tool in the marketing field; Grammarly’s video reached over 280 million views. 

If you need more confidence in your writing skills, use the Grammarly app to help you avoid repetition, create properly structured sentences and enable you to create engaging dialogue.

Over to You

The art of marketing to consumers has changed very little over the decades, but the methods with which it is accomplished have evolved. It used to be that marketing was done through the mail, newspapers and TV. The maturing of the internet has expanded how advertising is delivered to a targeted audience to raise awareness of a product or service.

Using these content marketing techniques helps you reach more people, turn them into customers and grow your business. Over time, you’ll find that content marketing becomes a valuable part of your marketing strategy and offers the opportunity to have some fun while selling your product.