Setting Content Marketing Goals for Your Small Business

Planning is the key to setting successful content marketing goals for your small business. Stringing together some articles randomly is not going to make the cut and will not help your marketing endeavors.

Develop a marketing strategy
Before you even begin creating content, have a clear idea of your business goals. This is what drives a successful marketing strategy. A good strategy shapes a consistent approach to content creation that keeps your audience engaged and returning to your site for more. This sets you apart as an authority in your field which translates to trust and culminates in transaction.

Concept of Marketing Funnel
It is vital to understand the market‌ing funnel concept. This helps refine your content marketing strategy further.
At its core, a marketing funnel has 3 stages. Consider the funnel below.

Image Source: www.shopify.com/partners/blog/content-marketing-funnel

1. Top of the Funnel (TOFU)
At this stage, the audience may or may not even be aware of the problem they face. They are strangers to your brand and don’t know if you can solve their problem. They are looking for information coupled with research data and tips that alleviates their problem in one way or the other.

When your content addresses their problem and offers to provide a solution, you have attracted the prospects into your fold. Getting as many as you can is the first rung in the ladder of success.

2. Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)
Now that you have a bunch of prospects, they are not going to remain idle. In the hyper information conscious world we live in, they are going to research on alternatives to your product/service to see if they can find something that fits the bill. When your content answers their questions clearly and how it is better than alternatives in the market, these prospects engage with your offering and end up becoming leads.

3. Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
At this stage, the leads that have evaluated your offering are in a purchasing frame of mind. They will still hunt for a good deal. If you can make an unbeatable offer, you can convert these leads into paying customers. The content at this stage should incentivize your leads to make a purchase through discounts, bonuses, clearly explained post purchase benefits, guarantee etc.

Content Marketing takes time
Remember that not all prospects/leads will end up as customers. It is your content’s job to attract as many prospects as possible to help you achieve a higher conversion rate.

Just as standing at the base of a set of stairs and hoping to get to the top in one step is foolhardy, well nigh impossible, the same goes for prospects who take time to acclimate with the voice of your content and its effectiveness in solving their problem. Your content should successfully move them from one stage to the next till they become paying customers.

What is your end game?
You cannot emphasize enough on the goals your business wants to achieve. Every small business has its own upsides and downsides. Your content should focus on your strengths and accentuate it in every possible way.

Some of your business goals can be:

• Do you want to increase business leads?
• Do you want increased site traffic?
• Do you want to sell your own product/service or just market affiliate product/services for a commission?
• Do you want to increase your conversion rate from leads to paying customers? (to use it to sell your business)
• Do you want to build brand awareness and become an authority to dominate your field in the long run?

Aligning your content marketing strategy to achieve your business goals is the secret to success.

You can do this yourself. As a business owner, you have enough on your plate running the business on a daily basis, leaving you without much time.

Here at Traffic Alignment, content marketing is something we do really well. Just creating content is not enough. It is important to market your content. A nominal monthly advertising fee is added to the mix. We do this at a fixed monthly cost. Check out our content marketing services for small businesses and drop us a line.