What is the cost of content marketing? What kind of options are there for content marketing? What is content marketing and why should my small business in Nashville, TN care about it???
What is Content Marketing
If you’re asking yourself any of these questions, we’re here to (hopefully) shed a little light. First, here’s a definition of content marketing according to Wikipedia:
Content marketing is any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers.
That’s a pretty good definition in my humble estimation. However, the more interesting part of their definition comes in the next paragraph:
Content marketing is focused not on selling, but on simply communicating with customers and prospects. The idea is to inspire business and loyalty from buyers by delivering “consistent, ongoing valuable information”.
Problems for Content Marketers
That’s a truly powerful idea — providing great information that engenders trust and inspires customer action. If you stop and think on this element of content marketing, you will quickly understand the problems many companies have in this new marketing world.
- How can my company produce engaging content?
- How can my company produce enough content?
It’s no secret that being consistent in your content marketing efforts will help lead you to better results, but many of the business owners we talk to simply don’t have time to create custom content on a regular basis. Yet, many businesses see the value in this new world of marketing and are trying their best to handle their content needs either in-house or with a combination of in-house and outsourced work. The trends that we see in Franklin and Nashville are confirmed in a very nice infographic created by Marketo from their national research (see below).
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Cost
You will see below the amount budget being spent on content marketing by different sized businesses. I am surprised to see that businesses with less than 10 employees are spending over $56,000 per year and 34% of their budget on it. However, when you figure the cost of in-house labor, outsourced help and additional broadcasting tools, maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise to me after all.
Options
When it comes to content marketing options, there’s no shortage of choice at this buffet. It’s not surprising at all to see that most businesses are now taking advantage of social media for marketing (as they should be) and using Twitter and Facebook in a big way. If you’re wondering what other options exist for you beyond social media, blogs, and newsletters, look at all the icons in the 2nd section below.
Why Should a Small Business in Franklin or Nashville Care?
Finally, why should your company in Franklin or Nashville, TN care about content marketing? Because small businesses are taking advantage of social media, blogs, email and other content strategies in ways that big companies can’t. Because it helps SEO, and what good is your website if you don’t have an SEO plan to drive traffic to it? Because your customers and their friends are already being marketed to by other local businesses, and the businesses who do a good job of it are way ahead of the game. They already have trust and now are just finding ways to inspire action. Content marketing showcases your unique story and voice, and that’s where small businesses shine. So let your light shine, and call us if you need any help along the way. At cSocially Media, we want to help you be seen.
