Content marketing ideas are sometimes difficult to create because we are so distracted by day-to-day business activity. Yet, we acknowledge the importance of content in our web strategy; content is king, right! Particularly with Google’s recent SEO update (Hummingbird) has an even greater focus on content . In a very small nutshell, Hummingbird is all about Google being able to catch users’ actual search intent and find the content that matches this intent the best.
Writing content isn’t easy for many people. Content marketing ideas are a common question that I deal with as it pertains to building a web strategy for small business owners. So, I thought, I’d share some of my insight on how to plan and create content marketing ideas for your small business website strategy. Remember, write content for the audience first, SEO second. This is what Hummingbird is all about.
Content Marketing Ideas for Small Business
Current Events
Are there any related news items or current events that you could relate to or integrate into your products or services? For instance, the Federal Government is working on a trade agreement with the European Union, can you talk about this “news” in any way that relates to what your company does? Perhaps you can explain to your customers how this might impact them or the industry.
Ask
Talk to your customers. What better or relevant content ideas for your website than to find out what your customers want to know about. Of course, there is a risk: you might not want to hear what they are saying but it will certainly prove to be valuable. You can do it advertently (surveys) or inadvertently through casual conversation. Conversation, in fact, is much better because through dialogue you’ll reveal more than a closed ended survey.
Youtube
Youtube is a great source for content marketing ideas. Use search terms that relate to your business and see what sort of videos come up. Watch them and let the visual component of this medium stimulate ideas rather than just reading words and articles. Also, perhaps there are some fun videos that are not related at all to your business but if you can find a way to relate a funny (or even viral video) to your business and draw some metaphor to illustrate a point, that will be golden. Besides, now you can justify spending all that time on Youtube!
Collaborate
People certainly love to give opinions; I’m sure you do too! Content marketing ideas are everywhere on sites like Linked IN or Quora. Post a question in a Linked IN Group you are a part of and see what type of responses you get. This doesn’t require you to spend hours on social media but you will certainly get ideas on what others in the industry are thinking regarding your question or idea.
Content marketing ideas are hard to come by because business owners and marketers are often focused on other tasks. For your web strategy to be successful, it starts with content.