Field of Dreams is my all time favorite sports movie (with Bull Durham being a close second). It is an amazing story, and includes one of the most recognizable lines from any move “If you build it, he will come.” Basically, if Ray builds this field in his yard, the magic baseball ghosts will let him have a catch with his dad, and somehow redeem the 1919 Chicago Black Sox from scandal. We can use this example to digest the basics of small business content marketing.
The premise is interesting, if you put in the work magical things happen.
This is the same premise that countless businesses rely on. If you have a great idea and put in the work, you will be successful. In fact, this is unfortunately a half truth.
The harsh reality is that no one really cares about your business unless you give them a reason to care. Why would someone go to your restaurant? Why would someone buy insurance from you? Why would someone order from your online store? There are tons of options out there, but why would they choose you?
While that may be a hard reality for many to swallow, there is a key to solving this problem. You need to connect with your audience in a meaningful way and provide them with more value than your competition. Value doesn’t mean enhanced features, more R&D, or even lower prices.
Value simply means you are able to help your audience solve problems.
But, I already help my audience solve problems you might say. I offer a better product at great prices. While this may be true, you have to be able to tell your audience about how you are solving their problems.
Let’s take an example: a carpet cleaning service. The carpet cleaning service in our example has a website with basic service and pricing information, a local google page, and maybe even social media. This is a great start, but is it really helping the audience to solve the problem of maintaining the cleanliness and durability of their carpet? Maybe not so much.
By creating a help and resources section on their website, the carpet cleaning service could provide videos and guides on how to remove common carpet stains, when to have your carpet professionally cleaned, how to protect against future stains, and so forth. This is called content marketing, and it has the potential to drive organic traffic to your site.
There are a few keys to effective problem solving thought content marketing:
- Know your target audience
- Know what real problems they face
- Know where they turn to solve their problems (social, websites, videos, etc)
- Create great content that helps them clearly solve their problems (without being too sales focused)
By helping to solve real problems, you build trust and create content that others will want to share. In our example, you probably would not see too many people share your services or pricing pages. But, you will see people share your “How to remove a dog stain” video page on social media. This in turn drives new people to your site without ranking high on search terms.
