Why creating unique content for small businesses is so important

We’re going to let you in on a little secret.

Ready?

Your customer doesn’t want to be blatantly sold to.

They don’t want buy me NOW crammed down their throat.

They want to get to know who you are, what you do, and see how you can help them before parting with their money. They want to discover how your product, services, or expertise can improve their lives. Building up their trust in you, before committing to being a paying customer.

And this is where content creation and blog writing come in. 

Small business content writing is all about making a connection with your audience. By making your business a credible and knowledgeable resource on topics that your customer is searching for, you’re more likely to get discovered by them – and keep them.

But creating a winning content marketing strategy and dedicating time to researching and content writing takes a lot of time, effort, understanding, and expertise. And, as a small business owner, this just might not be feasible for you to take on alone. 

In this article, we’re going to talk through why small business content writing is so important, and why outsourcing to a content agency might be the answer to your prayers. 

Small business content writing is a must

OK, we hear you.

You’re probably thinking, well, I’ve already created my website and I sometimes send out emails and post on my social media, isn’t that enough to get seen?

Well. No.

Those things are important, but regular content writing is where the real magic happens.

And, yes. It is a lot of extra work, but the benefits of a solid content marketing strategy far outweigh the work involved – especially if you outsource your content to a reputable content agency.

That’s because content marketing is a crucial tool for reaching potential customers and getting Google to notice you. And, as a small business, you might be working with a smaller budget, which means things like paid ads might not be doable. Content such as blog writing can maximise your ROI and help you stand out in a competitive market.

Unlike conventional old-school marketing and advertising (you know, the kind of stuff that forces itself on an audience like an annoying door-to-door salesman), content marketing is based on choice. Your content is created to engage, help and serve your audience by answering questions, providing value, and being genuinely useful.

And quality blog posts are one of the best ways to achieve this.

Why content writing is essential for your small business

Let’s have a look at some of the most important factors you should include when you’re planning out your content.

Customer research

Before you start working on your blogs, you need to know who you’re writing for.

Because it doesn’t matter how amazing your content is, if it doesn’t appeal to your ideal audience’s wants and needs then they just won’t be interested, and your content will remain in the dark, lonely crevices of the search engines.

Your content needs to connect deeply and profoundly. It needs to answer those questions they have niggling away, providing them with the help or entertainment they need. And in order to do that, you need to do some deep diving customer research.

Creating a kind of customer avatar – your dream client.

You can email surveys and questionnaires to existing clients, or even create a fun Q&A on your social media to see what makes them tick. There are also plenty of places you can go online to get some valuable insights and give your content an edge. Yes, it takes time, but once you nail it, it will serve your content for years to come.

• • Amazon reviews – find a product on Amazon that’s in the same niche as your business and read through the reviews. They will tell you what the customer loved and didn’t love about it helping you write content that addresses those things specifically

• • Online forums – think places like Google Answers, Quora, Reddit, Facebook groups, etc, where you have online communities discussing your particular topic. They can be an absolute goldmine

• • YouTube comments – find videos aimed at your community and read the comment section. They can tell you exactly what your community wants

• • Answer the Public – a great (free) online tool that gives you every useful phrase and question people are typing into Google about a certain topic

• • Google Trends – similar to Answer the Public where you type in a search term and it spits out data about how it has trended over time, letting you know how relevant or popular it is

Spend time researching your ideal customer, and pretty soon you’ll have all the insights you need to write blogs that will make them purr. 

Relevant keywords

You’ve heard about SEO, you might even know a thing or two about it, but do you understand enough to make your content optimised for your customers and Google?

Writing the best content for your audience is all about understanding what they need. Now you have spent time researching who your ideal client is and what makes them tick, you need to know what they’re searching for on Google, so you can create compelling, engaging, and valuable content that they’ll love.

Keywords are one of the best ways to do this. Keyword research, based on what you know about your audience, will help you nail down the words, phrases, and questions, allowing you to create a content marketing strategy focused on what they need. 

You can use free, freemium, or paid keyword research tools, or even just good old Google to find your keywords. Make a list, as long as you want, and use that list to start generating blog titles and other content ideas. 

A great headline

Your headline is the first – and maybe even the only – impression you’ll make on a prospective reader. Without it, the rest of your content may as well not even exist.

A great headline should catch their attention, communicate a message, create intrigue, and make a promise of a benefit to the reader. 

Never underestimate how important your headline is.

Legendary copywriter Gene Schwartz often spent an entire week on just the headline and opening paragraph of his sales letters. Why? Because persuasive writing takes time. The better your headline is, the better the chances are of getting your content read.

As a rule, headlines should:

• • Be USEFUL to the reader

• • Provide a sense of URGENCY

• • Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE

• • Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way

And when you write your headline, make sure that your content delivers on the promise it makes. If your headline is How to Write Like a Professional Copywriter in Under a Week, make sure that is what you’re giving your audience.

Making promises in your headline and underdelivering in your content (hello clickbait) will cause your reader to lose trust in you…and before you know it, they’ll never bother to read anything you write again. Let alone buy from you.

Structuring your unique content

With blog writing, nothing can turn a person off quicker than being faced with a long page of chunky text, huge paragraphs, and massive sentences.

Your reader will see all that and think nope, that looks like way too much hard work to read. I’ll read something else.

We’re naturally skim readers. Our brains don’t process huge chunks of text well. Our eyes need breaks.

Even what we did just there.

Short sentences. Small paragraphs. It makes this post so much easier to read, right?

Structure your content using headlines and subheads, make sentences bold and italicised when applicable. And don’t forget the power of breaking your text up using lists. Bullet point and number lists help format your content, creating nice, bite-sized pieces of information that can provide a real benefit for the reader.

And when you format your content like this, your reader will like it, and so will Google. The Google bots find SEO-formatted copy like this easy to scan and index, helping it decide where to place you in the search engines. 

Blog writing can boost your business in no time

Content marketing, such as blog writing, is a great way to organically reach potential customers, making it a vital part of your marketing and business strategy.

Providing value to your ideal audience is a winning way to grow your audience and increase overall sales.

If you want to get a jump on creating unique content for your business, but you don’t have the time or know-how to make it work, then you don’t have to be at a disadvantage. Our team of professional and highly-experienced content writers is on hand to help. Get in touch and let’s talk about how one of our content packages can help turn your content confusion into content clarity.