Evidence that a content marketing strategy can boost performance in any industry

A recent case study suggests that the impact of carefully targeted content on business performance can be significant.  Getting the content marketing strategy correctly defined is the first key step to take.  And it’s not just for larger enterprises: small businesses can benefit too. 


Some small business owners feel that content marketing can’t be applied to their business.  They claim their industry is mundane or even “boring”.  Some have a tarnished public images.  Unless you’re a large enterprise that can afford a well-funded PR programme, the feeling amongst many smaller firms is that content marketing can be a waste of time.

However, the experience of Simply Business suggests that content marketing can deliver impressive results even in an industry like insurance, where products are largely commoditized and reputation has suffered somewhat following the financial crisis.

Lucjan Zaborowski revealed how he applied some key content marketing rules to increase web traffic to the Simply Business site by 25%, achieve outstanding SER, and improve the conversion rate too.  Whilst Simply Business may be more of a medium sized enterprise, this approach can work for smaller firms as well.

It’s all about marketing content

The first of Lucjan’s steps was the generation of new ideas that reflected the company’s mission.  For most small businesses, the concept of a mission statement was only ever considered when the original start-up business plan was created.  The term has probably been pushed aside in the fight to get new orders flowing and generally survive.  

The term “content marketing” could well go the same way; it’s something of a buzzword.  However, if you think of it as "...marketing your content..." (articles, brochures, case studies, blogs, etc.) it starts to have greater meaning.  What’s really important is that small firms truly get to understand how they can:

• Solve the problems experienced by their customers
• Differentiate themselves against competitors

With a clear awareness of these aspects, you, as a small business owner, will be able to formulate how you want to position your business in the market and document a few key messages to use in PR and other public facing communications.  Consider engaging an external marketing professional if you struggle to make progress in this area.

Developing a realistic content marketing strategy

Lucjan’s next step was to identify useful content. Simply Business applied three criteria to ensure the content marketing strategy they created was right for their audience.  The criteria encompassed:

• Applicability – is the content relevant to the needs of the audience
• Usefulness – in addition to relevance, is the content something practical that the audience can use?
• Consistency - ensuring content adheres to consistent messaging and tone of voice

This comes back to understanding your audience.  What are your customer pain points?  How do they go about looking for solutions to problems? It’s really important to understand what information they are looking for at each stage of the buying cycle.  It’s not as difficult as it sounds as this article highlights.  One of the first things to do is identify the different stages of the buying cycle as they apply to your industry.  A typical example could look like this:

In a nutshell, you need to categorise your audience by job description and build a profile of what information they are looking for at each stage of the buying process. Some call this building a "Persona".

The next step is to review your existing content against the information needs of each audience profile group or persona.  Be brutally honest about how well your existing materials support the information needs of each group.  Getting external input here is highly recommended, ideally some of your customers.  The challenge is to identify gaps in the information you are making available. What content hits the sweet-spot? What needs to be tweaked? What new material needs to be created from scratch?

Find a good content writer and track your performance

Simply Business achieved some impressive results after applying this approach to content marketing.  Web traffic increased by 25% and they reached front page SER.  Conversions increased by 6% too.  That’s the final point Lucjan mentions; tracking performance.

Not only do you need to see what's working and what's not, but you also need to know when trends are changing.  The thing to remember is that search terms and buyer behaviour are never static.  

Some content will “tire” and require refreshing.  That's why it’s always worth testing different versions of content regularly.  You need to be sure your “control” is the best at driving traffic to your site and the most effective at converting enquiries into orders.  The "control" will under perform at some stage and you need to know when.

Consider using an external content writer / copywriter to help you with your content creation and testing programme.  A different pair of eyes can lead to a step change in performance by trying a new approach to the same subject.  It’s a way of breaking out of the “groupthink” that's inherent in any team or organisation established for any length of time.

Finally, the thing to remember is that Lucjan applied this process to an insurance company. This is an industry considered to have a fixed set of mundane products as well as a somewhat tarnished public reputation.  His case study implies that a well-structured content marketing strategy can be successfully applied to any industry, no matter how mundane it may first appear.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::

Freelance marketing copywriting for small and medium sized businesses