Why content marketing for small businesses + startups is crucial: Busting negative myths

If you’re a marketer at a small business or startup, no one needs to tell you that you face unique challenges compared to larger, more established businesses. Breaking into the industry, launching your own category, working with a smaller budget, and building a marketing strategy from scratch are just some examples of considerations that can make your job difficult (but a little more fun, too!)?

As you’re allocating budgets and time, hard decisions need to happen. It all comes down to the activities that are going to help your company grow, since that’s almost entirely what small businesses and startups hinge on.?

When decisions are being made, you may wonder if content marketing should be on that list. For a variety of reasons (which we’ll get into), this is a contentious conversation for most marketers. Some say that content marketing for small businesses or startups is a risky investment. Others may say it’s one of the most reliable ways to create scalable growth.

I, for the record, am in that second camp.

Why are some marketers so hesitant to invest in content marketing?

In the last several years, some marketers have basically made a hobby of trashing content marketing programs. A MarketingWeek article from 2016 was probably one of the first to throw stones at the discipline, controversially questioning whether it was a “load of bollocks.” The comment section of this rant, by the way, was littered with passionate opinions on both sides.?

Topping the list of some of the biggest arguments against?content marketing are:

• “My product/industry isn’t exciting enough to create good content.”
• “I’m just starting out; it’s almost impossible to compete with the giants in my industry.”
• “Content marketing doesn’t actually lead to results” or “We have a sales-oriented marketing strategy, so that doesn’t fit” - these arguments are really one in the same.

I’m a fan of always looking at both sides in an argument; it wouldn’t be fair for me to simply say that content marketing is great for small businesses and totally ignore the criticisms.?

So I will dignify each of these arguments with some consideration. And in the process, I’ll show you why they’re either misguided or tainted by the reputation cast on content marketing by unstrategic strategy.?

So let’s make the case for content marketing - and more specifically content marketing for small businesses - and bust some popular myths along the way.

Busting common content marketing myths

Myth #1: You have a “boring” product, so content marketing won’t work for you

Is it easier to pump out engaging content if you work in a more “fun” industry like social media, creative software, hospitality, etc.? Sure, it is. But does that mean that if you’re in a more ~niche~ space like plumbing equipment, hygiene products or HR software, you shouldn’t even try??

Absolutely not - countless “boring” companies do it all the time. And do it well.

Almost always, success hinges on being as helpful and specific as possible. As Hubspot pointed out, helpful ≠ boring. This content only appears boring to people that it’s not meant for. And at the end of the day, the opinions of this audience genuinely doesn’t matter, does it??

The goal is not virality. That’s just not necessary or possible for most businesses out there.?

Instead, the goal should be a laser focus on the exact people that can benefit greatly from your product or service. Put yourself in their shoes and provide content they feel like was created just for them, because it was.?

A lot of this opportunity can be revealed by compiling common questions that your team gets from current or prospective customers.?

No matter what industry your dream customers are in, they’re going to have strong pain points; the goal with your content marketing strategy should be to provide content that gives them the knowledge to make these pains feel a little (or a lot) less acute.

Myth #2: It’s impossible to compete against the giants in your industry

There’s a difference between difficult and impossible. And this specific scenario is the former. The truth is that even though established hard hitters in your space will put a bigger barrier in your way, it’s not even unlikely that you can carve out your own lane in the content marketing race.?

If the bigger companies had all of the same value to offer as you, just with a lot more cash to back it up, then your small business or startup wouldn’t exist. Every business has some kind of unique value proposition, no matter how small or niche it is. Use whatever this super power is to establish and dominate your own niche in the industry.

I know, this sounds easier said than done. But thanks to the power of SEO, you can use your USP (unique selling point) to get scientific about beating the competition.

If you base your SEO strategy on the exact, unique value that your startup has to offer, you can hit very specific keywords that may not even be on your big, scary competitor’s radar.?

According to BrightEdge, 68% of online experiences begin on a search engine like Google. That means that even if the keywords you decide to target may have a lower overall search volume, you have a better opportunity to get in front of your audience at the moment that they’re actively seeking out problems that your company has a unique perspective on.?

More on this later.

Myth #3: Content marketing doesn’t lead to results/doesn’t fit into a sales-oriented marketing strategy

This line of thought is so clearly the result of loud, but badly executed content marketing campaigns that put the reputation of the whole discipline in jeopardy.

A study by Beckon revealed a disheartening statistic: although the amount of content being created has tripled in the past year, engagement has not gone up in tandem. In fact, only about 5% of content produced in this study generated 90% of consumer engagement.

I’ll admit, this is a little worrying. However, given the “everything is content” mentality that many teams have, leading to a “let’s throw spaghetti at the wall and hope it sticks” approach, it’s not necessarily shocking.?

Even Neil Patel, perhaps one of the biggest proponents of content marketing, acknowledges that most companies “fail miserably” at content marketing. So overarching studies like this, not controlling for what preparation went into these content strategies, make it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions.?

Instead, let’s look at some stats on what’s possible when content marketing is executed in a strategic, laser-targeted fashion.

Demand Metric found that content marketing generates more than 3X as many leads as outbound marketing, and it costs 62% less on average.?

Hubspot found that 46% of marketers attributed higher ROI to inbound/content marketing, while only 12% said that outbound leads to more ROI.

In the same report, 59% of marketers said that the quality of inbound leads were higher than outbound; only 16% said the opposite.

Need more proof of the benefits of content marketing?

Let’s look at a competition that was literally created to judge content marketing campaigns on their effectiveness, the International Content Marketing Awards. In the hundreds of agencies that compete, almost all investigated campaigns “demonstrated extraordinary ROI and … have driven real change,” according to CMA Managing Director Clare Hill.?

Clare highlights MediaCom and Time Inc’s project for The British Army that led to very real results: an increase in female applicants from 9% to 23%.?

Data-driven content marketing is both profitable and sales-oriented

The key here is to make sure your strategy is actually strategic. Effective and creative content marketing is more than creating content for the sake of creating content. It’s data-driven and guided by a deep understanding of who your customers are and what they need. You deliver the exact content they need at the exact time they need it.

This is not necessarily the route teams who want to grow fast fast fast typically pursue. Because instant gratification isn’t necessarily common with content marketing. But like with many things in business and in life, playing the long game is usually the better, more sustainable route.?

Great content marketing builds long-term relationships that push you top of mind for your dream customers. It’s proven that when someone hears something as part of a story, their brain is 30% more likely to remember it. That’s what content marketing ultimately comes down to: telling your brand story to build memorability and loyalty.

But specifically, why is content marketing for small businesses the right move??

That was a long-winded couple of pages to prove to you that, yes, content marketing is totally worth it and can seriously impact the bottom line of business in any industry.

But as a leader at a startup, you may still be thinking: yeah, I agree. But we just have such limited time and budget. I think we should stay over here with more proven, traditional strategies.?

And I get it. But let me make the ultimate argument for content marketing for small businesses: it can be a zero budget strategy.

With the average SMB paying $2,500-$12,000 every month on paid advertising, according to WebFX, it’s unreasonable for small businesses to rely on these channels alone. Add to that the fact that newer businesses have less time invested into building a good quality score, one of the major indicators of PPC cost, and this “safe” route starts looking a little less safe and a lot more expensive.

Adding in an inbound content strategy can help your dream customers come to you.?

And this doesn’t have to - and probably shouldn’t - be an all-or-nothing thing. When just starting out, it’s wise to dabble in a little of everything to see where your sweet spot is.?

But content marketing is one of the best long-term strategies to get discovered on Google, build long-lasting relationships that increase customer retention, and get hot leads that come to you. So leaving it out of your marketing strategy would be unwise.??

Not to mention, you’re at the beginning of your growth journey. So it’s the perfect opportunity to establish a strong foundation and build a reputation of being helpful and reliable to your target audience.

To read full article with tips on how small businesses and startups can get started with content marketing, head to the HML Content Blog.

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