POSITIVES ASPECTS OF MARKETING GLOBALIZATION
When I ask the question “Will You Find Your Next Client — or Will They Find You?”, it is a direct
challenge to business owners to define an inbound marketing strategy, a combination search, social
media and content marketing, to attract a clearly defined audience who are ready to buy. Content
marketing is the foundation for a successful inbound strategy for without content there is nothing to
optimize and nothing to share on social sites.
10 Content Marketing Benefits
There are many content marketing benefits regardless of whether you are marketing to businesses
(B2B) or consumers (B2C). Content marketing:
Increases visibility of your brand
Develops lasting relationships with your audience
Improves brand awareness and recognition
Creates loyalty and trust, with both your current customers and prospects
Helps you to build authority and credibility
Positions your business as an expert in your industry
Generates traffic to your site to improve lead generation
Opens a channel of communication through social shares and comments
Helps your customer move through the purchase decision more quickly
Provides value with no strings attached
With all these benefits, it’s no wonder that according to Hubspot’s 2018 State of Inbound Marketing
report, 74% of marketers prioritized an inbound approach to marketing. In addition, companies are
nearly 4 times more likely to see higher ROI on inbound than outbound.
10 Content Marketing Challenges
With all these positive benefits, why is it so difficult for small business owners to successfully implement
content marketing? Inbound marketing is not a “set it and forget it” marketing activity. It is a process
that requires regular, consistent delivery of focused content to increase your visibility and demonstrate
your expertise.
The biggest challenges facing small businesses are:
Determining your goals for content marketing
Being able to focus on a narrow target audience and intimately understand their challenges
Having enough time and resources to produce the content your target is looking for
Developing a content plan that provides the road map for what content to produce and when
Writing content with focus and clarity
Not understanding what content to produce and in what format
Not knowing where to post your content to reach your ideal client
Producing quality content consistently that excites and informs your audience on a regular schedule
Measuring the effectiveness of the content you produce
Proving ROI of content marketing
10 Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
Intimately understand the audience you are trying to reach so your content marketing efforts are not a
waste of time.
Once you know your audience, focus on how your content can benefit them. Generate that content by
answering the questions your prospects and customers have. When someone starts the buying process,
they start with a search. Become the brand that answers their questions thoroughly so they have no
choice but to contact you.
Document your content marketing strategy. Marketers who document their strategy are 538% more
likely to report success than those who don’t.
Focus on quality content published regularly. Don’t believe you have to blog everyday to succeed with
content marketing. Most small businesses don’t have a marketing department that can create and
distribute content as often as some folks say you should. Strive for a rate that works for you and publish
useful content.
Be realistic in how much time you can spend on content marketing based on your resources. If you don’t
have the time, consider outsourcing to someone who can produce the content and distribute it for you.
Just be sure you oversee the process so what is being created aligns with your vision and beliefs.
Produce content that is timeless so that it continues to work for you long term. Publishing quality,
evergreen content will continue to drive traffic to your website over a longer period of time.
Re-purpose your content across different content types. A blog post can be turned into an infographic,
presentation, video or a podcast. These different media types can then be shared on different platforms
to increase your reach.
Be sure to put all of your valuable content on your website and share it to social media. You own and
control your website but rent space on social sites.
Build your email list so you can reach interested parties on your terms. Again you own your in-house
email list. Get people to subscribe to your list by offering some type of content that is very useful to
them. Once you have them signed up, you can then provide your content to them directly via email.
Have patience. Content marketing is a long term strategy that takes time for the results to be visible.
Share your knowledge and expertise
Every business can successfully market their products or services by offering content that educates and
provides a solution to your customer’s biggest challenges. When a prospective customer finds you
through the content you provide, they begin to form a connection with you built on trust.
When you share your knowledge and expertise freely with no strings attached, the giver’s gain
philosophy takes hold and you become the recipient of wealth:
From the satisfaction of helping someone with your knowledge and
Through new clients who truly appreciate what you have to offer.
Don’t wait to get started on this effective marketing strategy.
Now that you know the content marketing benefits and challenges, share your tips to make content
marketing more successful for small businesses. And if you have any content marketing questions or
questions inbound marketing in general, contact me to discuss your marketing needs
. What is positive marketing?
Many of us working in not-for-profit, social enterprise or socially-minded businesses accept marketing as
a “necessary evil”. We understand that people need help to find the right products or services to meet
their needs but we wish there was another way to do it!
Positive marketing is an alternative approach to marketing for those of us trying to achieve social good.
It incorporates social and sustainable considerations into the marketing processes, so your marketing is
not just a tool for promoting your good work but is simultaneously helping to deliver social impact.
The following 12 principles provide ‘food for thought’ to guide you in creating marketing solutions that
don’t require you to sell your soul. They are not rules and everyone will interpret them differently, put
them into practice differently and prioritise them differently. These principles are simply a road sign
pointing towards a path to a better way.
People principles
Does your marketing contribute to the wellbeing and sense of belonging of individuals?
1. Inclusion
Humans are incredibly social creatures with a strong need to fit in or belong. Marketing can promote
exclusivity to make a select few experience this feeling at the expense of others, or it has the option of
promoting a broad sense of belonging.
An important aspect of inclusion is accessibility — consider how your customer experience varies for
people with disabilities, literacy limitations or mobility restrictions.
2. Empowerment
When we provide people with transparent, honest and comparable information about our products and
services, we empower them to make informed decisions. Choices to distract with humour, sex or
manipulative messages disempower people.
We can also empower people by helping them to recognise their own strengths and positive traits so
that they are operating from their higher values, which include consideration for other people’s
wellbeing and not competition.
3. Respect
Respect for our customers shows when we ask their permission to talk to them about our products and
services, when we don’t dumb down our messages and when we listen to them. Great customer service
and honest answers to their questions are respectful.
Community principles
Does your marketing contribute to the wellbeing and cohesion of the community?
4. Diversity
Our marketing messages and images can reflect the broad diversity of the community, fostering an
understanding of a different cultures, appearances and aspirations. When we represent the full diversity
of the community, particularly when we show positive interactions between diverse community
members, we contribute to harmonious society and create a place where many different people feel a
sense of belonging.
5. Participation
How does your organisation participate in the community? How do you enable the community to
contribute to your work and your decisions. I like the concept of a “social licence to trade” — would
your local community grant you a licence to trade or be located in their community if they had a say in
it? Every community should have some degree of self-determination, allowing them to decide the type
of community they want to be. We have the chance to invite participation and allow the communities
we operate in to decide what role they’d like us to play.
6. Connectivity
Modern marketing has an amazing amount of potential to help people connect over common ideas.
Instead of pitching people against each other (as much modern marketing does, in an attempt to drive
consumption through feelings of competition and comparison with others), our marketing can actually
bring people together. Nurturing this capability and helping to create a sense of community and
connectivity builds social cohesion and contributes to more resilient communities.
Planet principles
Does your marketing contribute to the wellbeing of the natural environment and the planet?
7. Custodianship
Custodianship is the concept that every individual has a responsibility to contribute to the balance of
life.
Industrial and lifestyle choices have damaged and degraded the planet; we cannot simply “do no harm”
or reduce the harm we are doing. The coming years need us to be actively contributing to the planet’s
wellbeing, to heal some of the harm already done.
In considering “the balance of life” it is also important for us to recognise our responsibility to all of the
other creatures that share this planet with us. As such, custodianship also applies to taking responsibility
for the wellbeing of animals.
8. One system
We cannot make local decisions without global consideration. Our planet is a single, highly connected
ecosystem. We must always consider how our choices may affect people, animals and environments all
around the world — not just in our own backyard.
Versatility and adaptiveness need to be prioritised in our uncertain and fast moving world. Diverse
systems, with many different layers, connections and dimensions are more resilient than systems built
simply for efficiency. We need to consider resilience in the context of many of the efficiency-driven
choices made in pmodern times.
9. The circle
We are responsiblep for the things we produce at every point of their lifecycle, not just the point of
production and sale — we are responsible from the very original source of each ingredient that goes
into their making, until every last evidence of their existence is gone.
It is our responsibility that when we extract an ingredient from the earth, we leave the earth in a
manner that enables it to continue to produce such ingredients naturally and easily.
It is our responsibility how products are used, their longevity and how they are disposed of. This includes
decisions we make about offering or refusing repair services; providing instructions on repair, reuse or
safe recycling options; and the pricing of our spare parts and complementary products.
Impact principles
Does your marketing achieve results?
10. Service
P
Regardless of ñhow good your cause is or how popular your product is, I believe it is important to ask
whether or not you are being of service to people, the broader community and the environment we
inhabit.
Does your product or service, and the way you deliver it (including your marketing) really make people’s
lives better? Are you contributing to long-term well-being not simply taking advantage of short term
cravings or fads?
11. Social good
As demonstrated in earlier principles, marketing can go beyond the role of simply selling a good social
cause or solution and actually be part of the solution. Does your marketing provide a positive social
impact? Do the messages you use help to empower people and make them feel more connected and
compassionate in their communities? Do you provide a real product alternative that contributes
positively to the planet’s well-being?
12.Financial well-being
The world needs good businesses, services and products. It is important that your good business is
financially strong in order that it can continue to provide good services and products to the community,
providing an alternative to less conscious operators. Your marketing needs to help ensure your financial
well-being by effectively connecting your potential customers with your business and helping them to
see the value in what you do.
