Developing and publishing content is how marketers interact with their audience. There are several different types of content: written, video, image-based, audio, and educational.

Within those large categories of content there are subtypes: blogs, case studies, gifs, live videos, behind the scenes videos, interviews, podcasts, and many more which i do not have the space to list.

With so many ways to engage your target audience, it is difficult (and a bit intimidating) to know exactly what types of marketing content you should focus your efforts on.

Because you are limited in the amount of time, effort, and money you can devote to creating marketing content, you must be wise in how you allocate your resources.

To do this, I suggest asking yourself the following question: “What am I trying to accomplish with this piece of content?”.

Every piece of content you publish should accomplish one of four objectives. In this blog I will detail what those objectives are and how they will get you closer to meeting your marketing and organizational goals.

Create Awareness

Broadly speaking, the objective of marketing your business is to let those outside your organization know how you are uniquely qualified to address their pain points. Creating awareness of your brand and the services or products you offer should be your primary objective. ?

So whether you are looking for potential customers who have no prior knowledge of your business or if you want to let current or previous customers know of an upcoming sale or event, one objective is simply to get the word out about who you are and what you do.

Educate, Entertain, or Engage

Let’s say you have a sizable following on social media, get a good amount of traffic to your blog, and have several hundred email addresses on your email list. The next step is to provide value to your followers by educating, entertaining, and encourage them to engage with your content.

Creating content such as blogs, video tutorials, interviews with interesting guests, or webinars gives your audience a place to look when they have questions regarding your industry. This is your opportunity to be the leader they are looking for. It is also an opportunity to get them engaged by asking for feedback or getting them involved in someway.

Conversion

This is where the rubber meets the road. Followers are great and being able to engage them is fantastic. However those alone will not keep your business going.

No matter your marketing goals, you should always provide a path for conversion. This means creating a form or webpage for them to sign up for your newsletter, purchase a product or service, or reserve their spot for an event. Whatever you are selling, give yourself a better chance of a conversion by creating content designed to convert.

Retarget and Re-engage

Never forget that your best customers are the ones you already have. It is always easier, and cheaper, to retain current customers than it is to earn new ones.

This means you should be using your various marketing channels to retarget and re-engage those who have already signed or made a purchase. They have shown an interest before, so it stands to reason they will be interested in your other offerings.

As a small business owner, your challenge when it comes to marketing is to make the most of the little you are able to devout to promoting your business. The above objectives will ensure that each piece of marketing content you publish will have a purpose, which means you will have a greater likelihood of being successful when developing and publishing content.