The idea of writing an article or press release once a week is overwhelming for many cleaning business owners; using a content marketing plan and some simple tools can help you keep it going.
By now you’re probably tired of hearing that phrase “Content is King.” But I’m here to tell you that content marketing is here to stay. And for those of you who have been avoiding it altogether, it’s time to pay attention and start considering the benefits. That is, if you don’t want your online presence to fall into oblivion.
Why Is Content Marketing So Important?
Here is the reality – 57% of a typical purchase decision is made before a customer even talks to a supplier. That means people are going online to get answers to their problems and to research the companies they want to do business with. And if you are not producing content on a regular basis that addresses their questions and frustrations, then your prospects are most likely finding the answers they seek from your competitors who are.
And if that’s not enough to convince you, how about these recent statistics:
- Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.
- 50% of consumer time online is spent engaging with custom content.
But I Don’t Have The Time To Produce Content!
There are 3 main challenges that face all business owners when it comes to creating content.
- It takes too much time.
- They don’t know what to write about.
- It’s hard to produce engaging content.
The good news is that you are not alone! Producing content is a challenge for every business. And if you visit all your competitors’ websites today, I would venture to guess that only one or two have a blog; and most of them are probably not active. That means you have a huge opportunity to start creating content that answers the questions your prospects are asking.
What Type Of Content Should I Create?
First, keep in mind that the search engines tend to favor websites that produce fresh content. And blogging is a simple way to do that. We’ll get to that in a moment, but I want to address some of the other kinds of content you should create.
- Testimonials – keep a steady stream of testimonials posted to your website. Use a service like MoreReviewsNow.com to ask clients for feedback that is posted automatically to your site.
- FAQ’s to answer all those frequently asked questions.
Images and Videos – yes, these are both content that can help convert prospects. - Publicity – if you’re a Cleaning for a Reason Partner who has received publicity for your benevolence, you should add news releases, articles or videos to your website.
- Other types of content such as company news and community events can be either posted to a web page or shared on your blog.
I Need A Blog – How Do I Get Started?
The biggest challenge bloggers face is what to write about and how to keep generating ideas. Here are a few tips I use to generate ideas for blog topics.
Keyword research. Use the Google AdWords Tool to generate keyword lists for topic ideas. Ubersuggest.org is another tool I use. Simply enter a keyword phrase like “cleaning tips” and see how many ideas it generates.- Email swipe file. I receive a lot of emails, and many of them contain interesting articles. If I feel an article topic would make a good topic for my audience, I move it to an “article ideas” folder to use for inspiration when I need it.
- LinkedIn groups. Many cleaning business owners belong to discussion groups, where they talk about things like how to deal with certain issues that come up with customers. Many of these topics would make for good educational content for your blog.
My final tip is to create an editorial calendar for your blog, just like the magazines do. Each month will have a theme, which gives you direction for what to write about next. I will go into more detail on how to do this and also how to create a content calendar you’ll actually use during my presentation at the 2015 ARCSI Convention on Thursday, October 22nd at 11:15 am.
Jean Hanson, Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant, has been blogging since 2005 and helps cleaning business owners cut through the confusion of blogging and social media at her site, MarketingSystemsByDesign.com.
