By Jo van Vuuren — Fractional CMO
Content marketing means creating things (short guides, articles, videos, posts) that genuinely help the people who might one day buy from you, rather than adverts that simply ask them to buy right now. Done well, it is one of the few forms of marketing that keeps working for you long after you have published it, quietly building trust with people long before they are ready to spend money.
What is content marketing?
Imagine a plumber writing a short, honest answer to “why is my boiler banging at night”. Someone searching for that exact question finds it, reads it, and comes away trusting that this plumber knows what they are talking about. That is content marketing. Compare that to an advert that simply says “call us for boiler repairs”; it might work, but it has to interrupt someone and pay for the privilege every time.
A café sharing a recipe, a small charity explaining what a donation actually pays for, an accountant explaining what one line on a tax form means: all of these are content marketing. The thread running through all of them is that they are useful first, and about the business second.
What should you actually write about?
The best source of ideas is sitting in your inbox and on your phone already: the questions your customers ask you, again and again, before they buy or while you are working with them.
- Questions you are asked on the phone or by email, over and over
- Problems customers usually have before they come to you
- Mistakes people commonly make, and how to avoid them
- What to expect from working with you, step by step
- Honest comparisons: what one option gives you that another does not
Keep a running note of these questions as they come up. A handful of them, answered properly, is enough to start.
Does quality matter more than quantity?
Yes, and by a wide margin. A handful of genuinely useful pieces, written properly, will keep bringing people to your business for years. A flood of thin, rushed posts will mostly be forgotten, by search engines and readers alike. Both reward the same thing: something that actually answers the question someone typed in, in enough depth to be worth reading.
If you only have time to write one good piece a month, write one good piece a month. That will do more for you than four rushed ones.
How long before content marketing pays off?
Slowly, and that is worth knowing before you start, so you are not disappointed. Content marketing behaves more like planting than like an advert. A paid advert can bring a customer today. A useful guide might take weeks or months to be found, but once it is out there, it keeps working (being read, shared, and found in search results) long after you have stopped thinking about it.
Start with the three questions your customers ask most often, answer one of them properly on your website, and build from there. It will not change things overnight, but it compounds: each good piece adds a little more to what people can find when they look for you.
Common questions
Is content marketing the same as blogging?
Blogging is one form of it, but content marketing also includes guides, videos, social posts, and anything else genuinely useful that attracts and informs the people who might buy from you.
How often should a small business publish content?
Less often than you might think, if it means the difference between rushed and useful. One properly researched, genuinely helpful piece a month beats four thin ones squeezed in around everything else.
Do I need to be a great writer to do content marketing?
No. Plain, honest writing that answers a real question beats polished writing that says very little. You already know your customers’ questions better than any copywriter would.
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