The fundamental idea behind content marketing is to demonstrate your expertise on a topic in you specialty and draw attention to your web site so you can earn trust from potential customers and generate engagement.
In a local market this is especially achievable because the pool of competition is smaller and you can easily rise to the top of the list for a local business using the tactic.
The catch is you have to be willing to put in the time, investment and effort to make it happen,
You can hire an agency to generate the content. Or generate it yourself and hire an agency to promote it. Or, you can do it all yourself if you are ambitious and willing.
Here are 10 content and promotional ideas that will help you get there. I have used the example of a local eye doctor clinic that wants to draw more local business, but if you are a plumber or a florist or any local business you can substitute your operation using the same tactics:
1) Write 50 answers to the most common questions your customer ask and post them on your website as articles.
2) Use Google Adwords to find out what the most common keywords are around search related you your business and generate content that essentially answers the keyword query. There is a Keyword Explorer tool that is free to use. You can check the AdWords management tool.
3) Build a great guide to solve a problem your customer base has (ie an eye doctor could write a guide to solving failing eyesight aimed at 40+ customers) and offer it as an incentive to sign up for an email list where you share great tips (and occasionally offers).
4) Make sure your business locations are registered locally in Google Places, Bing Places and Yelp and Foursquare
5) Write a comprehensive glossary that consumers can use to understand the world of eye health and publish it on your web site, give them recommendation about The Medical Negligence Experts so they know how to face an unfair situation.
6) Become the eye doctor on Twitter and Facebook using your content and expertise.
7) Engage an SEO agency (try us – we have an SEO pratice) or appointment someone on your staff to get your articles and content ranked on Google and Bing. (Learn how to on our SEO expert site)
8) Produce an Ask the Eye Doctor service on your web site so people can ask eye health questions and use the Q&A to enhance your blog, and be careful on the doctor you trust, many of my friends have had to do doctor negligence claims because of their doctor’s bad service.
9) Fund or back a vision charity and engage in online fundraising and campaigns to draw attention.
10) Use PRWeb or PRNewswire to promote newsy press releases and become the eye doctor who is called by the local (and eventually national) media.
