[Build Backlinks Online] Why Local Businesses Don't Need Big Budgets for Their Content Marketing

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Why Local Businesses Don't Need
Big Budgets for Their Content Marketing'


Posted by MatthewBarby
This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it
provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are
entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.

Time and again we hear the same old argument that we shouldn't be building
links, but that we should be focusing on developing exciting and unique content
that encourages organic linking all by itself. I completely agree with this
statement, but I see businesses misinterpret this far too often.


If you run a local business and have a relatively small budget for your online
marketing, is spending that money on a flashy infographic going to be the best
use of your resources? More often than not, it isn't.

Big brands vs. local businesses

The marketing goals for local business and multinational brands are often
quite similar in basic principleâthey want to establish their brand name
as a leader within their field and the geographic areas that they serve. The big
difference here is that a local business is looking for large levels of brand
exposure to their customers on a micro-level (i.e. they want to reach their
customers within the local area that they serve). Major brands also want maximum
brand exposure to their customers but on a macro levelâthey want to be
recognised the world over, and to do this they need to spend big on reaching
everyone.


This is where the content of these two types of businesses becomes different.

Content is EVERYTHING

When we think of "content," we typically think of articles, webpage text, and
imagery. This is one of the greatest reasons for failure within content
marketing campaigns. Having a very linear and restricted view of what content is
will only restrict and inhibit results.


Content is the staff within your business.
Content is the design of your shop/office.

Content is your products and services.

Content is the menus on your tables.

Content is your company values.

Content is your customers.

Content is EVERYTHING.






Let me elaborate a little on the points I've made above. Let's take the
example of a local coffee shop (you can take a look at the discussion I had on
inbound.org about this as well).

Turning your staff into content

Most local businesses are heavily focused around delivering a high level of
customer service to gain positive feedback for their business. Herein lies an
amazing opportunity for content that will boost the awareness and reach of your
brand.




Within a coffee shop business, the staff are just as important as the
food/drink itself. In some cases they are more important. If you have built in
strong customer service that sets you apart from your competitors then, believe
it or not, people will talk about you. Considering the work that goes into
building local citations and reviews for SEO, utilising your staff to encourage
these makes sense.

Getting creative with your staff



source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hootersgirls/7735589086/in/set-72157630960120760





For years, major international brands have been looking at ways to
differentiate themselves from their competitors. Just look at the likes of
Hooters; everyone knows about them because of their staff and the outfits that
they wear. One simple thing that has got them where they are today, and that has
become one of the most iconic pieces of content within the restaurant industry
is the Hooters uniform.


I'm not saying that you should start making all your staff wear hot-pants and
revealing topsâas fun as that might sound, but what I'm saying is that you
can give your staff a unique edge that makes them a piece of creative content.
For example, I visited a coffee shop a few weeks back and some of the staff had
aprons on with a big QR code on the front that said "zap me for a 10% discount."
When you scanned the QR code you had to like their Facebook page and the member
of staff would give you a discount there and then... awesome!

Turning your shop/office into content

Like with your staff, your business premises can become an awesome content
example. With the example of a local coffee shop, it's easy to get creative on a
small budget to gain attentionâcreate a unique style and do something
different. Also, make it easier to tie in your offline presence with your online
presence. For example, you could have your Twitter handle stenciled onto the
wall. If you want to get really creative then you could have a chalkboard where
you write out your recent tweets as they happen in chalkâthis would
certainly engage your customers within the shop and I can guarantee it would get
people talking about you.




Design your space to be unique and it could become one of the best evergreen
content assets that your business could have. The above photo is one that I took
whilst visiting the Shakespeare and Company vintage bookstore in Paris. I read
somewhere that this is one of the most photographed bookstores in the world -
you will see why when you step inside!




Photo: by http://www.camenzindevolution.com at http://mz.cm/17CDwr4(used with
the copyright holder's permission)


This is just what many major international brands doâthe above image is
from the Google Tel Aviv office, and yes, that's a slide! I remember when I
visited the Burberry offices in London a couple of years ago and they had a
catwalk in the lobby area with models walking down it all dayâthat
certainly got me talking. These ideas are completely relevant and applicable to
local businesses, and they don't necessarily need to involve huge slides or
catwalks!

Your products are content

The products and services that you offer can both be used within other content
or as creative content in their own right. You don't need to have the most
unique product in the world, and sometimes this isn't actually possible within
standardised product industries. Let's look at a coffee shop, for example.


We might say that our coffee shop sells a range of different coffees, some
sandwiches and a selection of cakes/pastries. The first thing you would think of
to make them stand out from the competition is quality. The only problem here is
that it's hard to show the quality of these products to someone who hasn't
actually tasted them; plus, when all of your competitors claim to have the "best
quality products," it can be hard to stand out. With this in mind, why not try
something a little different...




source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/krobison/3346410954/


I know, pretty awesome isn't it? Apparently "latte art" is pretty popular, and
to be honest, if that was served in front of me, the first thing that I'd do
would be to take a picture and share it on Facebook/Twitter.




source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamieanne/3991004528/


Seasonal product themes can be another fantastic way to augment your current
product offering and turn it into creative content. At the local coffee shop
that I go to, they create crazy cupcake variations on Halloween and decorate the
whole shop. That's just asking to be talked about on social media and can result
in some tasty links as a byproduct.

Your product/service collateral can be content

I'm guessing that you can see where I'm starting to go with this idea that
anything can be content, no matter how boring it is. Let's take some food and
drink menus as an example. In its purest form, a menu should deliver the goal of
displaying what your business has to offer to your customers. Now, when we bear
in mind that over 90% of the customers in a coffee shop are going to take a look
at this menu, there is a huge opportunity to get creative.






The above video shows how the Global Mundo Tapas restaurant in the North
Sydney Rydges Hotel has replaced all of its menus in favour of actual iPads. The
customer can view the whole menu, get more information on each of the different
dishes and they can actually place their order live on the tablet. There could
be huge potential for linking this in with social media and really connecting
the link between online and offline interactions with customers.


Another great example is from Duo restaurant in New York. Their menus actually
light up when you open them, which makes them look pretty awesome. Again, this
has resulted in the restaurant being mentioned on several niche-relevant blogs
that will boost their rankings and give them a wider reach for their brand (it
made me notice them, and I'm on the other side of the world!).

The branding of your business is content

The values, culture and vision of your company says a lot about your brand.
Multinational brands use their slogans as one of their most valued content
assets. If I mentioned "Just Do It" or "They're Gr-r-r-eat!" then you would know
exactly which companies/products I'm talking aboutâthis can be the same
for local businesses, but on a different scale.


One hilarious example of some amazing branding was from a local sofa company
near the place where I grew up, called "Sofa King." They drove around in these
big white vans every day that had "Our prices are Sofa King Low!" written on
them. They got loads of press coverage from this because they were told they had
to remove them and actually got a mention on the TV as well. This may not be the
most transferable example but I love telling this story to people because it's
just so funny!


Another great way that a lot of cafes and restaurants can use their company
values to build content is by partnering up with higher welfare suppliers and
institutions. If we look at the likes of the Rainforest Alliance, an
international charity focused around conserving biodiversity and improving the
working conditions of third-world suppliers. They actually offer a way to
certify your business as being Rainforest Alliance approved. This can then be
used to build some positive PR around the business, especially within local
publications.

Your customers are content

Yes, that's right... your customers are content too. If you run a local
business then you're likely to be customer-facing a lot of the timeâwhy
not take advantage of that?


I worked on a recent campaign with a UK restaurant chain where we ran a
competition to eat free for a year at the restaurant. All you had to do to enter
was like the Facebook page, send a tweet (that we had pre-defined) and also give
some feedback on their experience at the restaurant. We ended up with over
10,000 entries into the competition and the Twitter account was going crazy for
weeks. We ended up driving back some good quality links to the website in the
process by running an effective link prospecting campaign alongside this, but
more importantly we grew the social following dramatically and had loads of
people talking about the brand.


Another tactic that I've used in the past, and a tactic that could be used
within the coffee shop example, is to bring in a group of bloggers and let them
eat for free in exchange for writing up a blog on their experience. It's
important to keep things impartial here, but getting a write up from a respected
blogger can do wonders for your brand and will be an awesome link back to your
websiteâit doesn't cost a lot either.

Content is EVERYTHING

As you've probably now realised, content doesn't just mean blog articles or
infographics. Content can come in the shape of all sorts of things, both online
and offline. The important thing is to understand the end goal of your content
marketing strategy and how this then ties in with your social media and SEO
campaigns.


When run on their own, content marketing, SEO and social media can be very
expensive for local businesses, but when you integrate these together and take
full advantage of the resources at your disposal, it will be both cost effective
and bring in far greater results.


This doesn't need to apply to just local businesses either. A perfect example
of this is with the post that I wrote for Moz a short while ago that was a case
study on the link building campaign that I carried out for my travel blog. Case
studies are a fantastic way to squeeze out more links to your website and can be
awesome pieces of content that can apply to blogs, major brands and small
businesses alike.

A few actionable content ideas for local businesses

Your staff:


Have your staff wearing unique uniforms that will get people talking about your
brand.
Encourage your staff to interact through social media with customers.
Record videos of your staff at work that shows off their expertise (this could
be a tutorial video on "how to bake the perfect cupcake," or "how to spray your
car bumper"). It doesn't have to be amazing production work; an iPhone will
often do the job here.
Leverage your highly skilled staff within the business to become well-known
figures within their niche. This can be through holding small meetups with the
local community, through answering questions within niche-relevant forums/social
media groups or putting together weekly recipe cards.
Run themed events on-site and have your staff live tweet with updates
throughout.
Encourage creativity from you staff and create a working environment that
promotes spontaneityâtake a look at this article to see what I mean.
Have your staff speak at local events.


Your premises:


Create a funky design to your office/shop that is going to invoke conversation.
"Socialise" your shop front by including your social media accounts within the
d©cor. For example, having your Twitter handle stenciled on the wall.
Offer free WiFi to customers on the condition that they "like" your Facebook
page.
Go old school and have a chalkboard Twitter feed that your staff will write
updates on by hand throughout the day.
Have a live feed of the shop/office running all day on your website.
Run themed nights where you decorate the whole place up in a unique style. Make
sure you take loads of photos and share them across your
FB/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest.


Your products:


Offer discounts on your products when a customer shares them via social media.
Differentiate them in a way that will invoke an emotional response from your
customers; for example, latte art.
Create seasonal product range themes that will get mentioned.
Send out free samples of your products for review to bloggers.
Run small focus groups to get feedback on your products/services. Record the
whole focus group and post the video through your YouTube channel. Even better,
run a live Google Hangout focus group and do the whole thing online.
Run some promotional coupons and submit them to coupon/discount offers
directories.
Run product giveaway competitions that require social engagement to enter. You
can also do these to gain feedback on products and then share your results
within a short blog.


Product/service collateral:


Spice up your menus and include social media links within each of them.
Add QR codes to the bottom of your till receipts.
Create 101 guides and eBooks that are related to your niche.
Your Branding, Values and Culture:
Do something controversial. It doesn't work for everyone but it can be one of
the quickest ways to get your brand out there.
Partner with local charities and schemes.
Sponsor local events.
Create a unique and recognisable slogan for your business.
Create mascots for your business and give them a full back-story. You can even
go to the length of giving them a social media account and start tweeting as
them. Look at Roger Mozbot as an example.


Your customers:


Run surveys and polls with your customers and publish the results on your
website and social media accounts.
Encourage customers to engage with your brand on social media whilst they're
with you for an incentive.
Run weekly giveaway competitions on Facebook that involve your customers having
to tag a friend in the comments of the post and sharing it to their friends.
When they receive their free product/serviceâget a photo of them and post
it across your social media page.
Have a âcustomer of the week' that you single out and give a freebie to
or record a special thank-you video for their custom.
Invite a group of bloggers into the shop for some free product testing and ask
them to blog about their experiences.
Run a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly live Google Hangout with some of your loyal
customers (you may have to incentivise them) to get feedback on their
experiences and post it to your YouTube channel.

Some comments from our Inbound.org discussion

Victor Pan:


Content for content's sake doesn't work. âDoing' SEO without knowing
what you're doing doesn't work. However, both methods work when executed
correctly. It's not whether or not it is done, but rather how it is done.


Time is scarce for small businesses. They don't have time to learn the
âhow' and execute it correctly on their first try. All too often, they
visit the wrong neighbourhood on the web and do what they've learned... or hire
the wrong people.


Bad blogging (scraping/plagiarism/panda) can get you penalized just as well as
bad links (irrelevant neighbourhoods/fishy anchor text/penguin) - so I wouldn't
be so quick to say one is better than the other, or that you need both.


Have you run into a business that has gone through the hands of a rogue SEO
who did low quality content spun from a competitor and a list of comment links
from forums? I have. It's not pretty.


If I had to choose, I'd say it's easier for small businesses to be smart about
content generation. SEO? That's not part of their core business - it's
inefficient for them to learn it beyond the absolute fundamentals.


Martin Harris:


Whilst the above analogies are great, i think the point here is how to get the
best out the client's time. Ultimately it's what going to be getting them more
traffic and if (like most of my clients) you pay an hourly rate; 3-4 hours a
month of SEO specific time, content marketing, won't cut it.


But here lies the problem; they should be treated as separate entities.


Put it this way: would creating great promotional and traffic relevant content
on social media drive more traffic or would ranking for a targeted niche
relevant term?


It's both.


For small businesses, getting natural links from content marketing should be a
by-product not a SEO strategy.





Slava Rybalka:


1) as for me, content marketing involves both, and first of all, it's like you
said, being creative and notice what is going on in your daily business
operations and what you can turn into content


2) I have seen the same effect, however, I tend to focus more on content
rather than links, because: 1. Links tend to disappear over time, whereas your
contents stays on your site, you don't have control over your links but you have
control over your content 2.if you have content that resonates with you target
audience, great links will come naturally and recently we have seen the cases
when few links can make a difference in search results, since Google is focusing
more on quality of links. There are other things that come to my mind but these
are 2 main points.


View the full discussion here:
http://www.inbound.org/articles/view/content-marketing-the-ultimate-seo-office-discussion

TL;DR

Leveraging the assets of your business through content marketing, and tying this
in with your SEO and social media campaign can yield awesome business results.
Big brand content strategies have similar goals to local businesses but they
differ completely in execution.
Get all your staff to wear Hooters outfits to work, jazz up the morning coffees
with some latte art and install a slide into your office.

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