Many small businesses use content marketing as a way of being found by customers. These businesses don’t have the budget or the following to do content marketing like the big brands. Instead, small businesses tend to do content marketing in a way that capitalizes on the internet's power as a tool for discovery and research.
Consumers don’t just use the internet to find what they want to buy, they also use it to help them solve problems and find interesting new topics and content. Many content marketing strategies are built around this important fact. They create helpful and interesting content that links back to their brand but is not directly sales-oriented. Then, they place this content on channels that consumers will stumble across, such as search engines, social media, and youtube. Customers who come across a brand that shares interesting and useful content will get a good first impression of it.
If interesting content is well-targeted, getting a good amount of traffic is almost inevitable as those who enjoy the content will be very likely to check out a business’s products and services.
Many content marketing strategies also utilize people’s love of sharing content they enjoy with their friends. A great example of this in practice is Blendtec's Will It Blend? Part of what makes the videos so successful is their ability to appeal directly to consumers with anarchic fun whilst simultaneously displaying the impressive hardiness of the company’s blenders. Millions of people have seen these videos and many have shared them with friends. When content marketing is done right, it can get your audience to drastically extend your reach for you. This series of quirky videos has single-handedly built up the company’s brand and brought them many sales, as a significant proportion of the people who enjoy these videos become customers.