According to a 2017 Business Insider Report – “Most small businesses focus on increasing revenue (72%), but they also see great values in establishing new customer relationships (60%), and marketing and advertising (46%).”

It is difficult at best to imagine the number of devices and content verticals your clients/ customers are exposed to continuously. Within a day or even a few hours of a given day, they may be presented with an ad by on television, the radio, a smartphone app, a digital billboard, or even their work or home desktop computer.

Today’s digital environment is where clients/customer are always on, plugged in and exposed to the constant barrage of advertising through various channels and platforms. It is essential to ensure that the brand Message you’re presenting is clear, concise and consistent.
What follows are some tips for ensuring that your marketing content is, in fact, conveying the message you want to present.

Start with the Basics –
Think about the basics of your business.
• How well does your website present itself on mobile devices?
• How easy is the navigation process of your website across all of the platforms you’re using?
• What sort of response are you receiving?
• Do you or your social media manager remain abreast of communications from client/customers in your social media venues?

If you wish to remain relevant, you must ensure a consistent experience for your Audience across all means of media, especially social media platforms. This could require some simple tweaking or a complete change. You should consider working with specific departments within your company or third party vendors but definitely include your thought leaders in your decision making processes.

When it comes to content creation for marketing purposes, you may opt to outsource or make it the responsibility of a current staff member that has the talent and vision for this aspect of your business. That said, be certain that you keep a good checks and balances system in place. Appoint another person to provide proofing, editing and peer reviews for finding inconsistencies and/or errors. You also want to be sure that your content creator has a true understanding of your vision.

Consistency Matters When You’re Marketing Your Brand. Why?
Often, smaller brands cannot afford to deal with the competition that comes with larger corporate brands. SMBs would benefit by getting their message across with simple, useful content. This avenue is far more likely to:
• Get consumer attention.
• Avoid consumer confusion.
• Provide clear and consistent communications pertaining only to your brand.
Doing so will assist your audience in recalling what your services/products are and how they will best serve the consumer and/or their business.
• It gives you the opportunity to teach your clients/customers something valuable.
• This provides you the opportunity to remain relevant to both your target audience’s needs and your business.

Any effort to show your potential clients/customers various sides of your business may actually work against what you would like to accomplish.
They simply don’t have the time or patience to get to know you, before deciding to either consider your products or services; or actually make the decision to do business with you on any level.

Small businesses, due to the basic digital clutter and noise alone, often struggle to get in front of new consumers. Keeping it simple and memorable is likely the best way to begin while changing up your strategy.

Create a Purposeful Message –
Creating a message that presents the correct tone and voice for your company is critical:
• Whatever your business the focus should remain on building confidence with your potential client/customer.
• Use some visuals
• Once you’ve had the opportunity to work through the finer points you would like to present, be sure that the essence of your message is included in every created post.

If you find that wordsmithing isn’t something you’re comfortable with, by all means, consider someone on your staff that is known for this talent or consider hiring a professional copywriter. Getting the right message is a priority.Test Your Message, Make Changes as Required-

Once you’ve created your content you’ll then be prepared to test it. Today there are a myriad of analytics services and tools that can be utilized to monitor the value and performance of your content. You will have the ability to see how well your content resonates with your audience after you’ve taken the time to:
• Publish a blog article
• Provide amplification to a created Facebook post
• Send a Tweet
• Or post to any or all of the other platforms you’ve selected

Begin the process of monitoring your content as soon as possible. Going forward, continue to keep it simple, but definitely try new themes and marketing strategies that you feel may appeal to your audience. You will begin to see what seems to be most appealing to most potential clients/customers and will have the ability to build not only your audience but your brand identity.

You will also have the opportunity to communicate with your potential clients/customers while others may have the ability to glean valuable information from your answers about your products and services.

Content management is crucial in today’s world, no doubt about it. It is the road to increasing website traffic, increasing your email contacts, sales, retaining clients/customers, referrals and much more.

It’s not an easy process per se, but once you’re aware of what your clients/customers enjoy most, you’ll gain their attention and respect. It’s then that you’ll have the ability to follow their lead to your success.

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