Techblog
The undeniable power of content marketing for SMEs
It’s time for SMEs to harness the power of content to drive their marketing strategy. Here’s what you need to know.
Small businesses traditionally lag behind industry leaders when it comes to adopting the latest marketing strategies, and the case rings true for content marketing. Although content marketing has been talked about for years now, SMEs, particularly in Southeast Asia, have been slow on the uptake.
Yet, once you consider how you can step up your digital marketing efforts, content marketing is the logical answer. Or as acclaimed marketing guru Seth Godin put it: “Content marketing is all the marketing that’s left.”
What is content marketing and why does it matter to SMEs?
Broadly speaking, content marketing is the act of consistently creating or distributing original, relevant information that adds value to your customers.
Today’s digital society has transformed the way consumers shop. Their purchasing decisions are now informed by research, price comparisons, user reviews, expert recommendations and more. Rather than hard sell customers, content marketing aims to educate them in order to empower their purchasing decisions.
Good content marketing thus has the ability to raise awareness of your brand. As your target consumer searches for a solution, they find exactly what they need in your content and share it with their friends.
Fresh content also keeps your website relevant and professional while showing that you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the latest trends and developments. It also establishes your brand as an authority in a chosen field – a brand whose voice your consumers can trust, learn from and use as a benchmark.
In Asia, content marketing is still in its infancy. But specific consumer habits in the region signal great opportunities for content marketers. For example, the average user in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia spend more than five hours a day using the internet. With mobile adoption also growing at a staggering pace, marketers are faced with unprecedented opportunities to engage an audience who is spending a lot more time online.
What this means for your business is that it’s time to employ a content marketing strategy that capitalises on these consumer habits.
Tips on getting started
No matter what stage you’re at in your business growth, you can get started on content marketing with these simple tips:
- Document your strategy
Before jumping into content creation, think about strategy – what are your business objectives, how do you plan content to achieve them and who’s your audience? Nailing these elements gives you a clearer idea of your ‘space to play’ and how you can stand out from your competitors. Then, you can go on to develop a content calendar that gives you a pipeline of regular content to be published in the near future.
- Speak to your audience in their language
In a region as culturally diverse as Southeast Asia, it’s vital to adapt your content to each market by using the local language and slang. This reassures your audience that you understand them and their needs.
- Supplement your strategy with paid search and search engine optimisation (SEO)
Google, the dominant search engine in Southeast Asia, is placing more importance than ever on relevant, high-quality content. However, organic results aside, it’s also important to integrate paid search and SEO into your strategy, as Southeast Asian consumers place a high level of trust on search engine advertisements.
- Localise content to relate to your audience
According to Craig Johnson, Nielsen's head of reach solutions for Southeast Asia, North Asia and Pacific, Southeast Asian consumers responded most positively to advertisements that focused on family, values and health, as well as those that featured relatable and humorous situations.
As with all functions within a company – be it customer service or web design – the ultimate aim of good content marketing is to entice your audience to do business with you. Bearing these tips in mind, SMEs will find that moving forward with a content marketing strategy is a simple step-up from their current digital marketing efforts. In fact, it’s the only step that makes sense.