This real world example of Content Marketing comes directly from my Tiny Business, Mighty Profits Report that is available on my website for free.
Read through this example carefully and apply the lessons to your own business. How can you implement a Content Marketing strategy the way that Dave has?
An IT professional in the St. Louis area has just started Tiny & Mighty IT Consulting. The owner (we will call him Dave) has recently been laid off from a large firm that specializes in setting up small to mid-sized businesses with turn-key software that will run the entire business. His former employer also sets up computer networks and provides 24/7 IT support.
Dave knows his tiny business cannot be all things to all people. He spent most of his time at his old job setting up networks as an engineer and knows this part of the business like the back of his laptop. ☺ However, he was never involved in the software side of the business. He loves the networking side of the business and has decided that he will concentrate on this part of the industry.
Dave also preferred to work with mid-sized businesses because he found that they had the on-site IT staff to support projects. Dave has made up his mind, he will concentrate on IT consulting for mid-sized businesses in the area of computer networking.
Dave is a smart cookie and after doing some research he decides he will go out and listen to his market on the Internet. He finds dozens of computer forums full of IT staff members from businesses across the country. He finds a meet-up group that comes together at a local Starbucks once a month to discuss geeky networking stuff. He also finds hundreds of IT professionals on Twitter that are constantly bantering about – that’s right – geeky networking stuff. He finds three blogs that have lots of IT professionals leaving comments.
While Dave is ramping up his business, he starts spending a couple of hours per day on these websites. He listens, he lurks. After a couple of weeks of listening to his audience, Dave realizes that one of the most common questions that he hears his market asking is:
“How do I keep my computer network secure?”
Since Dave is quite the expert in this field, he starts leaving valuable and informative comments in blogs, forums and in social media channels whenever he finds these questions.
Then Dave decides to add a blog to his own IT Consulting website. He has no shortage of topics to blog about and will certainly start by addressing some of the concerns that he hears regarding networking security.
He writes blog posts with titles like:
- Top 10 Network Security Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
- How To Back Up Your Network In-House
- A Review of Three Popular Third Party Data Back-Up Companies
Dave notifies the people he has been networking with both on-line and off-line that he has started a blog and that there is good information about network security on it now. He sends it out via Twitter and mentions it over a mocha latte at Starbucks to his meet-up group. He mentions it in blog comments and puts a link to his blog in the forums he has been visiting.
Dave may not realize it but he has begun to implement a powerful marketing strategy — a Content Marketing strategy.
The people that Dave has been conversing with both on and off-line are very appreciative and gain instant respect for Dave’s knowledge in the computer networking space especially in the area of network security.
Dave goes to Best Buy and buys a cheap web cam for $60 and starts shooting video of himself giving 10 minute tutorials about network security; he uploads them to YouTube and puts them on his blog.
He sends out notification to his group of friends that he has begun the video series. Again, he mentions it in the forums, on blogs and through social media. He also tells his meet-up group about it. His network loves the free, helpful information and they love Dave.
Dave sees an opportunity here because he has branded himself as an expert with his group of “followers” in the area of network security. He does a bit of research and determines that he can segment the niche market for his paid services even further by concentrating only on the network security segment of the computer networking market.
Dave keeps producing blog posts and video that is helpful to his audience and the traffic is rolling in on his website. He is getting mentions on other blogs and in forums. Some of his followers hire him and others give him referrals.
Dave loves referrals. They are much easier to sell than cold calls.
After several months of running this strategy Dave starts to get asked to do speaking engagements, guest posts on blogs and occasionally gets quoted in a mainstream newspaper.
Tiny & Mighty IT Consulting is doing well and Dave is able to select the projects he would like to work on and refers the others to colleagues of his as a gesture of goodwill.
Does this sound too good to be true? It isn’t. Your tiny business can achieve mighty profits as well by creating a valuable and trustworthy body of content on the Internet that will brand you and your tiny business as the authority in your industry.
Download the free report Tiny Business, Mighty Profits and read it from end to end to learn the details about this powerful marketing strategy.
I was all but laughed at.
camera. The video, slide show and text blog post you create gives your speaking engagement an infinite life span that will contribute to your perception as an expert.
and it does just fine for a beginning podcaster.
and it is less than $30. Most laptops and desktops sold today come with a web cam built in.
