50+ Resources with Facts, How-Tos and Ideas for Marketing a Small Business Online Using Content

When it comes to getting more folks to visit your website, one of the most effective tactics is content marketing.

Why? Because not only does content marketing bring visitors to your site, it also allows you to establish yourself as a helpful authority whom those visitors trust, a key element in converting them into customers.

However, it’s not always easy to come up with ideas for marketing a small business online using content.

That’s why, to help you make use of this very effective online tactic, I’ve gathered 50+ resources containing hundreds of facts, how-tos and ideas for using content marketing to promote your small business online.

If you’re new to content marketing, don’t worry; I’ve also included links that explain what content marketing is and why you use it.

So, without further ado, here are the links to the resources. Enjoy and, if you have, or do, use content marketing as part of your online strategy, please share your experiences in the comments section below!

50+ Resources with Facts, Tips and Ideas for Marketing a Small Business Online Using Content

What is Content Marketing?

First, let’s define content marketing:

• These two posts from Heidi Cohen’s site are great resources for content marketing definitions because each includes the views and opinions of many different experts:
• Content Marketing Defined
• 21 Content Marketing Definitions
• 5 Things You Need to Know about Content Strategy
• Content Marketing Sucks & Other Marketing Myths
• Understanding Content Marketing Strategy: 6 Fantastic Infographics – this handy collection of infographics will help you understand where content marketing fits in the big picture and the opportunities and challenges it holds.

Why Use Content Marketing for Marketing a Small Business?

Next, let’s look at the benefits of using content marketing:

• Why Your Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy
• Why Content is Key to Marketing Strategy
• Long Live the King: Why Content Marketing is So Important for Small Businesses
• Winning at SEO: Search Engines Don’t Hate You
• Infographic / Why Content for SEO?

How Use Content Marketing for Marketing a Small Business

These “How-To” resources will help you with the steps (from planning to implementation and ongoing management) you need to take to use content marketing for your business:

• Content marketing in a nutshell: Good enough isn’t – awesome step-by-step “how-to” content marketing process deep in this post!
• Top 10 Tips for Better Content Marketing– a good, basic step-by-step way to develop your content marketing strategy.
• 5 Step Model for a Killer B2B Content Marketing Strategy
• 5 ways to use analytics to find content marketing opportunities
• 3 Content Marketing Ideas You Should Steal from Coca Cola
• 5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy
• Content Marketing: 6 Ideas to Better Blogging in 2012
• Content Marketing Essentials: Tactical Advice From A To Z – love the A-Z format here!
• Cutting the Jargon: Content Marketing Tips for B2B Technology Businesses
• 5 Content Marketing Ideas You Should Know If You’re In A Burning Building
• Content Marketing: 5 Tips and Tricks for a Winning Strategy
• 5 Content Marketing Strategies for Small Business
• 4 B2B Content Marketing Ideas From A TV Cooking Show
• 5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails
• 10 Reasons Why Content Marketing Is Not Working For You
• Measurement is key for any marketing strategy and content marketing is no different:
• HOW TO: Measure the ROI of a Content Marketing Strategy
• 5 Ways to Measure Content Marketing Success
• Is Your Content King? – a tongue-in-cheek visual guide to rating the kind of content you use as part of you content marketing efforts.

Ways to Use Content Marketing for Marketing a Small Business

This is where you’ll find tons of ideas of how to use content marketing to promote your small business online:

• How Small Business Can Get BIG Online with Content Marketing
• 50 Ways to Serve up Hot Juicy Content
• Content Marketing ABCs – another fun A-Z format post!
• Content Marketing Ideas
• Content Marketing Strategies in 60 Seconds
• 11 Ways to Use Content to Build Online Authority
• 9 Ways to Use Content for Inbound Marketing
• 56 Ways to Reuse Content Marketing
• Video: How to Use Content to Increase Your Sales
• Six Surprising B2B Content Marketing Ideas
• 5 Content Marketing Ideas Worth Stealing
• 20 Content Marketing Ideas for 2012
• 49 Creative Ways You Can Profit From Content Marketing
• 10 Ways to Use One Piece of Content

Content Marketing Examples and Success Stories

These resources give you the chance to see successful content marketing efforts in action:

• How 3 Companies Took Content Marketing to the Next Level
• Must-See Content Marketing Examples From 2011
• Content marketing success story: Company sees 70 percent growth in leads
• Video Case study: Content marketing success at a medical practice
• Persona based content marketing at the Nobis Hotel
• PDF: 5 Content Marketing Success Stories

Content Ideas

Finally, here are links to 1000+ topics to use when creating content for your content marketing efforts:

• 1000+ Content Ideas for Your Blog or Newsletter
• 5 Content Strategies for Boring Brands
• 130-Plus Content Marketing Ideas For 2012: Part 1 of 4
• 130-Plus Content Marketing Ideas For 2012: Part 2 of 4
• 130-Plus Content Marketing Ideas For 2012: Part 3 of 4
• 130-Plus Content Marketing Ideas For 2012: Part 4 of 4

Weekly Link Roundup

Each week, I collect the 10 best posts that I’ve read and share them with you here.

These posts focus on web-based solutions, online resources and up-to-date news for small businesses.

Enjoy!

What do Google’s privacy policy changes mean to your small biz?: This has been a hot topic of conversation all week – get the lowdown in this post.

Webinars are a Legitimate Lead-Generation Channel: 10 Strategies to Monetize Your Webinars: Some great tips in this post on making the most of your webinar efforts.

Low Cost Finance Tools to Organize Bookkeeping, Accounting and Tax Receipts: 3 handy small business accounting and finance solutions.

LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation Than Facebook & Twitter [New Data]: Wow, that’s a big number. Are you investing time in LinkedIn?

5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research: Handy tips for brainstorming effective keywords to use for search engine optimization (SEO).

Top 7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Facebook: Basic but solid tips for effectively using Facebook to promote your business.

10 ways to use social media in your job hunt: If you’re out of work, or know someone who is, these tips should prove to be useful.

How To Increase Clicks On Your Tweets [Infographic]: A very interesting look at how to use reporting on past tweets to tailor your Twitter efforts for success.

How Your Non Profit Can Be Heard Above The Noise: A basic but well thought-out post with some great points for non-profits to consider.

How to Use Google Alerts to Know What People Are Saying About You: I use this method to get free alerts about my business and it works great. Check it out for yourself.