A Look Ahead at “Content Marketing — The New SMB Paradigm”

Content marketing has been around a while among SMBs in analog form — after all direct mail, product catalogs and brochures are all about using rich content to promote a business and drive sales. The growth of the Internet, and in particular social media, as a marketing channel, has elevated content marketing to greater importance. This has led to a new paradigm for how SMBs build their brands and reputations, and how they get discovered by potential customers.

BIA/Kelsey Senior Director of Industry Strategy and Insight Abid Chaudhry has written our next Leading in Local Insight Paper, “Content Marketing: the New SMB Paradigm.” In the paper, Chaudhry outlines the case for content marketing — it derives from changing consumer purchase behavior. He also describes the new ecosystems that has emerged to create and distribute original SMB content.

The following is a brief excerpt from the upcoming Insight Paper:

Managing content online has become a critical component for SMBs — the value conveyed from a robust content program reaches beyond exposure to apply value to discovery, customer engagement, and performance across all digital channels. Increasingly, content marketing tactics like social media posts or blog entries can prompt engagement with potential customers, creating new opportunities for SMBs with a minimal amount of effort.

As engagement and usage of the Internet and mobile web continues to increase, consumer taste and expectations have also evolved. Consumers are increasingly becoming accustomed to rich, targeted and contextual advertising and marketing experiences. While brand and agency advertisers have been able to respond to this new paradigm quickly, SMBs are finding that a lack of fresh content and relevancy can cost them.

Increasingly SMBs are applying greater value to lead sources derived from content marketing based sources, and this trend is likely to continue as the gap between traditional and digital advertising acceptance narrows.

Watch the Local Media Watch blog for more excepts from “Content Marketing: The New SMB Paradigm” leading up to its publication in mid-April.

Also, check out this clip from a recent BIA/Kelsey Analyst Roundtable, where Chaudhry talks about the big ideas driving SMB content marketing.

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