Why Small Businesses Hate Content Marketing (and What to Do About It)

Have you ever tried to explain what Content Marketing is to a small business owner?

Ever been to a meeting where social media comes up and you’re greeted with blank stares and a “let’s please move on” gaze?

And what about the following …

“I like the idea, but not right now.”

“We just don’t have time.”

“I don’t write … ”

I could go on, but you get the picture (or like me, you’ve experienced this push-back).

But guess what?

I get it.

I’m a small business owner and understand the hesitation. I realize most of these people are too busy running a successful firm to learn about blogging and social.

Most small businesses don’t like the term, Content Marketing, because they don’t understand it.

Content Marketing is uncharted territory for them, which translates to spending lots of money on something they know very little about.

So, there’s a problem when it comes to small businesses and content marketing. 

A big problem, because…

a. All the practices of Content Marketing are what many small firms and organizations need, and must practice to grow, but…

b. There’s a huge chasm between owners, marketing managers and principals and those who preach this stuff and know how absolutelyfreakingfantastic this can all be for them!

And the problem is in the language, or should I say the way we present the language.

Okay, okay, I hate the term Content Marketing just as much as you, but if we introduce another term, we’re just going to confuse everybody.

I don’t think you want mass confusion, do you?

But this is not going to be a post where I burn “Content Marketing” at the stake.

No, quite the contrary. So, here we go …

1. Content Marketing is the de facto term. So… Learn it, love it, live it. 

And this is how you do so …

Instead of refusing to use it, build client presentations around it.

Here’s a great lead-in…

Most of the people who hire me are all over the term SEO. They know it, realize they must practice it, and are eager, ready and willing to learn about it. But they think it means optimizing their website with those crusty old meta tags. Ugh.

This is only a small part of the solution. So…

2. How Do You Introduce Small Business Clients to Content Marketing?

Craft a short presentation that explains what SEO is:

From Web Crawling to Indexing to Ranking.

And Ranking is the sweet spot, because this is where you introduce the importance of links, social sharing and long-tail keyword phrases, which leads to… BAM, you guessed it… Content Marketing.

I like to introduce them to that Oracle we all know and love, Matt Cutts. Then let them hear a few clips of him explaining SEO. Then ask them if they understood what the heck he was saying?

After some nods, I then proceed to tell them this is your SEO presentation for real people who might just love Matt’s short, sweet SEO breakdown.

And this SEO discussion (talking about web spiders, the importance of links and the science of ranking) leads to discussions on branding, marketing and you guessed it… Content Marketing. Ta-da!

Which leads to my big #3 …

3. When Explaining Content Marketing and SEO,  Stop Trying to Sound So Damn Smart.

Have you read some of these content marketing posts? If you haven’t checked, there are about 5,557,001 out there, and many speak the same boring, old, tech-speak drivel.

Do you want to point your clients to boring old chatter or “I’m to smart for you” content?

No.

When it comes to explaining Content Marketing there are several people who, in my humble opinion, have it nailed and they speak in a language people can understand.

I love their content, speak their language, and will praise them ’til the cows come home …

1. Ryan Hanley :: He led an Insurance Company to Content Marketing, success. Now he has his own company and he’s simply killing it. Check out Ryan’s blog.

2. Marcus Sheridan :: A smart guy who knows how to speak to a busy, stressed, small business owner on SEO, Content Marketing and more.

3. Laura Click :: Practical, hands-on advice that gets to the point, and she obviously knows effective small business speak. Laura is in the trenches fighting the good fight every day.

They relate to the crowd they are speaking to and they deliver.

That, my friend, is what you have to do. So, check out the fine peeps above and see how they roll.

And if you’re trying to help your small business clients grow their businesses through Content Marketing…

1. Accept the term. Or better yet, give it a big, wet kiss.

2. Craft some language around it, starting with friendly terms like SEO and branding, then lead into the benefits of Content Marketing done right, and…

3. Stop trying to sound like a Content Marketing expert.

Sounds counterintuitive, but guess what? It works.

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