There is no one-size-fits-all approach to choosing your content marketing strategy. However, there are some things we can notice when comparing the strategies of different sizes of the eCommerce business.
Bigger businesses often have larger marketing budgets and dedicated teams, but small businesses have their unique strengths and advantages as well. Today, we’re diving into the contrasting content strategies of big versus small eCommerce businesses. Let’s explore how size influences content strategy and what it means for your eCommerce success.
Growing Small Businesses
Although smaller businesses have limitations, they hide some pretty valuable advantages up their sleeve. Let’s say there are some new trends in the market. Who do you think would find it easier to test whether it works for them or not? In smaller companies, no line of managers needs to approve your request before jumping right on to it. You have greater freedom to experiment with different content formats and strategies without extensive approval. It results in the ability to quickly pivot and adapt content strategies based on market changes and immediate feedback.
One of the main constraints is related to what small businesses have at their disposal: budget, team, and tools. This creates a need for careful prioritization of expenses and, well, multitasking at its finest.
But it’s not as bad as it seems as long as organization and prioritization appear in the scenario. Since there is no budget to spend here and there, it’s important to target niches. The Pareto law states that 80% of consequences are caused by 20% of causes, so in this case, 80% of your revenue will be generated by 20% of your target audience. That is why you need to focus on specific audience segments to create highly personalized and relevant content.
Emphasis is placed on high-quality, valuable content because that way, you’ll build organic traffic and improve search engine rankings. Regarding SEO, focus on local SEO tactics to capture local market share. Use your imagination to create content around local events and collaborations, and don’t forget to be creative and unique. Most likely, you’ll gain a higher level of recognition among your local community, and once you gain your local market share, it will be easier to expand.
Due to the fact the business is small, it probably doesn’t have wide visibility. Meaning plenty of consumers do not know you exist and those who know you need to hear more about your business in order to memorize you among plenty of the competitors. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your content; your customers may surprise you with their interests. Some of your options are:
- Talk about you: Share your experiences, failures, and triumphs to connect with the audience on a personal level.
- Behind-the-Scenes Content: Share the business’s day-to-day activities to humanize your brand.
- Blog Posts and How-Tos: Provide valuable information that solves problems for the audience, establishing your business as a knowledgeable resource.
- Customer Stories and Testimonials: Highlight real customer experiences to build trust and community.
- User-Generated Content: Encourage customers to share their experiences with your products on social media.
Scaling Content for Large Companies
As the business grows, owners are more willing to invest in marketing, leaving more budgets for investment in advanced tools, experienced marketing experts, and comprehensive marketing campaigns. Specialized roles within the team enable high-quality content production and may include roles like writers, designers, SEO experts, and social media managers. With more experts dedicated to content creation, more fields could be covered, from creation to monitoring and using data to optimize new content to customers’ needs and wants.
As a small business owner, you are likely to choose one targeted audience and then focus your marketing efforts on them to get the best results. As your business grows, however, you have the opportunity to target different audiences that may be interested in what you offer simply because you have more employees dedicated to catering to diverse customer groups. You likely have the potential to reach global audiences because you are established as a powerful brand in your local market. Consumers know about you, and you maintain your relationship with them through your ability to produce and distribute large volumes of content across multiple channels and markets.
So, what is holding you back? Most likely, you have multiple layers of middle management who need to run through any decision before action time. Testing your ideas will take longer, but the collaborative effort ensures the resulting content is systematic and data-driven. Your employees also know how things are done, strictly adhering to brand guidelines to maintain a consistent brand voice and image across all content. Unfortunately, it is sometimes the thing that kills creativity and puts you in a rut where innovation becomes stifled and creative block sets in. However, by recognizing these challenges and focusing on your strengths, you’ll be well-equipped to move forward successfully.
When talking about content creation, some of your options are:
- High-Quality Video Content: Produce professional videos for brand storytelling and product promotions.
- Large-Scale Campaigns: Coordinate multi-channel marketing campaigns with consistent messaging.
- A/B Testing and Optimization: Continuously test and refine content for better performance.
- Localized Content for Different Markets: Translate and adapt content to suit various regions and languages and optimize content for search engines in different countries.
- Advanced Analytics and Personalization: Use data to create highly targeted and personalized content.
Big or Small, They All Have Common Goals
Despite the differences, both small and big companies share a fundamental goal in their content strategies: to attract and retain loyal customers. Small companies often thrive on strategies that allow them to create deeply personalized and engaging content. In contrast, big companies leverage extensive resources to drive comprehensive and far-reaching content strategies.
