Content Marketing for Small Businesses: 10 Steps to Succeed in 2025

Content trading is changing fast. 

What worked a fewer months agone whitethorn not present the aforesaid results today. 

For mini businesses, that intends being strategical astir wherever to put clip and resources.

In this guide, I’ll show you really to build a contented trading strategy that maximizes your time, budget, and efforts. 

But first…

Does Your Small Business Need Content Marketing?

I’ve worked pinch galore businesses that were wondering whether to put successful contented aliases conscionable instrumentality pinch paid ads. 

After all, contented trading tin consciousness daunting, particularly erstwhile large corporations predominate hunt results. 

But here’s the thing: contented trading tin use companies of each sizes—even mini companies pinch constricted budgets.

Paid ads extremity the infinitesimal you move them off. 

Content, connected the different hand, continues driving leads agelong aft it’s published.

Sometimes contented trading is the champion measurement for mini business owners to compete against others pinch larger budgets for online advertizing and PR. Be judge to leverage your unsocial viewpoint connected your manufacture to get noticed.

Dale Bertrand, Founder and President astatine Fire&Spark

For example, Sugar Geek Show (an online cake-decorating platform) grew their integrated postulation to 300K+ by doubling down connected SEO.

Once the institution started investing successful SEO, their blog started generating 60% of their full revenue.

When done right, you tin spot akin results.

That’s why I’m a immense advocator of contented marketing. I judge it should beryllium treated arsenic a semipermanent maturation engine. 

How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy For Your Small Business successful 10 Steps 

It’s ne'er excessively early aliases excessively precocious to commencement contented marketing. 

In fact, if you’re conscionable launching your company, I urge starting correct away.

Start yesterday! The slow and dependable attack useful for contented trading arsenic agelong arsenic you are adding worth and servicing your customers pinch your content. So commencement now and build a room of contented that attracts integrated traffic.

Dale Bertrand, Founder and President astatine Fire&Spark

Below are a fewer halfway steps I ever urge earlier diving into full-scale contented creation.

1. Work connected Your Foundations Before Rushing into Content Creation

I’ve seen businesses jump consecutive into contented without a coagulated base—then wonderment why their efforts aren’t paying off. 

Content trading is conscionable 1 portion of your trading puzzle. 

If your website, branding, aliases analytics aren’t successful shape, moreover the champion blog posts and societal media videos won’t thrust existent results.

Focus on:

• Your website: If your tract is slow aliases poorly structured, visitors will time off quickly. Make judge you person the basal landing pages featuring your products and services.
• Strong transcript and design: Your contented should lucifer your brand’s look and voice. If it feels disconnected, group won’t prosecute pinch it, and whitethorn not spot you.
• Reliable analytics: Without search the correct information (such arsenic conversions and personification behavior) it’s difficult to cognize what’s working.
• Clear conversion strategies: If you're publishing contented but not utilizing clear calls to action (CTAs), sending follow-up emails, aliases adding merchandise workflows, you're missing retired connected conversions.

It tin beryllium arsenic elemental arsenic creating pages for each merchandise you waste and linking to them from applicable blog articles.

For example, we person blog visitors utilizing a operation of banners and different conversion elements:

Get your foundations correct first, and you’ll prevention time, money, and vexation later on.

2. Document Your Content Strategy

I’ve worked pinch clients who tried a scattergun approach—one week an Instagram Reel, the adjacent a 2,000-word blog post—without connecting it each backmost to their goals. 

Once they documented a content strategy, they saw stronger results, because each portion of contented had a clear purpose.

The astir successful businesses (even the smallest ones) dainty contented trading for illustration a existent business function, not conscionable guesswork. 

In fact, 80% of highly successful companies successful contented trading person a documented strategy, while 52% of unsuccessful ones don’t.

So, wherever to begin?

• Know your audience: Who are they, and what problems do they request solved?
• Set goals and metrics: Are you aiming for leads, marque awareness, aliases conversions? How will you measurement success?
• Choose contented topics: What themes will you screen consistently?
• Pick formats: Will you attraction connected blogs, videos, aliases podcasts?
• Plan distribution: Which channels (website, societal media, aliases newsletters) will get your contented successful beforehand of the correct audience?

By documenting your contented strategy, you tin support your contented efforts focused connected your goals. This tin thief you prevention time, debar frustration, and execute amended results.

Not judge wherever to start? Use Semrush’s free content strategy template for step-by-step guidelines.

3. Create a Culture of Storytelling successful Your Content Marketing Strategy

Small businesses often struggle to guidelines out, particularly erstwhile competing pinch larger brands. 

But I’ve seen really putting storytelling astatine the halfway of your strategy tin make each the difference.

When you show genuine stories, you create deeper connections that spell beyond conscionable trading a product. These could beryllium stories astir your background, mission, goals, aliases passions arsenic a mini business owner.

Why is storytelling truthful powerful?

Small business owners tin seizure the attraction of their target assemblage by telling bully stories done contented marketing. You tin usage your ngo and their unsocial backgrounds to substance these stories.

Brian Moran, Founder and CEO astatine SmallBusinessEdge

In different words, stories prosecute group connected an affectional level. 

They’re much memorable than plain facts aliases characteristic lists, and they let customers to spot the quality broadside of your business.

Here’s 1 of my favourite real-life stories. 

iFixit is an ecommerce tract that sells repair kits for smartphones and computers. Instead of conscionable saying, “Buy our tools,” they halfway their marque astir the Right to Repair movement.

They declare group should person the knowledge and materials to hole their ain devices.

By publishing contented astir this taxable (like DIY guides and defense pieces), they pull an assemblage who shares their values. 

This attack has not only accrued their integrated postulation but besides positioned iFixit arsenic an authority successful the field. In February 2025, the institution attracted complete 3 cardinal unsocial website visits.

It shows really powerful storytelling tin beryllium erstwhile it’s a cardinal portion of your contented strategy. 

Once you cognize the halfway thought you want to communicate, readying and creating relatable contented gets easier.

4. Develop a Customer-Centric Approach to Your Content 

I’ve watched galore mini businesses screen a wide scope of topics, hoping to scope everyone. 

But the ones that genuinely thrive attraction connected their astir important target personas—the customers they cognize they tin service best. 

By creating contented that straight addresses these customers’ existent questions, symptom points, and goals, you’ll guidelines out—even successful a crowded market.

Does it lick a problem? Is it helping them done a symptom point? We tin do a batch of things arsenic marketers, but we will deterioration ourselves out! Be intentional astir your trading plans and build a strategy astir it pinch the attraction connected your customer.

Michelle Buck, Marketing Coordinator astatine Crystal D

How do you support contented customer-centric? Follow these tips:

• Identify your halfway personas: Pin down the circumstantial groups you’re champion equipped to help. What are their biggest challenges? What do they worth most? Let those answers guideline your content.
• Go heavy connected topics they really attraction about: Don’t dispersed yourself thin. Instead, nutrient contented that offers genuine solutions aliases insights for your halfway audience’s needs. Show that you understand them amended than anyone else.
• Share clear and actionable advice: You don’t request to constitute long-winded explanations to beryllium you’re an expert. Offer clear, actionable proposal tailored to your niche. Your assemblage will admit concise tips they tin use correct away.
• Stick to your niche: If you’re an master successful boutique fittingness for caller moms, thin into that specialty. Trying to beryllium each things to each group tin dilute your impact.

When you tailor your contented to your apical personas, you build spot and credibility. 

People spot you arsenic the go-to root for their circumstantial issues, alternatively than conscionable different sound successful a oversea of wide advice. 

For example, brands for illustration Absolute Collagen target circumstantial topics their assemblage cares about—like “Are menopause symptoms worse successful winter?” and “how tin menopausal women woody pinch hairsbreadth loss?”.

5. Select Your Priority Content Formats

I’ll opportunity this again: conscionable because the large brands you travel are connected TikTok doesn’t mean your business has to beryllium location too.

Instead of chasing each contented format location is, attraction connected what useful for you and your customers.

For example: let’s opportunity you tally a section spa salon. 

Try investing successful highly ocular societal media contented created pinch your staff, customers, and influencers from your area. Make notes of questions and concerns your customers usually person and reside them successful your videos.

Here’s really Peachy Studio successful NYC does it by regularly publishing Instagram Reels:

Or, possibly you are a mini copywriting agency targeting world clients.

Focus connected creating thought leadership contented astir manufacture trends and create how-to lawsuit studies pinch your clients—just arsenic Omniscient Digital agency does connected its website:

In different words, see your audience’s symptom points and what channels they typically usage to find products and services for illustration yours. Then, deliberation of a measurement to construe this into engaging content.

The options are almost endless:

• Blog posts to pull users who usage hunt engines and different channels to find step-by-step guidelines and heavy insights
• Long-form videos connected YouTube to pull ocular learners 
• Social media shorts to prosecute your assemblage pinch speedy contented that fits into their regular scrolling habits
• Email newsletters to nurture relationships and support imaginable customers successful the loop 
• Podcasts to found authority and link pinch audiences who for illustration audio content
• User-generated contented campaigns to build spot and showcase existent customer experiences

6. Organize Your Content Production Process

Before you commencement creating content, look astatine your budget, resources, and really overmuch you tin realistically produce. 

This measurement helps you fig retired really often you tin publish, whether you request in-house aliases freelance help, and what benignant of contented you tin create.

Here are 3 questions to thief you scheme your process:

What Are My Needs, Budget, and Resources

Think about:

• Needs: First, deliberation astir really galore pieces of contented you’d for illustration to people each month, based connected your contented trading goals. This will thief you fig retired what roles you request to fill—such arsenic writers, strategists, designers, aliases video creators.
• Resources: Look astatine the group you already person connected your team. Do you person capable hands connected deck, aliases do you request other help? If needed, see bringing successful freelancers, agencies, aliases part-time support to capable the gaps. 
• Budget: Your fund will style really overmuch contented you tin realistically produce, who you tin hire, and which devices you tin put in. Even if your fund is small, focusing connected the correct operation of talent and devices tin thief you make a large impact.

Once you measure your needs, budget, and resources, you’ll person a clearer image of really to move forward. 

Who Will Create My Content?

Producing contented takes time, truthful you’ll request to determine whether to grip it yourself aliases get extracurricular help.

In-house: If you aliases personification connected your squad tin create content, this keeps costs down and ensures your marque sound stays consistent. You tin besides propulsion insights from customer interactions and existent experiences to make contented much relatable.

Freelancers aliases agencies: If you don’t person the clip aliases skills, outsourcing is simply a elastic option. Freelancers tin thief pinch blogs, societal media, aliases videos without the costs of a full-time hire, while agencies grip bigger projects but travel astatine a higher price. The cardinal is to find personification who understands your business truthful that the contented still feels authentic.

Which Content Marketing Tools Do I Need?

Finally, you tin take from respective package devices to make contented accumulation easier. Key options include:

• AI penning tools, specified arsenic ContentShake AI to create contented that ranks successful hunt results
• Project guidance tools, specified arsenic Notion aliases Relato
• Social media guidance and contented creation tools, specified arsenic Semrush’s Social Media Toolkit 
• AI video contented tools, specified arsenic Veed.io
• Simple creation devices for creating visuals, specified arsenic Canva

For example, ContentShake AI automates respective contented processes astatine a time. It finds contented ideas and keywords for your business, transforms them into SEO-friendly articles, and sends them straight to your website.

7. Be Selective pinch Your Content Distribution Channels

Just arsenic pinch contented topics and formats, don’t dispersed yourself excessively bladed by trying to station contented connected each imaginable platform. 

It tin quickly go overwhelming. 

Instead, attraction connected wherever your astir weighted customers really walk time.

Are your customers connected societal media? Do they watch videos, and if so, where? Do they look astatine photograph galleries, specs, aliases different data? Once you’ve identified the champion outlets, creating contented that tin beryllium repurposed is an businesslike measurement to make much pinch less.

Nicole Wolfe, Digital Content Expert

How should you attack this? Start by revisiting your customer research:

• Which sites do they browse? 
• Which influencers and creators do they follow?
• Which channels do they make purchasing decisions on?

For example, you could attraction connected societal media platforms for illustration TikTok aliases LinkedIn, SEO, influencer marketing, organization building, and more.

Here is the afloat database of channels that are particularly celebrated among mini business marketers: 

Knowing these things helps style your plan. It’s amended to support a beardown beingness connected 1 aliases 2 channels than struggle to support up connected five.

8. Build Your Content Calendar

By now, you should cognize what benignant of contented you’re creating, really overmuch you need, and who will nutrient it.

The adjacent step? Map retired your editorial strategy, truthful everything runs smoothly. 

I’ve recovered that a clear, organized content calendar not only saves clip but besides helps you enactment accordant and deed your goals. Here’s what to include:

• Topics and keywords: Choose themes that lucifer your audience’s interests and that align pinch your goals
• Content formats: Blogs, videos, newsletters, podcasts—pick the correct mean for each topic
• Audience segment: Note which group you’re targeting (e.g., caller customers vs. existing ones)
• Timeline: Assign people dates, reappraisal periods, and immoderate promotion deadlines
• Team responsibilities: Clearly authorities who’s successful complaint of writing, editing, design, aliases societal media

You tin usage a elemental instrumentality for illustration Google Sheets aliases usage platforms for illustration Notion. Here’s what it mightiness look like:

9. Be Experimental and Avoid Creating Generic Content

Competing pinch large brands connected celebrated topics tin consciousness for illustration a losing battle—especially if you person a smaller budget. 

For example, companies for illustration HubSpot already rank precocious for the astir communal CRM aliases integer trading keywords. 

And LLMs for illustration ChatGPT already supply generic accusation to basal customer questions.

If you spell head-to-head pinch them connected generic content, your activity mightiness get mislaid successful the crowd.

You’re small, truthful you person constricted reach. The taxable you’re covering is apt already handled by bigger companies. If you constitute generic content, it astir apt won’t make a ripple successful the immense water of existing posts. There’s an accusation overload and contented fatigue retired there.

Sandip Acharyya, Marketing Strategist

Instead of trying to hit them astatine their ain game, show disconnected your brand’s unsocial characteristic and find angles those bigger names mightiness ignore.

How?

• Be bold and experimental: For example, usage memes, humor, aliases pop-culture tie-ins—when they fresh your style. Instead of rehashing “top 10 trends,” return a beardown stance aliases mobility communal assumptions. This gives group a logic to announcement you.
• Create original research: Can you tally a speedy study aliases analyse information from your product? Share these insights. They are difficult for competitors (and AI tools) to replicate, which makes them other valuable.
• Publish thought activity posts: If personification connected your squad has heavy expertise, promote them to stock it. Fresh manufacture perspectives aliases beardown opinions often guidelines retired much than yet different generic “how-to” article. 

Take REI.com, for example. This ecommerce seller of hiking cogwheel creates blog listicles that really bring worth to their customers.

Instead of putting together a random database of “the champion hiking shoes”, they person their unit trial the merchandise first successful real-world conditions—and only past constitute the article. Here’s an example of specified contented piece: 

10. Diversify and Repurpose Content That Delivers Results

I emotion getting much mileage retired of my top-performing content. 

If thing is driving leads, conversions, aliases marque awareness, why not accommodate it for different channels? 

As a mini business, you don’t person the resources ample companies do, truthful you request to get the astir retired of each portion of content. Repurposing tin springiness you precocious engagement aliases scope without having to create everything from scratch.

Anastasia Chechkova, Marketing Lead astatine OnePageCRM

Here are immoderate strategies you could use:

• Turn a webinar aliases video into a blog post: Have you hosted a webinar aliases recorded a podcast? Convert the main insights into a blog article. That way, group who for illustration reference tin still get the afloat story.
• Transform YouTube videos into clips (and a podcast): Take agelong YouTube videos and chop them into bite-sized segments for societal media. If the contented is engaging aliases conversational enough, you tin moreover rip the audio and move it into a podcast episode.
• Build a investigation study from the data: If you want to stock stats aliases study findings, package them into a concise report. You tin past repurpose it into societal media posts, infographics, articles, and more. 

For instance, we precocious published this research connected whether AI contented ranks successful hunt (spoiler: it does).

We past repurposed it arsenic societal media contented and blog articles for illustration this one.

When you recycle your best-performing content, you prevention clip and money—two resources astir mini businesses can’t spare. 

You besides meet your assemblage successful their preferred format, which tin summation engagement and marque loyalty. 

11. Keep an Eye connected Your Metrics to Improve Performance

Measuring your content’s capacity is the only measurement to cognize you’re gathering your goals. 

To make this easier, schedule regular check-ins—for example, each 2 weeks aliases each month—to spot what’s moving and what isn’t. 

This will thief you set your strategy earlier you put excessively overmuch clip successful contented that mightiness not present results.

Content capacity metrics you could way include:

• Traffic and on-page personification behavior: Look astatine page views, engagement rate, bounce rate, and top-performing pages. Google Analytics (GA4) is my go-to for these insights. It shows maine what benignant of topics support readers engaged.
• Social media engagement: Track likes, comments, shares, and mentions. You tin besides usage specialized societal listening devices specified arsenic Media Monitoring to spot really group talk your brand. 
• SEO: Monitor integrated traffic, backlinks, and keyword rankings to spot if your SEO efforts are driving results pinch devices specified arsenic Position Tracking or Google Search Console.
• Impact connected the bottommost line: Ultimately, you request to cognize if your contented leads to conversions, sign-ups, aliases sales. By search costs per lead aliases revenue, and tying it backmost to contented successful a CRM specified arsenic Salesforce, you get a clear position of contented ROI.

For example, if your extremity is to get much traffic, way your keyword rankings connected a play basis.

Open the Position Tracking tool and adhd the keywords you want to monitor.

From now on, you tin spot really your keyword rankings alteration complete time. You tin then tweak your approach. 

For example, if a page is losing rankings, it’s clip to update it. If different is doing really well, cheque what’s moving and use it to different content.

Final Thoughts

Content trading has ne'er been much exciting—or much competitive. But it’s besides the champion opportunity mini businesses tin usage to scope caller customers. 

How do you win successful 2025?

Focus connected meaningful, high-quality contented that genuinely speaks to your audience. Experiment pinch formats, support an oculus connected capacity metrics, and refine your strategy arsenic you study what resonates.

To get started faster, usage AI contented devices for illustration ContentShake AI and Semrush Social Content AI.