How To Write Detroit-Centric Marketing Content

  Implementing an effective content marketing strategy is an essential part of attracting customers, growing your business and producing sales of your products and services. If you're a small business in the Greater Detroit area, you must ask yourself how you can write marketing content that capitalizes on your location.   What is content marketing? To write effective local marketing content, you have to know and understand what is content marketing. According to Content Marketing Institute, "Content marketing is the process of developing and sharing relevant, valuable, and engaging content to a target audience with the goal of acquiring new customers or increasing business from existing customers." Ultimately, your content should draw a specific audience to your business website or social media platforms by engaging and informing them in a way that converts to a sale. Small business owners want to draw those who want or need your products and services.   Keys to writing effective content

• Don't make it about you. Focus on making it about the customer. Personalize your content by speaking directly to specific customers instead of all your customers in general.  
• Tap into emotions to forge a personal connection. People want to feel something and most of us respond to empathy.  
• Tell a story that engages and addresses a need. Storytelling is a great marketing tool. Capture your readers' interests with a great story about your business or service, and address the needs you can meet.  
• Adopt your customers' mindset and present a solution. When you're writing content, pretend you're the customer and ask yourself how your product or services meet their wants and needs. How can your business educate your customer? How can you solve their problem? Write in a conversational style your reader can relate to and direct content flow to answering these questions, providing helpful information or presenting a solution to a problem.  

  Detroit-focused marketing content If you're a small business in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, you can use content to establish a good local rapport and reputation. Remember, great marketing content doesn't try to sell what you have to offer. Instead, it seeks to establish a relationship with readers and potentially convert them to customers.   Location, location, location A good first question to ask is how does your location help your audience? For instance, if you're a pizza place, are you close to the new Little Caesar's Arena or Fox Theatre? Are you a convenient dinner spot appealing to those attending the theater or an event in Downtown Detriot before or after their plans? If you do oil changes, is a shopping mall or café nearby so someone can shop or eat until their car is ready?   All in the family If there is a great local history or a Detroit-focused family story behind your business, customers will be interested in knowing. Giovanni's Ristorante, for example, is a Detroit-based, world-famous, family-owned restaurant, which has hosted a multitude of celebrities for decades. Enriched with a family history of Italian immigrants, which eventually found themselves in Detroit, customers are attracted to their story. Plus, It also doesn't hurt that huge stars like Frank Sinatra, Jack Nicholson and George Clooney have dined there.   Social media sharing Marketing content comes in a variety of formats including blog posts, videos, podcasts, a Facebook photo gallery and more. Building a strong social media presence and writing fun, informative posts people want to share can raise your local business profile and translate to sales. For instance, if you own a flower shop, consider sharing blog posts that compliment your business with headlines like "How to Keep Plants Alive" or "The Best Flower Gardens to Visit in Detroit." You can also host a Mother's Day drawing via social media and give away a free bouquet to the winner. Social media opportunities are limitless. Post photos of your cupcakes or custom t-shirts on Instagram. Post how-to videos related to your products on YouTube. Host a Facebook live Q & A about your services. Sister Pie in Detroit gained over 32,000 Instagram followers posting morning baking photos, pie of the day announcements and dance break videos on their business page. There are so many possibilities. Get creative!     This article was written by Lori Melton for Small Business Pulse   For more tips and inspiration for small business owners, visit Small Business Pulse Detroit.