If you attended elementary school or pursued courses like creative writing, journalism, or any form of writing in a post-secondary environment, you might have encountered The Five "W's" of writing and be familiar with them. However, what you may not know is they also have a very real application for your small business, marketing, advertising, and content creation. Many business owners on social media platforms focus so much on the visual aspects like videos and photos that they forget about the content. More importantly, content that communicates effectively the information that consumers and audiences need. We at Ontario Small Business Community see a lot of content on a day-to-day basis and consistently see one common shared issue. Content that does not follow The Five "W's" and, while it's presented, it's not really doing anything for the audience. In this blog post we are going to discuss The Five "W's" in depth - broken down into the sections listed below. Covering why they are so are essential to keep in mind when creating content that is effective content, marketing and advertising. Welcome to Back To Basics: The Five ''W's" In Media.
What Is Content Marketing?
What Are The Five "W’s"?
How To Use The Five "W’s" To Achieve Your Small Business Goals
The wise Bill Gates once dropped the phrase 'Content Is King', and while he used to apply it to startups and tech businesses, it actually applies to all businesses, particularly small businesses. Quality content not only helps to boost awareness and improve SEO, but is also a marketing tool that will start conversations and showcase brand, product, service, and business value. It is perhaps one of the most vital tools a small business can have, but it’s amazing how many small businesses don't use it correctly or fail to use it to its full potential. We do not want you to be one of these businesses, so we are going to help you learn about The Five "W's" and how it relates to your small business, content, advertising, and marketing. So let's get into it!
What Is Content Marketing?
The official definition of Content Marketing is: ‘A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience - and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.’
Good content should be at the very core of any marketing and advertising strategy. Creating quality content is essential for all small businesses. Here are just some of the ways content supports you with building your small businesses, as it:
Establishes you as an authority in the field, building trust with your growing audience and within your professional community.
Establishes a connection between you and your audience.
Enhances the customer/consumer experience.
Enhances and improves your small business ranking on search engines, helping you get found and widen your customer or audience reach.
Drives traffic to your small business' website/social media and showcases your products, services and offerings.
Yields a lasting payoff for the time you dedicate to your small business.
Helps to support your long-term and changing small business goals.
Turns audience and casual viewers into consumers and long-term customers.
In other words, your business needs to be producing insightful content that communicates well, and encourages audiences to support your business, become customers, showcase your products and services, and invest in the small business you are building.
What Are The Five "W’s"?
Now that you know that content is king what next? How do you begin to create and produce unique, high-quality, interesting and relevant content? A good basis to work from is one journalists use to ensure their stories have all the elements needed to make their copy pack a punch and, guess what, you as a small business can use it too! The 5 W’s – Why, Who, What, When, Where.
Why - Asking yourself 'why' will establish what you want to achieve from your advertising and marketing strategy. Is it to gain brand awareness and build your presence? Is it to generate leads for your services? Is it to launch a new line of products? Is it to rebrand your business because you are going in a different or new direction? Is it to sell the stuff you have made? Know what your small business goals are in order to create an advertising and marketing strategy that will work. The 'why' is also key to content creation. Why do you need to put the content together? Is it for a specific event, a product launch, or is it for general 'hello, we are here' copy? It is important to understand why you are writing the content and what you hope to achieve.
Who - Do you know who your audience is? This must be one of the first things to identify in your marketing and advertising efforts. Who is already buying or using your product or service? Who are you trying to target? It is fundamental to know your demographics so you can tailor content to reach and engage them. The more you know your audience, the better you can deliver content that will affect their purchasing decisions and keep them supporting your small business.
What - What is your audience or consumer base looking for? What makes your small business different? To get a deeper understanding of your customers, audience, and consumers, work out what they are interested in and what drives their decisions. A good way to figure this out is to first identify what your audience doesn’t want. The 'what' of your brand will naturally evolve as your small business grows over time, so it is important to always address this and alter your objectives. The 'What' of a small business may change for many businesses quite a bit over time and frequently, while for others it may never change. However, it is good to sit down and check in with yourself regularly, and readjust if needed. The 'what' can include everything from product, to pricing, to branding and services. Once you have an understanding of the 'what', you can tailor your content to your consumers and audience.
When - Timing is crucial. When should you promote and publish your content? This can vary for each small business, so understanding your audience demographics is important here. You want all the content that you put out there, whether through social media, blogs, emails, podcasts, or videos, to be seen. Make sure you post regularly, and that the content is relevant in order to keep people engaged. Once you have figured out what works for your small business, try to be consistent so your audience is ready to engage and share. This will increase your chances of exposure and build your online presence and SEO.
Where - Where should you put your content? Perhaps the most obvious place is your website. Your website will gain a higher domain authority (one of the key measurements in SEO). Writing more, high-quality content increases the perceived expertise, authority, relevance and trust of your site. This leads to more inbound links, which improves the domain authority. Higher domain authority is strongly linked to higher search rankings, so the more content you produce, the better your ranking will be. Although it is important to add content to your website, it is also important to promote it. A really good option is to use a blog. Blogs are a great way to share information, detail products and services, and increase exposure. It is a way to convey your unique style and voice through the tone and language you create for your brand and small business - and is extremely important, too, as it helps to set your small business apart from your competitors. Hello! Did you know we have a blog here at Ontario Small Business Community? You can find it here! "Shameless Plug." It's a clear and direct route to audiences and customers to help build relationships, and helps to get your small business' personality across. Add blogs to your website, but also share them on social media channels and make sure to link them back to your website. Use social media platforms to engage with your audiences and customers, but before doing so it is important to understand what they are looking at. Is LinkedIn a more direct route to your audience or do Instagram and TikTok float their boat? Find out where your target audience is and use content to capture their attention.
How To Use The Five "W’s" To Achieve Your Small Business Goals
Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your small business. It only really costs time, and it offers something even better - compounding and ongoing returns.
To get the most from your content marketing, use The 5 "W"s. This will set out your goals and ensure you don’t go off track, which happens a lot with small businesses. It's easy to get sidetracked with topical issues and interests. It will allow you to focus on your audience and customers, your brand and small business, and your target audience. To optimize your content, evaluate the 5 "W"s regularly as your small business evolves and grows. One of the things we always say is that your first few months of content marketing and advertising might not yield much, but if you stick with it, then you’ll see the growth start. Gains look and feel slow in the beginning and even if you feel they are not happening, they are. It's like a dam; at first, it's just a trickle of water, then over time, it starts to gush. Eventually, the dam breaks, and it's all happening! Keep at it for a year or two, and you could easily see a return that’s double, triple or even quadruple your investment in time and efforts.
Now you know about The Five "W's" In Media. You are now equipped with a roadmap for planning, creating, and executing content that is effective for building presence, growing your small business, marketing, and advertising. Our next piece in our Back To Basics: Social Series is Ghosting On Your Posting, where we discuss the eventual reality of when your small business takes a short, long, intentional, or unintentional break. How do you get back on track? How do you rebuild your engagement and audience trust? How do you motivate yourself to come back and stay motivated? We will give you a tip now. Life happens, but with a plan and the right tools to get back on track with your content, socials, engaging and connecting with your audience and consumers, you can definitely pull forward and continue to succeed even after a bump in the road. You can find it here: Back To Basics: Ghosting On Your Posting.
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More In The ONSBC Back To Basics Series
Instagram Basics: A Guide To Using Instagram
Facebook Basics: A Guide To Using Facebook For Business
Hashtags & Captions
The Five “W’s” In Media
Ghosting On Your Posting
Content Creation Foundations
Social Do’s & Do Not’s
Free Apps To Help You Add Value To Your Social Media, Content & Marketing
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