How to create an effective content marketing strategy for a service-based business

If you’ve reached this guide, chances are you are planning to launch an online marketing strategy for your business that offers services to other individuals or companies. One of the best things about content marketing is that it can apply to any service-based business. However, how you use content marketing for a product-based business differs from how you use it for a service-based one. Consider applying content marketing strategies to attract a broader audience to your service-based business and track record.

How to Use Content Marketing for Service-Based Business Promotion

One of the most popular misconceptions is that content marketing is only about creating text. However, it’s much more than that. It’s about developing a compelling narrative about your brand that resonates with your audience.

Content marketing strategies are always audience-oriented. Before writing any copy, you should clearly understand who will read it. Understanding your audience and their pain points is critical to content marketing. By putting yourself in your client’s shoes and appealing to their needs, you can create a compelling marketing message that provides valuable solutions and insights.

When developing a content marketing strategy for your service-based business, maintaining a steady flow of captivating content is essential to keeping your audience hooked and encouraging users to return for more.

Creating and sharing your content is not where your online marketing ends. This is only where your interaction with the audience begins. After sharing your copy, measure its performance and analyze the results. Keep a close eye on the topics and formats that have gained the biggest demand with your clients and work on further improvement to create a content marketing strategy that will put you on the path of triumph. As writing experts at WriteMyPaper state, writing content is only half the battle; measuring its impact and refining your strategy is what truly drives growth.

When working on a content marketing strategy for your service-based business, remember that it takes time and consistent effort to get the first results of your work. Try different forms of content, commit to the chosen tactics, and keep sharing your content regularly. Content marketing is a long game. The ones who do not give up – win.

Integrating Your Content into Your Visual Brand

Your content is crucial for establishing brand recognition as an expert and service provider. To achieve this, consistently apply your brand’s stylistic elements across all branded content images.

Define your blog style with header and text formatting guidelines, font colors, blog image templates, and social media image templates.

Defining Your Voice and Style

Visuals are just one part of your brand. Another key aspect is your brand voice and personality. This distinction is crucial for service businesses compared to product businesses.

You create a brand voice for a product business that appeals to your target customers. For a service business, your brand voice must be more personal, reflecting your personality and team’s. Clients choose you based on trust and likability.

To define your brand voice, consider these questions:

Relationship:

What type of relationship do you want with your clients?
What type of relationship do your clients seek from their service provider?
How is your relationship with your clients defined?

Speaking Their Language:

How do your clients describe the problem your service solves?
How do your clients describe the benefits of your service, including personal benefits and advantages over competitors?
How would clients describe your service in their own words?

To refine these descriptions, use surveys, forums, and interviews to gather your clients’ words.

Use these insights to shape your content and language across all brand touchpoints (website, social media, blog, newsletter, freebies, service/package descriptions, sales materials, email templates, customer service, etc.).

Lead-Generating Content Types

In content marketing for service-based companies, there are multiple content types that you can publish on your blog, social media, and partners’ websites. Each content type brings certain value to your audience and helps you enhance your brand’s recognition. Let’s discuss the major types of content that you can share on your website to generate more leads.

Service-Based Content

Such content aims to explain exactly how your service or technology works. Compared to ordinary products that can be seen and touched, the benefits of services are often not obvious to the audience.

Thanks to the articles related to your services, the reader will understand in what cases to use your development, how to do it correctly, and why this particular product will make his life easier.

The more a person sees that the product will solve his pain, the greater the chance of converting the reader into a lead.

Sometimes, before discussing a service in detail, you need to warm up the audience with materials on a broader topic. For example, first, write about business automation in general and then about a service that copes with this task.

Case Studies

A case is a story about how a company worked on a specific client project and what happened. Such material highlights the problems a business can solve and reinforces its expertise with real examples from practice. The purpose of the case is to prove that the company understands the nuances of the work and leads the client to results, not only in words.

If you want to achieve significant coverage and reach new audiences with the help of cases, regular release of the format in the media will help. A separate case editorial office is often required to organize such a process. It can be assembled directly in the company, or the task can be outsourced.

News Articles

News is an easy-to-produce and effective content format. A post about an event published on time goes viral without advertising, which brings a new audience to the business and fuels the interest of current subscribers.

Follow the industry agenda to be the first to publish the latest news on the blog. You should not directly copy texts from other publications: the algorithms of social networks and search engines do not like stolen content. You can rewrite the news to gain coverage but add something new to the publications, such as the opinion of experts from your team.

Guides

A guide is an article describing the solution to a specific problem. In IT, such a task could explain how to install, update, connect, clean, or check something.

Use articles in instructional format to teach your audience how to use your product or show your company’s expertise. They will demonstrate that the business is a problem solver in their industry and understands the technical aspects.

Articles explaining trends

Another type of content that service-based businesses can leverage is writing about industry trends. Such articles may talk about myths about using a specific service or explain how and why to use it. One of the biggest advantages of adding such articles to your content marketing strategy is that they help you improve your brand’s SEO and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

For example, suppose you are working on the content marketing plan for your web design agency. In that case, you may post about the latest web design trends, showcase how you implement those trends in your works, share forecasts about the technology you assume will be popular shortly, etc.

Behind-the-Scenes Posts

Is there a person who is not interested in looking behind the scenes at their favorite brands to learn how decisions are made and how work is organized? Behind-the-scenes articles are among the most popular articles used in service-based companies’ content marketing strategy. Such content gives your audience a sneak peek of who you are and how all processes in your company are organized. Besides, it adds credibility to your brand and presents your team as true experts.

In a Nutshell

Creating a content marketing strategy for your service-brand business is a multi-faceted yet exciting process. Working on the content plan, keep it as diverse and valuable as possible. Always remember what audiences you target and what pain points you can appeal to. You can share articles of different types and categories based on your findings.

Wrapping up on the instructions listed above, consider developing a content marketing plan that covers but is not limited to the following aspects:

Tell your audience about your service, why it is needed, how it works, and who it will help. The more complex the product, the more effort is required to convey its benefits.
Publish cases. This is convincing proof that the product works not only in words.
Share industry news. Such content increases your reach and shows your audience that you are up to date.
Write instructions. With their help, it is convenient to demonstrate product functions and build the company’s expertise in its field.
Present yourself as an expert in your niche by sharing articles explaining industry trends and behind-the-scenes posts.

Don’t neglect articles on general topics. If you understand your audience’s pain, such publications will increase subscribers.

To build brand recognition, consistently apply your brand’s style to all content, including blog formatting and image templates. Your brand voice and personality are crucial, especially for service businesses where trust and likability are key. Define your brand voice by considering the desired client relationship and speaking in their language. Use client feedback to shape your content across all brand touchpoints.