Online content for businesses can help attract and retain customers. Business leaders benefit by taking the time to set up a system that produces content that is timely and relevant to their business.

Entrepreneurs can get the most out of online content for businesses – whether it’s a small business or a larger company – by creating effective content that considers the following elements.

Know Your Audience

Before you create any content for your business, it’s important to know who you are trying to reach. Identify who your ideal customers are and what they are looking for. Or if your content is targeted toward existing customers, consider what their questions are and create content to answer these questions.

Different pieces of content might have different audiences, depending on the goal. As you are thinking of the audience, remember what action you want them to take to help you shape the content.

Use An Eye-Catching Headline

Once you know who you are talking to and what you want them to do, you can start creating. Your headline plays an important role, because it needs to attract attention to get your potential customer interested in clicking on your piece.

Think about where people will find your content. If your goal is to appear in search results for search engines like Google, you’ll want headlines that relate to specific queries people are searching for. Keyword research can help you narrow down potential topics based on keyword opportunities.

If your goal is for people to share your content on social media, optimize your headlines based on best practices for the specific social channel. For example, a BuzzSumo study of 100 million headlines shared on Twitter and Facebook showed that using about 11 words or 65 characters was the most successful length.

Focus on a Specific Idea

Every piece of content needs a specific focus. This helps with search engine optimization and makes it easier for your customers. Writing about a specific topic makes the content more natural, easier to understand and gives actionable next steps.

Think about the way people ask questions or search for items. If your company is located in Florida and specializes in solar panels, writing a post about “Best Solar Panels for Your Home” might be too generic to attract your audience’s attention. Making the headline more specific, like “Best Solar Panels for Florida’s Weather” is more likely to attract your ideal customer and answer their specific question.

Create an Authentic Voice

Your content should sound like your brand. When you create your brand voice, you want it to be natural to you and your audience.

Once you’ve defined what your brand sounds like, every piece of content should use that voice. It helps your customers recognize you and makes them feel at ease.

No one wants to read content that is confusing or difficult to understand. Short sentences help. Try not to use jargon that your customers might not know. Keep it simple!

Showcase Your Expertise

One of the most effective parts of using online content to attract customers to your small business is it gives you a chance to show your expertise. When you answer questions for potential customers, they begin to build trust in you.

Creating trustworthy content can also help establish your brand as an authority. If other entities start linking to your content, it shows search engines that you have expertise in that subject area.

When online content for business ranks for relevant keywords and brings in more customers, it can help you build out your content strategy. Each new click is another potential customer and further proof your content is working.