What Is Content Marketing? Strategies to Grow Your Business
If you’ve been tackling your own marketing, you’ve probably heard the term “content marketing” before. Maybe in one of those free webinars from a self-proclaimed guru who tries to sell you something at the end.
Spoiler alert - it’s something you’ve been doing, but just didn’t know it.
✨Here’s the skinny!
Content marketing is just a fancy term for sharing useful, relevant information to attract and influence potential customers, without the hard sell. Done well, it helps attract the right people — and turn them into loyal customers who trust your brand. Plus, it has the added advantage of generating leads organically.
The goal is to keep your business top of mind, so when they’re ready to proceed, your business is one they remember.
Why Content Marketing Works for Small Businesses
Unlike paid ads that chase quick clicks, content marketing is a long-term strategy built on trust, visibility — and brand awareness.
The right content strategy can help you:
get discovered
address the real problems your customers face
be the first name people recall when they're ready to buy
build an engaged audience who shares, recommends, and returns
Instead of pushing for sales, you're showing up with useful, relevant content that helps people — whether it's answering questions, offering tips, or simply entertaining them. Done consistently, this builds credibility and turns casual browsers into loyal customers.
That's the real role of content marketing: creating meaningful connections that grow your business over time.
💡 Quick Tip: Not sure what to post? Start with the top five questions your customers ask you — via email, DMs, or over the phone. Those answers make perfect blog or social media content. Why? Because these topics are more likely to show up in search results, including AI, as it's based on common real-life problems.
What Does Content Marketing Include?
Content marketing casts a wide net. It includes everything from:
the words and images on your website
your monthly blog
Google Business Profile updates
Substack email newsletters
Instagram captions, LinkedIn or Facebook posts
Reels and TikToks (including the ones you regret)
Even the downloadable lead magnets on your website are part of your content marketing toolbox. That includes your how-to guides, checklists, e-books and templates.
💡 Quick Tip: Work smarter by repurposing your content across your marketing platforms. One blog post can provide material for your email newsletter (linking to blog), several social media posts and Google Business Profile updates.
Content Planning: Keep It Simple (But Strategic)
Content marketing works best when you plan ahead — even just a little. Instead of scrambling to post something last-minute, try using a basic content calendar to map out what you’ll share and where.
You can use an Excel spreadsheet or any number of free tools, like Meta Business Suite, Trello, Google Drive or Google Calendar. If you’re keen on analytics, there are more purpose-built tools such as Metricool, Buffer or Later. These let you schedule, track performance and auto-publish content.
By planning your content, it helps you:
stay consistent
avoid content gaps or repetition (unless intentional)
align your posts with promotions, seasons, or events
monitor results
The key is to find a tool that works for you and makes the job easier and more effective.
💡 Pro tip: Set aside one hour each month to brainstorm ideas and map out your posts. That small habit can make a big difference to how polished and purposeful your content feels. But don't be too set in your ways. If your content falls flat, you want to address that — and not stick to the plan 'just because'.
Where to Share: Socials, SEO & Search AI
To be effective, it’s not just about what you say, it’s where you share it that counts.
You can create the best content in the world, but if your ideal customers never see it, it can’t do its job. It’s a bit like that tree falling in the forest — if no one’s around to hear it, does it even make a sound?
✨ Social Media Content
When it comes to social media, placement is everything. If your audience is on LinkedIn but you’re posting to Instagram, that’s a missed opportunity — and one you might not even realise without a strategy in place. You need to know where your customers spend their time.
✨ Better Content Improves Visibility
Not all content relies on social feeds to get discovered. With the right strategy, other types of content offer more long-term visibility.
For example, blogs and lead magnets belong on your website, where they support your SEO and what’s starting to be known as GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation (think the likes of ChatGPT). With the right content, you can drive consistent traffic by appearing in traditional search results (like Google or Bing) and AI-generated answers.
What Is The Best Strategy For You?
When it comes to strategy, it’s about striking the right balance. So, take a step back and look at the bigger picture:
Who is your ideal customer?
What do they need?
How can you deliver it effectively?
And how has AI reshaped search behaviour, and what does that mean for your approach?
💡 Quick Tip: Quality beats quantity, so don’t try to be everywhere. Choose one or two social media platforms where your customers hang out and commit to posting consistently there first. Start with a post per week and grow from there as you find what resonates most. And with blogs, once a month is an achievable goal that can quickly generate traffic, especially with a well-placed link via your social media.
How Content Marketing Helps You Surface in Google & AI Results
Before 2022, when we discussed improving online visibility or SEO, we were mostly referring to Google. But with the rise of tools like ChatGPT, the way we interact with search — especially AI-powered search — has changed dramatically.
These days, your content needs to do two things:
resonate with your audience
be optimised for both traditional search engines and AI-enhanced results
But here's the good news — you don't have to be the best writer to create effective content — just a great listener. Learn what problems your customers face and what information they're searching for online. By doing this, you'll be on the right path.
💡 Quick Tip: Do you want your content to show up in AI tools like ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews? To achieve this, try structuring your posts with clear questions, bulleted answers, and summaries. These help AI understand and surface your content when people ask questions online. And remember, avoid keyword stuffing (the overuse of keywords) — instead, use semantics (related terms to show your knowledge depth) and add Schema Markup to your website. (I will be covering Schema Markup and on-page SEO on my blog soon, so consider hitting the follow button on my Facebook page).
How to Make Your Content Easier to Discover
When it comes to surfacing in SEO and GEO results, there are no guarantees. But you can improve your chances by including the following in your content marketing strategy:
✨ Optimise What You Already Have. Start by using your own data.
Analyse your data: Review your Google Search Console (or Google Analytics) data, which provides insight into the keywords (phrases) that you already rank for. Use these words across your online content.
Repurpose content: Reuse your long-form content (blogs) to create social media posts, Google Business Profile updates and email newsletters. It is a cost-effective and smart content marketing strategy.
✨ Improve SEO On & Off Your Site. These strategic updates can help performance.
On-page SEO: Websites don’t all come with on-page SEO, so complete an audit of your website. There are free tools and paid options available for this purpose, which will flag areas for improvement. My website audit is called a website WOF.
Off-page SEO: This involves creating backlinks, which can help improve your ranking over time. A backlink is when another website links back to yours; for example, you might become a guest blogger, request that suppliers link to your website, or list your company on various business directories, such as Yelp or Whangarei Online.
Technical SEO: Consider outsourcing this area if an SEO audit identifies issues. Some key areas of concern involve crawlability (can your website be crawled and indexed by AI and traditional search engines) and page load speeds. Often, image optimisation can resolve the latter. FYI - Your website host also impacts loading times, so to an extent it is out of your control.
✨ Use Smart Tools & Strategic Platforms. Don't overlook high-impact tools.
Ask AI: If you use AI like ChatGBT, do research into what type of content is more likely to appear in AI results. You may as well get it from the horse's mouth!
Maintain Your Google Business Profile: Although this is already part of your content marketing strategy, it is often overlooked. Don’t. It is one of the most effective tools for enhancing your local SEO. Learn more about Google Business Profile on my blog.
Social media: Always link back to your website, as this drives additional traffic to your site. As users click your link, it has the added benefit of improving your engagement level, which is a good thing for the algorithm. It's called social signals.
💡 Quick Tip: Before creating any new content, review your top-performing pages in Google Search Console (Or Google Analytics). Then update them using the new keyword phrases, internal links, visuals, or AI-friendly summaries. It’s one of the fastest ways to improve results without starting from scratch.
FAQ Section: Content Marketing
❓ Q1: What is content marketing, in simple terms?
A: Content marketing means sharing helpful, relevant information online to attract potential customers and build brand awareness. Your primary objective is to focus on building trust and fostering long-term relationships, rather than merely pushing sales.
❓Q2: Is content marketing better than paid ads?
A: Not better, just different. Paid ads provide quick results, but content marketing fosters long-term trust and organic visibility, making it especially helpful for small businesses with limited budgets. Plus, with organic content like blogs and social posts, you’re not paying for every click (especially the ones that don’t convert), unlike with paid ads.
❓Q3: Does content marketing help with Google and AI search?
A: Yes. Search engines (and AI tools like ChatGPT) use your content to answer user questions. The more useful, structured, and relevant your content is, the better your chances are of appearing in search results. That's why FAQ sections are especially useful in blogs and on your website.
❓Q4: Does content marketing generate leads?
A: Yes. Your customers may see your content when they are already considering taking action—making a purchase, for example. The lead happens organically because you have built a level of trust and brand recognition, and they seek you out.
Client Testimonial - View More On My Website or Google Reviews
🔑 Your Key Takeaway
Content marketing helps NZ businesses grow by building genuine customer connections, improving visibility, and keeping you top of mind — even when customers aren’t ready to buy. The challenge is to create content that reflects your brand and values, and to show up consistently across all of your marketing platforms.
In 2025, social proof is more powerful than ever. Consistent, value-led content gives people a reason to trust, recommend, and return — and that’s what turns visibility into real growth.
Still unsure where to begin? You don’t have to figure it all out alone.
Maree Gately
NZ Small Business Content Marketing Services
If content marketing feels like something you should be doing — but you're not sure where to start — you're not alone.
I work with small Kiwi businesses to create practical, strategic content that gets you found online, builds trust, and brings the right people your way.
Whether you have a one-off project or ongoing services in mind, I am happy to create a personalised package that suits your budget.
Let's chat about how content marketing can grow your business — 📞 book a free 30-minute discovery call. Or, if you live in Whangarei, we can meet up for coffee.
