Building a Strategy for Content Marketing for Startups
When considering the best approach to engage your target audience and increase the number of clients you have, content marketing is a great way to go. A content marketing strategy allows you to attract, engage and involve potential customers to your brand. This in turn leads to an improved generation of profit, and an increase in positive brand perception. It is a strategic investment that can lead to brands being able to grow, gain relevance and improve online visibility. Essentially, they have a higher chance of standing out from their competition. The internet is saturated with different brands today, and having a strategy that makes yours unique and stand out can be a game changer
Why Should You as a Startup Invest in a Content Marketing Strategy?
Content marketing for startups is a means of building brand awareness while keeping costs low. A study done on LiberEat showed that the implementation of a good content marketing strategy led to an increase in growth of organic traffic by 1000%, increased organic conversions by 25%, and the achievement of sustainable growth. Blog posts, lead magnets, videos and guides are all organic content, and have the capability of leaving long lasting positive impacts on your business. Targeted searches, social ads and other paid advertising that is related can have powerful short-term effects. Content marketing for startups can attract potential clients to your website and convert them to leads, build trust with your target audience by sharing credible information, and use SEO to increase your brand’s visibility.
Pondering on whether or not your startup needs a content marketing strategy will always come to mind. It is okay to think about and consider your options, but when it comes down to it, content marketing strategies are a must for startups. They are incredibly beneficial for early stage companies and small businesses. They are also an excellent tool to generate buzz and create initial awareness around your brand.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Content marketing can easily help you engage with your audience, nurture lasting relationships and eventually lead to improved sales. Building brand awareness, trust and loyalty is essential when you’re starting your business and content creation allows potential customers to consume your content and get an impression of who you are as a brand. It allows you to reach target audiences who may avoid online advertising while keeping costs down as all of it can be done in-house.
Nine Steps to Building a Strong content marketing strategy for startups
Content marketing for startups takes time and effort, but in the long run can be beneficial and create long lasting effects. Let’s look at the stages for building a solid strategy.
Step 1: Build a Structure for Your Startup’s Content Marketing
Laying a strong foundation for your strategys always the best way to start. This can help set the goals for it before you even begin creating it. It’s also a good idea to get buy-ins from stakeholders and prepare marketing assets, which are the most important to your company.
Step 2: Align Your Content with Your Business Model
Laying a strong foundation for your strategy is always the best way to start. This can help set the goals for it before you even begin creating it. It’s also a good idea to get buy-ins from stakeholders and prepare marketing assets, which are the most important to your company.
Making sure your content is clear and definite is very important. You also need to set content marketing objectives and ensure they are clear, realistic, limited and measurable.
Step 3: Develop a Deep Understanding of the Audience You Intend on Targeting
You need to be able to understand your audience’s objectives, pain points and problems. Determine the type of audience you want to target, research them so you can understand them better, and go where they frequent the most. If you interact and engage with them on the right platforms, it makes the strategy much more viable.
Step 4: Make Your Topics and Keyword Research a Priority
You can now start researching topics and keywords that will be included in your content strategy. Starting with the topics is a good idea, as Google judges not only the keywords being used, but also how well you are able to cover a subject.
Once completed, you can now move on to keyword research. Start by collecting keywords for each of the topics you intend on choosing and using. They will help shape the future of your articles, and make your ranking better in search engines. Finally, add semantically-related keywords to your content and topics. These will help search engines understand what the article you are publishing is about.
Step 5: Make Sure You are Helping Your Audience Solve Their Problems and Achieve Their Goals
Most of the searches you do everyday usually end up solving a problem or gaining information. The same goes for your target audience. You need to be able to address their pain points and solve any problems they may have. Find content ideas which are engaging for your audience, as relatable ideas will definitely attract them to your brand.
Step 6: Keep Your Content Formats Varied
The next step is choosing how to cover your content ideas once you are satisfied with them. You normally aren’t limited to the platforms you can choose, but it’s always a good idea to focus on popular ones. These include blog posts, sales enablement, case studies, lead magnets, email marketing, podcasts and videos.
Step 7: Make a Decision on Which Distribution Channels You Will Use
An important aspect of your content plan is content distribution. It’s not enough just to create the content, you also need your target audience to see it. Channels you may be able to focus on are owned channels (which are ones owned by your business), paid channels (which are ones you would pay for on other sites), and earned channels (which are ones you have no control over).
Step 8: Use Your Content Across Multiple Platforms
Creating a strategy for the content marketing for your startup can take up a lot of time, and this time could be better allocated elsewhere. More so when you don’t have a team that focuses on creating and publishing solid content. With the various platforms that you have access to, you need to change your content from one platform to another. Whatever content you produce, is usable on any platform you choose to use, as long as you alter it to make it match the platform’s style and audience. Creating a few different versions of the content you create will allow you to transition more easily when posting on multiple platforms.
Step 9: Choose Marketing Tools Which Align With Your Content
Startups usually don’t have the time and resources to create a strategy as efficiently and quickly as possible. Fortunately, there are many tools which can help you create the strategy and help you maintain it. These tools include Google Drive, Google Trends, Topic Research, Keyword Gap, Keyword Magic Tool, SEO Writing Assistant, Grammarly, Google Analytics, Hot Jar and Content Management System. With these tools you are able to empower your content marketing strategy.
With the internet saturated with information and the ‘noise’ across the digital sphere ringing across all of our devices, it’s vital to create a solid strategy to stand out from the crowd and make sure your voice is heard.
Being part of a new business is an exciting time but with so many failing within the first few years it’s essential to give your brand the best possible chance, so ensure to include content marketing in your communications plan.
