So, you’ve decided to start your own business and things are going pretty smoothly so far, but what’s next? How do you bolster your startup and attract the customers you need to grow? One way you can attract customers, build brand awareness, and boost sales is through content marketing.
Content marketing for startups can play a huge role in the success of a new brand. Promoting your brand is vital, especially within the first few years of starting your business.
It may seem confusing to decide which content marketing strategy to take for your business. Luckily, today we are going to walk through the best content marketing strategy tips for startups.
Read on to learn about the different types of content and what may be the best option for your business.
Why Content Marketing Matters for Startups
Content marketing is a cost-effective inbound marketing method of generating leads by providing high-quality, valuable content for customers. It doesn’t just mean having a blog on your business’s website –– although that can be a part of it. Content marketing encompasses targeting customers through relevant content to promote your brand and products.
Content plays a huge role in many startups’ marketing strategies because it works. According to a study by Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement. Simple as that. If you produce high-value content tailored to your target audience, you’ll reach people that have not heard of the brand before.
Startups need content marketing because it is a powerful and cost-effective way to grow brand awareness, generate leads, up conversions, build authority, and eventually expand your business. Through publishing SEO content, your startup can reap the tangible benefits of raising organic traffic, boosting domain authority, and spreading the word about your products or services.
Why Do Startups Need Content Marketing? Where Do I Begin With Content Marketing?
You might be intimidated by content marketing and that’s OK. Just take things one step at a time, and you’ll be on your way. Here are a few tips for beginning with content marketing as a startup.
- Decide how much of your marketing budget to invest in content. As a startup, your budget may be tight. The first thing you will want to do is figure out how much of your marketing budget will be dedicated to content. This is up to you, but because it is such an effective way to market startups, you may want to consider investing heavily in content vs. traditional marketing methods.
- Identify where the most opportunities for growth are and what type of content will be best. You will also need to evaluate where you see the most potential for growth and what type of content will support that growth. Deciding between a focus on awareness-level content, educational content, or more promotional content is essential to creating your strategy.
- Build a team of skilled marketers. Of course, ideally, you will want to build a team to execute your content marketing strategy. If you don’t have the manpower or revenue to hire full-time in-house writers, consider outsourcing content marketing. Using freelancers or a content marketing agency is for startups is a way to cut costs and make the most of your investment.
Once you’ve pinned down your North Star and have the team on board, it’s time to strategize. Read on to dive deeper into how to create a content strategy for your startup.
Creating the Best Content Marketing Strategy for Your Startup
Now you know how important a content marketing strategy is for your business and it’s time to consider how you can implement one. Next, we will outline some main steps to take when crafting your strategy. Follow these content marketing tips for startups to grow your business with valuable content for customers.
Identify Your Target Audience
The first step to content marketing for startups is to identify who your target customers are and what they might be searching for online. Create a buyer persona for your customers. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer that includes data or demographics such as age range, location, social class, career, challenges, etc.
This buyer persona should be kept in mind as you create content for your brand. This will ensure that you attract the right audience that is more likely to benefit from your products.
Decide What Type of Content To Create
This may be the trickiest part of coming up with a content marketing strategy. Deciding what type of content you are going to produce for your customers can seem daunting –– but don’t let it.
There are plenty of types of content to choose from including:
- Blog content
- Landing pages
- Video content (YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram Reels)
- Infographics
- Case studies
- eBooks
- Podcasts
- Ultimate guides
- And more!
Note, that these are only some of the most common content types startups produce for their marketing strategies. We are going to dive deeper into each one a little bit later on in this post.
It is good to choose a couple of different types of content to focus on for your startup. Depending on your industry and what your ideal customers may be searching for, you may decide that blog content and videos are the way to go. Or, maybe your business is more data-driven so infographics and case studies might work best.
Sit down and think about what your customers would get the most value from and focus on that.
Do Topical and Keyword Research
Topical and keyword research is a must for any business’s content strategy because it informs you of what content your target audience will find valuable. You can use free keyword research tools to start your strategy and move on to paid tools like Ahrefs if you’d like to. Using keywords for SEO is what will get your content to rank higher on search engines and is absolutely necessary for content marketing.
Research competitors in your industry to see what keywords they are ranking for and if you have the potential to overcome their search traffic. You can get topic ideas by searching thought-leaders in your industry and by looking at the People Also Ask section on Google.
Define Your Messaging Strategy
Next, you will need to define your messaging strategy. This refers to the goals of your content and how you position your brand. For instance, a messaging strategy could include what sets your business apart from competitors, what your business’s mission or vision is, and how you want to approach voice and tone.
Do you want your messaging to establish you as an industry authority? Maybe you want to be an educational resource that visitors return to time and time again. With whatever message you want to portray, be sure it aligns with your startups’ values and goals.
Determine Your Distribution Channels
For your content strategy, you will need to decide how you are going to distribute your content. Will it be on a blog section of your website? Will it be through email newsletters? Social media? Or maybe YouTube? Determine where your audience is and what the best way to distribute content is for your business. The distribution channels will affect the way content should be created so it’s good to know this information in advance.
Set SMART Goals and Objectives
Lastly, you will want to set SMART goals to measure your progress. SMART goals refer to goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound.
In terms of content marketing, a few smart goals could be:
- Increase website traffic by 20% in the next 4 months
- Post 1 relevant blog article weekly for the next 6 months
- Get at least 10 contact form conversions per week
Choose a few Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or metrics to monitor over time to see improvements and results from your content marketing strategy. You can use these metrics to measure if your efforts are driving results and to make adjustments to increase your results.
Now that you know the basics of how to create a content marketing strategy, let’s move on to the most common types of content.
8 Types of Content Marketing for Startups
There is a seemingly endless pool of content ideas you could use for your business. Here are eight of the best content types for startups.
1. Blog Content
Blog content is an excellent choice for virtually any business. In fact, according to Demand Metric, businesses with blog content generate 67% more leads per month on average than companies without blogs. How crazy is that?
With that said, blog content should be valuable, well-planned, and engaging. Long-form content of at least 800-1000 words tends to do better on search engines than thin, short-form content. This content should include high-traffic keywords to have a better chance of being found by users on Google. Keyword research, competitor analysis, and search engine optimization (SEO) are all major parts of creating effective blog content.
2. Landing Pages
Landing pages are standalone pages that users “land on” after clicking a link in an email, blog post, or ad. These pages are meant to increase conversion rates and have strong calls to action. This might include a call to action of scheduling a free consultation or filling out a contact form while also providing information about one of your products or services.
3. Video Content
Videos are another form of content that does really well for startups and provides a ton of value to users. YouTube tutorials are a great way to connect with potential customers, build brand awareness, increase authority, and help solve their problems. Our guide to YouTube SEO explains the measures you should take to ensure your videos are going to be seen and appreciated by many viewers. Tik Tok or Instagram Reels are two other video content options to consider.
4. Infographics
Infographics are a valuable form of content marketing, especially for businesses that are driven by data. Create infographics for your customers to find online when searching for statistics in your field of expertise. These are highly effective for building up backlinks from other websites to increase your site’s domain authority.
5. Case Studies
Along with infographics come case studies. Case studies address a challenge your customer faced, the solution your startup provided, and the results that came from your efforts. Having specific case studies that prove the value of your product or service will help prospective customers gain trust in your business.
6. eBooks
EBooks are another popular content marketing product that startups can consider producing. Depending on your industry, eBooks may be a great way to deliver value to draw customers in and get them to engage with your brand. You can create eBooks to share your expertise and insight on relevant topics within your industry. These can also be used as gated content to incentivize users to fill out a contact form or sign up for email newsletters.
7. Podcasts
Who doesn’t listen to podcasts these days? According to Small Biz Genius, half of Americans over the age of 12 have listened to podcasts. That is a huge percentage of adults in the United States today. Starting a podcast to share solutions to common pain points of customers is a highly-effective form of content marketing for startups.
8. Ultimate Guides
This type of content is sometimes in the form of a blog post but can also be in eBook or podcast format depending on your preference. An example of an ultimate guide is this article you are currently reading from Markitors.
Ultimate guides aim to provide as much valuable information to readers or listeners as possible while still being somewhat brief. Whether written or spoken, ultimate guides are some of the top-performing pieces of content a startup can produce.
That wraps up the most common types of content marketing for startups and our guide to crafting a successful content marketing strategy. It may seem intimidating, but your content marketing efforts will boost your startup to new levels of success if you invest the time and energy.
If you are thinking to yourself, “I don’t have the time or resources to do all of this,” don’t worry! That’s where a content marketing agency comes in. These agencies take on the responsibilities of creating and executing a content strategy to grow your business.
Work With Markitors, a Content Marketing Agency for Startups
Markitors (Powered by Elevato) is a high-quality content marketing agency for startups that offers a full range of content marketing services. Our services include SEO Content, Digital PR, Technical SEO, Paid Media, Social Media Management, and Email Marketing. We have worked with hundreds of startups to help grow their businesses through effective content marketing strategies and love seeing clients succeed.
To get in touch, email [email protected] today. We will set up a free consultation call to chat about your business’s content marketing goals and how our team can help.
