The concept of content marketing can be an overwhelming notion for any start-up business owner. Where does content come from? Who does it? How do I find time between sales meetings, investor meetings, client meetings (and sleep) to do it?
You can. In fact, you probably already are. But to help you gain the confidence you need to become a content marketing superstar, here are six tips just for you newbies:
1. Strategize — it’s worth it
Many start-ups are running at such a quick pace, that there’s sometimes a “throw things at the wall and see what sticks” mentality. But the one thing you may want to slow down and spend some time on is your content marketing strategy. Why?
- SEO benefits (how will people be able to find you online if you’re not even there?)
- Reputation (you need to build one somehow)
- Thought leadership (you need to distinguish yourself from the competitors – and fast)
- You need multiple touch points – frequently – to reach your target audience.
Pulling together your content marketing strategy will help you document your objectives and assign actionable activities to them. The plan can be fairly high-level – capturing your goals; key platforms you’ll be communicating on; what your “wants” vs. “needs” are; and prioritizing activities over time so they don’t all feel so immediately pressing (translate: overwhelming). Plan the work, work the plan, and leave room for adjustments as you gather lessons learned.
Elements of the marketing strategy include:
- Platforms you will communicate through
- Budget
- Roles and responsibilities
- An overview timing (e.g., quarterly or, if that’s overly ambitious, annually)
- Measurement tactics to make sure you keep doing the right things – and avoiding the wrong ones.
2. Create a message strategy
Creating a message strategy is linked to step 1, but so utterly important that I decided to assign it its own number. A message strategy is the bones of your content marketing strategy because it’s where you identify who you are and how you’ll present yourself to your audience. Some things to consider:
- Voice (how do I communicate with my audience?)
- Style guidelines (consistency is key and and this is most important when engaging freelancers or outside communicators into your content marketing strategy)
- Audience considerations (how might you need to tailor your efforts for, say, long-term prospects vs. existing customers)
- Key messages: If you can’t sum up in three or four bullet points what your company does and what your mission, vision, and values are, then your customers won’t get it.
3. Start a blog
There are tons of reasons to start a blog; but to put it simply, it will give you the best return on your time and investment. For start-ups and small businesses, the blog can act as the hub around which all your content marketing activities are centered. Blogs allow you to demonstrate your thought leadership in educational – and SEO – beneficial ways, at very little cost to you and your company. A tip: If you’re short-staffed on writers, engage others in your company, or even outside industry thought leaders that you can interview or ask to contribute insights on your blog.
4. Pick your platform
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Pinterest – you name it, and someone’s telling you that you should be on it. For start-ups, you need to be very careful about where you invest your precious resources and where you distribute your content because this early on in the game, you’ll want to have close watch over your efforts on each platform, and how they are performing. The more platforms you use, the more platforms you’ll need to measure, people you’ll need to engage with, places you’ll need to update and improve (whew! There goes that sleep…), etc.
My advice here is to pick one or two by going online and seeing how your competitors are performing on those channels. If they have thousands of Twitter followers, but no Facebook fans, chances are they’ve found that the platform isn’t as conducive to their content marketing strategy as others.
Always remember to think outside the box. Your content will go miles further if strategically placed on an industry-related forum or community where your key influencers are. Take the time you’d usually be spending trying to figure out how to “Pin” your product on a board, and think about where people are actually talking about the products or services you offer (yes, I just gave you permission to surf social sites as part of your business strategy). Then, get into those conversations (i.e., LinkedIn groups) before trying too aggressively to create new ones (or at least until you have meaty and substantial content to offer).
Speaking of which…
5. Prioritize
Getting the meaty and substantial content needed to engage your audience isn’t easy. As we covered earlier, the blog is a great place to start. But for every blog, there can potentially be dozens of tweets, a couple Facebook/ Google+ posts, some group discussion topics on LinkedIn, a webinar, a white paper (ca-ching!), a conference session, a book… Yes, things can spiral pretty quickly out of control in your head — and what’s likely to happen is that you’ll just shut down and do none of them.
That’s why you should prioritize. Think through every blog post carefully, and leverage content from it that might be unique and engaging to your fans, or the broader community. Then, after a few months, think about rounding them up into an eNewsletter. See how it goes. Measure and test and measure some more. Baby steps.
Now, if you have the time and budget to invest in something more hefty, try some kind of engaging multimedia element: a webinar is a great way to introduce your company, establish your thought leadership, and improve your reputation; as are videos (both are a great source of leads for you to nurture with your ongoing incredible content, as well).
Regardless of what you choose as your top content marketing priorities, just make sure you do it well. Slow and steady wins the content race, and if you distribute a ton of low-quality content, chances are you’ll lose reader’s trust pretty quickly (not to mention Google’s).
6. Take pride in your efforts
One of the things I’ve seen most in start-up business owners is anxiety: angst over their “place” in the industry, fear about their ability to add value, and exhaustion over all there is to do. You can do content marketing. In fact, you probably already are. Take your business plan — the roots of your content marketing and where you establish and first communicate your identify. Take all those ideas in your head that bore your business concept, and all the stories about you and your company that you’re dying to share. Then put pen to paper, finger to keyboard, and start writing.
What other advice would you recommend to new businesses, or companies just starting up their content marketing efforts?
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