Start Strong: The Essential Content Marketing Strategy for Startup Success

Identifying a profitable Content Marketing Strategy for startups and small businesses is one of the most profitable and cost-efficient ways of driving viewers to a company’s website that offers a product or service. However, CM isn’t just the creation of attractive and interesting blog posts, videos and podcasts. This approach is a meticulous and systematic way in which posts are created to appeal to a specific target audience, and uploaded at regular intervals.

What is a content marketing strategy?

According to Demian Farnworth, a content marketing strategy is a way to build a customer base by “publishing, maintaining, and spreading frequent and consistent content that educates, entertains, or inspires to turn strangers into fans and fans into customers.”

A content marketing strategy for startups and small businesses is a game plan which outlines when, how and what content to create and post, how much resources to allocate to each piece of content, and how to measure the return on investment from the content.

The content marketing funnel

Each consumer studies the psychological process behind the consumer’s decision-making and observes their changing needs and wants at every step of the buyer’s journey. This process can be broken into the  5As: Awareness, Appeal, Ask, Act, and Advocate. At every stage, the consumer’s needs and wants are different. Digital content has to be created to appeal to these needs and wants at each step of the consumer’s journey, and to encourage them to proceed to the next level.

Stage 1

In this phase, the consumer is merely a viewer who is aware of your product, service or brand. The user is simply a passive viewer at this stage, and the content team must create attractive attention-grabbing material to drive the viewer’s interest towards the brand, product or service.

Stage 2

This is the appeal stage, where the viewer consumes content related to your brand, product and service based on their attraction to it. For example, a user who is redirected to the landing page of your company might decide to have a look at the other pages of your website if they are interested.

Stage 3

In the Ask stage, the viewer asks pertinent questions about a product or service. The content marketers should satisfy the curiosity of the potential consumer and clear any of their concerns. A Frequently Asked Questions page is useful to consumers at this stage, as are articles based on commonly-searched phrases about the product and the brand.

Web influencer Neil Patel suggests creating listicles that compares a product with its alternatives. While this may seem counter-intuitive, a consumer at this stage is most likely to look for cheaper alternatives before making a purchase decision. An article of this kind would drive the viewer back to your website and ensure that your brand enjoys high recall value.

Stage 4

In the Act stage, the conversion takes place. Content marketers for startups and small businesses may write articles that drive the customers to a call to action. For example, they may upload a product description with a ‘buy now’ button at the bottom of the page.

Stage 5

The fifth stage is unique to online marketing. Here, the consumer turns into an advocate for you. Brands such as Canva and Adobe which stand for creativity, market user-generated content. This makes the consumer feel a sense of connection with the brand.

Benefits of Content Marketing Strategy

The approach guides the creative process behind creating content and also about how and when it must be uploaded. A good content strategy uses its information to help the business achieve its aim and meet the consumer’s needs. The method not only outlines the criteria while taking decisions related to content but also sets a benchmark for the communications team.

Aligns the team with the goals

According to a survey done by the Content Marketing Institute, 83% companies agree that the biggest benefit of having a well-documented strategy is that it brings the entire content team together, and gives them a clearer idea of the company’s goals and objectives.

Streamlines content

A good marketing strategy also ensures that the communications team knows the kind of content to focus on for the maximum return on investment. It streamlines the information and ensures the unity of output when different people are creating content for the same brand. This helps the brand shine through in every published piece. For example, Blogilates, a fitness brand, is known for producing health and wellness related content. The material is typically aimed at young women and girls working out of home. All blog posts on the page are written in an energetic tone. The content team follows the most exciting fitness trends, and all posts have a pastel aesthetic.

Documents priorities

When priorities are predefined in the content strategy, the decision-making processes become much simpler. A brand’s priority might be to create a favourable impression in the minds of consumers through its published content. In this case, the brand must prioritize the consumers’ need to access reliable information over the company’s need to sell its product. Almost 87% of the brands who participated in the Content Marketing Institutes’ 2019 survey stated that they prioritized consumer’s interests over their own in their content marketing strategy.

Accountability

A clear content marketing plan sets a target as it outlines the frequency and timing of content every month. With targets and deadlines, the team is responsible to match up to the quality and quantity of work expected of them. This leads to accountability and helps in the smooth functioning of the communications team. For example, if a company decides to do a 12-Day Christmas Campaign and posts one article a day between 25th December and 5th January, the team is responsible for uploading the articles on time.

Clarity about the target audience

Content strategists do a detailed research on their target audience as this group determines the topic, the tone and the presentation. For example, Cisco, a company that sells networking hardware, created a documentary-style video series for their website. As the firm caters to working professionals, these videos focus on how their product helps people in their professional lives, something the target audience can connect to.

Headspace is targeted at people who want to work on their mental health and interested in self-improvement. Though the product is a meditation app, they create content on anything that interests their target group. The website has thousands of articles on managing conflict, mindful eating, and stress, among others.

Content marketing companies also engage in content mapping, where they understand consumer behaviour to understand the needs and wants of the audience at every stage of the customer journey.

Allocates resources and optimizes results

Having a detailed marketing plan for your content also helps your content firm draw up a detailed budget. This allocates the resources for production, casting, filming and equipment. The resources can be based on the marketing schedule to ensure that the largest share of the budget can be kept aside for bigger campaigns.

Easier to identify the metrics

A content marketing plan also allows you to measure the return on investment. The priority of the company determines the purpose of every content piece and its success ratio. The Key performance indicators (KPI) are used extensively for this purpose. Some examples of KPI commonly used are:

1.     Web Traffic – This is monitored to get an estimate of the total number of viewers on a company’s website.
2.     User Behavior – This tool tracks the viewer’s response to the content, such as the time spent on reading a page, the other pages they looked at before exiting the website, the ratio of new versus returning viewers, and other metrics.
3.     Impressions & CTR – Impression refers to the number of views received by a content piece. This metric is used to calculate the reach of a post. CTR or Click-through rates refer to the percentage of people who click on a piece of content or link that takes them to the landing page. This shows the efficiency of the published post.
4.     Lead Generation –  This metric looks at the conversion rate or the number of viewers being persuaded to take any action in line with their stage of the buying journey.

Yields accurate budgetary information

Pre-planning and strategising also creates a more accurate budget as all stages of a content marketing campaign are accounted for, and prevents accidental overspending. This approach also ensures that the company is aware of just how much resources they have at their disposal for optimal use.

Stages of creating a content marketing strategy

Now that you know about a content marketing strategy and why it is important, you can create one. The steps to creating a marketing strategy for your content can be divided into six easy steps:

Goals and objectives

Like all great quests, the journey to creating the best marketing strategy begins with a mission statement. The goals and objectives of your company have to be defined clearly. Does the firm want to maximise profits? Do they want to improve their image in the eyes of consumers? Do they simply want to increase the traffic on their website? The answers can lay the foundation for all strategic decisions from here on.

Know your market

The second stage of this process is understanding the market. Find out the needs and wants of the consumer in addition to the kind of content that your competitor is producing. The aim is to find a niche area, an unmet need that your competitors haven’t addressed or a better way to provide the information your audience wants.

Content channel and type

A thorough understanding of your customers will also help you choose the right channels. Content can be published on your firm’s website, on your blog, or on social media. For example, the best way to reach a younger target audience for a concert might be Instagram and SoundCloud but LinkedIn is a better way to reach working professionals.

Content calendar

Once the type and kind of content are decided, a content calendar has to be prepared. This will lay out the theme for every month, the kind of articles that will be published, and the focus of the content throughout the year. Special events, holidays and celebrations should also be considered while finalising the calendar. Topical posts can be created for special events, such as Independence Day.

Creation and distribution

The content has to be published according to the schedule. The work has to be delegated, and all the written matter has to be edited to ensure there is no discontinuity of style and voice. The essence of the brand has to come through in every piece. Content has to be uploaded at regular intervals to ensure that viewers always have something new to read or view.

Evaluation

All posts should be monitored to track the audience’s response. This will help the firms understand the tastes of their audience, which will help them finetune their content for future campaigns.

The final word

Content Marketing without proper strategizing and planning leads to inefficient use of resources. If the process seems overwhelming, there are various content marketing companies you can contact online to guide you through the process. Write Wing Media is one such firm. Contact us NOW!