Every new beginning is challenging. When you’re trying to build something out of nothing, you need to invest all your efforts and energy into it. Startups are just like that. You’ve got the right idea, the resources, and the determination to succeed. All that’s left is a killer content marketing strategy and you’ll be on your way to success.
Without a proper content marketing strategy, your startup won’t get very far. You won’t be able to raise brand awareness and get more people to hear about you. So, if you need to develop a content marketing strategy for your startup, but aren’t sure how just keep reading. We’ve put together this step by step guide to get you through the entire process smoothly.
Here’s how to build a content marketing strategy and skyrocket your startup.
1. Analyze Your Competition
For you to able to develop a killer content marketing strategy for your startup, you first need to do some research.
Content marketing is based on unique branding and ideas that stand out. This is exactly why you have to learn what your biggest competitors are doing.
You’ll be fighting with them for the biggest piece of the same cake. Therefore, you need to do the following:
- define who your biggest competitors are
- visit their website and analyze it
- read their blogs
- go through their social media
- define their style, key messages, and strategies
You need to know what everyone else is doing to be able to make something on your own. Conduct a competitive analysis of your competition and you’ll be ready for your next step.
2. Define Who You’re Targeting
This next step is also a necessity and something you can’t go further without. Defining your target audience is one of the keys to your success so make sure you’ve got it covered.
So, what does it mean to define your target audience?
To put it simply, you have to define which groups of people will you be trying to win over with your marketing efforts. You’ll do this based on their:
- age
- sex
- location
- social status
- interests
- online behavior
Think about your ideal customer type and define him as specifically as possible. Once you know who your message is for, you’ll be able to develop your content strategy better.
3. Content Ideas
Now that you’ve done all the research, it’s time to focus on content creation.
Primarily, your content should be going to your website’s blog. The blog is like the mother ship of your content. From there, you’ll be promoting it on other platforms.
When it comes to content creation, there’s not much science behind it. Here’s what you have to do:
- define the trending topics in your niche
- now the latest news in your niche
- cover buzzing topics
- give value to your readers
- share information that matter
- be a reliable source of information
Content production needs to be focused on your target group, keeping the trends in your niche in your mind. This is the winning formula for creating content that gets to your potential customers.
This will help you cover the right topics, and get more people to discover you. Naturally, you’ll have to use the power of SEO to get your content higher in Google search results.
4. Social Media & Visuals
We’re all aware that social media platforms are an extremely powerful marketing tool that every brand, business, and startup are using. To make sure your startup is on the winning team, you have to build your social media image, you can use various social media tools available to get the best results on social media marketing..
Start by creating a business profile or page on the major social media platforms:
Then, move on to content creation and branding.
For social media, you’ll have to:
- create and public attention-grabbing visuals for each post
- come up with a unique style and be consistent about it
- use brand colors and fonts for all your posts
- be active and communicate with your followers
Building your followers base won’t be an easy task, so you’ll have to work hard for it. You have to post regularly, stay unique, and follow the response you’re getting from your audience.
5. Team Up With an Influencer
To make sure your follower base never stops growing, you need to make influencer marketing a part of your regular strategy. Influencers have a strong followers base and can help you expand yours quickly.
To get it done properly, you need to:
- reach out to an influencer that shares a similar target audience
- come up with ideas for startup promotion
- create a social media influencer campaign with specific goals
Influencers are a great way to get more people to hear about your startup and even become your customers. Make sure you team up with the right influencer that shares the same values as your brand.
Don’t forget to evaluate the success of each influencer campaign and see whether you’ve reached your goals.
6. Accuracy & Professionalism
Content marketing is all about content creation. What you want to achieve is to get more people to enjoy reading your content and thus becoming more tied to your brand.
However, what many people forget when creating content is the quality of the text itself.
You need to write like a professional:
- no grammar mistakes
- no spelling mistakes
- proper structure and vocabulary
Proofread several times and edit until you’re fully satisfied with your text. Then publish it and don’t look back.
This is the only way that your audience will take you seriously and consider you a trustworthy brand.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, creating a content marketing strategy is a complex process but it’s far from complicated. All you have to do is set your mind on the right goals and work hard to reach them.
The guide above will help you create a winning content marketing strategy for your startup. Just follow the steps and stay consistent. Soon, you’ll see it’s worth the effort.
About the Author: Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she works as a freelance writer at TrustMyPaper.
