by Printipy

Content Marketing strategy for startups – The Ultimate Guide

Content marketing is an essential tool in marketing strategy in this age and it plays a huge part in how brands get traction and impressions for their business. As a result of the huge followings on various social media platforms. There is a need for brands to create engaging and relevant articles, videos, or social media content that will engage and promote brand awareness.

Every business needs content marketing, be it a startup or an already established business and this approach helps create top of mind awareness for the business when it is time for the consumer to buy what you sell.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the development and distribution of relevant content which can be in the form of blogs, social media posts, white papers, newsletters, emails, videos, radio jingles, and all sorts to current and potential customers alike. This content conveys expertise and relevant information intending to engage and gain clients’ attention and this makes it clear that a company values the people to whom it sells and attracts new clients with its content.

The consistent use of content marketing nurtures relationships with prospective and existing customers. A brand that consistently churns out content on their social media platforms will make the audience interested in the continuous success of such brands and they are more likely to choose you when it’s time to buy.

Content Marketing for startups

Startups need to adopt content marketing as a huge part of their marketing strategy. The advantage it entails can only do such a business a world of good. The awareness, impression, and publicity it gives the business is a huge boost to the bottom line of the startup company.

Content marketing is a go-to tactic that is proven to work and it also provides a competitive advantage over other competitors in the industry one operates. Several data show the several advantages of content marketing.

 47% of buyers view 3 to 5 pieces of content online before engaging with a sales representative. Business with blogs and social media content tends to get 67% more leads than other companies.

Also, 72% of business to business(B2B), business to consumers(B2C) say content marketing helps increase engagement and the number of leads they generate. Companies that use content marketing see approximately 30% higher growth rates than businesses not using it. There are a myriad of advantages to content marketing and it is only advisable for startups to jump on the bandwagon.

How to create a content marketing strategy for start-ups

The fastest way for a business to get publicity, generate leads, and get engagement is through content marketing. Startups can use content marketing to attract leads, it speaks for your product or services when someone is making research on what to buy and can also help you close sales.

For a startup to make use of content marketing effectively, there is a need to deliver the right content.

Here are how startups can create an adequate content marketing strategy to engage the audience and sell their product or service.

1. Identify your audience: To create content for a particular audience, you need to have a clear idea of their priorities, challenges, and preferences. This helps tailor the content to suit their needs. This makes it easier to appeal to and engage the audience.
2. Align your content with your business model: Understand where your business is now, where you want to be, and define realistic objectives.
3. Choose your keywords. Research your keywords and make sure you are reaching the right audience.
4. Get creative with your content ideas. Get content ideas from the customer-facing teams.
5. Help your audience achieve its goals. Content should be goal-driven, focus on value, and address audience pain points with advice and solutions.
6. Decide on your distribution channels. Go where your audience is. Make sure your focus is on the right channels at the right time.
7. Repurpose your content. Squeeze every drop of your creative juice and churn out valuable content at all times. Treat content as a product.
8. Find the right tools. Take advantage of the content planning, collaboration, and SEO research tools.

Stages of Content Marketing

Awareness Stage

At the first stage, your content should focus on the top concerns of your target audience, it all starts with identifying a need and then writing about their pain points, challenges and asking questions gives you the best chance of engaging with them. Content at the awareness stage should be educational and identify a gap in the market.

Best contents for this stage include articles, blog posts, e-books, videos, newsletters, etc.

An example of this is a restaurant that writes a blog post or social media post about how to plan a menu for a graduation party.

Consideration stage

In this stage, content should offer a hybrid of helpful information and marketing. This stage should educate the readers about what features or functions to look for and how such features or functions address their needs. 

Likewise, this stage should contain solution-solving tips as this shows that after identifying a need, there is a ready-made solution to address such a challenge. An example of this is a catering company case study of successful events highlighting the benefits they offer such as a post on “How to accommodate food allergies in your event”

Closing stage

At this stage, you can focus your content on closing out a sale, as long as you continue to make your content entail why you are the best choice rather than just how great your products or services are.

Your content here should be about your expertise, knowledge, and the differentiating benefits that set you aside from other competitors. This content can include product video, buyer’s guide, user-generated content.

Elements of content marketing strategy

Startups can begin to shoot for gold if the above content marketing strategy is followed to the letter. Listed below are five essential elements inspired by the best content marketing strategies.

1. Have a clearly defined audience. An essential part of good content marketing should entail a clearly defined target audience. Targeting a group of people makes it easy to align your branding and marketing budget with the target audience.
2. Content marketing with SMART goals. Setting goals that are smart, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely helps generate leads and enhance user engagements.
3. Clear value proposition. This explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation, delivers specific benefits, and tells the ideal customers why they should buy from you and not your competition.
4. Branding. Establishing a strong brand identity will play a major part in achieving marketing goals. This includes establishing an identity online by taking visuals, taglines, logos, web designs, etc.
5. Metric for Success. Metrics are a marker for success and alert you to where your efforts are lacking. This lets you know what is working and what needs to change.

Printipy makes it easy

With Content marketing, there is so much to consider. Content marketing strategy is enough to make any startup founder head spin.

This is where Printipy comes in. Printipy is willing to bear your content marketing burden as we have the expertise in crafting marketing strategies that will suit your marketing objectives tailored to reach, engage and convert your target audience.

Content marketing is simplified with Printipy at the forefront for your startup.