Having come up with a unique idea and developing the same as a marketable MVP, we are sure your journey till date would have been a roller coaster, but this is just the beginning. The next most important step is taking the product to the target users and getting them to use the solution effectively. While there are several methods to reach users, one most prominent and highly economical way is content marketing. It is one of the essential parts of any business, especially if you are a technology startup. It’s what gets people to notice your product and what keeps them coming back for more.
Content marketing is a way for startups to establish themselves as thought leaders, thought influencers, and brand advocates while growing their businesses. Content marketing can be used to turn prospects into customers. Content marketing provides a way for startups to gain a competitive advantage, grow their brand, and create a connection with prospects.
Startups use content marketing to engage with target audiences by creating helpful, informative, and valuable content. Content marketing helps startups get in front of their prospects, nurture them, grow their businesses, build existing customers’ loyalty, and enhance their brand image.
One study reported that 66% of startups reported that content was a major growth channel. Another one showed that organizations with a written content marketing strategy to underpin their content marketing campaigns are often the most successful.
In this article, let’s review the three vital components of content marketing: your target audience, valuable content, and promotion methods.
Your Understanding of Your Target Audience
The first step when starting in content marketing is understanding precisely who you’re trying to reach. You need to identify the challenges, needs, and hopes they have for the future. In marketing terms, they call this “content marketing persona development”. Startups could do this through surveys or interviews. Once you’ve identified these characteristics, then you can start developing content around those topics.
You should be able to answer questions like: What problems my target audience is trying to solve? What are the imperfections of existing solutions? What is the awareness level of this persona? Why should someone buy from them instead of their competitor? What problems are they having within their target group? These answers help you develop personas (customer profile groups), so you know exactly how you could create your content to help them.
Once you know your ideal customer, you’ll want to find ways to attract them to your website, especially through…
The Content Your Persona Will Value
After identifying your audience, you’ll want to make sure you provide value to them. The best type of content is information-based rather than promotional. Promotional content doesn’t work well because it tends to be generic and boring. Instead, focus on providing high-quality content about specific issues your audience has. For example, if your product solves an issue, write articles about why that problem exists and how your solution works (better).
The mindset to adopt while creating a piece of content should be that of a “friendly teacher” you (wish you) had in high school. You should inspire, inform, educate and motivate your audience to become the best version of themselves – through the content first, and eventually with your product. You will analyze the content gaps in the market and try to fill them with your own.
There are a variety of content options available: ebooks, white papers, blog articles, workbooks, cheat sheets, checklists, case studies, videos, surveys, live streaming, webinars, infographics, photos, magazines, books, and brochures.
The format you choose depends on your startup goals and budget. If you don’t have much money, consider free resources such as blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, etc. They tend to be less expensive but still effective at getting attention. On the other hand, if you have some cash to spend, try hiring writers, graphic designers, videographers, editors, and analysts.
How You Promote Your Content
Content promotion is the third key factor in your content marketing campaigns. Without good promotion, no amount of great content will get noticed by anyone. There are many different types of promotions you could run, including social media posts, email blasts, ads, paid search results, SEO, influencer outreach, PR, and even word-of-mouth referrals. Each method requires its own strategy. Let’s look at each briefly.
Social Media Posts: If you haven’t already done so, create a social media page LinkedIn/Facebook page for your brand, there are millions of users using it every day. Make sure you post regularly and keep up with new trends. Also, add links to your site wherever possible. When posting something, always include a link to your homepage. That way, if someone clicks on the link, they’ll come directly to your site.
Email Marketing: You should build a list of email subscribers. Many startup founders attest this to be a highly valuable asset to build as early as you can. The subscribers have enlisted themselves to learn more about your offering, thought leadership and become a customer at some point.
Paid Search Results: Paid search can also be used to promote your content. However, since Google AdWords costs money, only do this after testing several methods first. Try running a few tests where you see whether or not your keywords bring traffic to your website. After seeing positive results from certain keywords, then move forward with paying for ad space.
Influencers Outreach: Influencers are individuals who have large followings online. These individuals often share their opinions on various topics via Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms. By reaching out to influencers, you may gain access to valuable publicity opportunities. You should know that influencers usually charge fees for sharing information about your product. Be prepared to offer an incentive before asking for help.
PR: Public relations is another form of content promotion. In fact, public relations professionals are sometimes called “content marketers.” PR uses press releases, articles, interviews, blog posts, videos, etc., to generate interest in your company. For example, if you were working on developing a new app, you might want to contact local news outlets to let them know about it. They would likely publish stories about your upcoming release. As long as you provide accurate details, you won’t have much trouble getting coverage.
All of these things combined will improve your chances of being found by potential customers searching for related terms.
In summary, content marketing is a vital part of any successful tech startup. The best thing you can do right now is to start creating some quality content today that could help your target audience. Don’t worry too much about making everything perfect; instead, focus on creating relevant content and becoming an authoritative voice. Your audience will thank you later.