But, what about the plan behind the substance? What is it that makes these pieces of content tick? What makes a good content marketing strategy? And how do you know if content marketing is the right fit for your company in the first place?
Why Your Startup ContentMarketing Strategy Isnt Working
One sign that content marketing could be a particularly effective strategy: if your business is in a high-knowledge area. In areas like finance, fitness, even fashion, users are likely looking for information and advice. If you can position your brand as a source of information on the subject that users can trust, you strengthen the case for why they should trust your product that much more. The same holds true for more service- and B2B-based businesses. Write content that showcases your expertise, and you position yourself as an expert that customers will want on their side.
An inclusive marketing strategy can go a long way in making consumers feel like they belong and that their values align with your company and products or services. To get started on your path to using inclusive language and bringing people in, follow this five-point road map:
The more aware you are of the need for inclusion, the easier it will be to catch mistakes and insensitive moments. All roles within your team should be aware of your inclusive marketing strategy and should be encouraged to keep topping up their learning.
Knowing what inclusive language means for your brand and your audience can help you create a content marketing strategy that brings people in and brings people together. How could you utilize a content strategy that accepts, includes, and extends a warm welcome to people who have so far been excluded or marginalized?
You must have heard that content is king. Indeed it is the heart and soul of any successful content marketing strategy. Behind every brand, there is a host of relevant content that connects them with a relevant audience. This guide will allow you to delve deeper into its science and come up with your very own profitable strategy for content marketing.
Content strategy refers to managing all the content that you have and reusing or re-purposing successful pieces of content over time. It often goes beyond content marketing, as the dominance of useful and reusable content allows startups to be more flexible and scale themselves accordingly.
Content marketing for startups, on the other hand, refers to building an audience to accomplish business goals, for instance higher revenue or better customers. You need to ask yourself why you are producing any piece of content? Who is your target audience? How lucratively you can scale your startup with your current content marketing strategy?
Once your content marketing strategy is in place, you can initiate structuring your content plan. It should include details such as the key topics that you will cover, the kind of content you will produce, implementation of CTAs, how and when will you share your content on different channels etc.
Your strategy should basically be an outline of your startup. It should deliver what was promised to your customers. It should be a detailed plan that you can use to address your target audience. Remember, there is no generic content marketing strategy template, as every business needs to come up with their own. Their unique content marketing strategies allow them to accomplish their distinct business goals.
You need to begin the process of your content marketing strategy with an effective content team that will be working for you right from start to finish. The teams may look different, depending from startup to startup, however, some of the familiar roles are as follows.
Once you have your content team in place, it is time for you to come up with an apt mission statement for your startup. The mission statement is the promise that your startup wants to accomplish. For instance, to get you started, here is an example of how you can come up with an on-point mission statement for your startup.
The next step in establishing an effective content marketing strategy is using your startup goals to create content marketing goals that your team needs to deliver timely. Your startup goals predominantly impact your success. Your strategy should assist your startup to achieve its business goals.
The next step is to identify your audience. Your content marketing strategy is only as effective as the leads and audience it brings in for you. If you draw thousands of views every month, however, if only five among them are from your relevant audience, it is nothing but a waste of your time and effort.
Your content marketing strategy should have two audience profiles. Firstly, your primary audience that are people who are most likely to purchase your product or service. All the content you create should primarily target them.
Now it is time for you to determine what types of content you will develop for your audience. Content marketing is not just about writing blog posts. Your content team can come up with a variety of options. For example email newsletters, videos, social media content, print content, (magazines, brochures, flyers etc.), ebooks, research reports, white papers, case studies, graphic or visual content. Select the types of content that suit you the best to reach your audience and accomplish your startup goals.
You are developing amazing content, however, it is only as good as the number of people that see it. That is precisely why you need to opt for the right promotional channels for your startup. Following are some ideas to begin with:
Your content marketing strategy will also require an editorial process. It should involve your editors, designers, promoters as well as your content analysts. Following is an idea of how your editorial process should look like:
One of the most important factors of an effective content marketing strategy is to know precisely when you will publish your content on any relevant channel. Lacking strategic planning is a common mistake that startups make. It is highly recommended to use a content calendar so that you can organize and schedule your content.
If you are using social media as your choice of promotion, there are a few steps that you need to consider. The first is to decide which social media channels will suit your startup the best. To do so, you need to know which channel is your target audience most active on.
For instance, if your target audience is 18-30-year-olds, Instagram and Snapchat may be a profitable option. However if your target audience ranges from 35-50-year-olds, then Facebook can prove to be a better option for your startup.
The last step for developing an effective content marketing strategy is to setup Key Point Indicators (KPIs) that will allow you to know whether your team is on the right track or not. Establishing KPIs will help you ensure that your startup is achieving its goals simply by checking on different milestones. KPIs for startups may include things that you plan to accomplish in terms of revenue, sales, traffic, or any other aspect of digital marketing such as SEO, email marketing or social media metrics. Mostly, KPIs provide specific numbers. For example:
By now, you might have read a few downloaded checklists and ebooks. You might have also attended a few conferences, and maybe also subscribed to a variety of podcasts. Nonetheless, you are unable to derive a successful strategy for your startup.
A great content marketing strategy is technically the marriage between an effective strategy and a great tactical execution. For instance, monitoring your target audience on community forums, gaining insights on their opinions, and identifying measures to tailor your communication as per the need of your audience is an effective strategy that signifies setting up goals that will help you accomplish your startup goals. You should use ready-made flyer templates to save time and get the best results for your company or clients.
Tactical execution on the other hand, is a series of actions that you need to take to implement that strategy. For instance, devoting an hour every day and being active on community forums or social media where your target audience is spending most of their time.
Data is our biggest ally to see whether a strategy is working or not. If objectives are not met, it's a big warning sign. If conducting market research to identify the underlying root cause isn't an option, a test-and-learn approach can help uncover solutions. For example, run a pilot in less expensive geography with similar characteristics to your target market to gain insight into what works. - Trevor Testwuide, Measured
Whether or not a marketing strategy is working is dependent on what you're measuring to assess its performance. Is the goal to build awareness? Is it to change or have a positive impact on the persona of the brand or company? Is the goal to take a specific action, purchase the product or service or to give a testimonial? The goal first has to be determined and then measure the results to see if it's working. - Sharon Lynn Livingston, The Livingston Center for Professional Coaching
If you're fishing for salmon and pulling in minnows, you know you've got the wrong bait. When this is the case, be sure you are understanding what is meaningful to your audience and that you're engaging with them where they are. Adjusting your strategy isn't a bad thing, but not measuring and tracking to know when to correct your approach is. - Mary Conway, MKC Strategies, LLC
One of the telltale signs that your marketing strategy is not working is not getting or rather not attracting traffic to your business despite the effort you put into advertising your business. A simple fix is to understand your target market and offer a solution for the needs of your target audience. Encourage questions and suggestions on how to better the service or product you are selling to them. - Chastity Heyward, Sylvan Learning Center
Listen first and understand where things aren't working. Then go back to your consumer, and enter the conversations already in their head. This will help with how you communicate over what you communicate so that it resonates with them more and makes the strategy more relevant. - Brian Chew, OC Wills and Trust Attorneys 2ff7e9595c
Comentários