Content Marketing for Startup: How to Create a Startup Content Strategy
Updated: May 31
Did you know that 55% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers have said they’re unclear about what an effective startup content marketing strategy looks like (CMI reports)?
Interestingly enough, only 39% of B2B startups surveyed say they have a documented content marketing strategy.
You may be asking;
How can startups leverage content marketing?
How do you create a content strategy for a startup?
What are the stages of building a startup content marketing strategy?
Content marketing is undoubtedly one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for startups today. As such, an effective startup content marketing strategy or content plan is crucial for any startup blog's growth.
What does it look like to build an effective content marketing strategy for your b2b startup?
What does an effective startup content marketing strategy look like?
According to the report above, 55% (B2B) marketers have said they are unclear about what an effective content strategy looks like.
This includes startups, agencies, entrepreneurs, and marketers!
Here are two (2) things;
What are the 2 most important elements of a content strategy?
A startup content marketing strategy MUST TAKE your readers on a SALES OR MARKETING journey.
There’s no perfect content marketing strategy that fits all startups.
You see, content can be the pillar of your entire startup marketing plan and can accomplish two three (3) main goals:
What are the 3 Cs of content marketing?
Provide utmost help to your target customers or client.
Inform your customers about your products.
Educate your customer with niche-related information (news, BTS...) that isn’t directly promotional to your startup product.
5 Steps to Developing an Effective Startup Content Marketing Strategy?
How do you create a startup content marketing strategy?
Your content marketing strategy must be able to accomplish your brand goals and objectives. Each idea you flesh out must be able to;
Solve (or answer) a problem, concern, or question asked by your target customers.
Take your potential customers on a buyer's journey (sales funnel).
Enlighten them on how your software can help solve these problems.
Get them to try your product or service and swipe their cards monthly.
The three (3) principles I use for my content marketing clients is a strategy that I call ‘the 3 E’s of writing high converting startup blog content’.
What does this mean?
Each startup content you publish MUST;
Excite your target market to consume.
Educate them on a specific topic.
Entice them to purchase or sign-up for a trial version of your startup product or service plans.
Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing - thus with a proper content marketing strategy for your startup, you may not need to spend run social media ads.
The same research also reveals that 82% of businesses with a blog see positive ROI from their content marketing efforts.
I mean only 39% of B2B marketers say they have a documented content marketing strategy.
Why is Content Marketing Important for Startups? 5 Benefits of a Startup Content Strategy?
Why is content marketing so important FOR STARTUPS?
1) Crafting a Successful Blog Content Marketing Plan is Essential for Steadily Generating Leads and Email Sign-ups (on auto-pilot).
Lead generation is one of the biggest returns you can ever get from your SaaS content marketing efforts. Your content plan must have in place certain ways to attract email sign-ups daily from your content pieces.
To be clear, you could have a company blog OR an educational blog for your software business.
What’s a company blog and an educational blog (plus which one attracts more sign-ups)?
What is an educational business blog?
An educational blog educates your readers with content. These are the content forms;
‘How to’ posts
‘Why’ posts
Ultimate Guides
Detailed infographics.
What is a company blog?
On the other hand, a company blog focuses on updating your customers about company updates, new software features, job openings, employee updates, and other company-related news.
A start-up blog should effectively generate leads. Your content plan must convert readers into email sign-ups and hopefully industry-related customers or clients. This is mostly possible with an educational blog (‘How to’ posts, ultimate guides, infographics...).
Research reveals that blogs that educate gain 14% more organic traffic Vs company-focused blogs.
This indicates that company blogs do generate traffic and leads but educational blogs gain 14% more on average.
To add to it, it is generally easier to build a start-up content marketing plan around an educational blog.
Side Note: I’ll be posting a detailed, separate blog guide on deciding whether to run a company blog or an educational blog. I’d appreciate pay if you sign-up for my community forum to get updated the moment I publish it. Click here to join my newsletter!
2) Having a Crafted Startup Content Marketing Strategy Should Boost Your Website (& Brand) Recognition.
Content marketing is an inbound marketing strategy that will also increase brand awareness for your business. This means, your content marketing plan must focus on promoting each content piece you put out effectively.
Today, there is a lot of b2b content published every day.
This study shows customers read around 5-11 product articles before making a purchase decision.
Consistent and quality content that adds value to people will attract high-converting blog traffic.
Now, your content plan should highlight the following:
Content length for each piece (depending on content type).
All promotional strategies and channels for every content you publish.
Analytics and tools to measure attracted traffic (sources, forms, referrals).
Improve search rankings (SEO).
3) An Effective Startup Content Marketing Strategy MUST Improve your Search Engine Rankings (SERPs)
Does content marketing improve SEO?
Why is content important for SEO ranking?
How do content marketing and SEO work together?
Search marketing is a long-term game and from my experience working with about 20 startups, new startups should focus more on direct, referral, and social traffic as they tend to yield faster (and sometimes better) results during the early stages of your new software business.
An effective startup content marketing plan should include;
- Search engine optimization strategies to attract and build backlinks,
- Optimize every post, run keyword research, and;
- Other useful SEO & content strategies that will gradually build your SEO power in the long run.
SEO may also take backlinks and a strong domain profile to rank high and outrank your competitors.
These may take time to happen.
And for these things to build, you must apply strategies, put out exceptional startup content, and promote it like hell!
Rather than focusing solely on SEO, I always advise new startups to invest considerably good time in both SEO AND building influence, joining communities, creating content, and adding immense value to their readers and customers.
4) An Effective Content Strategy Must tell Stories that Connect with its Readers
A proper content approach must tell stories and build a community around your software brand - I believe these 2 work hand-in-hand. People connect with stories and a great brand is remembered not by great features but by the stories the audience remembers them for.
Storytelling is key to selling anything and has always been this way.
Why is storytelling important in a startup content marketing plan?
I’ve found storytelling to be the most effective top-notch to build a community around your brand and also convert readers to customers. Most b2b startups today depend on data statistics and analytics to convert customers through content.
Your content strategy should clearly define your brand message with a strong foundation that connects with your customers.
Yes, buyers still purchase products based on data and facts but building an emotional connection using powerful storytelling is an important approach.
Finally, an Effective Blog Content Marketing Strategy Must be Diversified Across other Content Channels.
Why is it important to diversify your content?
Not every blog content piece must be written - video, audio, and other visual content formats are also effective.
“Instead of creating your content for potential customers, create it for influencers who are already reaching them.” - Rand Fishkin
Why?
54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support.
Also, 70% of the US population is familiar with the term ‘podcasting’ and 22% of the US population is to podcasts at least every month.
These are listening platforms and could be a part of your startup content marketing plan.
Content should be diversified into various forms for more impact and ROI.
Click here to download the top ROI-focused content formats your SaaS startup should consider branching into.
Before you go, do you want me to research, plan, write, and promote your startup content marketing tasks? Contact me to create SEO content for your b2b startup blog.
Over the years, I’ve evolved to develop a fast-growing strong passion for;
a. Software-as-a-service businesses looking to generate sign-ups and users seamlessly.
b. Business-to-business (B2B) startups looking to generate leads auto-pilot.
c. Marketing agencies looking to outsource blog and email creation to generate potential clients.
And as a result, I’ve worked with 20+ startups, agencies, and other writers and have learned a ton during this work period.
See you soonest :)
Simon Zaku
