The new year can often be a time for reflection, new plans and setting resolutions for the phase in your business journey.
With 2020 still only a few weeks old, January can be a great opportunity to turn over a new leaf and rethink how you go about promoting your startup – and exploring content marketing can be one way to raise your profile and grow your business.
To get you started, I’ve listed ten key steps towards better content marketing, taken from my book, How To Write Killer Content For Your StartUp.
By working your way systematically through these ten steps, you’ll help to define your brand, hone your website content and explore the power of content marketing and social media as part of a broader digital marketing mix.
1. Define Your Vision – Have a core vision and know WHY you’re in business
A startup with a core vision behind it is the best possible starting point for any kind of content marketing. Define the ‘why’ of why you’re in business and put this front and centre of your brand, messaging, digital marketing and social content.
2. Know Your Audience – Know your customers, and target them effectively
To target your audience effectively, you need a crystal-clear definition of your ideal customer. Create a fully formed outline of this perfect customer, and tailor all your digital marketing and targeted advertising to capture this specific audience.
3. Create Your Brand – Create a brand that truly reflects who you are as a business
Your brand reflects who you are in the market. So, create a personality, tone and style that tells your regular customers what you stand for, and that attracts new enquiries and prospects to the brand identity reflected in your digital marketing.
4. Improve Your Writing – Ignore the rules. Keep it simple and just get writing!
Do your best to get the grammar and spelling right. But, ultimately, don’t feel too constrained by the rules. Write from the heart, write with passion and improve the readability of your content through hard work and practice.
5. Build A Website – Build a website that quickly explains who you are
Your company website is a shop window for your products and/or services. But it’s also the central hub for all your digital marketing activity. Make sure the site tells people what you do, what you care about and how you’re going to add value for customers.
6. Have A Content Plan – Create an annual content plan to stay organised
Content works better when there’s a plan driving it. Create an annual plan for your content and marketing activity and make this the route map for your content creation over the year – and remember to update the plan as circumstances evolve.
7. Get Blogging – Tell good stories, add value and avoid the hard sell
A blog is a great channel for engaging with your prospects and customers. Find the topics you’re passionate about and share your thoughts, tips, opinions and practical advice with your audience – and position yourselves as experts in your niche.
8. Start Getting Social – Post regularly and make sure to interact with your customers
Social media accounts give you direct, two-way communication with prospects and customers. Choose the most effective social platforms and use your social content to interact with followers and support and enhance your digital marketing.
9. Run A Campaign – Target an audience, use the right channels and plan activity
A campaign brings together all the big guns to help you promote one specific marketing message. Use a selection of your digital and social channels, from landing pages, emails, blogs and social content, to target a specific audience with your core call-to-action.
10. Analyse Performance – Use analytics and stats to inform and improve your content
Analytics track and record the performance of your website and content marketing. Use this goldmine of data to refine your marketing strategy, improve your content approach and gradually evolve the effectiveness of your marketing return.
Put the theory into practise – and keep improving
The quality of your writing, and the value of your content marketing, will only get better through repeated practise. The more content you create, the better you’ll get at nailing the perfect blog, or the most engaging campaign landing page.
By applying the ten steps, you’ll have a defined vision, brand and content strategy – and the chops to produce content that will truly engage with your ideal customers.
Keep writing, keep flexing and see the difference that a well-thought-through content strategy can have on the future success of your startup!
How To Write Killer Content For Your Startup
The tips, advice and hacks you need to make the most of your writing and content marketing are available in my book – How To Write Killer Content For Your StartUp.
My book gives all the advice you need to write, plan and improve your content marketing, broken down across ten easy-to-read chapters – mirroring the ten steps we’ve talked about in this blog and giving you the detail, tips and hacks you need to kickstart your content.
Do your startup a favour and start exploring the content marketing journey.
Order your copy of ‘How To Write Killer Content For Your StartUp’
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