5 Ways Startups and SMBs Can Chart Success with Content Marketing

5 Ways Startups and SMBs Can Chart Success with Content Marketing

You’ll need to start by creating clear objectives for determining the ROI of your efforts. For example, HubSpot has a great CRO checklist that most marketers would love to get hold of. Ultimately, your research should enable you to create the right forms of content that will further your business objective, which can be either to effectively deliver your brand messaging and increase awareness or recall, or egg them on towards a purchase. What is the most important thing to your audience? A great place to start is with a blog on your website that talks about all the ins-and-outs of your industry. Your content strategy needs to make sure that each of your posts is geared towards a customer segment at a particular stage of your sales cycle. Become Part of the Big Picture One of the biggest things startups and SMBs can learn from large companies is the power of storytelling and becoming part of something bigger than themselves. There are multiple ways in which businesses can create emotional connections with customers, one of the best of which is to become part of a social cause. At the end of the day, retention metrics reveal whether how well your content is working to build a loyal following for your brand or not. You don’t need a huge budget or big-name celebrities to become part of the big picture.

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5 Ways Startups and SMBs Can Chart Success with Content Marketing

The digitalization of services and trade has changed the face of the advertising and marketing forever. Just a couple of decades ago, it would take huge budgets to fund things like TV commercials or radio jingles. Indeed, marketing has for long been like throwing out a giant net and hoping for a good catch. Now, it is much more targeted and companies can make their dollars go much further.

These days, consumers simply connecting with friends or family using their phones are exposed to more information and brand messaging than they know what to do with. The tactics and subtlety that worked a few years back could now be a nuisance to today’s audiences.

In such a scenario, one of the most effective and efficient ways startups and SMBs can compete with the big guys is with content marketing – it helps level the playing field for startups and local businesses. In fact, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads.

Sounds amazing right?

No surprise then, that upwards of 70% of both B2B and B2C marketers are planning to ramp up their content efforts throughout 2017. However, while content marketing is great (and easy to talk about), it is no undemanding task. Success is based on a brand’s ability to stand out in the crowd and define what makes them special. Here are several foundational ways in which smaller companies can accomplish that feat.

Research and Set Your Course

Everyone knows that any good strategy starts with proper planning. However, knowing how to gear your content strategy towards pre-set business objectives can be a big challenge. Perhaps the biggest mistake companies make with content is looking at it with their own mindset and not that of the potential customer. You’ll need to start by creating clear objectives for determining the ROI of your efforts. These might be:

  1. Increase leads
  2. Drive more traffic to your website
  3. Grow social media visibility

Once your goals are clear and KPIs are defined, focus on identifying exactly what makes your target audience tick, give them that content, and start developing a relationship with them.

For example, HubSpot has a great CRO checklist that most marketers would love to get hold of. Since HubSpot realizes the value of its content, it asks users for something in return for the unique content they’re about to receive.

The detailed questionnaire on the right not only collects email IDs, but also important profile information that HubSpot later uses to target the downloader and sell their marketing software. That’s authority building, lead generation, and customer profiling all accomplished with a single piece of content. Talk about marketing efficiencies!

Ultimately, your research should enable you to create the right forms of content that will further your business objective, which can be either to effectively deliver your brand messaging and increase awareness or recall, or egg them on towards a purchase.

Unsurprisingly, the top brands are sampling different forms of content that can help them do this. For instance, Boeing launched a website an interactive library that tells the story behind everything from World War 1 to the first stewardess, Ellen Church. Renault launched an interactive movie, the first big brand story in which viewers can decide the beginning, the middle, and the end.

While you might not have that sort of budget, interactive content isn’t all that hard (or expensive) to produce on a smaller scale. It might just give your otherwise ordinary content the crucial nudge it needs to go viral.

One of the big goals in content marketing is to create a community based on mutual interests and values. To do this, you must align consumer goals and desires with your strategy. What is the most important thing to your audience? What do they stand for? What are their biggest concerns or questions?

There are a lot of great tools out there to help gain answer these potent questions and chart your course accordingly. Buzzsumo, for instance, is a platform that lets you search for the type and formats of content performs the best within your field. It also helps you identify which influencers will fit best with your strategy for a given platform.

Another tool to consider using is Brandwatch, which lets you to tap into what people are saying about your brand or business on social media. From here, you can gain data-driven insights about you, your competitors, or your industry as a whole.

Guide Users through the Buying Cycle

The bottom line for any piece of content you produce is the value it provides to the consumer. This means shifting the focus away from self-promotion or sales – customers will see through this and you can end up coming off as insincere.

Consistently provide takeaway knowledge for your audience that answers common questions and sheds light with useful tips.

A great place to start is with a blog on your website that talks about all the ins-and-outs of your industry. Your content strategy needs to make sure that each of your posts is geared towards a customer segment at a particular stage of your sales cycle. For example, property search and records platform Arivify regularly creates blog postings relevant to their industry while touching on the specific intent of their…

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