5 Simple And Effective Content Marketing Tips For Startups

If you’ve just entered the world of entrepreneurship, chances are there’s a lot on your mind. You’re trying to achieve all of your planned goals, get funded, level up to your competitors, and hopefully make a profit. Coming up with an elaborate content marketing strategy in the midst of all these challenges might be the last thing you want to think about. But the truth is, you could spend thousands on fancy ads, place them on twenty different platforms, and hardly get any traffic. Oftentimes, companies produce excellent products and services at competitive price points, but simply do not know how to market it. Organically attracting your audience through content marketing is not only affordable but a far more effective strategy.

 

Here's why you should start investing in content marketing:

·         It costs 62% less than traditional marketing, yet it generates three times the leads.

·         Global content consumption has doubled in the past two years.

·         It has a long-term effect that can potentially bring in traffic for years.

·         It can be used to measure customer interests by initiating conversations with and getting feedback from target audiences.

It’s important to note though, that just because content marketing can be entirely free, doesn’t mean that it can’t be extremely expensive. Allocating a massive budget to content marketing by partnering up with huge influencers and spending copious amounts on video production teams will surely send your marketing money down the drain with hardly any lead generation. Content marketing is both an art and a science and needs to be skillfully executed based on your company’s objective and your audience’s needs. By definition, it is a strategy for creating and sharing valuable online content that stimulates customer interest in the product/service without explicitly promoting the brand.

Below we’ve included a simple framework used by top digital marketing companies in Kuwait, interspersed with a few tips and tricks that you can follow to build your own custom content marketing strategy:

1.      Define your goals

When you’re assembling your content team, whether big or small, you will have to consider the various roles that your team members will adopt and if you’ll need to hire or outsource to fill any skill gaps. These roles might include marketing strategists, content writers/editors, designers, videographers, etc., depending on your business goals.

Your goals itself should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. This means analyzing what your monthly revenue and marketing budget is, whether or not your pricing is in line with market expectations, and then drawing out your SMART goals based on where you want to be and what success looks like for you. For example, those looking to increase their website’s organic traffic might focus more on blogging and SEO whereas others looking to build brand awareness might benefit more from investing in video marketing or starting a podcast.

2.      Find your audience 

Taking part in customer development and market research, or even directly interacting with potential clients through interviews and focus groups will help you understand where your audience spends most of their online time, and what kinds of topics and keywords you’ll need to incorporate. If you wish to target senior citizens, for instance, TikTok probably won’t make the cut for your investment strategy.

3.      Pick your Content Management System (CMS) & Production Tools

Choosing a good CMS for your website is key to generating a positive user experience. There are also a host of free and low-cost tools that startups on a budget can find beneficial. Let’s list some of them:

·         Google Docs works just as good as a lot of paid processors and allows you to collaborate in real time with your team.

·         WordPress can help you kickstart your blog with their free website domains. You can also choose to migrate your content to their paid version which will let you create a custom URL with your own brand name.

·         Using a pre-existing smartphone or camera can easily be used to create videos that showcase your product/service.

·         MailChimp can be used to send emails and newsletters to target customers.

·         Google Keyword Planner and Google Analytics can help you better understand your audience and tailor your content around their interests.

After you have the foundation down, it’s time to decide what type of content you wish to post. Remember that content does not simply mean written text. It can be YouTube videos, testimonials, Webinars, GIFs, photographic images, podcasts, or whatever else you want it to be. In fact, you should go beyond blog posts and try to incorporate the types of content that would really attract your target audience. What’s actually important is that your content be informative, engaging, practical, purposeful, and outcome oriented.

Of course, for all of this to work, you need to set realistic expectation in line with your budget. Even though creating content is far cheaper than other modes of marketing, high-quality content still costs money. Whether you choose to hire an entire team, outsource, work with a Kuwait online marketing agency, or go solo, you need to have the necessary skills, time, and resources that will help you not only in the creation, but also in the promotion and analysis of your content marketing strategy. Real results take planning and dedication. 

4.      Brainstorm 

Now it’s time to come up with your core content. What topics highly relate to your product/service? One way to drive sales is to focus on content that guides the customer through any decision-making that might be required. You can also create content that builds on existing topics already proven to be popular with your customer base. Filling content gaps, including eye-catching visuals, and increasing content length are all ways to escalate your content game and outrank your competition. If you wish to be in Google’s good books, plan to combine expert perspective with a diversified content range; this is the key to achieving high-quality content. And while you’re here, check out our blogs on creating SEO-friendly and promotable content, because allowing SEO developers to choose the right keywords for your topics will be central to your content marketing strategy.

Next, find out what social media platforms work best with your type of content and try to engage actively with your target audience. Involving influencers, getting them to notice your content, and choosing the best time to post your content will play an important role in establishing your content’s success. 

5.      Take a look at your Analytics 

Don’t forget to assess all your hard work so far. Observe which platforms brought in the most clicks, conversions, and sales. A useful tip – repurpose your highest performing content in a new context and link back to your original post to gain even more traction. Take a long hard look at the numbers to understand your audience even better. Maybe you might notice that there’s an entire new demographic that’s now interested in your content; find ways to target content towards them. Stay on top of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and don’t hesitate to switch a particular platform or strategy if it hasn’t been giving any results. Afterall, your content marketing strategy should be fluid enough for you to move with audience preferences and experiment with different tactics.

Have you used any of these tips or have questions about using them for your own startup’s content marketing strategy? To guarantee the most relevant content ideas, best optimization efforts, and improved performance, try Design Master, a Kuwait top ranked SEO company and the best internet marketing company in Kuwait. Get started with a consultation today to start generating major traffic and leads for your business.