How to plan content marketing strategies for startups?

Why is content marketing important to startups?

Because the barrier to entry for content marketing is quite low, which makes it faster and more cost-effective than ever before for startup companies to implement this proven effective marketing strategy. There are a bunch of things that you could be doing: SEO, PR, Social Media… But it can easily get overwhelming, expensive, and distracting for a startup to head over to these holes.

How to start a content marketing plan?

Let’s start by setting goals.

Step 1. Set SMART goals: The first step of content marketing strategy is to set SMART goals. These should be specific to your business targets. These goals complement your broader marketing and company goals. Goals although can help us prove how effective we are, keep us stay focused, and push us to be better, goals are totally useless if they’re not grounded in reality. That’s why it’s important to set SMART goals. Here’s what we mean by setting a SMART goal:

What is SMART goals?

1. Specific: Set real numbers with real deadlines.
2. Measurable: Make the goals that are trackable.
3. Attainable: Set a goal that is challenging but possible. Don’t try to take over the world in one night.
4. Realistic: Be honest and realistic concerning yourself and your team capability. Don’t forget any hurdles and barriers you may have to overcome.
5. Time-bound: Set yourself a deadline with specific date.

Step 2. Determine your KPIs: Next, set key performance indicators (KPIs) for your SMART goals. You can use KPIs to measure performance against your goal. One thing to pay attention about KPIs is that they’re used to measure your most impactful indicators. For instance, your social media team may have a bunch of data points that can serve as KPIs. However, they should only choose the ones that align with the broader business goals.

What’s a KPI?

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric used to measure and track your progress toward achieving a specific goal. Business KPIs, which can vary by department, may help gauge a company’s long-term performance against its own targets and industry standards. For example, your smart goal is brand awareness, then KPIs should align with it, such as site traffic, social media followers, subscription sign-ups, mentions by customers and partners.

Step 3. Decide on the type of content: Choose the type of content you will create. To decide content type, start by thinking about your target audience and buyer personas. ​​By answering the following questions about your target audience would help you narrow down and clarify the right types of content for target:

1. What do they need from your services or your company?
2. What challenges are they looking to overcome?
3. Why do they need your product or service?
4. How can you help them achieve their goal?
5. Where do they spend their time?

What are the most common types of content marketing?

There are many types of content marketing that you may choose to incorporate in your strategy — below are some of the most common:

1. Social Media Content Marketing With over 3.6 billion global social media users, it’s easy to understand why so many businesses invest in social media marketing. There are a number of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn. To work with and there are several ways you can create and share content on each of them. For example, photos, live videos, pre-recorded videos, stories in which you can post your content .

2. Infographic Content Marketing Infographics display content, information, and data together in an easy-to-understand, graphic format. With a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images, infographics are a great way to effectively communicate your content. They work well if you’re trying to convey an educational and complex topic so all audience members can understand it.

3. Blog Content Marketing Blogs are a powerful type of content and allow us to create without limitation in terms of their purpose and topic. With a blog, you can do things like promote other internal and external content and blog articles via add links, add social share buttons, and incorporate product information.

4. Podcast Content Marketing A 2020 survey found that 49% of 12-to-32-year-olds in the U.S. had listened to a podcast within the last month, with an average of six listening hours a week. In Taiwan, podcasts are also growing dramatically. For this reason, many businesses have begun creating and sharing their own podcasts. Podcasts allow for a lot of creativity as they can be about any topic of choice. Additionally, you determine a lot of factors related to the podcast such as the cadence of episodes, the guests on the podcast, where you advertise the podcast, and how long episodes are.

5. Video Content Marketing According to the statistics, video is still the most engaging type of content among others. In Wyzowl research, 69% of consumers say they prefer to learn about a brand’s product or service through video. Additionally, video marketing can boost conversions and help you build relationships with audience members. You may choose to share your video content on social media platforms, landing pages, or on a co-marketer’s website.

6. Paid Ad Content Marketing Paid ads can help you reach a broad audience in a short time. And allow you to position yourself in all of the places you want to be seen — paid ads are especially beneficial when paired with inbound marketing. There are many places you can share paid ads including on social media, landing pages, banners, and sponsored content.

Step 4.

Which content channels do you choose?

Choose your content channels: After deciding on the type of content you’ll market with, choosing specific content channels in regard to the type of content is important. Where will you share your content?
For some of the content types, the channel you need to work with will be obvious. For example, if you’re creating Facebook content, your channel will be the social platform itself.

Step 5.

How much content marketing may cost?

Set a budget: Set your budget with the type of content and tools. Think about the type of content you’re creating, tools you need and any profession you require. By answering the following questions would help you to determine your budget:

1. Do you need to purchase any software or technology to create the content such as graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop or a camera to take high-quality videos?
2. Do you need to hire any professionals for marketing marketers such as artists, writers, editors, designers?
3. Do you need to pay for ad space?
4. Do you need access to specific tools or resources to analyze or measure your specific type of content?

Step 6. Create and distribute the content: Create and distribute your content in the channel you previously chosen before deadline so your audience members can consume it — and possibly convert and reach performance indicators.

Step 7.

How to measure results of content marketing?

Analyze and measure results: Analyze and measure your results so you can make any necessary changes to enhance your content marketing efforts and reach more audience members. Look back at your SMART goals and KPIs to determine the success of your content marketing strategy. Did you achieve your goals and KPIs? Were you close to reaching them, or were you off in your estimations?