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Content Marketing Strategies for Startups

Uploaded by

Rodrigo Berni
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Topics covered

  • Analytics,
  • Content Engagement,
  • Masterclasses,
  • Entrepreneurship,
  • Content Distribution,
  • Traffic Generation,
  • Content Syndication,
  • Content Templates,
  • Customer Journey,
  • Content Ideas
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
300 views78 pages

Content Marketing Strategies for Startups

Uploaded by

Rodrigo Berni
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Topics covered

  • Analytics,
  • Content Engagement,
  • Masterclasses,
  • Entrepreneurship,
  • Content Distribution,
  • Traffic Generation,
  • Content Syndication,
  • Content Templates,
  • Customer Journey,
  • Content Ideas
  • Introduction & Brand Overview
  • Content Marketing Introduction
  • Why Invest in Content Marketing

Using Content

Marketing to Capture
Leads While You Sleep
Presented by
HubSpot Loves Startups and Entrepreneurs

A $30 million investment A program designed to


A program dedicated to
fund for startups that help entrepreneurs build
helping startups grow
align with HubSpot’s and scale businesses
and scale better through
mission to help millions through education,
education, software,
of organizations grow software, and support,
and support, at a
better in a unique programs for
startup-friendly price
entrepreneurs
This education series is presented by
HubSpot for Startups

Education Resources Integrated Platform Professional Software,


and Tailored Training for Startups Startup Pricing

Workshops, masterclasses, Access to over 300 software Access to HubSpot Growth


resources, tools, and templates integrations, many at startup Platform, a full suite of software
to help founders and startup friendly pricing, as well as the for marketing, sales, and
teams acquire and retain more opportunity to build an integration customer service, with a
customers. of the HubSpot platform completely free CRM at its core
at a startup-friendly price
Hi, I’m Rafael
Agenda
1. Why should a startup spend time on content

marketing

2. Building a content creation framework

3. Planning a long term content strategy

4. Generating content ideas

5. Startup resources for content creation

6. How to effectively promote content?


Content marketing is a marketing program that centers on
creating, publishing, and distributing content for your target
audience -- usually online -- the goal of which is to attract
new customers.
Why Should a Startup Spend
Time on Content Marketing?
Reason #1: It Costs Less

Content marketing gets more 3x


leads than paid search advertising
Content Marketing Institute, 2017
Reason #2: It Helps Close Deals

47% of buyers viewed 3-5


pieces of content before
engaging with a sales rep
(Demand Gen Report, 2016)
Reason #3: It Has Long Term Value

Content marketing programs set


businesses up for predictable,
scalable, and cost-effective traffic
and lead-flow that doesn't rely on
securing budget each month.
It's like an annuity.
Reason #3: It Has Long Term Value
Reason #4: It Drives (a lot) More Traffic

Content marketing
began
Quick Recap:

● Content marketing is creating, publishing, and


distributing content to drive new customers.

● Content marketing costs less, lives on longer, and


drives more traffic, than other marketing programs.
Goal

Create a human
connection
Essential elements for storytelling

1. Characters

2. Conflict

3. Resolution
Start with you buyer persona
This semi-fictional representation of your ideal
buyer can help guide you to understanding the
goals and challenges that your character will face.
Storytelling best practices

1. Use conflict to create emotional appeal

2. Be consistent and authentic

3. Keep story clear and concise


“Tell the truth, but make it fascinating”

DAVID OGILVY
Building a content
creation framework
Content Spoke Model
Sole
Silent proprietorship
partner

Small
business
Lorem ipsum ideas

How to start Entrepreneurship


a business
congue

Equity
financing
Business
incubator
Step 2: Prioritize Based On:

Traffic Customer Ease of


Potential Need Creation
Search volume Topics that align closest Can you realistically take
Likelihood of ranking with what your customer it on and do it well?
Competition needs right now
Step 3: Determine Content Format
business impact
Longevity &

Resources
Step 3: Determine Content Format
business impact
Longevity &

Newsjack
blog post

Resources
Step 3: Determine Content Format

Data Report
business impact
Longevity &

Newsjack
blog post

Resources
Step 3: Determine Content Format

Pillar
FAQs page How-to
content Data Report
or post Ebook
page
business impact
Longevity &

SEO
focused blog Webinar Website bot
post
External
post
(Medium/Quora)

Newsjack Video
blog post

Resources
Step 4: Create Editorial Calendar
Analytics

● Use analytics tools (mostly built in


CMS, Google Analytics etc)

● Tracking links
Quick Recap

● Make list of topics from customer research and keyword


research
● Prioritize based on business impact, need of customer, and
ease
● Determine content format
● Build editorial calendar for visibility
● Define and use analytic tools
Planning a long term
content strategy
Three steps to creating a long-term
content plan:

1. Setting marketing goals

2. Auditing or assessing your startup’s initiatives and assets

3. Identifying the buyer’s journey for your buyer’s persona


Three steps to creating a long-term
content plan:

1. Setting marketing goals

2. Auditing or assessing your startup’s initiatives and assets

3. Identifying the buyer’s journey for your buyer’s persona


Each goal you
set should be a
SMART goal.
Increase unique website visitors from 1,000
to 1,500 by the end of the year.

POTENTIAL SMART GOAL


Three steps to creating a long-term
content plan:

1. Setting marketing goals

2. Auditing or assessing your startup’s initiatives and assets

3. Identifying the buyer’s journey for your buyer’s persona


Three steps to creating a long-term
content plan:

1. Setting marketing goals

2. Auditing or assessing your startup’s initiatives and assets

3. Identifying the buyer’s journey for your buyer’s persona


Organize your content
by categories

● Content title
● Buyer’s journey stage
● Lifecycle stage
● Content format
● Targeted buyer persona
● Topic
● Any additional notes that provide
value or context.
Where to look for content

● File manager or marketing folder


● Ask your sales team for collateral
● Pore through your CRM and your CMS
Three steps to creating a long-term
content plan:

1. Setting marketing goals

2. Auditing or assessing your startup’s initiatives and assets

3. Identifying the buyer’s journey for your buyer’s persona


Generating Content
Ideas
Where do ideas come from?
The 4-step ideation process

01 02 03 04
Gathering raw Digesting the new Unconscious The Eureka
material material processing moment
Read and consume You’re looking for Stop trying to bring those An idea will pop into your
content from a wide relationships, ideas together and do head (It will come to you
variety of places. connections, and something else entirely. when you are least
combinations. expecting it).
2 ways to generate content ideas:

On your own With a group


2 ways to generate content ideas:

On your own With a group


Buyer persona:

● What are their reading


habits?
● Put yourself in the shoes of
your prospects. Empathize
with them.
Use tools like
BuzzSumo

Helps you see which content


has the best social media
performance
Competitors

Look at your
competitors’ content
marketing efforts.
What are people talking about in Quora?
3 ways to leverage Google:

1
Autocomplete
3 ways to leverage Google:

2
Related searches
3 ways to leverage Google:

3
“People also search for”
2 ways to generate content ideas:

On your own With a group


Brainstorm best
practices:
● Pick someone to moderate and set a
clear agenda.
● Create an atmosphere where people feel
comfortable.
● Leverage "braindumps."
● Use sticky notes, whiteboards, and other
visual aids.
● Remember that the main goal is to
generate new, unexpected ideas.
Reality check:
I’m a startup and I don’t have
the resources to create
content.
Option 1: External Writers
Freelancer ($100-
“Free” writers AI Tools $500/post)

Local college students - Get posts partially Hire a freelancer one


internship written for you post at a time

Contest

User generated
content

Atomic Reach
Option 2: Audience Exists & Posts are Casual
Tips to Enable Employees

Make it Easy Mobilize Employees to Create


Content
● Create templates and examples.
● Explain the value for their own personal
● Hold competitions and give out rewards brand and external thought leadership.
when you need to up volume.
● Allow employees to syndicate on their
● Use tools like Acrolinx to help stay on own LinkedIn.
brand voice, or set a style guide.
● Explain how their contributions have
● Support shy and strong writers alike. Tools helped the company’s monthly metrics.
like Grammarly will help any employee
feel confident in their writing.
Option 4: Hire a Full-Time Content Creator
Every content piece created at a startup should be
able to be repurposed often and support at least one
stage of the customer journey.
How To Stretch Each Content Piece
Attract
Blog Blog Blog
Post Post Post
How-to ebook
Blog Blog Blog
Post Post Post

Industry Blog Blog Blog 28 weeks


Post Post Post
research
report
Blog Blog Blog
of content!
Post Post Post
Engage

Blog Blog Blog


How-to video Post Post Post
tied into
product Blog Blog Blog
Post Post Post

Close
Blog Blog Blog
What’s new in Post Post Post
product
webinar Blog Blog Blog
Post Post Post
How Long Does This Really Take?

Content Time to Create


4 long form offers 60 hours

24 blog posts 48 hours

75 Tweets 6 hours

25 Facebook posts 3 hours

25 LinkedIn posts 3 hours

6 months of content 121 hours, or ~ 3 weeks full time


What does this look like in practice?
First content
Content team at 4
hire
employees
Content team at
All employees
Blogging team >15 employees
encouraged to
Brian and write stopped
Dharmesh write requirements for
weekly employees

2006 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Few posts/week Bl og/day, 1 ebooks/month 2 bl og/day, 3 ebooks/month 3-4 bl og/day, 4 ebooks/month 6-8 bl og/day 4+ l ong form/month

Blogging contest Blog team redoes


hosted, $2k prize! strategy for SEO,
All marketers (I won :) ) streamlines “search
required to blog insights report”
2x a month

First marketing
hire to HubSpot
How to effectively promote
content?
10 ways you can promote your content
organically:

● Search engine optimization ● Podcasts


● Bots and messaging apps ● Influencer marketing
● Email ● Word of mouth
● Social media ● Content syndication
● Live events and webinars ● Content repurposing
4 ways you can promote your content with paid
advertising:

● 1. Google ads
● 2. Social media ads
● 3. Paid influencer marketing
● 4. Native advertising
HubSpot for Startups

Seed Series A

90% 50%

90% off HubSpot Inbound marketing 1:1 strategy 50% off HubSpot Inbound marketing 1:1 strategy
Growth Suite for and sales education consulting office Growth Suite for and sales education consulting office
eligible seed-stage and software hours and 24/7 eligible Series A and software hours and 24/7
startups onboarding customer support startups onboarding customer support

[Link]/startups
Questions?
Thank you

Common questions

Powered by AI

Using an editorial calendar in content marketing offers startups multiple benefits, including improved organization, consistency, and strategic planning. By clearly outlining content schedules, formats, and topics, an editorial calendar enables the marketing team to maintain consistent output and align content with seasonal trends or specific campaigns . It aids in visualizing the content pipeline, ensuring balanced coverage of different buyer personas and customer journey stages . Additionally, the calendar streamlines collaboration across teams, enhances accountability, and facilitates the tracking of content progress and performance. This structured approach helps optimize content production processes, improve overall marketing effectiveness, and prevent resource overlap or content gaps .

Startups can effectively promote their content without solely relying on paid advertising by leveraging various organic tactics. These include optimizing content for search engines (SEO), utilizing bots and messaging apps, sending out targeted emails, engaging through social media platforms, organizing live events and webinars, and participating in podcasts . Additionally, startups can take advantage of influencer marketing, word of mouth, content syndication, and repurposing existing content into different formats to reach wider audiences effectively . These methods allow for broadening customer engagement and building a brand presence without heavy investments in paid ads.

Storytelling elements in content marketing, such as characters, conflict, and resolution, play a crucial role in building lasting customer relationships by driving emotional engagement and relatability . Characters help personalize and humanize the brand, enabling customers to see themselves within the narrative. Conflict introduces tension, capturing interest and highlighting challenges that resonate with the audience's experiences. Resolution provides a sense of satisfaction and solutions, reinforcing the brand's value as a problem-solver . By employing storytelling best practices, such as authenticity and concise messaging, businesses can create compelling narratives that foster trust and brand loyalty, encouraging customers to form a deeper connection with the brand . This connection is pivotal for nurturing long-term customer engagement and advocacy.

Startups often face challenges in content creation and marketing due to limited resources, including budget, personnel, and time. To address these issues, startups can engage external writers or freelancers on a contractual basis, utilize AI tools for content generation, and involve local college students through internships . Solutions may also include mobilizing employees to create content by explaining its benefits for their personal brand and providing templates, competitions, and tools like Grammarly to improve confidence in their writing abilities . Additionally, startups can repurpose content to maximize value and strategically focus on formats and topics that directly align with crucial customer need areas, optimizing resource use and extending the content lifecycle . This multifaceted approach helps minimize resource constraints while maintaining a robust content marketing strategy.

Startups can assess the effectiveness of content formats by analyzing their alignment with business impact, customer needs, and ease of creation. Prioritizing content formats involves evaluating their potential to drive traffic, engagement, and conversions relative to resource availability and the ability to create high-quality content . Assessing the longevity and business impact of different formats, such as blogs, ebooks, or videos, helps determine their suitability for long-term content goals and their place in the buyer's journey . By leveraging analytics and customer feedback, startups can prioritize formats that best align with strategic objectives and audience preferences, ensuring effective resource allocation and enhanced marketing outcomes.

Google Analytics helps startups build a successful content strategy by providing insights into content performance, audience behavior, and traffic sources. By tracking key metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and user demographics, startups can identify which content resonates most with their audience and assess the effectiveness of different distribution channels . This data-driven approach enables startups to refine and adjust their content strategy, ensuring it remains aligned with business objectives like increasing engagement or improving conversion rates. Additionally, analytics facilitate the measurement of progress towards specific marketing goals, allowing startups to make informed decisions and optimize content deployment for maximum impact .

Content marketing offers startups numerous benefits compared to traditional paid advertising. It is more cost-effective, generating three times more leads than paid search advertising . Additionally, content marketing creates a sustainable flow of traffic and leads that doesn't rely on a constant budget for advertising, because the content generates ongoing interest and engagement over time . Unlike paid advertisements that require continuous funding, content marketing content can generate long-term value and ongoing traffic after initial investment . This makes it a strategic and scalable approach for startups aiming to optimize resource expenditure while reaching their audience effectively.

The four-step ideation process for generating content ideas begins with gathering raw material, which involves consuming varied content to build a rich knowledge base . Next, digesting this material helps identify relationships, connections, and unique combinations that can spark innovative ideas . The third step is unconscious processing, where taking a break from active brainstorming allows the subconscious to synthesize information creatively . Finally, during the 'Eureka moment,' an idea often emerges unexpectedly out of these underlying processes, ready for further development . This iterative process is designed to harness both deliberate analysis and spontaneous creativity.

Understanding the buyer persona is crucial in content marketing as it offers insights into the ideal customer's needs, behaviors, and challenges, enabling startups to create targeted, relevant content that resonates. Startups can leverage this understanding by tailoring content to align with the specific goals and pain points of their personas, thereby improving engagement and conversion rates . By empathizing with and accurately representing their target audience, startups can craft compelling storytelling and build a strong emotional connection with potential customers, making their marketing efforts more effective and personalized . This approach also helps prioritize content topics and formats that are likely to drive the most impact and relevance.

When building a long-term content plan, startups should adopt a strategic approach that maximizes effectiveness by setting specific marketing goals, auditing current initiatives, and understanding the buyer's journey. Goals should be SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—to ensure clarity and focus . Auditing the startup's existing initiatives and content assets helps identify strengths and areas for improvement, ensuring resources are utilized effectively . Understanding the buyer's journey granularly allows for content to be tailored to different lifecycle stages and personas, enhancing relevance and engagement with the target audience . This strategic framework facilitates coherent and impactful content planning aligned with broader business objectives.

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