Why do content marketing?
Last time I talked about what content marketing is and isn’t. Today I’m going to go all Simon Sinek on you, because knowing that still isn’t the same as knowing why you should do it.
Actually, “why do content marketing” is a trick question. There are two ways of answering it, and the problem a lot of startups have is that they only think about the first one.
Why should startups do content marketing?
This is what I’m calling the ‘generic why’, as in: why does anyone do it. You can google it if you want, or I’ll save you the time – it basically boils down to:
Content marketing helps you articulate your brand value.
Content marketing helps you build relationships.
If you think about the standard marketing funnel (awareness, consideration, conversion, retention), doing content becomes a no-brainer. Those two ‘generic whys’ tick pretty much all your boxes. Brand-building brings people in that the top of the funnel, relationship-building makes them stick around at the bottom. Marketing? Completed it mate.
You’ve probably figured this bit out already. By now, we’re all pretty familiar with the idea that it’s what we should be doing; Hubspot reckons 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing; content is King, etc etc. But to borrow a phrase: if Hubspot told you to jump off a bridge, would you? The second way of answering “why do content marketing” is the more important, but more often overlooked one. Gesturing broadly at why startups in general want to do content isn’t much use. For it to work, you need a clear idea of why YOU want to do it.
Why should you do content marketing?
When I ask clients what their goals for content are, they usually say they want to do everything. A classic answer will be something like “we want to raise awareness ahead of our Series A/ product launch/ US rollout (delete as appropriate) and bring lots of new leads in through the website. Also we’re thinking about doing ABM next year. We really need to give our sales guys some stuff too, all our case studies are rubbish/ old/ non-existent (delete as appropriate). And we want to set up a drip campaign to nurture the rest of the database”.
It’s content marketing bingo!!! Honestly, my heart goes out to people when I hear this because I’ve been in-house at startups, and I know how much pressure there is to get all that (and more) done yesterday. So I take no pleasure in telling you that you simply cannot do everything at once.
You’re going to have to take a deep breath and pick one why. But that’s a good thing! I promise you that the sooner you do this, the better for your sanity (and actually, your marketing efforts), it will be.
How to define your goals for content marketing
So, how do you know which one to start with? We’re not just throwing a dart at a map here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you the answer to this because the point is that it’s specific to YOU. But there are a few things to think about while you’re figuring it out:
1. Marketing priorities
I know everything is a priority, but what are the OKRs the business is measuring marketing performance against? Start with servicing them.
If the big plan is to create high volumes of MQLs, then your content strategy needs to include gated content that collects leads. If it’s to increase visits to your website, then maybe you want to think about SEO – in which case you need high volumes of keyword-heavy pieces, not one big gated thing that google can’t crawl. If it’s to help generate SALs, you’re going to want case studies and proof points in digestible formats. Nobody’s going to read a thought leadership whitepaper that comes in from a cold email.
2. Other business initiatives
Content marketers get pulled into all sorts of stuff, especially at startups. Have a think about what those are likely to be, so you can either say no to them, or make them work in your favour.
I’m thinking about things like events and website re-writes here, which tend to include a lot of content input, but will often get sprung on you as an afterthought. If they’re going to be big projects, make sure they’re in your OKRs and then go back to point 1. And look for ways to leverage them. If you’re going to be asked to do an event, you might as well get some mileage out of it. Film it, or make notes and turn them into blogs, or ask guests for testimonials. Use that stuff to feed your priority workstreams.
3. Reality
Everyone wants to do the fun sexy stuff, but you’re probably going to have to start with the basics.
Where do you have expertise? Where are you at in your growth? Do you have an audience that wants to hear what you have to say? Is there a plan for getting it in front of them? Do you even have the time? Basically, don’t try and do a podcast if you don’t have any audio expertise, anything genuinely insightful to say or any way of distributing it. And never, ever start with ABM.
Tl;dr: think about what your business critically needs, what you’re being measured against, and what you’re actually able to do. That should help you pick one of those whys, so you can create a content strategy that supports it.
Why you need to pick one why
I’ll cover the different whys and how to design content strategies for them later in the series. For now, you just need to pick one.
That’s because different whys require completely different content - different formats, topics, tones, everything. A lot of startups don’t get that, and it’s the reason their content doesn’t work.
When I said in my last post that blogs aren’t a silver bullet, this is what I meant. Compare content to sales. You would not expect the same sales pitch to work for every different use case, industry and geography. The same blog won’t attract a new lead, convert a warm one and re-engage a cold one, either. Likewise, you would not expect a deal to close on the basis of one phone call. Trying to tackle all the whys by doing one blog for each isn’t going to cut it. To get anywhere, you need specificity and consistency.
This is for your own good. You can kill yourself trying to make one piece of content work for lots of different audiences, but it will just end up being so high-level it’s not useful to any of them. Or you can get stuck in the endless churn of creating one-and-done pieces that don’t go anywhere. It’s a waste of what little time and resource you have. If you’ve got a huge team who can create large volumes of content for each different audience, then have at it! Fill your boots with whys. But since that’s probably not the case, I wouldn’t try.
One thing I should probably warn you of is that once you’ve picked your why, you’re going to have to get everyone else on board with it. Spoiler alert: they might not like it! Stakeholder management is a tough ol’ nut to crack, and I’ll share some more thoughts on it in a bit. So stay tuned for that – you can subscribe at the bottom of the page.
