8 questions to kickstart your startup's content marketing
Notes from my 30 minute workshop for Upekkha's new cohort
In a few minutes, I’m conducting a 30 minute workshop on kickstarting your content marketing for Upekkha’s new cohort of startups. Upekkha is an Indian startup catalyst that has a very unique viewpoint on how to build sustainable SaaS businesses: They call it Value SaaS, and we at Interview Mocha are one of their breakout stars. You can look them up here.
Because my audience today is primarily very early stage startups, the workshop is geared towards them. But there’s still a lot to take away in terms of ideas for companies in other stages too. Please note that these are notes from a presentation, so there may be simplifications/generalisations. They are there to facilitate quick decision making and note-taking in a workshop
I’ve constructed this in terms of questions, so founders/marketers can answer them one by one, leading to an understanding that will help them craft their content strategies.
Are you selling to the SMB or to the enterprise?
Startups need to understand this really well. If you are selling to SMBs, TOFU content may be the best investment. If enterprise, MOFU and BOFU content may be your best chance at closing deals. Demand Generation for enterprise may or may not be content driven, but for SMBs it can really speed things up.
What do you sell? Is your positioning clear?
As a startup trying to break into a market, be clear in telling your audience who you are. One look at your website, and they should know who you are and what you do. Here’s a tip for better positioning (from Andy Cunningham, author of Getting to Aha): First affiliation, then differentiation. Tell them what you are, and then then tell them why you are different.
Who do you sell to? What are they interested in?
It’s a simple question. It should have a simple answer. Do you sell to marketers or developers or finance pros? Okay, and if they are marketers, what are they interested in? What are they reading, what are they doing, what are their aspirations? Be clear, simple, and precise in this answer.
Write down 5 topics they may be interested in.
Now that you are clear what your target audience is interested in, write down 5 topics they might want to read about, and convert them into blog/whitepaper titles. Also, the what is x - kind of educational content is also relevant, if as a business you want to explain something or take a certain stand.
(This is the important part of the workshop, so startups will have blog posts they can immediately start working on)
Where are you going to publish?
Try to own your audience. A blog on your website is still the best place to write as a business, for obvious reasons. But if you have a compelling story which you are confident about and want to see if it picks up and goes places, use Medium.
Now that you have a bunch of blog post titles, how are you going to create them?
With so many freelancers looking for work in this economic crisis, you can get value for your money and also support the ecosystem. There’s so much talent out there and it’s relatively inexpensive, especially in our country. Hire freelance folks, give them your ideas, expand upon them, keep the engine going, and keep shipping.
Are you telling your story?
Have you told your startup story in a compelling, effective way yet? Do it. That’s your secret weapon. In June last year, I wrote a detailed essay on how telling your story may be the most important thing you’ll do for your startup. Companies like Freshworks were built on the bedrock of their compelling storytelling. Please pay attention to this!
Not convinced about content?
That’s fine, just go and write sales enablement stuff. Help your team sell. Make presentations, videos, how-tos, case studies and so on. All of this is content marketing too. Just for different stages of the funnel. If your demand generation is sorted, this is where you should be spending most of your time on anyway.
All right, this should do for now. If you want to have a look at the deck, you can find me on Twitter, or email me at sairamkrishnan@outlook.com.