How to do content marketing for a startup

As a startup you have to consider a lot of aspects to take your business to the next level, marketing being one of the important factor. You have offline marketing all set but do not have much clue about how to get incoming leads online — which is where all your customers are expected from. You have to understand the role that content marketing plays and we have got a few experts telling us what to do.

Arpit Sinha, Founder of Classy Writeups, a content marketing and copywriting startup based out of Bengaluru, helps startups strategize their content across platform and channels. This is what he had to say about content marketing for startups.

Image: Shutterstock

“Unrestrained disruption. That’s the only constant I can foresee for content marketers in the parlance of entrepreneurship or otherwise. Now is the time to break old patterns, mindsets and approaches that simply don’t park you on the right side of results. To beat the odds, you’ve got to have the courage to swim against the tide. Doing something just because it has worked yesterday or is working today is making peace with the status quo; that’s just not what game-changing entrepreneurs do. Game changers are least bothered with making peace; they like to challenge, disrupt and dismantle the status quo by carving their own niche – with irreverence.

Two of the major constraints confronting most startups are budget (mostly, the lack of it) and time. Entrepreneurs inexorably find themselves racing against time while grappling with multifaceted constraints. Taking cognizance of this predicament, we undertake content marketing. We cover the entire lifecycle of content marketing – from content conceptualization and implementing the entire pre-marketing funnel to targeting the niche audience, delivering creative insights, conducting the content audit and ensuring timely execution – down to the last mile of customer retention.

In addition, we follow up with media exposure (social media, YouTube, interviews, etc.) using a well-crafted calendar strategy while retaining our focus on brand-driven web content by curating (actually, weaving) words that matter.”

Kiru, Director, The Noise Inside, a creative digital agency based out of Bengaluru has the following to say about how his startup deals with content marketing projects:

Content marketing strategy and execution for start-up happens in five phases.

Awareness phase

Once the client approaches us for our service and shares his/her requirement, we take about a week to do the research work. We start researching about the industry first. We understand and recognize who the major players are and do a competitor analysis to help understand what the market has already seen and what we can do differently. We do keyword research and SEO analysis which gives us the base for content marketing. Content is built over high traffic keywords.

Strategy discussion / Tweaking phase

It is important to meet clients twice or thrice to get clarity on what they are actually expecting. We do a strategy pitch which includes content marketing strategies along with other social media/ PPC strategies, etc. One needs to draw out a plan and see what resources are available and what we need to work towards getting. Once we are on the same page with the client, a plan is made, deadlines are set and the process begins. If it’s a new startup, content (especially website content) plays the major part to define the brand.

Iteration phase

Then throughout the process, the client is always kept in the loop and knows the status of the project on a daily basis. As and when tasks are complete, the client gets a copy of it to review and tells us if it’s okay. If there are changes to be made, it is made at the earliest and sent back.

Test campaign phase

Next meeting is held when we reach the half-way mark of the project, to get more clarity on where we stand and what else needs to be done. The second meeting gives a clearer picture from the point of what the client is expecting from the campaign. The work done is reviewed and the rest of the work is continued.

Launch phase

After the approval and changes from client, we start working on the final draft for the website content and the content for the social media, blogs; so we could work on the campaign at the earliest.

Marketing your startup doesn’t mean spending thousands of dollars on a Facebook page, you can do it with content marketing alone. There is nothing wrong in finding other methods to reach your potential customers but you can lay a solid foundation in the beginning with content marketing.