This post originally appeared on the Louisiana Technology Park blog.
The term “marketing” may trigger thoughts of catchy taglines and captivating visuals for you. And while these are important parts of a successful marketing campaign — especially in the age of social media — linking back to something more robust is a critical step. Generating content for your startup’s website or blog can really solidify a marketing campaign.
But anything worth doing is worth doing right, as the phrase goes — and content marketing is no exception. “Content marketing can really help with a startup’s name recognition and lead generation,” says Meagan Nolte, senior publication strategist at Influence & Co. “But to see the ROI, you have to be patient and prepared to play the long game.”
Here are three steps for getting your startup’s content marketing campaign off the ground.
Find Your Niche
You’re probably already aware of how important your value proposition is — it’s about what makes your offering stand out from the competition. Nolte says the same thought process applies to your content offerings as well. What does your startup have to say that differentiates your brand?
“Doing the research beforehand to see the conversations that are already out there is important,” Nolte says. The first step in a content marketing campaign is to identify the questions in your field that you can bring the most value to. Then, once you know what content you’re offering, you have to find a place to host that content. “It’s really hard to start any content marketing efforts if there’s no website to direct traffic back to,” Nolte says.