Content Marketing for Startups: A Beginner’s Guide

Content selling has been gaining popularity steadily.

More and much companies, e.g., Shopify, Beardbrand, and america too, person succeeded utilizing this benignant of marketing. 

If you’re a startup, you’re astir apt wondering, “Should I usage contented marketing? And if I determine to, however bash I spell about it?” 

That’s what we’re answering successful this guide. 

Content selling is important for startups due to the fact that it helps them get much customers. It does this by creating marque consciousness and teaching imaginable customers however a concern tin assistance lick their problems. 

For example, we person a blog station astir uncovering retired who links to your website. It presently holds the featured snippet for the query:

Within the article, we amusement readers however to find retired who links to their websites utilizing a mates of tools, 1 of which is our ain Site Explorer:

So anyone who’s searching for this query volition observe our marque and product. They whitethorn yet go customers. 

And that’s lone 1 blog post. Compound the effect by the hundreds of pieces of contented we’ve produced—articles, videos, societal posts, etc.—and you tin spot however almighty contented selling can be. 

Just spot however overmuch integrated postulation our blog gets from Google alone:

Content selling takes time. It takes clip successful presumption of resources (research, creation, promotion), and it takes clip successful presumption of results. 

Because it requires patience, contented selling works good only if the absorption squad believes successful it. That has been my acquisition truthful far, and it has been the acquisition for others too:

Unfortunately, not each absorption squad is connected committee with contented selling close away. For example, immoderate startups person constricted resources oregon C-level executives whitethorn beryllium biased toward selling channels, e.g., paid advertising, that nutrient “faster” results. 

So if your brag oregon manager doesn’t springiness you capable clip oregon resources to put successful contented marketing, past it cannot work. If you’re successful that situation, you’ll request to archetypal walk immoderate clip getting buy-in from your managers.

Your crippled program should involve:

• Statistics proving that contented selling works – Use this database of contented selling statistics to person your absorption team. 
• Examples of different companies (ideally successful your niche) that person recovered contented selling to enactment well – If you’re starting a caller beard merchandise company, for example, you’ll privation to amusement your managers however Beardbrand has succeeded with its blog. 

You’ll besides privation to amusement them your contented selling plan, truthful they cognize however you’ll beryllium executing the strategy and tactics. 

You tin besides usage the resources beneath to larn however to physique up your case. While they’re astir SEO, the principles tin inactive use to your situation. (After all, SEO and contented selling endure from akin absorption squad setbacks.)

Before you make immoderate content, marque definite you person 2 things down pat. 

1. Your people audience

The extremity of contented selling is to pull much customers to your business. So if you don’t cognize precisely who you’re targeting, you can’t make the close contented to get much of them.

The archetypal measurement earlier you bash thing is to be wide connected who your people assemblage is. 

We urge that you make a purchaser persona. Read the usher beneath to larn however to make 1 for your business.

Recommended reading: How to Create a Buyer Persona for Your Business 

2. Get your method SEO in order

A large portion of your contented selling strategy volition beryllium to fertile your contented precocious connected Google. But if Google cannot access, crawl, oregon scale your content, past you simply cannot rank. 

So it’s important to get the method aspects of your website right. The easiest mode to bash this is to motion up for our escaped Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) and tally an audit of your website. 

If determination are immoderate method SEO issues with your website, the instrumentality volition emblem them retired for you. It’ll besides explicate wherefore thing is an contented and however you tin fix it:

Recommended reading: The Beginner’s Guide to Technical SEO 

Your attack to content creation volition beryllium two-pronged. Both types of contented should beryllium created simultaneously. 

Prong 1. “Viral” content

The archetypal portion of your contented strategy volition beryllium to make contented that has the imaginable to pull a batch of attention. You cognize this arsenic “going viral.” 

Why bash we privation to bash this? There are a fewer reasons:

1. Gaining a batch of attraction successful the abbreviated word for your contented tin beryllium to the absorption that contented selling works – Metrics similar shares whitethorn beryllium vanity, but they supply short-term results that tin assistance nudge absorption toward investing much successful contented marketing. 
2. Get your marque sanction retired – One of the biggest challenges for startups is that nary 1 knows who you are. If your contented attracts attention, past radical volition commencement to announcement your brand. 
3. Earn links – Links are an important Google ranking factor. Since the 2nd portion of our strategy volition impact ranking precocious connected Google, you should commencement acquiring links now. 
4. Drive postulation to your website – Gaining attraction means radical are checking retired your website and its contents. 

Now, instrumentality enactment that we don’t person to scope the level of the astir viral meme. We conscionable request radical successful our niche to cognize and stock about us.

Here’s however to do it:

1. Find contented ideas

I privation to beryllium clear: There are nary surefire ways of knowing which contented volition spell viral. If it was truthful easy, each startup would person a portion of viral content. 

What we can do is amended our chances of success. We tin bash this by looking astatine what has been fashionable and seeing if we tin replicate the ideas. 

Here’s how:

1. Look astatine what has resonated successful communities

Many “viral” pieces of contented get their commencement successful niche communities: 

1. Someone shares a portion of contented connected a forum (e.g., Hacker News) oregon subreddit. 
2. It generates a batch of upvotes and comments.
3. It gets picked up by users connected different societal networks.
4. The media picks it up.

So if you tin find these pieces of content, you tin see replicating them. 

To find them, spell to a forum oregon assemblage leafage and find the astir fashionable posts. For example, you tin spot this easy successful immoderate subreddit by mounting it to Top and All Time. 

For different forums, you tin typically find a Sort by feature wherever you tin spot the astir viewed posts:

For Hacker News, you tin usage this “search engine” to look done the archives. 

2. Look astatine what has been highly shared

“Viral” contented doesn’t ever get its commencement connected a assemblage forum. Sometimes, it generates its archetypal dispersed done a societal web itself. 

Here’s however to find contented that’s wide shared:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
2. Enter a word applicable to your niche
3. Set the Language filter to the connection you make contented in
4. Set the Live/broken filter to Only live
5. Set the filter to Exclude homepages and subdomains
6. Sort the results by Twitter or Pinterest shares (whichever level you’re funny in)

You tin besides acceptable the Publication day filter to a comparatively caller play (e.g., 1 to 2 years) to spot lone contented that has been highly shared recently. 

While Content Explorer is large for Twitter and Pinterest, it’s inactive missing a mates of important societal networks. If you privation to spot what’s fashionable connected Facebook and Instagram, you tin usage the CrowdTangle Chrome extension to spot however often a nexus gets shared, who shared it, and what they said.

3. Look astatine what radical are linking to

Linking is simply a signifier of sharing too. So if a portion of contented has acquired a batch of links, it means it has generated a batch of attention. 

Here’s however to find this content:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
2. Enter a word applicable to your niche
3. Set the Language filter to the connection you make contented in
4. Set the Live/broken filter to Only live
5. Set the filter to Exclude homepages and subdomains
6. Set the Publication day filter to sometime caller (e.g., the past two years)
7. Sort the results by Referring domains

4. Share a contrarian opinion

Hot takes and arguable opinions thin to get a batch of traction connected societal media. If you person one, you tin make a portion of contented astir it. 

For example, since the pandemic began, distant enactment became championed arsenic the “future norm.” Plenty of radical seemed blessed astir it; nary 1 seemed to question it. 

Well, Sean Blanda did. He wrote a portion titled, “Our distant enactment aboriginal is going to suck.” It indispensable person resonated with galore radical due to the fact that it has picked up hundreds of shares and links:

There should beryllium plentifulness of wide accepted ideas, concepts, champion practices, and proposal successful your niche. Share a contrarian sentiment that refutes 1 of them. Even better: marque definite you tin backmost it up with existent information oregon idiosyncratic experience. 

2. Create the content

Once you’ve selected a imaginable database of topics, it’s clip to make the content. 

Follow the handbook beneath to larn however to make a large portion of content. 

Recommended reading: Writing Handbook by Julian Shapiro 

3. Promote the content

Content doesn’t spell viral connected its own. You’ll request a mode to “kickstart” it. You’ll person to promote your content. 

Here are immoderate tactics to assistance beforehand your content:

A. Share your contented with your existing audience

If you person an existing assemblage connected email and/or societal media, marque definite you stock your recently published contented with them. 

If you don’t person an existing audience, it’s a reminder to commencement gathering them.

B. Share contented successful applicable communities

You’ve got your ideas from these communities, truthful it’s a no-brainer to stock them there. 

For example, erstwhile I was moving astatine a startup a fewer years ago, I made definite to stock my contented connected applicable subreddits. Many of the posts got hundreds and thousands of upvotes and sent a ton of postulation to the website:

Always marque definite to survey the communities you privation to stock your contented in. Abide by the assemblage rules, larn their civilization and lingo, and enactment actively. Don’t spam and don’t beryllium determination simply to promote—most communities hatred that and volition prohibition you successful a jiffy. 

Only erstwhile you’re a trusted subordinate of the assemblage tin you commencement to stock immoderate of your content. 

Recommended reading: Reddit Marketing: How to Self Promote connected Reddit and Get More Traffic 

C. Outreach

There are aggregate outreach opportunities successful each station you publish. 

First, if you’ve mentioned anyone oregon immoderate resources successful your content, you should scope retired and fto them know. Nothing excessively complicated; conscionable nonstop a elemental email like:

Hey [First Name],

I precocious published an nonfiction connected [topic] and linked to [your resource]. 

Here it is: [Link]

Thought you mightiness bask the mention. 🙂

Cheers,

Second, if you’ve based your contented connected highly shared oregon highly linked-to content, you tin spot who has shared oregon linked to the contented and scope out. After all, if they’ve shared oregon linked to a akin portion of contented successful the past, chances are they’re funny successful the taxable and volition emotion to spot new stuff. 

To find these people, click connected the Referring domains file successful Content Explorer:

If you’re looking for societal shares, click connected the Who tweeted tab:

Once you person a database of people, find their emails and reach out to them. 

Recommended reading: Blogger Outreach: How to Do It astatine Scale (Without Feeling Like a Jerk) 

D. Repurpose your content

Extend the support beingness of each portion of contented you make by turning it into antithetic formats. For example, we turned our video connected affiliate marketing into a blog post. 

We besides regularly crook our contented into Twitter threads:

Recommended reading: The Complete Guide to Content Repurposing 

E. Run ads

If you person the budget, you tin ever tally ads to your contented to springiness it a boost. 

Recommended reading: PPC Marketing: Beginner’s Guide to Pay-Per-Click Ads 

Prong 2. SEO content

The 2nd portion of your contented strategy volition beryllium to absorption connected evergreen content that volition fertile precocious connected Google and make hunt traffic. 

Here’s however to do it:

1. Find topics with hunt postulation potential

If you privation to get hunt traffic, you person to people topics that radical are searching for connected Google. Finding these topics is simply a process known arsenic keyword research, and the easiest mode to statesman is to usage a keyword probe instrumentality similar Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
2. Enter 1 oregon a fewer keywords related to your niche
3. Go to the Matching terms report

Since startups mostly person lesser “website authority,” we urge targeting low-competition keywords successful the beginning. 

For example, if you’re a societal media selling tool, it volition beryllium astir intolerable to fertile precocious for “social media marketing.” Not lone does it person a Keyword Difficulty (KD) people of 91, but astir of the top-ranking pages are besides well-established sites with thousands of backlinks:

To constrictive down the database to lone low-competition keywords, you tin acceptable the KD filter to a max of thing like 20. 

From here, you tin look done the database and prime retired the keywords that are applicable and tin promote your business. You tin bash this by looking astatine each topic’s concern potential:

Ideally, you should absorption connected creating contented for topics that people astatine slightest a “2” and above. That way, you tin amended searchers who observe your contented via hunt engines astir however your merchandise works and wherefore it helps to lick their problems. 

This is known arsenic product-led content, and it’s the ground of our full contented strategy. 

Recommended reading: Product-Led Content: What It Is, Why Use It, and How to Get Started 

2. Create content

When you person a database of topics you privation to target, it’s clip to make contented to fertile for them. 

To fertile precocious connected Google, you’ll request to amusement that your leafage deserves to beryllium there. One of the astir cardinal aspects of this is relevance. 

In SEO, relevance means aligning your contented with search intent—the why down a hunt query. We tin recognize this by looking astatine what’s ranking connected the archetypal leafage of Google. 

But much specifically, what we privation is to analyse the 3 Cs of hunt intent. 

1. Content type – Is determination a ascendant benignant of contented connected the SERP, specified arsenic blog posts, merchandise pages, videos, oregon landing pages?
2. Content format – Is determination a ascendant contented format connected the SERP, specified arsenic guides, listicles, quality articles, sentiment pieces, oregon reviews?
3. Content angle – Is determination a ascendant space connected the SERP, specified arsenic freshly updated contented oregon contented aimed astatine beginners?

For example, let’s analyse the 3 Cs for the keyword, “best vpn”:

1. Content type – The results are mostly blog posts.
2. Content format – The results are mostly listicles.
3. Content angle – The results are mostly fresh, i.e., updated to the existent year.

When you’ve analyzed the hunt intent for each your people topics, it’s clip to make them. I urge pursuing the process successful this video to larn however to make contented that’ll fertile connected Google:

3. Build links

Links are an important Google ranking factor. It’s been confirmed by Google reps, and studies similar our ain person recovered a strong, affirmative correlation betwixt the fig of websites linking to a leafage and however overmuch hunt postulation it gets from Google:

Put simply: If you privation to fertile precocious connected Google, you need links. 

The issue, though, is that arsenic a startup, you astir apt don’t person galore links now. But don’t worry, all’s not lost. There are ever “easy” links you tin rapidly acquire:

• Social profiles – These days, you should astatine slightest person profiles and pages connected the communal societal networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn). You tin adhd links to your website connected your pages. 
• Startup directories – These are websites oregon pages that collate a database of startups. You tin hunt for these sites connected Google and use to beryllium on them. 
• Local directories – These are websites oregon pages successful your section country that collate a database of startups oregon products. Search for them and petition to beryllium on them.
• Product Hunt – Product Hunt is simply a assemblage for caller merchandise discovery. The “trick” is that you can’t taxable your ain product, truthful you’ll person to find idiosyncratic (known arsenic a “hunter”) to get them to adhd your product. 
• Help a Reporter Out (HARO) – HARO is simply a tract that connects journalists and experts. Sign up and you’ll person emails from journalists looking for experts to quote. If you’re knowledgeable astir a peculiar niche oregon industry, you tin reply to a writer and often get a link back. 
• Product reviews – Reach retired to websites oregon pages that reappraisal products successful your niche. You tin nonstop them 1 of your products and get them to constitute a reappraisal about it. 

And more. 

Follow this video to get your archetypal 100 backlinks: 

If you’re doing them right, your “viral” contented pieces should person earned you a fig of links excessively (hopefully). Make definite that, wherever relevant, you adhd internal links from these attention-grabbing pages to your different important pages. 

Beyond that, you should beryllium gathering links to your important pages consistently. Watch this video to larn however nexus gathering works:

Final thoughts

Here’s what our contented instauration process looks like:

Does it look scary and complicated? Maybe. 

But we didn’t get astatine this spot close from the get-go. Like you, we were erstwhile a tiny startup. We started with 1 idiosyncratic creating content, past two, past three, then more. 

Even erstwhile we were a one-person team, our contented was already making an interaction connected the industry. So don’t beryllium disheartened by the contention you spot up of you—great contented stands retired anywhere. 

Content selling is simply a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t expect to make hundreds of contented successful the archetypal month. You’ll request clip to execute your strategy, prosecute people, and get your process right. 

Commit to it, travel the strategy I’ve laid out, and refine your process. You tin do it! 

Any questions oregon comments astir this post? Let maine cognize on Twitter.