Content Marketing for Startups: 5 Things You Must Do

Content marketing for startups presents a unique set of challenges that established brands don’t encounter. Whether it’s limited financial resources, time constraints or lack of team cohesion, even experienced startup founders can struggle to build authority and develop a memorable content strategy. 

Despite this, startups are often the most exciting, inspired brands in their industries. At CopyDash, we support the ingenuity of startup founders with a proven startup content marketing strategy focused on scalable, fast and optimized solutions. 

We’ve developed a list of 5 things your startup must do now to create a successful content marketing strategy.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this expert guide to content marketing for startups:

• Developing organic website traffic is the most important component of startup content marketing. Organic search is responsible for over 50% of all traffic and drives 3x as many qualified leads as paid search and traditional marketing.
• A formal startup marketing plan is essential to coordinate and align your teams behind a clear vision for your initial content marketing goals.
• Create a blog rich with engaging content, and support it by publishing expert guides on niche topics within your industry that feature your core service offerings or products.
• Write unique social media content to drive early brand awareness. Be sure to select the right platform for your target audience, then fill it with video marketing content and self-written posts.
• Partner with an SEO copywriting agency like CopyDash. Your startup needs the combination of technical SEO prowess and process-oriented content development to gain credibility and grow at scale.

Schedule a complimentary strategy session with our founder — it takes less than 90 seconds to get started!

The #1 Secret to Content Marketing for Startups

The most important aspect of startup content marketing strategy is developing organic website traffic. 

We know that measuring content results and ROI is a long-term play. An effective content marketing strategy centered around organic traffic mirrors that dedication to long-term growth.

A focused commitment to building organic web traffic through inbound marketing efforts and high-quality copywriting is a plan that reaps evergreen, compounding returns. 

Check out our expert starter guide to branded content marketing, and learn the 4 best marketing channels for your content strategy.

5 Reasons Organic Website Traffic is Crucial to Startup Marketing

Organic website traffic is the most valuable component of your startup marketing efforts for 5 reasons:

1. Sustainable growth. Organic traffic is built over time through quality content and SEO efforts. Paid advertising requires ongoing investment to maintain visibility — once you pull funds from Google Ads, low-ranking content plummets on search engine results pages (SERPs). Quality content organically ranks well in search results, attracting visitors without constant increased spending.
2. Cost-effective content promotion. Startups often have limited budgets. Organic traffic generation leverages content creation and SEO optimization, which are cost-effective strategies compared to paid advertising. Your startup will stretch its marketing budget further and develop the potential for future ROI through affiliate marketing, backlinks and guest posting.
3. Qualified lead generation. Organic search leads to over 53% of website traffic (BrightEdge). Paid ads account for just 15% of traffic. WebFX reports that content marketing drives 3 times as many qualified leads as traditional marketing.
4. Natural brand credibility. Ranking well in search engine results equates to trust and credibility in the eyes of new leads and potential customers. Startups without an inherently strong brand reputation benefit from publishing informative, engaging content that organically ranks well on search engines.
5. Compounding returns. Organic traffic grows over time as your content gets shared and establishes itself in search engine results. This compounding effect drives more traffic and leads over time — an invaluable asset for startup brands and an indicator of future content marketing success.

Let’s define the 5 ways you can implement a content marketing campaign for your startup brand based around developing organic traffic.

Develop a Formal Content Marketing Plan

Goal: Create instant consistency across teams with a formalized outline of your content marketing strategy.

Clearly define your startup content strategy with a formal plan. This plan describes how your brand creates, develops and implements marketing efforts, including:

• New content idea development
• Website copy creation
• Social media marketing
• Marketing automation procedures
• Inbound marketing (like email marketing and newsletters)

Think of this document like an abridged business plan for your marketing team. You’ll standardize your content marketing process and procedures for your current teams and future hires.

Publish an Internal Brand Tone & Style Guide

Supplement your content plan with an internal brand tone & style guide for your marketing and branding personnel. It defines how your brand communicates, and allows anyone “speaking as your brand” to understand the specific language and personality they should use.

A quality brand tone and style guide for startups contains the following 8 components:

• A concise definition of your brand
• Your brand’s MVP statement – Mission, Value and Purpose
• Branded content principles
• Brand voice guidelines
• Brand continuity guidelines
• Existing brand assets, including existing content, logo and media
• Brand color and typographic guide
• Outline of content construction and content strategy

Create a Blog With Targeted, Engaging Content

Goal: Create an ongoing series of blog posts regarding specific subtopics related to your brand and its services. Offer a central “pillar page’ hub that branches out into high quality content clusters.

A blog increases your odds of ranking in search results by over 400% (Optinmonster). A majority of American consumers spend 2-3x more time reading blog articles than readding emails, and inbound leads created by quality SEO blog content have an astonishing 14.6% close rate.

Blog posts = easy social media engagement! Almost 60% of social media blog links are shared without ever being read.
(Chicago Tribune)

Startup blogs don’t just attract human readers. Blog posts allow startups to focus on niche topics and long-tail keywords, both of which are less competitive spaces for SERP placement.

5 Things Your Startup Blog Must Have

Every brand’s blog needs are unique based on its industry, target audience and tone of voice. However, there are 5 unifying elements every startup blog must have:

1. A focused pillar page. Center your blog posts around one pillar page. This page should be home of all your blog articles and feature simple navigation by keyword search, tags and categories.
2. Content clusters framed around core services. Strategize individual content clusters for key components of your business. Write one “tent pole” article for each cluster and surround it with supporting articles.
3. In-depth keyword research. Every blog article starts with in-depth keyword research — not the other way around. Evaluate potential keywords for their relevance, popularity, competition and interest level.
4. Optimized SEO content. Hire a SEO copywriting service like CopyDash to create and deliver fast, optimized article content for your blog. Writing with specific search engine optimization intent improves your SERP ranking and visibility.
5. Image and video content. Support your written blog content with image and video content. Be sure to add alt text and descriptions to blog media to bolster search visibility.

How many images per blog post? 3 images per blog article is a bare minimum standard. When in doubt, every H2 header needs its own unique image, infographic or pullquote to give the reader’s eyes a rest.

Publish Expert Guides to Win at Inbound Marketing

Goal: Establish brand credibility and expertise with valuable content that covers niche topics of your primary services that you know best.

Inbound marketing generates and converts between 9-10x more qualified leads than outbound traditional marketing. Smart startup brands focus early digital marketing efforts on creating inbound content that serves as a lead magnet and social media conversation starter.

Expert guides are brilliant inbound content pieces that establish your industry expertise, pique reader interest and nurture new leads. They involve an in-depth breakdown of a focused topic, designed to guide the reader through a specific stage of their buying journey.

5 Steps to Expert Guide Content Creation

Here are 5 tips to creating outstanding expert guide articles:

1. Write what you know. Don’t stray outside your deepest knowledge base. If you live and breathe the home services industry, talk about specific niche topics within the industry. Expert guides are great ways to showcase your credibility, but they’re also an easy way to expose a lack of knowledge.
2. Target primary services. Talk about the core products and services your startup offers within the guide itself. Use your expertise to educate consumers, but also to introduce them to what your brand can do for them.
3. Anticipate and answer potential customer questions. Don’t just think about what you want your reader to know — think about what they want to know, too. Anticipate your reader’s questions, and answer them in your text.
4. Utilize conversion copywriting. Expert guides are wonderful places to insert strategic calls to action. Make sure the conversion copy aligns with the content’s position in the sales funnel — don’t push a sale on a reader looking for casual information. Meet the reader where they are, and offer a logical “next step” value proposition.
5. Promote with social media and email marketing. Ready to publish your expert guide? Back it up with social media and digital newsletter promotion. Encourage shares, engagement and conversation about what you’ve created.

Do you know the Rule of One? Learn the single greatest content marketing secret for effective conversion copywriting.

Leverage Social Media Content for Brand Awareness

Goal: Heighten your digital marketing presence with self-written, engaging social media content. Create immediate brand awareness by using social media as a search engine.

Social media platforms offer cost-effective, targeted ways to blast your message to millions — if not billions — of daily users. These social networks offer transparent, built-in analytics — no need to interpret data. Track likes, comments and engagements, and interact with potential customers in real time.

It’s important for startups to create a social media presence that feels genuine and bespoke. Write your own posts, or work directly with your social media manager to create a voice that fits your brand’s tone and style. 

Social media also allows your followers to become de facto spokespeople for your brand. Encourage user-generated content, and your startup can build a trove of positive reviews and product interactions to spread brand awareness quickly.

How to Choose the Right Social Media Platform for Your Startup

Consider 3 key factors when choosing the right social media platform for your startup marketing campaign:

1. Know your demographics. How old are your ideal customers? What social media platforms are they statistically likely to use? Is your potential customer a homeowner looking for answers on Reddit, or a 20-something consuming Instagram reels and long-form YouTube content?
2. Think like your target audience. What do your ideal customers like? How do they make purchasing decisions? Are they visual, auditory or text-based learners?
3. Consider your strongest content type. Are you going to lean heavily on visuals? If images benefit your brand, consider Instagram. If video marketing is your forte, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are great options. If you’re reliant on professional or industry-specific writing, LinkedIn is a great choice — especially for B2B marketing.

Partner With a Technical SEO Copywriting Agency

Goal: Cover the gaps in your knowledge. Partner with a content marketing agency that offers technical SEO copywriting expertise and the ability to deliver great content quickly and at scale.

Startups must go a step beyond a conventional content marketing agency. Partner with experts who offer specific, measurable SEO copywriting services — cover the gaps in your technical knowledge with a team that understands keyword best practices, efficient research, and the proper content format and structure that search engines crave.

Agencies like CopyDash understand the nuances of writing content for SEO. What your startup lacks in immediate brand recognition and credibility, we make up for in organic search attractiveness and technical expertise.

Why CopyDash is Your Best Choice for Startup Content Creation

CopyDash exists to serve businesses with a need for fast, scalable content development and delivery. Our proven SEO content process creates optimized copy that heightens brand awareness, nurtures inbound leads and improves organic SERP ranking.

It takes a competent content writer 9 months to write 100 high-quality articles. We do it in 60 business days by employing highly skilled copywriters who write for your specific industry. Our expert copyediting staff optimizes each article, transforming an already great piece of copy into powerful SEO content that appeals equally to humans and search engines.

Startup founders don’t have time or money to waste. CopyDash has the expertise to save you a lot of both.

Content Marketing For Startups: Start Here

Effective startup content marketing centers around organic website traffic. Organic search drives 53% of all website traffic and is an evergreen source of qualified leads that yields compounding returns.

• Publish an internal content marketing plan to ensure cohesion across teams and new hires during the onboarding process.
• Choose the right social media platform and create high quality content for your ideal potential customer. Speak in their language — utilize written copy, video content or images as necessary.
• Quality SEO copywriting is crucial to startups, with blog posts and expert guides serving as inbound marketing pieces. 

CopyDash delivers fast, optimized startup content at scale — for less than half what you’d pay an in-house content marketer.

We’re ready to amplify your branded content — getting started is even faster than our content process! Schedule your chat with us in 90 seconds or less.