Software engineers are lucky – they get to build products.
On the other hand, non-technical co-founders work in the grey. We market, sell, talk to customers and do 1,001 other things. It can be hard for us to see the fruits of our labor.
I agree that hitting inbox zero or ticking items off a to-do list does have a small intrinsic reward. And yes, your growing monthly revenue, increased customer lifetime value and reduced churn are all metrics to be proud of. But I’ll argue that you might need something else to create a real sense of accomplishment.
In this post, I’d like to introduce content marketing as a method that will help you 1. Satisfy your need to create, and 2. Speak directly to your existing and potential customers.
Content marketing is the key reason we’ve been able to grow our WordPress support business so quickly. Some people might think of content marketing as ‘blogging’ or writing posts, but it’s much more than that.
Content marketing is about educating and adding value to your audience with useful, relevant and actionable content that matters to them. It might be a blog post, video, infographic, podcast, how-to guide or even a WordPress plugin.
Let’s get meta for a moment. This post is a piece of content and I’m using it to speak directly to startup founders and business owners. What’s my motive? To be helpful and offer a point of view that’s (hopefully) fresh and unique. Do I have a secret, ulterior motive? Sure – it would be nice for whoever reads this to comment, check out our businesses or attempt to establish a rapport, but that takes time and effort.
When you do content marketing the right way over the long term, you can generate hundreds or even thousands of qualified inbound leads for your business. This is where a lot of people struggle, but here’s a secret about writing stellar content.
People don’t care about you, they care about themselves.
For example, a post on how you started to drink Pu-erh tea will gain traction if you have a loyal fan base of 500,000 monthly readers. If you’re a content marketer trying to spread a message, your time will be better spent talking about the 10 health benefits of Pu-erh tea. Replace ‘Dear Diary’ with ‘Dear Reader’ and you’ll be on the right track.
It’s a nice feeling to have customers coming to you, instead of having to spend money and blasting advertising to them. It takes patience and discipline to achieve this, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Here are five tips if you’re interested in shipping your own content and growing your business without spending a lot of money.
1. Set a target and a theme for your content
My co-founder Dan and I have publicly committed to creating 365 pieces of content this year. I’m not talking about short 300-words, keyword-laden, spammy SEO posts. We write about building your business with content marketing, getting the most out of your WordPress website, and sharing our reflections on the ups and downs of startup life. If you haven’t created content before, a target of one post per week will do the trick. Just make sure it’s useful, relevant and actionable to your audience.
If you’re already using content marketing, you could take a closer look at your most popular pieces of content to identify why they received a lot of engagement. Use that piece of content as a benchmark and create something that’s better than the original.
2. Find a content creation method that works for you
Sitting in front of a computer and banging out articles isn’t for everyone. I have a short attention span, and I love shortcuts, so I wanted to figure out the easiest way to create thousands of words of content in under an hour.
Siri was the answer to my prayers. You can simply dictate the content of your post into Notepad and edit later. One of the best things about Siri is that the transcription is never going to be 100% accurate, which forces you to use your transcribed post with a few missing words and weird interpretations as a jumping off point. It will sound like you’re talking to a friend or family member, but it’ll help you create new content. Next time, try it on the bus during your work commute.
3. Track your progress
Forming the habit of frequent content creation is hard. One way to take a step closer to your goals is to visually track the pieces of content you’ve created and posted. You can use software like Trello or go old school with a notepad to track your progress.
It’s so easy to do! Simply label the piece of content with it’s sequential number and title. For example, I will label this post will be “50 – Content marketing: 5 tips to get started today” and file it in Trello. Only 315 to go!
4. Be patient
I’ve got some bad news. Your first few posts won’t go viral…Although I would love you to prove me wrong. It takes time to develop the appropriate style and content for your target audience. My co-founder Dan has created about 500,000 words of content over the last 7 years. The formula is high-quality content + time = authority and trust.
Don’t take it personally or get discouraged if a post doesn’t get traction. Learn from it, analyze it, and move onto your next piece of content.
5. Have fun and let your personality shine through
Yes, this sounds your Mom’s advice to you on the first day of school.
Ultimately, your content should be entertaining to read. If it’s only educational, it might bore your readers. Make some jokes. Have a good time and poke some fun at yourself.
Being true to your personality takes commitment, so take a look at content marketers, including Ramit Sethi and Derek Halpern, who have mastered this art. They are critical, honest and direct. They convey strong opinions on their blogs, which means they receive negative feedback from a handful of their readers. That’s OK – not everyone is going to agree with what you put online.
Follow these 5 steps and you’ll be creating content, feeling accomplished, and building your business on the bus.
We love to talk about content marketing in our private Startup Chat community, so come check it out if you’d like to learn more.