So your product is launched, and now you’re looking into how to leverage content marketing? Awesome!
The right content will help you attract your target audience, educate them about your solution and convert them into customers. Investing in content marketing from the beginning is one of the most cost-efficient ways you can grow your business.
While it’s difficult to imagine HubSpot as a startup today, that’s exactly what they were back in 2006. And they’re an astounding example of the power of content marketing. To this day, 75% of their generated leads still come from content.
You’re probably brimming with content ideas and fun things to write about. But before you start thinking about cool topics for your blog, take the time to build a solid foundation for your marketing messaging. This is something many startups fail to do, which may be one of the reasons up to 9 out of 10startups sadly end up failing.
3 questions to get your messaging right
There are three questions you should be able to answer in your sleep: Who? What? How?
- Who are you helping?
- What are you helping them do?
- How are you doing it?
These questions need crystal clear answers before you start planning your content marketing strategy.
1. WHO?
Who are you helping? Who is your target audience? And within that audience, what different personas are you serving? The more granular and specific you can get, the better.
2. WHAT?
What problems do you offer a solution for? Getting this one is essential; it will determine if your marketing message resonates with your ideal customer or not.
3. HOW?
How are you helping your customers? And how do your way of doing things differ from your competitors?
It’s no coincidence that we’re talking about the how last; after the who and the what.
Starting with how you do things is a classic startup mistake that will set you up for failure.
I know, Iknow. You’ve spent so much time perfecting and developing your product — hours and hours of problem-solving, innovating and researching. Of course, you want to share how it works. But, just, don’t.
Because, as tempting as it is to dive straight into all your cool features and complicated backend, the truth is: nobody cares.
Nobody cares how you do things unless you first answer every prospect’s most burning question: “what’s in it for me?”
With clear answers to these three questions, and by answering them in the right order, you will be able to start crafting powerful marketing messages that resonate with your ideal customers.