4 Content Marketing Lessons For Early-Stage Startups

The number of early-stage startups is growing exponentially year by year in the Middle East and North Africa region.

By far, content marketing is the go-to marketing channel that most early-stage startups invest in to grow.?

Still, you and others are asking: Should an early-stage startup invest in content marketing?

After working with some awesome early-stage startups over the course of the past two years, I learned a lot.

I made a lot of mistakes, achieved good results for some, and would have done a great job for others except for micromanaging that limited my efforts.??

But, luckily for you, I documented my content marketing process over the past two years. In this article, I’m going to share 4 lessons that spell doom content marketing for early-stage startups and how to avoid the pit of despair.

Lesson #1: Positioning is Everything

“Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.” - Jack Trout and Al Ries, authors of “Positioning, The Battle For Your Mind.”

You’re going to use content marketing or any other form of digital marketing to drive cold traffic. Those visitors don't know much about you yet, and they’re going to land on your website for the first time. They form their first impression in just 0.05 seconds.

Look: The lack of sales or conversions isn’t probably because you're bringing in the wrong customers (although, that’s a key reason). More on that later. It’s because the visitors that come to your website don’t really understand what it is that you’re selling and why they should care.?

Rather than burning your cash on developing new features or launching a complete version of your product, work on your positioning. You can do it by testing the market with the tiniest version possible of your product and make it clear who you are selling to and why.?

This will save a lot of money and help you decide early on which marketing channel and message is best for your business.

Go back to the drawing board and create variations on how you’ll communicate your positioning to first-time visitors. That’s what people will see when they first land on your website. Use a tool like Hotjar to see which stands out the most, and use it extensively once you’ve nailed the one that’s working.

One of my clients was a B2C marketplace that sells products to high-end consumers. We used an SEO-focused content marketing strategy to drive highly targeted traffic. There were some sales, but not as many as there could have been because the positioning was off.

After a deep analysis of why we weren’t seeing conversions, it came down to:? the messaging wasn’t clear enough.?

My advice for you as an early-stage startup founder is to trust the advice of your content marketing consultant or agency. They can tell why something isn’t working based on real data and analysis. In short, be flexible. It won’t always work the way you intended or planned. Keep improving your positioning based on every interaction your visitors have with your messaging.

Lesson Learned: Don’t over-spend on new features and solutions. Focus on improving your positioning in the market and making people understand the value of the offer you have.

Lesson #2: Lack of Customer Research

Most founders assume they know the best customers based on gut instinct and personal experience. Personal experience is very important, but customer research is almost always the missing puzzle piece.

For example, one of my clients was an early-stage startup helping retailers ship products easily from China. Their perfect target customer is a busy retailer with little to no time, and the content they had on their blog was:

• Your Ultimate Guide To Ship Products Easily From China
• How To Skyrocket Your Sales
• 10 Tips To Get The Most Of This Black Friday

You see the problem here? A busy retailer has the budget and the proper team to do all of this for him. And even if he doesn’t, he isn't some kind of total newbie to ecommerce.

But when I insisted on doing extensive customer research in order to understand:

• The real pain points of these customers
• The best customer for us
• The places the customer hangs out?
• The type of content our customer likes to consume
• The in-depth of knowledge needed to create a profitable blog?

...almost all the founders balked. They saw this as a waste of time and wanted to start as soon as possible.?

I really appreciate working with an enthusiastic founder, however, customer research is the foundation of a success-driven content marketing strategy. If I don’t know who I’m writing for, what pain points they have , and what new knowledge my potential customer wants from me, I won’t be able to produce content that moves the needle when promoted well.

Steve Black once said: “Get out of the building”. And he means to go out and have real conversations with your exact target audience to better understand them. And that’s exactly what you should do too.

Looking for a freelance content strategist who can help you drive more leads and sales through content marketing? Let me help you do just that. Let’s talk.

Lesson Learned: Never ever base your entire customer research on personal experience, assumptions, and the feedback of your friends. Go out, talk, and survey. Use those insights to drive your content strategy.

Lesson #3: Not Trusting The Process Enough

Most founders I work with are guilty of one thing: Following a lot of content marketing “gurus” on social media. They read every single word they write.?

And they almost always come back to me with new ideas and suggestions to apply to the strategy we’re following every single day.?

It sucks and it’s exhausting.

You hired me for a reason and it’s my full responsibility to take charge of the entire content marketing strategy I’m applying. Tricks and hacks are very good, and can do wonders. However, they’re not a strategy. They’re just a small part of the overall strategy--and often, don’t move the needle on big goals.

I’m not against getting pitched and recommended to read new blogs, stats, or books that could help me while executing the strategy. But, forgetting the end-goal and not trusting the process enough to reach that goal can destabilize the project.?

The hardest part of any content strategy is to keep improving the results based on the insights we had. If all we’re going to do is jump ship to test trendy new hacks every time we see them, you might get some short-term results, but your long-term, sustainable strategy will suffer.?

Lesson Learned: Tactics aren’t a strategy. Trust the process and believe in the small, tiny steps being taken towards the end-goal. Content marketing is a long-term strategy and it should be treated that way.

Lesson #4: Micromanaging is Annoying

Most of the founders I’ve worked with have this habit in common: micromanaging. It’s understandable. We are working on “their baby.” But imagine a doctor in surgery with a patient commenting on where the scalpel should be used.

Micromanaging every single step of the overall content marketing strategy is counterproductive. Delaying the strategy for small tasks that could be done by other team members puts a wrench in the momentum needed to move forward.

For example, one of the founders I used to work with asked me to stop doing some content distribution planning and focus on writing more tweets. When I asked him why, he blew me off. I don’t think he had an answer. So, without a strategy, he just kept on insisting I do more tweets.?

That was not only micromanaging, but doing it without the skills to make it work! The progress of the campaign was hampered and I took the heat for its slow execution. The patient got to direct the use of the scalpel and the surgeon looked bad. It’s hard not to want to put in your two-cents, but let the person you hired decide how to fix what’s broken.?

Making the content team own the full responsibility of the content strategy can do wonders. Trust the people you hire and they will be motivated to do great work.?

Lesson Learned: Don’t look over the shoulders of your content marketing team. Ask for reports, but never delay their actions and progress through nit-picking.?

Final Thoughts on Early-Stage Startup Content Marketing

I’m not saying that content marketing isn’t good for an early-stage startup. But what I want you to understand is that content marketing is a long-term strategy and it takes time.?

Keep these tips with you whenever you work with a content marketing consultant or agency in the future:

• Positioning is everything. It’s not about developing new features every quarter; that’s overkill. Invest more time into reworking and tightening up your existing message.
• Personal experience and assumptions should never lead a content marketing strategy. Writing content without knowing either the best customers or their true pain points is a very bad thing. Do the homework before burning your cash.
• Trust the process. Content marketing is a long-term strategy. Being distracted by the newest trick or hack isn’t a strategy and it won’t lead to any meaningful results. Trust the strategy and the people behind it.
• Looking over the shoulders of your team is a sign of distrust. Of course, have them send you updates and reports on a weekly basis to keep yourself in the loop. But, don’t second-guess what they’re doing. Believe in them and let them do their thing and be responsible for it.

Looking for a freelance content strategist who can help you drive more leads and sales through content marketing? Let me help you do just that. Let’s talk.