Crafting a Reliable Content Development Strategy for Your Startup
Each day, businesses generate and host massive volumes of new content designed to attract the interest of new clients. As a startup, carving your space in this saturated digital marketplace can appear intimidating on the surface. How can you best reach your intended audience?
Although many online marketers devote time to the latest tricks to boost SEO, there is no substitute for a time-honored, common senses content development strategy. Ultimately, effectively reaching your target audience requires the development of meaningful, actionable and valuable content which accurately highlights your products and services.
What Sets Your SMB Apart From the Competition?
Small businesses perform well when they address a burning consumer need that the competition either has yet to discover or fails to comprehend. Understanding what sets your business apart from others in your sector is a critical component to developing a common sense content strategy. Do you offer unique products and services? Are your prices or products better than those of your competitors? If so, weave verbiage highlighting these features into your content development outlines.
Learn More About Trends in Your Industry
Once you have put pen to paper and determined what makes your business stand out from others in your sector, it is time to do some research to refine your content development strategy further. What topics in your industry are currently most compelling or of greatest interest to your target audience? Scanning social media sites related to topics in your sector and networking with peers via sites such as LinkedIn can aid this effort immensely.
Beyond trending topics, keyword research is another highly valuable, frequently underutilized, component of a holistic and straightforward content development strategy. What keywords generate the most buzz in your industry? Google Trends is one of many high-powered tools to help you gauge the hottest keywords trends in your sector and tailor your content accordingly.
Address the Needs of Your Target Audience
Reaching new clients via a common sense content development strategy requires an intimate understanding of a wide range of data about your target customers’ behavior and spending habits. To build a general customer profile, at a minimum, you will need to understand information including:
- Geographic location
- Monthly income
- General demographic data including age and gender
- Education level
- Level of familiarity with your product or service
- Spending habits and more
Tie It All Together
After developing a basic content strategy incorporating sector trends and targeting your customer base, it is time to start generating content. Writing high quality, actionable and informative content, is often more of an art than a science. However, at a minimum, your content must incorporate the following elements to capture consumer attention effectively:
- Well-written, clear, concise and grammatically correct sentences
- Unique and engaging titles, headings and subheadings
- Bullet lists, indentations and other text breaks optimized for mobile devices
- Emotionally appealing calls to action