Jewel Marketing
Taiwan Content Marketing

Dos & Don'ts for Startup Content Marketing



By Jason Patterson

Founder of Jewel Content Marketing Agency
Content marketing orthodoxy is very much oriented around larger businesses, leaving many startups to figure it out as they go along. There are few hard and fast rules for content marketing, especially at the start of a business (since everyone starts out in a different place), but there are a few bits of advice I can give.

Do React and Approve Content Marketing Quickly

When you're small, you've got to play to your strengths. One of which is speed. Don't be shy about striking while the iron is hot. Don't overthink. When you're a startup, you're starting from zero, so you have nothing to lose. Take advantage of that in your content marketing.

Do Experiment With Content

Speaking of having nothing to lose, remember that even though the textbooks say that you should be consistent, it's hard to know what the best thing to consistently be is without trying out many different things first.

Some types of content will perform as well as you expect them to, while others will surprise you, and experimenting is often the only way to sniff out those good surprises.

Do Respect SEO as a Startup

You're starting from zero on search engines. You lack domain authority and need to build it. One vital way to build it is through content.

Now, I don't believe content marketing should exist purely for SEO. You'll end up creating boring stuff that nobody wants to read if you do (thus undermining the SEO utility of what you're trying to do).

But SEO best practices should be used when choosing topics and in the writing process itself. And you don't have to be an SEO expert to do this. An SEO novice using the right tools for keyword determination and SEO writing can do this.

Also remember that SEO content isn't just a game of TOFU keyword salad anymore.

AI is eating search and queries are becoming more conversational, more specific, and more indicative of current buying intent, creating the need for more mid-funnel content that satisfies such queries, such as niche buying guides, comparison pages, and interactive tools, such as product selectors.

Do Repost Evergreen Content

Don't post and coast with evergreen content. If you write a blog, post it at least twice, preferably with a different creative/copy angle each time (though newness is less important now with organic reach in decline) at least three months apart.

And there are other ways to get more mileage out of your blogs as well. If it's something longer and more valuable, like a whitepaper, you could do it several times with several angles, at least a month apart. This is a good way to have stuff on standby in case something scheduled is delayed or falls through.

Do Curate Content With Perspective

Feeding the content beast can be hard at a startup, so don't be shy about curating some industry news. This is especially useful if nobody knows who you are, or what problem you solve.

But don't simply share it, add some perspective and hopefully some value. Let people know why you're sharing it. And what you want them to think about this content.

Do Create Branded Content Assets

Startups tend to focus heavily on website content for the SEO benefit. But the problem is that web content, especially the kind meant to be found via search, often isn't very branded.

People may show up, read your text-only article, and leave, scarcely noticing who you are because the only branded element on the screen is your logo, tucked away up in one of the corners.

Creating brand familiarity is everything. And 90% of B2B purchases go to a vendor on the prospect's day one list.

This is why you should be creating more branded content assets that integrate your brand colors, logo, and stylistic elements thoroughly (instead of just in the website navigation).

Big-ticket content assets like whitepapers, ebooks, and slick branded videos require money and skills a startup might not have, but bite-sized social media visuals and simple PDF content (like case studies) can be done with only modest resources.

Do Be Strategic but Flexible

When you're a startup, you have to be strategic in terms of content from the beginning, meaning you have to make choices and have priorities. Otherwise you'll be stretched too thin, and nothing will get done well.

This is a common problem at startups. Your content person gets pulled in too many directions, and this can really sap their productivity because content comes from flow, which requires focus.

Do Separate Content and Social Media Duties if Possible

If you have an in-house content writer creating your blogs and most of your other copy, it might not be optimal to have that person also running the social channels.

The reason is because content writing is flow work, and social can be something of a distraction from that, creating a perverse incentive to do less on social media (if you're doing both jobs) than you might otherwise. And since most startups can't produce enough social content to justify a full-time hire, consider outsourcing.

Do Look for Startup Experience When Hiring

Ideal in-house content and social people for a startup have a mix of large company (or agency) and startup experience. The former will give them at least some knowledge and exposure to best practice, while the latter will shorten their learning curve for working with you, because they'll already know how the rules are different in startupland when compared to someplace larger.

Do Accept You Can't Measure Some Things

One of the issues in startupland is that you might not have all your key marketing positions filled out yet, and therefore you might not have all the means and tools in place to measure things at every stage of the funnel.

This can either lead to the people who are hired being held accountable for metrics over which they don't have a lot of control, or it can lead to a situation where you'll just have to trust your gut on some things.

The latter is better, especially since it is a funnel, and you don't necessarily need to be taking precise measurements at every stage of the funnel to know if there's a leak. If you have clean numbers at some of the stages, what's happening at the other stages can be inferred, at least qualitatively.

Don't Expect Followers To Flock to You Immediately

Social media followers are largely a trailing indicator of real-world buzz. So don't expect a lot of them to show up immediately, especially if you don't yet have a product to sell.

I would put up at least two to three months of content before even starting to worry about followers, because that early content is like your company's resume or portfolio, and you'll need a complete range of work to maximize your chances of winning a following.

Yes, you can put paid efforts into growing followers at launch, but such efforts work better if you have that portfolio already out there.

Brand advocacy can also be very effective at certain types of startups, in the sense that the personal reach of your employees will often be much larger than your company's barely-existent social media reach at the beginning.

Don't Publish Too Often Immediately

Because few people are following you at launch, and because you may not have much street-cred established with Google yet, don't rush out a lot of things immediately. You'll only end up with a lot of disappointment. Take your time.

No more than three major content pieces a week (data suggests 11 times per month is the minimum for big algorithmic benefits) And anything of high quality or high priority should have paid behind it to maximize impact, since you won't have many organic followers to spread the word.

Don't Report Too Often if You're a Startup

When it comes to content, and especially social media, it's very easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole of watching the numbers all the time.

This is a dangerous habit, and it shouldn't be encouraged. Monthly reports are fine, but not weekly (though biweekly might be okay if you are very UX-dependent). You won't learn anything meaningful from reporting every week, especially if you're a startup.

When you are near zero, blips can mistakenly take on huge significance. You'd be better off spending the time you'd otherwise be spending on weekly reports on making more content.

Don't Be Afraid To Talk About Yourself

The return on investment (RoI) of employee-focused content, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, and the like can be hard to justify, but that doesn't mean it's not important.

Because this content helps establish that you are, in fact, a legit company, with sufficient resources and infrastructure to employ a team of real-live humans who trust you sufficiently to employ them.

In other words, it shows your brand isn't just three monkeys in a trenchcoat.

Don't Put All Your Eggs in the AI Basket

A content marketer, content strategist, content writer, or social media person with access to generative AI can be quite a bit more productive, but AI is not yet a substitute for skilled people who know what they're doing.

Early content marketing gen AI adopters report saving an impressive 11.4 hours per week (more than a quarter of a workweek) and yet their average RoI so far has only been 12%, which invites plenty of doubt as to the quality and utility of what AI puts out, as does the fact that B2B buyers are increasingly complaining about and turning away from vendor content.

Given that your larger and more established competitors already have advantages in terms of the number of human brains they can throw at content, don't tie your hands behind your back by simply giving your marketing lead a bunch of AI content tools and hoping for the best. Be smart.

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