Six Steps to Acing Your Startup’s Content Strategy

Kris Hughes is a content material technique and storytelling wizard. He:

✍️ Wrote (and bought) blogs earlier than it was cool

👻 Spent years ghostwriting every day social content material for purchasers, from companies to CEOs

🖥️ Runs his personal digital technique consulting agency (on observe to hit 30% YoY income progress)

Listed here are Kris’ six ideas for nailing your content material technique — to generate stable, genuine leads.

1. If You Don’t Inform Your Model’s Story, Somebody Else Will

As a founder with 1,000,000 priorities, content material like blogs and social media posts can seem to be low-priority gadgets.

However if you happen to don’t inform your model’s story, another person will make assumptions and inform it for you. 

Don’t sit in your palms relating to content material. Your story and voice must:

• Be genuine
• Really feel pure to you
• Make sense to your target market

Sizzling tip: Check out your opponents — in the event that they’re not doing a powerful sufficient job of telling their story, they’re leaving content material gaps on the desk so that you can capitalize on.

2. Do a Thorough Mind Dump

Spend ~30 days on a “mind dump” train, utilizing voice notes and free-form writing. Report each thought you’ve gotten in your model, then move it on to somebody who’s near, however not part of, your corporation.

Ask them what they see from the skin trying in. What phrases are used over and over? What matters maintain returning? This deep-dive step is important for 2 causes.

One: “Individuals are their very own worst entrepreneurs,” Kris says. “There’s in all probability a ton about your personal model story you’re not telling. The deep dive and out of doors perspective brings this to the floor.”

Second, this train will spin off aligned speaking factors as a way to hit the bottom operating with a transparent technique and financial institution of nice content material — in your personal phrases.

3. Extrapolate 4 Key Pillars for Your Content material

Sift by your mind dump and set up every thought, spicy quote, or subject, into considered one of 4 pillars:

Supply: Kris Hughes / Zanate Ventures

Every pillar offers rise to particular varieties of content material, and alternating between them will make sure the matters you discuss stay different and contemporary, but in addition on model.

For instance, one week it’s possible you’ll speak concerning the outcomes you’ve pushed for a shopper (Pillar II), and the subsequent share a few of your founder story (Pillar IV).

And if you happen to ever get author’s block, you’ll be able to return to your pillars as inspiration and a reminder of what you need to convey to your viewers.

4. Give attention to Group-Constructing earlier than You Put Out Content material

Create a neighborhood from the get-go by interacting along with your splendid purchasers, opponents, and friends by value-driven feedback and messages.

This step will get you comfy with the way you write, the way you painting your self, and the way individuals obtain you.

Maintaining observe of feedback you make (e.g., in Notion) may even guarantee you’ve gotten a content material concepts financial institution; Most worthy feedback can often be bulked up right into a publish.

5. Now You Can Get Your Content material Out There

Use your pillars, saved feedback, and mind dump to generate content material that’s genuine to your model. Bear in mind to:

📈 Have a transparent KPI: Is your content material to construct generalized consciousness, or drive leads?

📝 Develop a voice information, a useful resource information, and a content material calendar.

Kris is an advocate of scheduling content material to be sure you get it on the market. Whereas the cadence and method of posting will rely upon the platform, consistency is all the time key.

6. Bear in mind: Content material Is A Lengthy Sport.

It takes time to construct up a popularity to the purpose the place your content material drives leads. Maintain at it. 

“Many founders are available in weapons blazing with excessive power, after which fizzle out after just a few months,” says Kris. You’ll miss the magic if you happen to do. Keep motivated by:

• Setting new benchmarks
• Specializing in optimistic suggestions
• Reusing your top-performing posts each few months

As a last tip, Kris suggests speaking to your clients when issues are going effectively.

Supply: Tenor

“We have a tendency to achieve out solely when we have to put out fires,” he advised us. “However getting shopper suggestions through the good instances means you’ll discover room for incremental enchancment — when you’ve gotten the capability to behave on it.” 

Optimistic buyer transformation journeys are highly effective additions to your model story.