5 Ways Start-Ups Can Use Content for Branding in 2021
How can start-ups use content to establish their brand quickly? Here are five simple ways they can do that.
The path to scaling your idea to a full-fledged business is exciting and daunting in equal parts. It involves a lot of strategy, planning, negotiating and prioritising. It sometimes takes years for start-ups to gain visibility and establish the legitimacy of their business. Having said that, one of the best ways of establishing your start-up is via content.
Unfortunately, only less than 40% of businesses have a thorough content marketing strategy in place, which explains why a lot of them struggle with gaining their customers' trust in the initial years.
Here I discuss the 5 ways start-ups can use content to build and grow their brand.
1. Create More Visual Content on Social Media
Think about it. When you open social media on your phone, what catches your eye first? Is it some lengthy text post, picture or video?
Visual information can be processed 60,000 times faster than text and is easier to remember. Researchers say that people tend to remember only 20% of what they read, while around 37% of the population are visual learners.
Creating or reproducing text heavy visual content in the form of infographics, videos, or memes that can be quickly consumed is a great way to capture the attention span of your audience. This kind of content can be shared on all social media channels and added to newsletters for broader reach.
2. Posting on Guest blogs
As a start-up, you must reach a wider audience. One of the organic ways to do that is by distributing your content to credible sites who accept guest blogs. Guest blogging is a powerful way to build brand credibility and increase visibility.
You can start by choosing sites related to your business or industry and have the targeted audience demography you need, as potential consumers. Then work on creating value added informative content and drive traffic back to your own site.
3. Invest in Influencer Marketing
Involving influencers to promote your brand and creating tailored content is a popular trend and here to stay!
Influencers are people who have established themselves as an expert in a particular niche. Their audience trusts them and values their opinion. This is why the content created and posted by them has the power to influence, build opinions and sway decisions of their followers. Making the most of an influencer's influence in your niche is a great way to build a positive image for your brand.
You can financially compensate the influencer to create content for your brand and post it on their social media accounts or offer them free products or services from your business for reviews. When these influencers mention your start-up in their posts, it automatically drives a significant amount of traffic to your website or other channels.
4. Write on Niche Topics
Start-ups should focus on a niche rather than broader topics. Look for niche topics that are not very well-covered in the industry. Go deep and then go wide on your niche. This will help in reducing the competition for your brand, make your content stand out and also establish you as an expert in the field.
While creating such niche content, be very specific about the topic. If you write about fashion, it would be better to write “how to create a capsule wardrobe for women in their 20s” rather than “how to create a capsule wardrobe”. The more specific and relevant the content is, the easier it is to attract the right audience.
5. Interactive Content
As you build an audience for your brand, it is important to engage with them. Higher engagement rates will result in more conversions for your business even while you build brand loyalty. While posting any kind of content, always add a call to action.
For instance, if you post on Instagram Stories, add one of the Poll buttons. If you post on your feed, ask your audience a question and tell them to leave their answers in the comment section. You can also go Live on channels like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. This allows your brand to build a real connection with potential customers.
Another way to engage your audience is to provide valuable content for free. For instance, you can offer a discount for a product if they register with their email id or other personal details. If you have a finance website, provide a free investment calculator in exchange for filling a contact form.
End Note
Content marketing by itself can effectively help you to build the brand image you want for your start-up. As your business grows, you will have to keep working on creating an effective strategy that aligns with your goals.
It all comes down to creating valuable and attractive content for your target audience and making it visible to them via every channel possible.