Explore stellar startup strategies we use to earn Page One rankings for 85% of keyword-driven content.
Businesses from startup to enterprise levels are increasing their marketing budgets to create content that converts. If you’re eager to invest in content marketing and get your fledgling brand’s name in blue lights (SERP blue, that is), this content marketing for startups guide is for you.
Siege has developed startup strategies that increase organic traffic value by $796,000+ in a year; we’ve even helped a personal loan startup increase its backlink profile by 213% in 12 months.
That’s no easy feat in the finance space.
Content marketing for startups can build buzz around your brand, but your timing, project priorities, and execution have huge implications for your success.
Below are our startup strategies for stellar SEO and content marketing strategies to implement from the start.
1. Identify the Right Time To Invest
Choosing the right stage to invest in your startup’s content marketing is critical to seeing its full traffic potential. We typically recommend waiting until you reach Series A. At this phase, you have a clearer vision for your startup’s marketing and initial buzz to build on.
Startups in the seed round are still searching for their product-market fit, and limited funds make content marketing a risky investment. Smaller brands with less authority also take longer to generate SEO results. Early startups may not see growth for 12-18 months.
On the other hand, Series A startups have secure funding and a brand identity that can return growth in six to eight months. Series A startups naturally generate more PR buzz that can be leveraged in the content marketing strategy. The increased equity can support high-quality content marketing that scales with business, so you don’t have to return to the drawing board to perfect your strategy.
A content marketing strategy begins with your business goals and product. Content produced without a concrete direction can dilute your brand identity within 12 months or drive less-than-relevant traffic that doesn’t convert.
While launching your content marketing strategy might be a ways away, you can start preparing for launch in the seed stage.
2. Build a Foundation for Growth
Your content strategy begins before you put metaphorical pen to paper, and you can lay the foundation for a strategy that scales in the seed phase. Two key elements to building a foundation for growth include a well-built website and a strong brand identity.
A positive user experience is major in SEO optimization, and it starts with your website’s content management system (CMS). A good, user-friendly CMS prioritizes ease of use and the end user’s experience to benefit your content marketing.
Our tried-and-true client favorites include:
Once your site is live, consider how you can generate links and recognition from the press. A healthy backlink profile from reputable and relevant sites builds your site authority and supports your content strategy down the line.
Competitor coverage can be a goldmine when identifying prospects to contact. Reach out to startup and industry publications talking about the competition to promote your startup and initiatives.
3. Set Strategy Objectives and Performance Metrics
An effective content marketing strategy offers several business benefits, including brand awareness, user conversions, and trust building through thought leadership content. You need to identify your top priorities before crafting your startup’s content marketing strategy.
Want to increase sales? Start by optimizing your landing pages for SEO so your product ranks higher in search results and gains more attention.
Want to build your reputation? Thought leadership and case studies can prove you walk the walk and generate organic links that boost your site’s quality perception.
Common content marketing goals may include:
- Generating relevant organic traffic
- Growing your backlink profile
- Driving visitor conversions
To measure your success, you’ll also need to identify key performance indicators (KPIs). Tracking monthly KPIs allows you to see what strategies work and what you can refine while documenting your growth.
These tie directly into your priority goals. So, depending on your primary objectives, your KPIs may look like:
- Improve monthly organic traffic by 15% in six months
- Generate 15 links per month through manual outreach
- Publish four SEO posts each month
Remember that content marketing is a long-term strategy, and you may not see complete results for six months or more. Your other KPIs and metrics can help indicate positive and negative signals to evaluate your strategy earlier.
4. Strategize With a KOB Analysis
A keyword opposition to benefit (KOB) analysis pulls relevant keywords and metrics, including search volume, keyword difficulty, and estimated traffic value. We use these metrics to identify the highest-value keyword opportunities for your site.
The highest-value keywords for you ultimately depend on your strategy. As a startup, we often recommend you target low-difficulty keywords to quickly generate rankings and traffic value. These quick wins grow your brand and authority when you’re starting out and can’t quite outrank established competitors.
You should adjust the estimated traffic value when considering that your business vertical may not directly align with search intent. Meeting users’ needs is key to ranking, and your traffic value won’t be as high if you can’t secure the #1 spot on the SERP.
A KOB analysis is a valuable tool to help you rank, and we want to keep it simple. Feel free to download our KOB analysis spreadsheet below and customize it for your startup.
We believe every content strategy should begin with a KOB analysis. All it takes is 20-40 hours to kick-start your strategy. Get started with our video guide below.
5. Create High-Quality and Unique Content
Google values high-quality content that provides unique insights for users so copying your competitors on the SERP won’t help you rank. Instead, apply your expertise with diverse content to create a strategy that outranks competitors and proves your value to readers looking for more information.
High-quality content is relevant to your product or service and meets your audience’s needs. For example, if you sell homeowner’s insurance, a “home buying checklist” post doesn’t serve the majority of your audience who already own homes.
At the startup stage, relevant content is especially important as you build topical authority. Only explore tangential topics once you’ve exhausted industry keywords you have the highest authority on.
Google and users also look for proof that they can trust you. Factors like your site design, content quality and topics, and author bios can indicate your experience, expertise, authority, and trust — popularly known as E-E-A-T.
E-E-A-T begins with the foundation you built in step 3, but improving your authority should always be a priority. The strategies below can help you build E-E-A-T to create stronger content that ranks:
- Diverse content formats including guides, data studies, and SEO posts
- Authoritative content relevant to your expertise and vertical
- Reputable authors with experience listed
- Good site experience with user-first content
- Easy-to-digest content design
A high-quality content strategy also considers SEO factors, like site authority, SERP competitors, and keyword search traffic. These metrics can help identify keywords by potential organic traffic and value, so learn how to implement an SEO content strategy for maximum performance.
6. Diversify Your Content Types
SEO posts are great for driving organic traffic, while promotable content can generate backlinks. Development elements in the right application can improve user experience and help your content outshine the competition.
Each content format has its strengths, and content diversity supports a well-rounded campaign and its objectives. You can learn more about the types of content marketing on our blog, and check out some category examples below.
SEO Content
SEO content is optimized to rank for specific keywords and answer user questions. Once ranking, SEO posts drive organic search and traffic value and ideally convert users.
Check out this example on Restaurant Loyalty Programs that’s currently ranking #1 for “best restaurant loyalty programs” and generating more than $2K in monthly organic traffic value.
So, what makes this post successful?
Key takeaways and statistics in the intro immediately answer what makes a loyalty program great and how these systems can benefit a restaurant. This is great for user experience, and it provides an easy highlight for Google to pull on the SERP. Optimizing the title and intro with the target keyword also helps search engines understand the post’s content and index it appropriately.
Of course, users are also looking for loyalty examples, which is introduced in the title and a section jump-to link in the table of contents so readers can easily navigate to the sections that matter most to them. Each specific example highlights the loyalty program’s top benefit in the heading with scannable lists and bolded takeaways.
SEO posts are a great starting point for content marketing when you know how to write content that ranks.
Promotable Content
Statistics, resource guides, and data studies are designed to share and make great promotable content. Manual promotion can generate links in the short term to help content rank and develop your backlink profile.
The key to great promotable content is to provide value to readers through interesting insights or actionable steps with clear benefits. Our recent survey on Crypto and investors’ fear of missing out (FOMO) provides unique insights into an increasingly popular asset with an engaging emotional tie.
This survey generated over 47 links through manual promotion by providing unique data to mid-tier news outlets and crypto-specific publications.
Ideally, your posts are a hybrid of promotable and SEO content. Identifying relevant, search-driven keywords to build your shareable around provides additional context for the reader and encourages link building through manual or organic measures.
Passive Link Opportunities
Passive link content aims to rank and collect a steady stream of organic links over an extended period of time for the lowest lifetime cost per link. How-to guides, statistics posts, and interactive content are natural link builders that can become passive link opportunities when paired with a strong keyword.
Our grocery budget calculator below earned 364 linking root domains (LRDs) through organic mentions, and it’s currently ranking #2 on Google.
Several of these links are from high Domain Rating (DR) news outlets reporting on food security and affordability relative to a U.S. bill generating buzz. Our calculator and budget recommendations were the perfect references to discuss American families’ grocery bills.
7. Promote Your Content
Content promotion ensures your hard work is seen and celebrated while expanding your brand’s visibility and authority. This manual outreach strategy works in tandem with organic link intent content to boost links to your site. It’s especially valuable for a startup that might have trouble ranking or using its brand recognition to earn high-value organic links.
Guest posts are a good manual way to build links to your content, which indicates your post’s value for Google and benefit rankings. Guest spots on blogs, podcasts, and web streams can also help position you and your brand as an authority in the space. This reaffirms your expertise and value to boost your ongoing content strategy.
Even promoting your content through internal channels can improve visibility and performance. Internal links within your blog content provide valuable next steps for users while helping Googlebots navigate your site.
Repromoting your content through other formats, such as social media posts, YouTube videos, or podcasts, increases accessibility for users and greets your audience on their favorite platforms. It’s also a budget-friendly way to repurpose content without overspending in the early startup stages.
8. Monitor Your Content Marketing Strategy
The strongest content marketing strategies are flexible and regularly reevaluated. A quarterly review is a good opportunity to consider your growth and objectives. While your content may not rank in four months, you should be able to identify positive indicators in rankings or organic traffic.
Remember: SEO and content marketing is a long-term strategy. We typically expect significant ROI to build around the six-month mark, so don’t be too quick to pivot strategies.
As you review past projects, consider the relevancy of your content for your readers and brand. You may find the top-performing posts directly answer the reader’s queries, while high-converting posts are super relevant to your vertical.
Tracking your KPIs and other performance metrics monthly is a helpful way to identify seasonal trends in your industry and content. You can also spot lost rankings or traffic early to adjust your content strategy as necessary.
Be sure to keep an eye on the age of your content, which is a key ranking factor for Google. Revamping existing content is an easy way to keep your rank, and we’ve found that it can increase organic traffic by as much as 52%.
Why Is Content Marketing Important for Startups?
Content marketing provides an organic way to reach new audiences, educate and convert customers, and support your brand positioning online. Using content to build natural consumer relationships is especially valuable, as 67% of consumers admit that they hate targeted ads, and over 70% don’t feel like targeted ads are relevant anyway.
Well-optimized content marketing is an opportunity to cut through the noise and reach customers where they’re at with tangible value. A well-crafted content marketing strategy addresses several customer needs, from educational top-funnel content to conversion-driven bottom-funnel posts.
Investing in content marketing provides long-term benefits that build over time. As you improve your site structure and publish great content, your overall site quality improves, too. This is a positive signal for search engines that can increase rankings for other posts.
As more content ranks, engagement increases as users build organic links to posts or click-through CTAs. All of these actions further signal that you have a quality site with valuable content. The cycle continues as long as you maintain your content strategy.
Invest In Growth
Content marketing for startups can provide significant benefits when you carefully build a foundation for your content strategy. Clear performance objectives, quality content, and expertise can propel your startup to stardom.
Wondering where to find strategy superstars? Connect with us to chat about your goals and check out our content marketing services.
