Starting a business can be exciting yet challenging, especially without the appropriate use of tools and management. In today’s digital era, as companies are aspiring to build their online presence, each piece of content is seen as crucial in their strategies. Thus, content marketing plays a vital role. The content you see from the videos, blog posts and podcasts are all results of content marketing strategies and efforts, and they aren’t just random ideas.

                In this article, we will be discussing some essential tips for the startups in Calicut who want to engage in content marketing. To stand out from the content of other companies, a startup must craft engaging ideas that will resonate with the audience. So, content marketing helps you create professional and personalized strategies that align your business goals with target audience. 

Importance of content marketing

If you’re looking for the reasons why content marketing is essential, the following points can serve your queries. Let’s look at them!

• Content marketing strategies are more cost-effective than the traditional ones. This can save you from allotting huge budgets at the initial stage of your startup. 
• It can help you become an industry expert as you’re building high-quality content with the necessary insights. 
• Quality and SEO-optimised content lure visitors to your website and improve search engine rankings, respectively. 
• Content can eventually build brand awareness and customer loyalty by ensuring your page is engaging and responsive. 

Essential Tips For Content Marketing 

Thinking of setting up a startup without mapping out which type of content to be created that can reach a broader audience? When you make content without any digital marketing strategies and planning, the content might not meet your expectations and all your efforts may be in vain. As we have discussed above what content marketing is and what it does, let’s now go through some of the tips when you consider content marketing as your business strategy. 

1. Creating foundation for a content marketing plan

Before you engage fully in content marketing, create a strong foundation for a content marketing plan. Here, you should generalize the plan to decide the goals and why you choose them. You must also conduct a content audit to evaluate the existing content and identify its gaps. This is the most important phase that keeps up with the other concerns over content marketing.

                      By laying a foundation for such a plan, you can develop a content strategy that aligns with themes, types of content, and distribution channels. You must secure stakeholder buy-in to build plans that align with business goals and provide benefits. After deciding all these, prepare marketing assets such as websites, templates, CMS, and analytical tools. 

2. Create content based on target audience  

You can’t create content just because you think this content will reach the audience. Content marketers should be aware of some points when they engage a particular content audience. These contents are to be strategised with how the visitors consume them and decide their choices. When you decide to provide a new flavour for the current content, this might attract some people while some others may not get attracted that much. In such a situation, you have to decide for whom the content is let to be seen and engaged. Thus, the concept of target audience plays an important role. 

                      There are two ways to target an audience. One important method is researching the audience and customer development. For this, you can conduct interviews, surveys, and feedback that will help you gain consumer insights about the product, learn their needs, and improve your product. Another way is to look at where the audience is active. They might be active on platforms like Facebook, Quora, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Engaging very well in the relevant groups might help you find the audience. 

3. Decide the content format

Deciding the target audience alone can’t promote your content and the product. The audience itself is very different in how they wish to see the content. Some argue for short content that can be circulated as advertisements on digital platforms, while others would argue for long content, like articles, for reasons and explanations they expect for what you’re providing. So you have to prepare the content according to how the audience likes it because even the smallest mistake would mean losses for your sales.

                       You can choose content formats like blog posts, case studies, podcasts, videos, images, detailed reports, seminars, e-books, user-generated content, real-life examples, etc. Being a startup, you must make efforts for consumer-driven content because that helps attract and create awareness about your brand. Whether you’re targeting individual consumers or other big businesses, create content that cleverly speaks to their needs and resonates with them.  

4. Contents be written and optimised in terms of SEO

If you aim to write the content in terms of SEO, you can attain better visibility for your article. Contents are visible not just because of the skill of writing but for some reasons that make it available in the first of the search engine result pages. You have to edit the headings, title tags, and meta description of the article. Make it attractive so that people who see it can understand the content. 

                       Also, ensure the article has strong backlinks, which may help reduce the bounce rate. This will also ensure your website remains authoritative with needy and luring content for visitors. Additionally, you have to optimize your website by considering technical factors so that content is accessible for mobile phones and is available without taking much time to load. 

                     Lastly, it would be better if you optimized your content at the local level, as this would help the local audience connect more to the content. You can certainly explore opportunities, as this will help you build brand awareness and loyalty. 

5. Decide the distribution channels

As we have already discussed how the target audience and distribution channels are connected, let’s explore different ways to present your content to the audience. Content distribution is a key ingredient of content marketing, and deciding when and how content is displayed depends on where it is distributed. The channels can be categorised into owned, paid, and earned channels. 

                      Owned channels include blog pages, email lists, and social media like Facebook and LinkedIn. Paid channels are Search Ads like Google Analytics, social media ads, sponsored content on Facebook, etc., which ask for money to run. Earned channels do not cost money and include social media shares, links, mentions, and reviews. 

                      Distribution channels are very useful for a startup, and utilising the opportunity can increase the reach of your content. So, creating a content calendar can help you schedule the posts that impact your business.  

6. Select the right content marketing tools  

Choosing the appropriate content marketing tools is essential when building an online presence. Understanding when and how much reach the content has gained is served under these tools. These tools also enable you to allot accurate budgets and help you manage and create content more easily by saving time and money. As there are various types of content, specific tools will let your content be optimized and created for better leads. Some of the tools can be understood from the following:-

• Canva:- is a designing tool used for social media graphics, presentaions, etc.
• Adobe Premiere Pro:- is a professional video editing software. 
• Grammarly:- is used to check the grammar and styling of sentences. 
• Keyword Magic Tool:- it helps in finding the keywords that are powerful and can be targeted. 
• Google Analytics: helps track website traffic and user behaviors. 
• Content Management Systems:- CMS applications like WordPress and Drupal provide services for building a website and publishing your content. 

  Conclusion

We have already dived into content marketing by understanding how content plays an important role in marketing. As we wind up our words, let’s get an overview of content marketing. Creating perfect content is impossible, but we can only improve it by understanding the behaviors of those who consume it. But we should make them feel that this one was worth seeing and a perfect content that they are drawn to the product. So, creating content depends on such an attitude. 

                                   There are various types of content that can drive people to your website and product. Posting them in the distribution channels where they can find out the customer and engage properly could help establish a business as a brand. As a startup in Calicut, satisfying the customer needs comes first, and content serves for that purpose. And content marketing would certainly help you adapt to the business landscape you wish for. 

Aviv Digital is one of the leading Digital marketing course in calicut. We offer a wide variety of globally recognized certification programs that include SEO, SEM, SMM, Email Marketing and Inbound Marketing courses. For more details, Contact us at: +91 8156998844