Six Steps to Acing Your Startup’s Content material Technique

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 shoppers, from companies to CEOs

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

Listed below are Kris’ six suggestions for nailing your content material technique — to generate strong, genuine leads.

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

As a founder with one million priorities, content material like blogs and social media posts can look like 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 in terms of content material. Your story and voice have to:

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

Sizzling tip: Check out your rivals — in the event that they’re not doing a robust 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. File each thought you’ve gotten in your model, then cross it on to somebody who’s near, however not part of, what you are promoting.

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

One: “Persons are their very own worst entrepreneurs,” Kris says. “There’s most likely a ton about your individual 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 so as to hit the bottom operating with a transparent technique and financial institution of nice content material — in your individual phrases.

3. Extrapolate 4 Key Pillars for Your Content material

Sift via your mind dump and set up every concept, spicy quote, or subject, into one in all 4 pillars:

Supply: Kris Hughes / Zanate Ventures

Every pillar offers rise to particular forms of content material, and alternating between them will make sure the matters you talk about stay diverse 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 consumer (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. Deal with Neighborhood-Constructing earlier than You Put Out Content material

Create a neighborhood from the get-go by interacting along with your superb shoppers, rivals, and friends via 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 folks obtain you.

Maintaining monitor of feedback you make (e.g., in Notion) may even guarantee you’ve gotten a content material concepts financial institution; most useful feedback can normally 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. Keep 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 to get it on the market. Whereas the cadence and method of posting will rely on the platform, consistency is all the time key.

6. Keep in mind: Content material Is A Lengthy Recreation.

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

“Many founders are available weapons blazing with excessive vitality, 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 constructive suggestions
• Reusing your top-performing posts each few months

As a ultimate tip, Kris suggests speaking to your clients when issues are going nicely.

Supply: Tenor

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

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