As a startup B2B content marketer or agency, your business can’t survive without content marketing strategies. But, if you're struggling to find the right ones, we’re here to take the edge off for you.
In this post, we’ll cover a few housekeeping notes and then move on to our top 10 content marketing strategies.
They include:
- Create an Impeccable Content Team
- Schedule Content Production Months Out
- Create a Knowledge Base
- Write Guest Posts for B2B Brands
- Create Content for Commonly Searched Terms
- Showcase Customer Feedback
- Repurpose and Diversify Blog Content for Social Media
- Embrace Relationship Marketing
- Prioritize Automated Email Nurture Campaigns
- Develop a Social Media Marketing Plan
Let’s dig into these content marketing strategies for startup businesses, but first...
A Few Housekeeping Notes
Before hitting the ground running with your marketing strategies, make sure you’ve answered the following questions about your startup.
- What are my content marketing personas? (target customers + key influencers)
- What audiences am I catering to? (Make sure to segment them.)
- What problems do my audiences have? How will I solve them?
- What content does my audience demand?
- Which content types, formats, and channels will I use and why?
- What makes my startup stand apart from other startups? What’s my startup’s ‘why?’
- What are my marketing KPIs and how will I measure progress?
- How will I manage content creation and publication?
Then, choose which digital platform and Work OS you'll need to handle the entire content marketing process.
Once you’ve gotten a handle on your housekeeping duties, you can move on to content marketing strategies.
Here are our top 10 favorite strategies.
1. Create an Impeccable Content Team
One of the worst things you can do as a start-up owner is to attempt to handle all of the roles yourself — that's a quick way to fail.
Instead, focus on designing independent roles that collaborate seamlessly.
For example, instead of having a strategist who’s also a writer and an editor, hire a strategist, a writer, and an editor that all play a part in the content production process.
Depending on the size of your operation, consider filling the following roles for your content team:
- Content strategists, content consultants, and SEO consultants
- Account managers, project managers, digital PR reps, and operational managers
- Marketing managers, quality control experts, and designers
- Editorial editors, managing editors, and associate editors
- Content writers, copywriters, photographers, and videographers
Once you've hired your dream team, use your Work OS to create automated workflow processes.
Here’s an example:
Your digital PR reps hold meetings with guest posting clients, compile lists of topics, backlinks, and client information. They then send all of it over to the account managers.
The account managers process the information into digital instructional cards and schedule them out to writers.
The writers use the instructions to compile drafts and submit the cards, which are automatically sent to the associate editors.
The associate editors review the drafts using checklists and then submit the cards, which are automatically sent to the managing editors.
So on and so forth.
Focus on being process-driven. Have a system for every team member and automate as many processes as possible.
An Important Note About SEO
If your team isn’t well-versed in target keywords, backlinks, topic clusters, sitemaps, meta descriptions, and beyond, it’s worth investing in a startup SEO Consultant to help your team develop a solid SEO plan.
2. Schedule Content Production Months Out
Scheduling content months out at a time is one of the best ways to save time in the long run, so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
Benefits of scheduling content production months out include:
- Content teams have a better grip on their schedule
- Workflows are easier to manage efficiently
- Holiday-themed content is prepped ahead of time (otherwise you might be too late)
- You won’t get behind on posting
- Account managers will be able to delegate tasks to the team much easier
- Marketing KPIs are easier to track
How to Schedule Content
Scheduling content is one of the best ways to ensure that you'll be posting content consistently.
To schedule months out, start with your content framework. For example, a framework commonly used by content marketers is called ‘Tofu-Mofu-Bofu’ — top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and bottom of the funnel.
Next, create your content plan based on your framework. Include a topic, targeted keyword, and a description list for each post.
Then, use a content scheduler or spreadsheet to plan the content schedule.
Finally, use a digital tool, calendar, timeline, or whatever is most helpful to plug in the schedule.
From there, you can start handing out assignments and planning who’s in charge of what.
Note: Don’t forget to do this for your infographics, visuals, and social media content, too. More on this in a bit.
3. Create a Knowledge Base
Creating a knowledge base on your blog or website is one of the best ways to build trust and brand authority with your audience.
A knowledge base is a decent collection of articles that will add tremendous value through data-driven content, case studies, expert opinions, facts, stats, plenty of examples, and actionable advice. It can be on any subject, as long as you appear as an expert in your field.
Below, you’ll see an example of a knowledge base on sleep and mattresses by Savvy Sleeper.
In this example, you can scroll through to the right or left to see the featured articles in their knowledge base or click on ‘All Posts’ to peruse all of their articles.
We’re also pretty proud of the marketing knowledge base we’ve created, too:
Here are some tips on getting the most out of your knowledge base:
- Make sure each post is data-driven with actionable advice
- Add a search feature and make sure it works effortlessly
- Organize your knowledge base by topics, dates, and categories
- Add a left-side navigation menu for customers who want to browse through articles in list form
- Optimize your knowledge base for search
- Display key categories and featured articles prominently on the knowledge base’s homepage
- Add recommended articles after the end of each post to encourage visitors to keep reading
With all the noise out there, the only way to stick around is to position yourself as an expert.
4. Write Guest Posts for B2B Brands
To entice visitors to come to your site, your brand should be in as many targeted places as possible.
But this goes way beyond paid banner ads. Audiences need to hear your brand's voice and expertise — but if they don’t know anything about you, they’ll rely on the recommendation of someone they trust. That’s why guest posting is so crucial.
Writing guest posts for other websites is a great way to build brand authority, domain authority, and trust with potential customers.
Guest posting also paves the way to a successful link-building strategy, as you’ll be able to include a couple of links in your post, drawing users back to your site. Even if they don’t click on your links, it’ll still benefit your SEO strategy.
Here are our favorite guest posting tips:
- Generate qualified leads by adding CTAs and lead magnets to capture emails/lead info on your site/blog (or wherever your backlinks send visitors to)
- Expand your networking efforts by building relationships with other professionals
- Encourage social media shares by embedding highly shareable content, like infographics, into your guest post
- Grow your social media following by including links to your social media accounts in your author bio
- Build trust with a guest posting portfolio by using carefully selected senior writers to represent your brand
Dedicating time for guest posting is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness and shorten the sales cycle. Don’t underestimate this tried and true method for your startup.
5. Create Content for Commonly Searched Terms
Create content around hot topics, even if they're not directly connected to your business’s core services. You can always find ways to weave your brand in, or you can add CTAs and banners around the post, like this internet abbreviations piece by Preply.
Tip: Use a tool like BuzzSumo to find trending topics and see which articles have been shared the most.
6. Showcase Customer Feedback
It’s common for people to feel skeptical about your brand if you don’t have any existing customers to vouch for it.
Collecting testimonials and featuring them everywhere (landing pages, social media, blog, website, etc.) is a crucial step to going from startup to full-blown unicorn status.
For instance, Legacy Healing uses powerful customer testimonial videos and text on their website to show potential visitors what they can expect:
Make it easy for customers to provide testimonials by:
- Creating a testimonial template they can edit
- Asking insightful questions to encourage thorough answers
- Making it worth their while by giving them a gift in exchange (but don’t be sleazy about it)
- Improving your products and services
- Making customers feel heard, seen, and understood
- Including automated testimonial prompts throughout the customer journey
You can also collect customer feedback by hiring customers to try out your products and services in exchange for a review.
Have you ever seen a live unboxing video on Instagram? Chances are, the video host was hired to try out the product and then give an honest review about it.
While positive customer reviews are the bee’s knees, being honest about pros and cons is a great way to learn how to improve and build trust with potential customers.
No startup is perfect, and that’s okay. Customers expect a balance of highlights and mistakes, as long as they know you’re looking to improve.
7. Repurpose and Diversify Blog Content for Social Media
Blogging isn’t dead, but just blogging is.
Since audiences process information differently and have specific content preferences, it’s important to diversify your blog content to appeal to more people.
While some may prefer videos, others may prefer still photos — and bonus: it’s a golden chance for repurposing.
Diversify With Visual Content
Visual content is becoming rampant, and is one of the easiest ways to repurpose content.
Here are some ways you can turn blog posts into widely shared visual content:
- Turn a blog post into an animated video or explainer video and add it to your YouTube channel.
Grab actionable advice from a blog post and turn it into a short reel for Instagram or TikTok
- Turn data and stats from an article into a helpful infographic (or make it animated with a gifographic) and share on Pinterest
- Screenshot still photos from your post, add a compelling caption. Then post it on Facebook
- Create GIFs and memes based on your articles and share in social media stories
Diversifying with educational content is another way to cater to audiences who prefer self-study or want to tackle the topic a bit deeper.
Diversify With Educational Content
Here are some ways you can turn blog posts into widely shared educational content:
- Turn topic clusters into courses
- Expand on a hot button topic by turning it into a webinar
- Turn a how-to article into an ebook
- Feature experts you’ve interviewed for articles in educational videos
- Turn your most loved articles into educational live videos and provide workbooks
Repurposing and diversifying content helps your brand appeal to more audiences and takes some of the pressure off your content production team.
8. Embrace Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing focuses on nurturing long-term customer relationships (rather than a quick sale).
By focusing on creating value during each step of the customer journey, solving customers’ pain points, and establishing an emotional connection, you’re embracing relationship marketing.
Here are some tips to take relationship marketing to the next level:
- Understand customers on a deep level — what makes them ache? What makes them dream? What do they yearn for?
- Create a loyalty program that rewards customers with gifts you know they’ll love
- Prioritize warm customer service that’s solution-focused
- Send gifts you know they’ll love on birthdays and special occasions
- Start an affiliate program with trusted influencers
- Create products/services based on customer needs, pain points, and requests
- Send personalized emails and relevant offers
- Make it easy for customers to do business with you (free trial, easy sign-up process, staff available to take questions, quick product/service turnaround)
As long as you focus on customer-centric strategies, you’ll be on your way to developing meaningful relationships with your customers.
9. Prioritize Automated Email Nurture Campaigns
Business and consumer emails sent and received per day are forecasted to grow to over 376 billion by the end of 2025, making email marketing one of the most effective marketing channels.
Email nurture campaigns use awareness, education, and relationship-building techniques to turn potential leads into conversions.
Successful nurture campaigns go beyond being promotional. Instead, they focus on building trust, credibility, and long-term relationships by educating and enlightening — all while being automated.
With email automations, when a user performs a specific behavior, your campaign will be triggered to send an email to the user based on their behavior.
These emails work because they lead users on journeys specific to them. Their wants, needs, preferences, and behaviors all guide that journey.
Here are some tips to develop effective email nurture campaigns:
- Tailor emails according to lead names, interests, behaviors, and demographics
- Automate emails, but don’t send emails that look automated or like mass blasts
- Segment email lists to target specific behaviors or groups
- Address emails from various departments and members of your organization
- Send triggered emails when someone downloads content, clicks on your links, visits certain landing pages, or demonstrates high engagement
The trick is to educate prospects according to their current state in the buyer’s journey.
For example, in the Awareness Phase, include blog articles related to their interests, along with recent trends and industry statistics.
In the Consideration Phase, invite them to sign up for a webinar to learn about your product or service — demonstrations work great here.
Then, in the Decision Phase, share testimonials, reviews, and customer success stories.
If you’re not sure what kind of content you should be sending, look at your prospects’ behaviors.
What have they downloaded? Which pages do they visit most? What are their pain points? What do they talk about on social media? What links have they clicked?
Lead generation is vital, but without nurturing, leads will disappear.
10. Develop a Social Media Marketing Plan
There’s a good chance your prospects and customers are using social media.
In 2020, more than 3.6 billion people around the world were using social media. That number is expected to increase to nearly 4.41 billion in 2025.
A social media marketing plan lays out how your organization will use social media to achieve its business goals.
To create your plan, first develop a social media strategy that answers the following questions:
- What are my business problems and how can prospecting on social media solve them?
- Who are my audiences and what social media platforms are they using?
- When will I focus on organic traffic and when will I use paid ads? Why?
- What kind of social media content will serve my audiences?
- What kind of content are my competitors using? Is it working? Why or Why not?
- What kind of reputation do I want to build on social media?
- What influencers do I want to use and how can they help my brand?
- What purchases do my audiences make on social media?
Once your strategy is good to go, create your plan and set up your social media profiles.
The key to building a successful social media plan is posting consistently, listening to your audiences, and assessing what’s working and what’s not.
Like we touched on before, scheduling posts months out saves your business time and ensures you’ll post consistently.
Final Words
It’s vital to create an impeccable team and content marketing plan to grow your startup business — by using these top 10 content marketing strategies, we know your business will thrive.
Ready to put these strategies into action but feeling a bit overwhelmed? At StoryChief, our simple tool can help you manage all of your content marketing needs.
