Without wanting to bore you with inane definitions, I do think that content needs some clarification.

That’s because some people think of content as search engine marketing, some think of it as social marketing, some think content means the final produced asset, and others think of it as an approach to growing businesses.

They’re all true in a way, but we’ll arrive at a more helpful definition. First let’s define what we mean by a marketing channel vs content, to bring some broader context.‍

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→ Channels are the delivery mechanisms for content. That could be your site, social media, search blog, or a keynote speech.‍

→ Content is any information that can be delivered by a channel. That could be words, images, videos, or anything else. It’s often a combination of these.

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So, very coldly, content is information.

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Therefore, a content-led approach to marketing prioritizes the effectiveness of the information you share ahead of the channels that deliver that information. Content first, then channels. At this stage, this all sounds far too vague and theoretical to be helpful, but at least we've made a start by separating channels and content.

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If I told you, “Now you know what content is, go make some”, you’d probably produce something naff. That’s because, just like channels are a delivery mechanism for content, content is a delivery mechanism for the message you want to share.

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By ‘message’, I don’t just mean copy. A message is a core point you want to communicate. Imagery conveys a message too. For example, simple product imagery is often used to communicate that a platform is easy to use.

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So, to recap, when you’re building content, your message comes first. Your message is delivered by content. Your content is delivered by channels. Your audience’s experience of your content is the same, but in reverse.

If this all sounds a bit Inception, bear with me. I think it’s important to fundamentally understand how content works before you try to use it to grow your business.

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To know which message is going to land, you’ll need to know your audience first. Understanding how your audience thinks and behaves is also key to knowing which content they’re likely to consume and where they spend time. I’ll bet that all successful content campaigns can be traced back to a deep understanding of their audience.

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Throughout this book we’ll figure out your startup’s content strategy by defining your ideal audience, the best message for that audience, and the best way to put that message in front of that audience with content. The outcome? More customers.

The Basics

At its core, content marketing is reassuringly simple. You put the right message in front of the right audience, and they take another step closer to becoming a customer. You could say the same for marketing in general.

Of course, it’s easier to describe Eden than it is to cultivate a holy veg patch. But at least we know what to focus on to make content work:

→ Audience: The people you think will buy your software 

→ Message: What you say to your audience to influence them to buy your software 

→ Campaign: How you deliver your message to your audience

We could put this into an equation:

Audience + Message + Campaign = New business

But this wouldn’t be the entire story. What’s above doesn’t guarantee your content will generate new business. Your audience also needs the intent to buy your software.

While you can generate demand with content, you can’t manufacture intent. Fundamentally, intent is black and white. Either your software solves an important problem for your audience, or it doesn’t. Meeting this requirement goes much deeper than content or marketing.

Once upon a time, I fell into the no-intent trap and became utterly bewildered as to why my content efforts weren’t working. I was lucky to come out of it alive (professionally speaking).

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Despite its significance, I won’t mention ‘intent to buy’ again in this book. Instead, I’ll just assume your audience already has it. But if you’re not sure whether people want or need your software, I’d recommend you read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries and prioritize figuring that out.

This book will instead focus on defining your target audience, the messages you share with them, and the campaigns you use to put your messaging in front of your audience.

Taking the time to build a clear understanding of these three aspects of a successful content strategy pays off because, with all these things in place, marketing works. If one is missing, it doesn’t.

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• If your Audience and Message definition is strong, but you’re still not generating leads, there’s something wrong with how and where you’re running campaigns
• If your Message isn’t landing, you don’t understand your audience as well as you thought.
• If you can’t decide on an Audience to market to, you don’t understand who the product serves best.

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So, let’s return to the equation I introduced a few pages ago, but this time we’ll assume audience intent is already there.

Audience + Message + Campaign = New business.

This simple equation makes it easier to identify what’s working, what’s not working, and what to do next. The alternative is panicking and rethinking every aspect of your marketing every time you don’t see the result you expect, which is sadly the situation for many marketing teams.

Because the Audience, Message, and Campaign thinking is so central to a successful content marketing strategy, I’ve dedicated a chapter to each part of this process.

When I’m working with clients, I usually recommend spending a month defining their Audience, a month defining the Message you put in front of them, and then a month applying those findings to your site and launching your first campaign.

Sometimes things take longer, but a three-month timeframe is totally reasonable for an early-stage startup to start seeing the benefits of content, especially if you have full-time resource working on making it happen. Anyway, here's what each section of the book will cover.

Audience

How to find out who your audience is; What they want; What they’re challenged with; How they learn about their problem; How they buy solutions; How to run customer interviews; How to run in-depth competitor research to find out how your competitors are approaching your audience; How you should approach your audience.

Message

How to define your audience’s big problem; How to build messaging that bridges the gap between your software and the solution to your audience’s big problem; How to build a sales narrative you can use as the foundation for content; How to communicate your mission; How to back up everything with evidence; How to build content pillars (non-commercial talking points to engage with your audience); How to build a product narrative; How to test your messaging.

Campaign

How to introduce your new messaging; How to restructure your site to tell your story; How to build a simple customer acquisition funnel; How to prioritize campaigns; How to prioritize channels; How to launch a big guide that covers everything you do; How to win with search content; How to build relationships with many accounts at once; How to find 3rd-party content opportunities; How to launch something unique.

By the time you’ve finished reading this book, you’ll have the structure you need to get content right first time (or as close to ‘right’ as possible). I’m sharing the templates, frameworks, and methodologies I use within this book because I’d like for everyone to better understand what goes into successful content marketing. It’s not just writing blogs, you know.