Startup CXO

Chapter 47Content and Communications

Content comes in many different shapes and sizes. From slide decks, to one‐pagers, to customer stories, to blog posts, to podcast episodes, to webinars, to infographics, to press releases, to white papers, to ebooks … the list goes on and on. No matter the final output, though, the objective from a marketing perspective is always the same: to add value. Each bit of content, no matter how big or small, needs to have value for prospects, value for customers, and value for the business. Without that value, you're just wasting everyone's time.

So how does a content marketing strategy add value to your company? It actually checks all three boxes of your marketing goals: (1) it helps build your brand; (2) it drives demand for sales; and (3) it supports the company culture. Three out of three!

• Brand building. Producing and promoting content that addresses your target audience and provides insight into challenges you know they face reinforce the value your brand can add. By using content to demonstrate that you understand your prospects and customers' needs, and can directly improve their lives for the better—either through your offering or related insight—you build brand awareness and make your offering more relevant to customers, which in turn creates respect, and loyalty.
• Driving demand. Your content also serves as a major vehicle for driving demand. On the one hand, Marketing can use content to attract potential customers to engage with your ...