In fact, every startup has to do a lot of things on any given day, build a product, onboard its first customers, deal with cash flow, and even somehow try to “do marketing”. For most young startups, content marketing is at the bottom of their priority list despite being one of the most effective sources of growth.
This is where outsourcing becomes necessary. Rather than putting extra strain on an already overworked team and assigning them to write blogs, handle social media, and plan content marketing strategies, startups are increasingly hiring special agencies or individual freelancers to do this work for them.
In this blog post, we will discuss what content marketing is, why it is important, and how outsourcing it will be beneficial for some companies.
What is Content Marketing
Content marketing involves creating and distributing informative, useful, valuable, and relevant content such as blogs, videos, social media management, newsletters, case studies, etc. to reach, engage, and attract a specified target audience. In content marketing, unlike in direct marketing, the emphasis is not on pitching products but solving problems and giving answers.
As regards new businesses, this is done by creating a brand where prospects can look for solutions to their queries. Content marketing enables an emerging business to appear mature, reputable, and useful even before a customer engages its sales department.
Did you know?
Research shows that businesses that blog regularly create much more inbound leads than companies that do not, yet startups usually write less than once a month because of the constraints they have, which is precisely what outsourcing solves.
Benefits of Content Marketing
It is important to know why content marketing is essential for the development of a startup before considering how to outsource it.
1. Creates Brand Awareness from Scratch
If you are a new brand with no brand awareness, content marketing is the easiest and quickest route to brand awareness. Useful blogs, instructional videos, and social media content help increase brand awareness by introducing the brand to people that haven’t even heard about the brand before, and maintaining awareness among those that already know the brand.
While advertising through means such as billboards and television can be expensive, content marketing can be done efficiently without costing a fortune. A blog post written well and targeting the right keywords may be able to attract many visitors each month that are looking for what you have to offer, not just an audience at large. For a start-up brand competing with brands that have more money to spend on marketing, this is leveling the playing field.
2. Helps to Build Credibility and Authority
Creating useful and high-quality content gives your startup authority in your respective industry niche. Such an approach establishes trust that enables customers to choose your company rather than a similar company that does not have such a rich content marketing strategy.
Imagine yourself as a customer. In case there are two companies offering similar software, and one of them has a variety of useful and interesting guides and articles, and the other one does not even have many pages on their website, which company would be more trusted by you? Through creating useful content you show your expertise, which is very difficult to establish only with the help of advertisements.
3. Generates Organic Traffic
Unlike paid advertisements, which become ineffective once the money gets spent up, good content continues to attract traffic for months and even years. Even just one good blog post is capable of doing all of that long after its publication date.
Such phenomena are referred to by marketers as the compounding nature of content. In other words, the more content that is published, the larger number of assets becomes available that work constantly. One hundred pieces of content created by a startup can become one hundred different sources where someone could find information about the company’s products and services and become a potential lead.
4. Helps at Each Stage of the Sales Funnel
A well thought out content marketing strategy does not comprise blogs alone. It comprises content such as top of funnel ‘what is X’ pieces, mid of funnel comparison guides and how-tos, and bottom of funnel case studies and testimonials with the aim of taking visitors through the process from ‘just browsing to ready to buy’.
Most startups fall into the trap of only creating top of funnel content and asking themselves why conversion does not take place. In a complete content marketing strategy, you need content mapped to the intent of the buyer in all phases. An individual who has just been introduced to your category requires education. One who is comparing the options requires distinction. One who is close to making the purchase requires social proof.
5. Boosts Social Proof With Human Voices
Today’s consumers put more trust in individuals rather than in brands. Including UGC in marketing through customer reviews, testimonials, social shoutouts, community posts, and real-life examples of use brings a level of credibility that no brand message will ever be able to reach.
When a prospective customer reads an impeccable product description from the founder of the company, he or she will do so with a grain of salt. However, seeing a real user tell a story about how your product helped him/her to solve a certain problem they both had is a totally different story. Including user generated content into your marketing efforts is the most efficient way to add the human touch to your brand story.
Did You Know?
Research always proves that consumers trust user content more than brand created content. In other words, user generated content is among the highest ROI types of content for a startup.
6. Optimizes for AI and Voice Search
Searching online is getting rapidly transformed. Nowadays, consumers tend to ask voice assistants and AI tools direct questions instead of entering keywords into search bars. Conversational content, which includes question-and-answer format and written in a conversational tone, is more effective in search engines, voice search, and AI-generated responses (Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), respectively).
7. Saves Money Versus Paid Online Marketing
Paid advertising can become prohibitively expensive very quickly, particularly for young companies trying to nail down their customer personas. However, content marketing may require more initial effort, but its per-lead price tag will remain relatively low for quite some time.
The more content is created by you, and the more organic traffic flows to your website, the less costly each additional visit becomes. In the case of paid advertising, every click costs exactly the same amount no matter how long you have been running your ad campaign. In the case of content marketing, however, you keep getting cheaper results the longer you do this. Content you publish during the current quarter will continue driving traffic and leads for you next year for free.
Do you want to accelerate your company’s growth without burdening your team too much? Start outsourcing content marketing with Global Teams AI.
Who should Outsource Content Marketing Services?
Below are examples of who would benefit the most from this strategy:
Startups in their early stages who haven’t hired a marketer yet
The reason why outsourcing content marketing services is such an excellent idea here is that founders would have experienced writers, strategists, and SEO experts working for them without having to pay their salaries.
Overworked founders
Sometimes, due to limited resources and tight schedules, founders have to write posts themselves. Outsourcing content marketing will give founders more time to focus on product, sales, and raising funds.
Scaling startups that need regular publishing
Such startups may lack internal capabilities to maintain consistent publishing on the blog, LinkedIn, and even via email newsletters.
Startups entering new regions or platforms
A startup that is moving into a new geographical location or platform will need a different approach to content marketing, which an experienced outsourcing company can provide.
Startups combining content marketing and social media marketing
In most cases, startups that create content and engage in social media marketing usually collaborate to ensure that their blogs and other content are created together and not individually.
Do you wish to avoid the hassles of hiring? Global Teams AI offers startups connections with content marketing experts; contact us now.
Conclusion
If you wish to grow sustainably in the future, then content marketing will be essential for your startup – but creating a great content marketing strategy demands time, effort, and skills which startups lack. With the help of content marketing outsourcing, your company will be able to take advantage of experts in strategizing, writing, and using social media channels.
No matter whether you need brand awareness, higher ranks on search engines and answers by artificial intelligence, or incorporation of user-generated content – the right outsourcing partner can transform content marketing into one of the most effective sources of growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does content marketing include?
They are blog posts, social media content, videos, newsletters, case studies, infographics, and any other type of content made specifically to appeal to the target audience.
2. Why should startups outsource content marketing instead of hiring in-house?
By outsourcing your content marketing, you will have access to a whole team of specialists – writers, strategists, SEO experts – without paying for their recruitment and training like you would pay if you hired a staff.
3. Is outsourcing content marketing expensive for startups?
No, most agencies and platforms, such as Global Teams AI, provide affordable services at various pricing options, and in some cases, they even cheaper than hiring one marketer.
4. How does content marketing help with brand awareness?
It helps reach new audiences via search engines, social media, and word-of-mouth by providing value to them.
5. What is user-generated content marketing, and why does it matter?
User-generated content marketing is the content produced not by the brand but by users or customers – reviews, testimonials, social media posts. The importance lies in the increased trust compared to branded content marketing.
6. How is content marketing different from social media marketing?
Content marketing is an overarching marketing strategy in which valuable content is created, whereas social media marketing is only a platform in which such content is distributed. Most of the startups opt to outsource these services at once to get a better strategy in place.
7. How long does it take to see results from content marketing?
The majority of startups start experiencing measurable growth of traffic and interactions within three to six-month period, with better compound results as their content accumulates and develops.
8. What should startups look for in a content marketing services provider?
It is essential to pay attention to the experience, transparency of the reporting, SEO and AEO/GEO skills, flexibility of cooperation and industry-specific approach.
9. How does Global Teams AI support startups with content marketing?
Global Teams AI provides startups with content marketing and social media experts to create a strategy specifically for you.
