Content Marketing for Scale Ups is vital right? Everyone knows that a twenty first century communications strategy that doesn’t take account of Content Marketing is a non starter. All true. But at M4G we believe that you really shouldn’t start until you find what we call your Scale Up Voice.
So what do we mean? Content Marketing is seductive. It’s really not so difficult to set up a few Social Channels and start firing away with whatever Content comes to hand. You have lots of Content don’t you? Press releases, product news, client wins, event activity and so on.
However, that’s not true Content Marketing. Think of it as trying to become a rock star. You could buy your instruments. You could learn to play. You could hire the O2 Arena. You could even bus in an audience for your first ever concert. But if you don’t have good songs (ie great Content), you’d be wasting your time!
You need to create your song. To do that you have to make some wise choices around what material you’re going to use, that your audience will actually engage with! Check out songwriter Ralph Covert’s TedX Talk to see what we mean!
So when it comes to Content Marketing for Scale Ups, here at M4G our big tip is – first find your ‘Voice’. What we call your ‘Scale Up Voice’ is the main strategic theme (or themes) that your Content Marketing will cover.
This ‘Voice’ is certainly not just more of the aforementioned product or PR ‘stuff’. Your Scale Up Voice needs to be based on two things.
Firstly, a clear understanding of the interests, problems and issues that your key target personas are concerned with. And secondly, a way of connecting your business’s individual and differentiating offers and solutions to those concerns in a ‘stand out’ way. At M4G we work closely with our clients’ leadership, marketing, sales and product teams to develop their ‘Scale Up Voice’.
A strong Voice allows you to create and deliver Content that does three things.
Firstly it engages Customers and Prospects on the issues that they actually find engaging. Secondly it encourages consistency. In that you have a way of working out which Content your colleagues create should be used and which should be shelved . And thirdly, a clear Scale Up Voice has a good chance of making you the industry or market expert on your chosen subjects.
Which, as the Content experts will tell you, is when Content ‘stuff’ becomes true Content Marketing.
Photo by Erin Biafore on Unsplash