So, you’ve founded a startup… Now what? 

We’re not being glib, it’s an honest question. Startups are — hopefully — founded on a great idea. If your product or service is unique and useful, you may just get lucky and find that customers are banging down your door. But the more likely scenario is that you will have to put time and effort into marketing your product and finding the right customers. Every new company faces this challenge, but B2B startups have their own peculiar marketing challenges.

B2B companies typically struggle with longer sales journeys — a problem when you’re just getting off the ground — combined with a smaller buyer pool. Surely there are not as many potential customers for small business accounting software as there are for, say, Pepsi. Old-school practices like cold calling may still work, but they are labor-intensive and hard to scale. But if you’re looking to build brand awareness, establish trust and claim a place as a thought leader, content marketing can help your startup — even within more established B2B marketing techniques.

Product-led marketing for B2B startups

If you have an innovative new product that speaks for itself, product-led marketing may be the way to go. Essentially, you recognize that once users get a taste of your product, they won’t want to go back to life without it. Companies like Slack and Dropbox started with this method, launching freemium products that gave people free access to their products. The companies count on users to upgrade their subscriptions to gain access to advanced features, more storage space, or additional user seats. 

Of course, in order to maximize those upgrades, you need a plan. Sure, you can send discount offers or retarget users with ads about upgrades, but if you really want to make a case for your premium products, content marketing is the best way. Testimonial videos, client case studies, tutorials about how to use advanced features — all of these can help educate your free user base and help move them further down the funnel toward purchasing a paid subscription. 

Email marketing gets a content-driven makeover

We all get a lot of emails. Gmail has, kindly, started funneling the hundreds of promotional emails I get every week into a tab where I never have to look at them. I am forever grateful… as a user. As a marketer, I know this means you have to step up your email game and create messages people actually want to hear. It’s not enough to just promote your products and services, or jump immediately to a meeting or demo request. You need to inform.

If you’re lucky enough to have an email list, don’t treat those people as just potential sales. Instead, take the time to not only address their pain points but to help them solve a problem. Newsletters that inform and provide actual insight and resources are a much better way to ensure your emails get read. If you want to squeeze in a 10% discount offer at the bottom, we won’t blame you, but first and foremost, make sure your content is relevant and interesting. 

Lead generation is all about content marketing

For B2B companies, it’s all about leads. Your customer isn’t going to see an ad for your product and then see it in a convenience store when they stop to get a tank of gas and buy it on a whim. You need to collect their information and establish contact — and the best way to do that has always been through content marketing.

Providing useful content in exchange for personal information is the very foundation on which B2B marketing is built… it also happens to be content marketing. Whether you ask people to sign up for a newsletter, download a case study, or register for a webinar your focus should be building trust with users by providing insight. Resist the hard sell, and instead, make a case for the best way to solve your customers’ problems — which may just so happen to be your product. 

Thought leadership through PR

A fair amount of our business is ghostwriting bylines for CEOs and other executives. Their PR teams then pitch those articles to relevant media outlets — but let’s be real, this is content marketing. 

Placing thought leadership bylines on media outlets is a great way for startups to not only build their executives’ reputations but to build the all-important backlinks (your SEO team will thank you). And, as the former editor of a B2B trade magazine, I can tell you editors are desperate for free content that is well-written and informative. If you can resist the urge to sell, sell, sell, you can build relationships with the media that will pay off in droves. Not only will editors and reporters put you in their Rolodex and come calling when they need a subject matter expert, you may even get lucky and find that other writers quote and link to your article, extending your reach and continuing to build trust.

Listen, we know we’re biased… but it’s pretty clear to us that content marketing is an integral part of marketing for B2B startups. By embracing its basic tenets, you can improve every aspect of your marketing and build your startup faster and better.