The Danger of Content Marketing

I mean for startups and sales-driven organisations.

I am a big believer in content marketing. It is the heart and soul of the inbound marketing concept that I am a big fan of. The benefits of content marketing when done right is massive. It makes your customer acquisition solid and cost-effective. It’s also the best brand-building strategy for businesses.

But, if you are a startup, I wouldn’t recommend putting hope on content marketing. I have to be clear here that I don’t say you shouldn’t do content marketing. What I mean is do not expect that content marketing would bring revenue to your business quickly.

The truth that not many gurus spell it out much is that content marketing takes time, in many cases a lot of times. It’s even more challenging to execute successful content marketing if your product is mediocre. Besides, it’s not cheap. You would be lucky to create a quick Tik Tok video that goes viral and make lots of money in the first week or month. Yes, some people achieved this quick success. But I would say they are the exception, not a norm.

If you are a startup or a business that expects to get quick sales or make quick revenue, I suggest that you look at something else, at least in the short or medium term. Content marketing would most likely not give you that. You will spend your valuable money to see nothing happen, which would drive frustration and anxiety.

What should you do? I suggest developing a plan that splits into three periods — short, medium, and long term. And most importantly, you must have an end gold in mind, meaning what direction are you taking your business to. Making quick money shouldn’t be a direction. The next step is to lay out the plan for all three periods. This is important because some activities have to happen in parallel.

For the short term, if you need cash now to sustain your business, go out and buy ads, do cold calling, attend trade shows, etc. These activities are far from impressive, but they would do the job — bringing in cash. And if your end goal is to be a true consumer-driven company, you can start using content marketing to build a brand. Assuming you generate somewhat sufficient cash flow, you can invest more in content marketing in the medium term. The objective of this period is to build a customer base, a fan of your product. And for the long term, you can focus on being a brand that is a top-of-mind of your fans.

Apivut