With the government-run Startup India programme, the market is flooded with startups that are being launched almost every month. It seems like India has become a global hub of startups.
Surviving in the fiercely competitive marketplace is one of the biggest challenges for these startups. The initial phase can be extremely difficult and uncertain. The resources are limited and challenges are huge. On top of that, market conditions are not favorable. According to a Times of India report, more than 60% startups in India are on the brink of failure.
Don’t be surprised to find cash-strapped startups, as crowd-funding is considered extremely difficult in India. The business model and marketing strategy you choose for your startup become crucial to its success and survival.
Apart from operations, the next most important investment can be into digital marketing – as traditional marketing is already showing the signs of death.
Secrets to success
Hiring a digital marketing agency can be a little expensive for such startups. So you can split different campaigns and get them done one by one. Hiring an SEO can be a smart step, but even more important is to understand how SEO and digital marketing work. You should know what to expect from each campaign and what is urgent.
An SEO expert will do your basic on-page and off-page SEO. Off-page SEO merges with Content Marketing in the next stage. Ask your SEO agent to furnish you with a list of keywords to focus on. Here is your checklist for the first stage of SEO:
- Local SEO (Optimization with local keywords)
- Google My Business listing
- Schema
- Jason-LD
- Directory listing/Business Listing
Garnish your SEO with Content Marketing
Once you’re able to achieve top slots on SERPs with some of the keywords, stop the SEO activity. It’s time to do some Content Marketing now.
Content is the soul of your digital and Content Marketing campaigns and therefore outsourcing content can be crucial to all your marketing activities.
As far as, the success rate of Content Marketing is concerned, it is showing a year-on-year growth. According to a survey conducted by Content Marketing Institute, around 45% of B2B marketers admitted that Content Marketing was “somewhat more” successful this year as compared to the previous year, whereas 17% of them admitted that it was “much more successful” during this time period.
The numbers speak for themselves. Here is an infographic created by Content Marketing Institute that explains it.
So, when you search for a content writing service in India, make sure that they are ready to work according to your Content Marketing plan. The content should serve the dual purpose. Creating content only for SEO purposes has become a thing of the past. At present, content is used to achieve your marketing objectives.
The Power of Content Marketing
You can engage people and generate traffic using Content Marketing. Content can be used to drive your audience to take the desired action, convert people and make them your loyal fans and followers on social media.
Content is also used to move a prospect to the next stage of their buying cycle and finally achieve conversion. This implies that content should be created not only for different customer-personas but also for different stages of their buying cycle.
But sadly, very few people in India are aware of this. Content is still being used to serve SEO. Very few people actually know the big picture.
Make sure your agency has a content calendar
Content writing companies work with a content calendar and often schedule content publishing according to their marketing objectives. So, not only is it planned, it also addresses the needs of your buyers.
Check their portfolio or samples
Always check the portfolio and latest work done by the content writer, so as to make sure that they offer quality content. Many content agencies offer cheap rates, but the quality they offer is extremely poor. Such type of content is never going to help you achieve your marketing objectives. Contrary to this, it may negatively impact your branding. Customers are likely to bounce off from your website if it has poor content on it.
Include visual content
Ask your content writing services to include visual content as well because the combination of visual and text-based content actually delivers remarkable results as compared to the content that is purely based on the text.
Last, but not the least, avoid the death traps of Content Marketing. Hire the right content partner and tread the path of success through content and digital marketing for your startup.
Image Credit: Content Marketing Institute
