The content is everywhere.
This is the document that will help your sales department prepare for an important appointment, the memo from the HR department announcing an appointment or technical information for clients.
How to make the most of it?
Content produced by other departments doesn't usually get the same attention as content that comes from marketing. Yet this content is often just as important and deserves the same rigor in its writing.
For example, a startup's pitch to prospective investors can be filled with errors and cause loss of credibility, money, and time.
The quality content can be a tool that serves to support a sales team. To demonstrate this, let's take two scenarios:
Scenario A: a salesperson calls you after finding your profile on Linkedin because he or she has qualified you as a lead.
After starting with the usual greetings, he begins to explain the benefits of his product or service to you. He assures you that his offering will improve the performance of your business.
Scenario B: a salesperson sends you an email after noticing that you recently downloaded an e-book published by his company.
In his email, he sends you a link to an article that might address some of your issues. He also sends you a case study featuring a startup similar to yours.
You haven't had time to read the e-book but the article is informative and the case study is of interest to you.
You arrange a telephone meeting. Your discussion begins by discussing the points raised in the article.
Which commercial offering do you think is most likely to appeal to you?
Probably the B, the one that puts your issues at the center of the dialogue and shows its knowledge of your industry through relevant content.
Journalists, especially high-tech and startup journalists, are constantly approached by companies who want to show them how revolutionary their idea is and how it deserves to be mentioned in a media outlet.
A contact is much more effective when accompanied by a infographie well constructed.The journalist knows how much this type of content is appreciated on social networks.
Also, when a startup pitches, it rarely thinks about storytelling, about how to tell its own story.
The presentation must have a hero, obstacles to overcome, a purpose and a moral to be easily transcribed by the reporter.
On the technical side, it is also good to add some statistics, quotes and a calendar of events. This upstream work on the presentation greatly helps the journalist who will have few corrections to make.
The Quality content has the ability to appeal to potential candidates as well as reinforce the company culture for employees.
It is essential to the implementation of a Inbound Recruiting.
In addition to being much more inventive, content is a great recruitment tooland costs a fraction of the price of ads posted on job boards.
Etsy, the site for selling personal creations and vintage items, has launched a blog, Code as Craft, that demonstrates its cutting-edge computer programming culture.
This kind of information is valuable for a highly sought after engineer looking for a new challenge.
Publishing focused content in the field of computer engineering allows you to target a specific audience.
Thanks to virality and word of mouth, some startups manage to go completely without traditional recruiting to find their developers.
Before content became an essential tool in corporate strategy, customer relations were essentially done through call centers that managed the flow of after-sales service.
Today, customer service is just as much online, with extensive FAQs and blog posts on specific issues with each brand's product. In addition to being much more frugal, this solution avoids sometimes certain customer frustrations (waiting time on the phone, difficulty explaining problems or understanding the process)
Moreover, quality content allows you to maintain Moreover, quality content allows you to maintain with your customers, propose upsells or close renewals.
Whether you're looking to nurture your relationships with your investors or you're doing your first fundraiser, the size of the investment will depend on the quality of your content.
The absolute rule here is that your business plan (or any other summary plan for your investors) must be both concise and interesting in order to keep your interviewers' attention during the pitch.
Content should primarily focus on the value of the business rather than selling the product or service.
Quality content has never been reserved solely for marketing.But it has unfortunately often been misused or of poor quality. It's high time that your startup gets on board and marks its difference!