While attending a workshop about visual design, I happened to have an eye-opening conversation with my neighbor, who turned out to be the CEO of a growing tech startup. The CEO shared with me that, for tech startups, most of the time and effort at the workplace are dedicated to advancing product development. Although content marketing such as blog posts is crucial for every startup, its execution in practice poses a big challenge due to the serious lack of funding, human resource management, and industrial expertise. The CEO also shared with me that he was attending this workshop in hopes to take away ideas that will push his company’s content across channels more effectively.Related: 5 Growth Hacking Strategy for Your SaaS BusinessThis story is very common for all tech start-ups in the early and expansion stages. It is widely acknowledged that content is the most important growth channel for startups. According to WP Curve, 89% of startups that were surveyed voted for content marketing as their top growth channel.

According to the cited blog post, content marketing is the highest driver of growth for startups.However, content marketing strategy is easier said than done. Oftentimes, as a founder or marketing director of a startup, you may find yourself investing a lot of time and effort in crafting quality blog posts with high expectations that these blog posts will go viral the next day and earn you lots of traction. However, reality hits you as your website continues to face little to no changes in traffic after your blog posts have been published. You’ve spent a lot of money on paid advertising campaigns that promote your blog posts like how many other how-to guides have advised you so. But the result is still depressing. Is content marketing dead or is it dead just for you? Today’s post will explain the top reasons why your blog posts haven’t been working for your business.

1. Choosing the wrong topics

Think of yourself as a reader: are you interested in an advertising post for some company or do you prefer to read something interesting or beneficial for yourself? You’ll most likely pick the latter. Therefore, when you are writing a blog post, try to find a good story to tell. If your company sells air-purifying technology, inform people about how your product can make their life better or about the obstacles that you had to overcome to start your business. Meaningful content creates more value for readers and draws more attention from them.

2. Forgetting to implement an effective SEO strategy

Now you have a great blog post content, but is your blog post visible to search engines? While thousands of other companies are trying to push their marketing content online, having your blog posts visible to search engines requires a solid understanding of search engine optimization, also known as SEO. Implementing an SEO strategy for your blog posts includes a wide variety of tricks.Begin with this simple tip: start with the choice and placement of keywords; choose 1 to 2 keywords and place them throughout the entire blog post: in the first and last paragraph, in the headline, and in the picture caption (if you have one). These placements will do the magic by increasing the level of visibility of your content to search engines.  More on SEO Strategy:How to Create an SEO Strategy for 2021 by HubspotHow To Craft A Winning SEO Strategy For 2021 by The Guerrilla Agency

3. Neglecting to promote published blog posts

Even good content will be left unrecognized if not enough effort is taken to promote it. In marketing, both the quantity and quality of posts are keys for success. Your content needs to be visible enough to draw attention before having any impact. In this case, social media marketing is likely the most effective channel for marketing your blog posts.You would want to publish new blog posts from 2 to 3 times a week to once a day to get the most traffic. Then, share your blog posts across all of your social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Share them frequently to create a strong buzz for your content.Sharing your content on other channelsas well to bring traffic and improve your backlinks.

4. Pay attention to timing

Now let’s switch our attention to the social media platforms that you use, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These platforms are where most blog posts are shared to increase traffic to your website. Have you noticed that posting content at certain times can increase its traffic? For example, the best time to post on Facebook is between 1-3pm on Thursdays and Fridays while the best time to post on Instagram is at 2 am on Wednesdays in general.Of course, these times are subject to change depending on your target readers and their residing time zone. So, remember to do a little bit of research before you post or post at different times on social media as an experiment to determine the best posting schedule for your startup.Share on facebookShareShare on linkedinShareShare on twitterTwitter