Inbound Marketing and Sales Articles | Bristol Strategy Inc.

Content Marketing Overview For Start-Up Companies

Written by Dave Orecchio | Jul 11, 2016 2:00:00 PM

I like to think about Inbound Marketing as a process to attract the best prospects to your business using digital marketing methods and Content Marketing as the fuel that drives the Inbound Marketing engine.  It is interesting that these terms and the stories about them have emerged at different times but they fit together well into the new digital marketing world.  

The following articles are well written and sourced by reputable businesses, each with a focus on a different element about the role content plays in your digital marketing plan.  See my perspective on each article, the article excerpt with links to the original article for your review.    

This first article is a guide for start-up marketing. The core of digital marketing methods is content and although the article does not focus on content marketing, it is the first item in their recommendations. Use this first article as a starting point to provide context for the others.  

Everything You Need to Know About Start-up Marketing (Mini-Guide)


As an entrepreneur, the biggest mistake you can make when launching your start up is failing to develop or implement a clear marketing strategy. As you probably already know, you can’t build a profitable business by simply conceptualizing, creating, and launching a great product. It takes much more than that to succeed. In order to gain traction, boost growth, and build a sustainable business that stands the test of time, you have to do more than have a great product. You have to connect with your audience, tell your story, build trust, nurture leads, and ultimately convince people that your product or service can help make their lives better or their jobs easier. To do it, you have to invest serious time, energy, and money into developing ...
 
This second article describes content marketing and the elements of the content that will make it "evergreen", meaning, continually producing value and engagement with your audience.  One of my favorite points that Danny makes is to make sure the content is optimized for mobile devices. When I review our marketing analytics, I see that a significant percentage of page opens happens on mobile devices.  
 

The key content marketing trends that can help boost your business

Content marketing has long been lauded as the most effective way to build customer awareness and generate leads in the digital age, however, how do you make it work effectively? So many businesses have invested a significant proportion of their marketing budget into content marketing, with little to show for it. Here I’ve set out our approach to content marketing and how entrepreneurs can make it work for their business. What is content marketing? Everyone has a different definition of content marketing but in this article I’ll be referring to it as; sharing information that is of value to your target audience. The idea is to replace pushy sales and advertising approaches with helping your prospects, so they choose to come to you (aka...
 
I have been a long time fan of the Content Marketing Institute because their articles are thoughtful and thorough. This article covers an important topic that is near and dear to most C-level executives, the partnership between their sales and marketing organizations.  This article by Anna drills into the need for a content strategy, better yet, one that attracts the right types of leads. In a recent story we learned that 50% of marketers don't have a content strategy. We found that statistic amazing.  Check out the article that is chock full of sage advice.  If you need help developing your content strategy, click here for an offer.  
 

3 Ways Content Can Build a Bridge Between Marketing and Sales

I am in a unique position to espouse the virtues of sales and marketing alignment – I am the head of sales at my company and am married to our chief marketing officer. I know that sales and marketing alignment is critical to an organization’s success, and yet I also know the inherent challenges. I live with marketing (truly) and sometimes alignment still evades us. The disconnect between marketing and sales teams has long been an industry-wide, hot-button issue, with both sides claiming communication is key but typically shying away from any real-world, concrete solutions for creating that communication. In fact, according to a recent study by Demand Gen, 49% of marketers and sales executives agree that communication is the biggest chal...
 
This next article is by Amy Chick (@heyamychick) describes her "Content Marketing Wheel" approach to leveraging the content you have created to ensure it continues to deliver value. It makes the point that you should not be satisfied by just posting an article on a blog, but need to take action to promote it. Think of each of these actions as elements of a content marketing campaign.  
 

The Content Marketing Wheel: A Smart Approach to Content Strategy

If you’ve been playing in digital content for any period of time, you’re probably familiar with this scenario: you publish a new blog post, get a spike in traffic and engagement, then watch your analytics level out. It’s a common pattern in B2B marketing — only 10% of blog posts continue to increase visits over time, after the initial traffic spike. This linear process creates an imbalance between the input — the time and resources devoted to content development — and the ROI of your content marketing. If you really want to make an impact with your strategy, it’s time to try a new approach. The foundation of a cyclical content marketing strategy Think of your blog posts as the spokes of a wheel: they create structure and keep your str...