Content Marketing for Startups

content
marketingfor startups
A BLUEPRINT TO GET
STARTED RIGHT
(plus startup examples & hacks)

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Eric Ries defines a startup as a human institution designed to
deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.
Dave McClure says that startups are companies that are confused about
their products, their customers, and their ability
to make money.
Needless to say, regardless of how you define a startup, this stuff’s hard!
And no one out to build the next big thing really has time to sit back and
pontificate along with topical thought leaders out there. So we skipped
the pontificating.
This Growth Guides was created to help young startups actually execute.
It was built as a tactical playbook or blueprint to get off
to the best start possible start.
Our goal in creating this resource is to help you get more done. We make
strong recommendations for how, exactly, one can execute, with the
belief and understanding that it’s better to be done than perfect as you
launch and iterate on your startup.
DISCLAIMER: This guide is not intended to help you perform research
into a topic, tactic, or technology. In order to focus on execution, we’ve
assumed a certain level of understanding and personal or company
buy-in. This is also not to be viewed as a silver bullet that, if followed
verbatim, will lead to all the results you need. Instead, this guide
should be used to get off to a great start and find initial traction –
that’s the role of our firm AND our content.
About Growth Guides
Less reading. More doing.
This guide contains:
Specific steps you can
follow to execute faster
and better.
Real examples from entre-
preneurs who have found
success in a particular area.
Hacks and shortcuts, since
building a startup isn’t
always ever sexy.
Look for this icon through-
out the playbook
About NextView Ventures
NextView Ventures is a seed-stage VC investing in internet and mobile startups in primarily Boston and New York. Co-founders and
partners Rob Go (eBay, Spark Capital), David Beisel (About.com, Venrock), and Lee Hower (PayPal, LinkedIn) focus exclusively on seed
in order to better fulfill the firm’s mission, which is also the mission of this guide: Help founders get off to the best possible start.
Follow the team on Twitter: Co-founders and General Partners: David Beisel | Rob Go | Lee Hower
Director, Platform and Community: Jay Acunzo

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Table of Contents
Section 1: The Theory
Why Content Marketing Matters
How to Think About Content
Section 2: Setting Up Infrastructure
Buyer Personas
Your Central Story Blog
Content Topics Idea Generation
Editorial Calendar Outreach List
Section 3: The Playbook
Creating a Core Resource
Editing Cheat-Sheet
Blogging Strategy
Distribution Marketing
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5
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9
12
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23
26
30
32
37

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Why Content Marketing Matters Today
A Quick Look at the Theory Behind the Trend
The theory behind content marketing centers on one core idea: Today’s
consumer has all the power. Three trends caused this, which developed
over time but really accelerated in the last 20 or so years:
1. The Explosion of Information and Media:
CNN estimated in 2011 that over 417 web pages existed for every single internet user
– to say nothing of all the individual stimuli appearing on each web page. Thanks to
a lowered barrier to entry to publish and an increase in global internet usage, media
(both social and corporate) exploded to heights never before imagined.
As Google’s Eric Schmidt likes to point out, the same amount of information created
from the dawn of humanity through 2003 is today replicated every 48 hours. “Noise” is
an understatement.
2. A History of Brand Interruption and Deception:
Marketers have long needed to beg, borrow, steal, and shout their way into the lives
of consumers. Brand advertising, once a way to notify those around you of a useful
product or service, has long since escalated into an arms race for our attention thanks
to increased competition in every business category, as well as a huge amount of
communication channels for brands to infiltrate. Given a centuries-old track record of
sensationalism, interruption, and bait-and-switch tactics, when a brand appears to a
consumer, there’s increasing temptation (and ability) to navigate around it.
3. The Rapid Rate of Change in Technology:
As is old news to any startup, the number of new tech companies and products creat-
ed each year continues to skyrocket. Many of these technologies have empowered the
masses to both publish content (contributing to trend #1 to the left) and take control
to navigate around anything interruptive or unwelcome, like ads (think DVRs).

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The result? More options and information than the human brain can seemingly
handle, along with the ability to move freely and easily between all these billions of
stimuli. Thus, we as consumers won’t and don’t dedicate attention to anything we
don’t actively and voluntarily wish to consume. And this forever changes how we
research, shop, and buy.
All this to say, the most important important idea in the world of marketing
today is now this:
The importance of this concept simply can not be overstated. If your marketing is what
consumers actively choose – instead of what interrupts what they choose, which is in-
creasingly ineffective – then you stand to gain their attention long enough to convince,
convert, and delight your target buyer.
So why does content matter?
The defining characteristic of content is choice.
INDUSTRY TRENDS B2B Companies B2C Companies
Content Marketing Adoption
Most Important Metrics
Budget Allocation
(Plans to Increase in 2014)
Outsource Some Component
of Content Marketing
93%
Traffic, Sales, Lead
Quality, Social Sharing
30%
(58%)
44%
90%
Traffic, Social Sharing,
Time Spent on Site
24%
(60%)
49%
CHOICE
Sources: Content Marketing Institute; HubSpot; MarketingProfs

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How to Think About Content Marketing
Your unfair advantage.
Content marketing is an approach to marketing – not a single tactic – and
startups have an unfair advantage adopting it: You’re building a product to
solve a problem you’ve identified for the buyer. It’s that exact problem (and
overarching mission) that your content should aim to address every time.
We’re preaching to the choir here, but at a startup, there are tons of potential
distractions. And since the act of creating content can be a bit loose at times, here’s
a helpful way to define content marketing for early-stage startups:
Attracting qualified traffic by continually creating content that helps your
audience execute better or align with your mission.
To unpack that quickly:
◉◉ QUALIFIED traffic – not just the most possible page views. You’re selling
a product, not advertising space (typically). If the Huffington Post drove just a few
hundred visitors a day, someone’s getting fired. A few hundred visitors to your site
on a daily basis can bring tremendous value, if they’re the
right visitors.
Later, we’ll talk about identifying and attracting the right visitor,
aka your buyer persona.
◉◉ CONTINUALLY create content. As we just established, you’re not actually a
publisher, so this can be really hard. The trick is to follow a process that you refine
over time and to use a core piece to spawn tons more content.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up some basic infrastructure and
follow a tight process that makes publishing easier to sustain and scale.
◉◉ HELP your audience. Your content can help them either (1) execute better (i.e.
solve a problem) or (2) think or feel differently (i.e. the way you and your startup
view the world, aligning them with your mission and increasing the odds that they
actually sign up, buy, and/or share your work).
By the end of this playbook, you’ll see how building successful products and
creating content that grows audiences are perfectly aligned and achieve
similar goals.

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How to Think About Content Marketing
The “Oh by the Way” Moment
Great content marketing aims to serve your audience in a way that’s strikingly
similar to your product or service. Because of this relationship, there exists this “oh by
the way” moment to your content. Essentially, your audience will consume what you
create to solve their problems or think and feel a certain way, but – oh by the way – the
very BEST way to solve that problem and feel that way is actually to buy your
product or service.
Example Startup: Content Helps You: Oh By The Way...
Do more with video
as a business
Wistia is a video marketing platform built
specifically for businesses (not cats).
Maximize revenue and
price products properly
Manage sales and
marketing better
using data
Price Intelligently helps companies
communicate value and set smarter
prices to capture more revenue.
InsightSquared delivers powerfully simple
business analytics for companies of
any size.
(Disclosure: NextView is an investor in InsightSquared.)

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Getting Started
When in doubt, start.
This guide subscribes to the belief that it’s better to make positive prog-
ress than to analyze every single way something can be done. As a result,
the following pages make strong recommendations, but we acknowledge
that there are other ways to execute a given tactic or strategy.
So much to do, so little time, so few resources. To make it easy on anyone at an ear-
ly-stage startup, we’ve broken this playbook into two distinct groups of activities, each
with specific steps, advice, and/or hacks to execute:
1. Setting up a startup-friendly amount of infrastructure (to give yourself
some help and sustain things).
2. Producing and distributing your content (without needing the brand
awareness – or budget – of a Red Bull).
Your Visual Playbook
Looking for a “secret” to this stuff? Like anything in life, there really isn’t one, but
committing to this playbook is the next best thing. Using a focused, step-by-step
process can mean the difference between growing a loyal, business-sustaining
audience…or writing about a company trip nobody else cares about as your latest
blog post (publish date: March 2012).
There’s a better way if you want to see actual, tangible results.

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Buyer
Persona
One Simple
Story
Central
Hub
Funnel
Focus
Idea
Pipeline
Editorial
Calendar
Outreach
List
Your Visual Playbook
We’ll walk piece by piece through the above visual so that
by the end, it becomes more intuitive. We’ll begin with that
supporting layer of infrastructure (from left to right): Buyer
personas, your unique story, your content’s home base, a
basic understanding of the marketing funnel, an idea
pipeline, an editorial calendar, and a third-party outreach
list. The entire playbook hinges on the items in blue.
supporting infrastructure
Blogging
“Atomizing”
Email
Social
Paid
Promotion
Partnerships
Syndication
Core
Resource
Goal: __________ Measured by: __________

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1. Create Your Buyer Persona
This might be THE MOST important piece of the content marketing puzzle – do not
skip this! A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, built
using real facts like demographic, psychographic, and some anecdotal information,
as well as a few educated assumptions.
Personas help you focus. After all, it’s impossible to attract the right audience – espe-
cially in today’s noisy world – without knowing who they are or how your content can
add value to their lives. Even details about their person (not just job function) such
as “stressed out” can make all the difference. (Short, visual, and productivity-focused
content helps a stressful person, regardless of the product or mission you’re selling.
See? Details matter.) Personas help you resonate with the right audience, not just
the biggest group. Your business model is different than a publisher. You need
highly qualified traffic, not just any page views.
A Sneaky Approach to Marketing
Personas sound a lot like product-market fit. However, as a startup, not yet having
product-market fit does NOT preclude you from building an audience. Remember,
content allows you to own attention (views, subscribers, etc.), not borrow it (paid
advertising). If you understand the problem you wish to solve with your product, then
you’re ready to execute your content marketing even before your product is ready. You
can then use that audience to perform customer development, test and launch
features, close deals, and/or spread your mission through social and word-of-mouth.
It’s way easier to launch when others already pay attention to you.
Building a “Minimal Viable Persona”
Experts prescribe approaches that take lots of time and energy in order to develop a
fully-formed persona. While it’s absolutely worth it eventually (as recommended here
and here), you might be under pressure to deliver some sort of proof that content
marketing can work for your startup – not to mention all the other things you have
to get done. So, yes, it’s possible to hack this.
Note: We’re NOT recommending you cut corners finding real product-market fit. We
are, however, suggesting that a viable content strategy can be launched with a rough
idea of a persona, which you then hone over time as you learn.

Sample Questions to Ask Customers
Talking to customers is the quickest way to develop a basic persona. Contact your
most loyal customers, beta users, or target users to let them know you’re planning
to create resources that make their lives easier and that you’d like to ask them some
quick questions. (A side benefit if they reply: You can send them the content later, thus
earning a potentially loyal audience member to consume and share your work.)
Some example questions to ask yourself or your buyers:
1. Determine their job level: Are they decision makers or merely influencers?
2. What are their goals at work? In life?
3. What are some challenges they face trying to achieve those goals?
4. Ask them to walk you through the time they recognized they needed a solution like
yours. What was the problem they were looking to solve? Why did they pick your
solution? How has it solved their problem?
5. Switching gears, how do they gather information when looking for solutions?
When looking for entertainment? Ask about their media consumption.
The next thing you need to nail down is the core story that ties together every piece
you create. The simplest framework is what we’re calling your “One Simple Story”
(which is an extrapolation of a brand’s “one simple thing”). Coke’s “one simple thing”
at the time of this writing is happiness, and Zipcar’s is freedom, for example.
HACK THIS! Basic Persona Template: Example Erica
(Read vertically, the resulting
content type should be informed
by the two phrases above it. For
example, someone pressed for
time without knowing where to
start their work needs short but
instructional content. Long, text-
heavy documents would only
add stress. Thus, this exercise
helps you hone both an idea of
your audience and roughly
what to create for them.)
3 Ways to
Describe Her
3 Relevant
Challenges She Faces
3 Resulting
Content Types
Tech Savvy Pressed for time
resources
Young
hungry
Needs to
drive more
leads
Knowing
where to
start
Must sell
ideas to
boss
“Insider”
tools tricks
Short but
directional
Data-
ROI-driven

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2. Determine Your Story
How to Craft a Consistent Story That Resonates
Most stories can be distilled into a very simple framework, delivered from the point of
view of your target persona: Their status quo, some drama, and a resolution. You’ll
see this pattern in even the most basic stories (in other words, this doesn’t have to
be Shakespeare):
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout (status quo). Down
came the rain and washed the spider out (drama). Out came the sun
and dried up all the rain (resolution).
As a marketer, think about your persona’s reality and biggest challenges.
For instance, HubSpot, which sells inbound marketing software, tells this story:
Every marketer used to execute with the same playbook (status quo).
But in the digital era, that playbook is broken, and customers have
become annoyed at marketing (drama). Thus, inbound marketing
lets you create marketing people actually love and respond to
today (resolution).
Note: The resolution section is what makes you unique. You believe that a certain type of
resolution is the right one, as evidenced by your unique product.
Remember the “Oh By The Way” Moment?
Your story – at least thematically – should be conveyed in every piece. Just because
you’ve heard it before doesn’t mean a given reader has. In each case, the resolution
should lead to that “oh by the way” moment discussed earlier – whether it’s, “Oh by
the way, the best resolution is to take one more step and download this next piece of
content,” or, “subscribe,” or, “buy our product.
You should tell this story so much as to own it, but the trick is to do so from a
single hub that becomes known for that story.
That hub, which is your home base to which you’ll drive traffic, is your blog.

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3. Four Tips for Blog Setup
1. Use simple, clear language to convey the
benefits of the blog to your specific persona.
(This holds true whether or not you give the blog
a separate name.)
2. Place the most critical one or two calls-to-
action visibly around your blog’s feed. (Note:
If you go with one, make it an offer to download
more content. If you pick two, it’s okay if one
focuses on your product.)
3. Make it crystal clear where readers can
subscribe. Building your email list is critical for
any startup, which we’ll discuss more later.
4. ALWAYS provide links to pages
about you and your product
(Demo, Pricing, About, etc.).

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4. Pick Your Topic of Focus
As a startup looking for early traction (whether in beta users or actual paying custom-
ers), you should start with topics that are just one step “removed” from your product.
In other words, while you shouldn’t write about the product itself, address the specific
problems your product also solves, rather than chasing page views and writing about
big, broad, popular themes.
This is best explained with an example. Let’s take Directr, a Boston-based startup
(Disclosure: NextView is an investor). Directr’s app helps companies create better
videos. If you imagined all the relevant topics they could address into a marketing
funnel, where the broad top of the funnel signified lots of people, it’d look like this:
While there are lots more people who care
about “content marketing” than “creating
video for business,” Directr should focus their
limited resources on owning that niche at the
bottom. Those who are interested in that topic are
much more likely to convert soon – they’re more
qualified visitors – compared to those who are in the
ballpark of content marketing in general. That crowd not
only has way more options to read and consume content all
about a broad topic, they may never need or care to learn about
Directr’s specific solution.
Even if they eventually do need Directr, they would require much more marketing
and lots more attention and convincing from Directr – which means marketing
infrastructure and resources a small startup probably lacks.
This is the trade-off you’re making: Go for lots of views (along with many others
writing about the same thing) and hope some of your traffic will be qualified, or start
laser-focused on people who self-qualify by reading about a similar topic that’s tightly
linked to your actual product.
Our advice? Start at the bottom. Own a niche.
Topic = Content Marketing in General
Topic = Video
Marketing in General
Topic = Creating
Video for Business

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5. Open an Idea Pipeline
This is the simplest but most powerful tool you can use. An idea pipeline is an app that
syncs on mobile and desktop that contains all your ideas for content: Half-baked
paragraphs, working headlines, data points you found, links that inspire a post,
curated graphics or videos to embed and write about, etc. Whenever ideas strike,
whether as you brainstorm or at random, SAVE THEM SOMEWHERE. Never try to
come up with content from scratch every day. That’s an easy way to go dark.
Trello, Evernote, and Google Drive are all examples of free apps that can serve as your
idea pipeline. Inside the app, you’ll want to create two halves:
1. A repository of single post ideas. Typically, each note or cell here will contain drafts
of headlines with any other context alongside it. One note equals
one post.
2. A list of series or templates you can repurpose again and again to fill gaps between
unique ideas. A classic example is to answer customer questions. Curated link
roundups also apply. (For a great startup example, check out Whiteboard Fridays
from Moz.)
HACK THIS!
We’ll review an efficient way to brainstorm later in this guide, but here are some
common ways to fill your idea pipeline:
1. List common customer questions (knowledge-based, not product-based).
2. Create a Feedly account or other RSS subscription of related blogs. Save relevant links into
your idea pipeline to do response pieces or similar posts but with a strong, unique angle later.
3. List out interesting people you’d like to interview. If they agree, email them a few questions
to make it easy. (They’ll likely share your final post, increasing your exposure and audience.
This is a proven way to boost traffic.)
4. List out things you disagree with that receive attention today: industry trends, popular opinion,
or other tropes. Negate them to support your company’s POV (e.g. Why X Is Broken And What To
Do Instead).
5. Curate inspirational quotes or stats. (ProTip: Use ClickToTweet to make sharing these
things easier for readers.)
6. Monitor industry news and either react quickly to them (a great way to grow traffic)
or wait a day and do a very thoughtful “What It Means” piece.
Filling Your Idea Pipeline

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GrabCAD operates an online community of over 1.25 million mechanical engineers (out of
a total that’s estimated between 3 and 4 million globally). They create content to engage,
educate, and grow this community.
What types of content does GrabCAD regularly produce?
We use our blog to share content in three areas:
1. News about the Community, like Challenges and interviews with engineers.
2. Information about GrabCAD and its products, like feature announcements.
3. Articles to help professional engineers do their jobs, like a recent post on
popular mobile apps for mechanical engineers.
We’ve also done several webinars, including one with a well-known CAD blogger, and
we’ll continue to do a webinar every few months. We haven’t done any podcasts yet,
and our infographics are rare – we did one to commemorate our 1 millionth member a
few months ago.
Finally, we experimented with “Content 1.0” - our CEO [Hardi Meybaum] wrote a book.
It’s called The Art of Product Design: Changing How Things Get Made and tells the story
of how mechanical engineering is changing, told from Hardi’s unique perspective.
Startup Interview: GrabCAD
The Importance of Owning a Niche
What have you learned building your community that other startups can adopt when
building their own audiences?
We’ve been successful by focusing on a specific niche, meeting a specific need for that niche, and then staying out of
the way. We view our role in the community as facilitators and moderators, and we never fool ourselves that we “own”
the community. People come to GrabCAD’s community because of the amazing CAD models members have created
and shared and because of the willingness of those members to help each other. So I guess my advice would be to find
a way to let people help each other, then let them do it.
A recent product update for the company led to a shift in focus for your blog content, from “cool stuff for
engineers” to more helpful content, with tips, tricks, and other resources. Why the change, and how has it
gone for GrabCAD?
A year ago we were primarily known for our free Community, but since then, we’ve introduced our paid Workbench
product, which helps engineers manage and share CAD models. As a result, we’ve focused more on helping practicing
engineers. While we still write about Community topics, we do more pieces on managing CAD files, finding useful on-
line resources, and so on. This hasn’t been easy - the challenges our users face are technical and detailed, and writing
about them requires a fair degree of subject matter expertise. Fortunately, we have a number of folks at GrabCAD with
decades of experience in the CAD industry, and we draw on outside experts from time to time as well.
Contributed by:
Rob Stevens
VP, Marketing
Business Development
@robgstevens
grabcad.com
Tools and a thriving community
to help engineers develop
products faster.
@GrabCAD
/GrabCAD
(Disclosure: NextView is an investor in GrabCAD.)

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6. Open an Editorial Calendar
The last writer-friendly app you need is an editorial calendar, or “ed cal.” This can be
a spreadsheet or simply Google Calendar. Software solutions like Kapost, Newscred,
Skyword, and others also offer scheduled publishing, but as a startup, you can do a lot
for free:
1. Create a new Google Calendar titled “Editorial Calendar.”
2. Invite everyone in your company. The more people viewing it, the more you’re
held accountable, which is a great thing. You at least want marketing and sales
to know about it.
3. Create an invite on the date and time you plan to publish each post. (Speaking very
broadly, the best times to publish are earlier in the week at 9am and 12pm – the
former is the East Coast’s commute, and the latter is the West Coast’s commute
and the East Coast’s lunch break.)
4. Name each invite with the title of your post.
5. Paste the URL of the post into the notes section of the calendar invite so
that anybody can find it or refer back to it later.
At the end of the month, you’ll use the calendar to report back on how productive
you’ve been. It’s much easier than scrolling through your blog or CMS and peering
into specific dates and times a post went live.
Thus, your ed cal not only serves to keep you honest and help you hit specific produc-
tivity goals, it helps you look back, analyze, and tweak your schedule accordingly.
NOTE: The ed cal is perhaps the easiest part of this setup process to skip. It feels like
unnecessary tracking. But in speaking to tens of bloggers and content marketers in
creating this guide, many lament not opening an ed cal sooner. So, if for nothing else
than retrospective understanding of your own work, don’t skip this step.

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7. Create an Outreach List
Open a Google spreadsheet and create six tabs:
◉◉ Your best customers/users
◉◉ Your investors, advisors, mentors, and similar contacts
◉◉ Individual influencers in your industry
◉◉ Journalists that cover your industry
◉◉ Companies with whom you could partner
Leveraging This List
If you plan to reach out to companies, do so before you create a piece of content.
By agreeing to co-brand and/or co-promote something, you can tap into each others’
audiences. This is a great strategy for anyone just getting started – early on, offer your
expertise and the fact that you’ll do the creation. Down the road, once you have an
audience and a bigger email list, you’ll have a stronger case to make to even
larger companies.
If you plan to use the list for influencer or individual outreach and content
sharing, focus on those who are one “rung” above you. It’s true you want to write
about the biggest names in your space (because it attracts audience), but it’s far
better to spend time during your outreach on someone who may actually reply.

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As an early-stage startup, you need to do things that don’t scale to grow, including
influencer outreach. Check out the types of content they’re creating and sharing
already, and try to frame your content as well-aligned with their point of view. This
makes your intro much easier – something like this:
◉◉ Open with something that establishes your alignment. (Example: “I read your
latest post, XYZ, and I couldn’t agree more, particularly on ABC detail.”)
◉◉ Share your content without a strong call to action. (“Just wanted to share the link
to X. Obviously I value your opinion so any feedback is appreciated, but I also felt
this aligned with your latest piece, and you might find it interesting.”) This section
is absolutely for the purpose of stroking their ego. We’re all human, after all.
◉◉ Ask in a subtle way for them to check out and share your content, but treat it like a
cocktail party not sales pitch. (“Any social sharing would be great, and we’re always
glad to feature your work to our audience and customers. Let me know if we can
ever help you!”)
◉◉ Thank them for all they do to advance the mission or beliefs you both share.

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Boundless relies on a network of freelance subject matter experts to create, vet,
and curate entire educational textbooks for 20+ subjects, reaching over 3 million
people globally.
Startups can struggle to hire freelancers. Did Boundless?
We used a few channels to identify our freelancers, which we call “edcurators” to instill a
sense of community, including: personal connections (many on our team have advanced
degrees and professional relationships with academics), academic journals, and good
old fashioned Craigslist. We built an automated resume drop that we use to filter people
based on their subject matter expertise and likely fit for our community.
Once we’ve identified someone that is a likely fit, we screen the candidate on Skype
to make a personal connection. A lot comes out face-to-face that doesn’t by email or
on the phone. After that, we have a test that we developed to evaluate the candidate’s
competencies in their subject as well as their writing skills. Once they clear that gate, we
have an onboarding document to get them up to speed on our processes and CMS that
of course is read on our app. We eat our own dog food.
How do you ensure the quality of a freelancer’s work?
We have a peer-review process to vet the initial content submission, and then if it passes,
it is reviewed by a full-time staff member or sent back to the original writer for rework. All
of our content is touched at least three times before reaching a student. We also
Startup Interview: Boundless
Producing Long-Form Content Using Freelance Experts
leverage our readers to help improve our content. We’ve had nearly tens of thousands of
content “bug” submissions. We try to respond within a week to fix those.
What systems or processes emerged based on your early work with freelancers that help you move faster today?
We built our style guide into the guide rails of our CMS. This makes it so that the content comes out reading as if it were
written by one author, while in reality it is a patchwork of dozens of them. We are in the process of refashioning our CMS,
which was a back-end tool we built ourselves for internal use, into our consumer-facing site. Soon, all of our millions of
monthly readers will be able to write and edit content on our site in a beautiful WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)
experience. We’re constantly learning and folding those learnings back into the product.
See an Example at
Boundless.com/Biology
Contributed by:
Nick Ducoff
VP, Content Operations
@nickducoff
boundless.com
Textbook alternatives to save
students money and help them
learn more effectively.
@GoBoundless
/GoBoundless

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DID YOU SKIP ANYTHING?
Content marketing is about consistency, not virality. Many startups publish a
handful of blog posts before going completely dark without seeing results.
Sustaining your production and distribution can be difficult, so following each
step listed on the previous pages can enable greater speed and better results.
PRODUCTION + DISTRIBUTION
1. Determine Your Goal
In picking a set goal, you’re really describing the single action you want readers to
take when they encounter your content. Without a goal, you-’ll have no idea what to
produce and how to distribute it. If you’re not sure where to start, focus on growing
your email list first. It is the most important asset a content marketer can own today.
(We’ll discuss this more later on its own dedicated page – it’s that critical.)
Blogging
“Atomizing”
Email
Social
Paid
Promotion
Partnerships
Syndication
Core
Resource
Goal: __________ Measured by: __________Grow Email List Unique Subscribers

25
“How Should I Measure My Content?”
In every interaction a reader has with your content, you should be telling them what’s
next – subscribe, download, share, and so on. These calls-to-action are the difference
between some nice view metrics or time spent on site and tangible ROI.
Also, different types of content are built to do different things on the web based on
how audiences interact with them. A SlideShare is great for views and shares, but not
leads. If the goal is leads, then the only reason to create a SlideShare is to drive clicks
from within the slides over to a landing page where people can subscribe to download
more content. Otherwise, creating that SlideShare, while it might be nice for exposure,
doesn’t help you achieve your goal. With that in mind, consider measuring your
content based on two groups of metrics:
User Indicators: publisher metrics like views, unique visitors, time spent,
bounce rate, and sharing – all of which help achieve your…
Business Objectives: your primary goals, like subscribers, app adoption, or
sales leads
Unless your business model is the same as a publisher site, user indicators must serve
your business objectives. Generating a lot of shares, for instance, is only great if those
shares lead back to more site traffic…and site traffic only matters if it’s the right traffic
(your buyer persona or someone who influences that persona)…and the right traffic
only matters if they then convert in some way, such as joining your email list, which is
your core goal in the example above. So, study and tweak user indicators, but obsess
over business objectives.

26
2. Create a Core Resource
This resource will serve as the central point to every single thing you do in this
marketing playbook. It will take the most time to create out of any single piece but,
once created, it makes the rest of your content production much, much easier.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. It should directly contribute to your main goal. Using the example of the Slide-
Share on the previous page, you’d never base your playbook around that piece if the
goal was lead-gen. (It’s useful but tangential – not the core resource.) Instead, you’d
base the playbook on an ebook, for example, or a template for someone to use…
both of which can be housed behind a lead-gen form to hit your goal.
2. It should solve the biggest problem facing your buyer persona. Using the buyer
persona you’ve already created, determine their absolute biggest pain point. Your
content resource should either educate your persona on the must-know things to
overcome that challenge (and remember, your product is really the best solution,
but they may no to ready to buy yet) OR your resource must be utility focused, like
a free template, kit, workbook, or collection of assets that physically helps them
execute. Avoid “thought leadership” fluff.
3. It should be well-researched, which helps you in two ways. Collecting quotes,
data points, examples, and ideas from established authorities allows you to (a)
create a higher quality piece and (b) use the same research to create a ton more
content that in turn drives people to this central resource, thus hitting your goal.
Blogging
“Atomizing”
Email
Social
Paid
Promotion
Partnerships
Syndication
Core
Resource

27
4. It should live on a single URL. Whether or not it’s a file you can download or
something web-based, your resource should have a single home. This allows you to
point all your hyperlinks and various marketing activities to this spot. It also benefits
your search rank, as anyone who references the piece will use the same URL, giving
you some inbound links and added authority.
“How Many Resources Should I Create?”
To be a prolific and successful content marketer, you really only need one re-
source for quite awhile. The structure of the playbook above is a wheel: You can spin
the wheel around the core resource again and again. In the coming pages, we’ll
discuss each tactic as it relates to promoting a single, high-impact resource which,
again, was built both to hit your business objective and to solve a huge pain point for
your target persona.
To editorialize a bit: That dual objective (hitting goals and helping buyers) is the
beauty of content marketing. If done properly, you can add a ton of value to your
audience and drive a ton of results, all without creating a ton of stuff. In other words,
there’s no need to spam the world with low quality content in the name of volume.
(Besides, that would require more resources anyway.) Win-win!
Creating Your First Resource?
If you’re creating your first resource to fuel your marketing, the easiest type is
probably a PDF guide.
If you’re B2B, this is intuitive – a guide to overcome a problem mimics how your
product helps your buyer overcome the same obstacle. But B2C should also consider
doing some research and creating a mission statement such that their product solves
a broader problem, making a guide an effective tool to reach consumers. Maybe you
sell luxurious coffee grounds and frame it as a way to de-stress. A guide to de-stressing
at work aligns perfectly. Or maybe you sell the most comfortable underwear around,
and that translates into confidence. Excellent! Create content that empowers and
inspires your audience to be more confident.

28
How to Structure Your First Guide
1. Determine a single, huge pain point you can address that
you’ve heard from your customers or prospects. Plan to
solve that in this guide.
2. Create a big, catchy headline and an explainer subtitle in
smaller font. Refer to this guide’s cover for an example.
3. Use branded colors, but don’t splash your brand every-
where. Readers want knowledge, not a sales pitch.
4. Inside, write a basic intro outlining what the reader can ex-
pect to find in the guide. This intro should help the reader
instantly align with your overarching mission, so it’s a per-
fect place to include your “one simple story” from earlier.
5. In the body of your guide, break up blocks of text with
headlines, chapter title pages, and/or bulleted lists.
6. Use visuals, but only if they add value. Graphics and charts
should help illustrate what you’re writing or draw the eye.
7. Write a conclusion that wraps up the points you were
trying to make. Either look to the future or summarize
the takeaways.
8. The very last page should be a flyer on what you do.
Include links and big calls-to-action. Remember, you
constantly want to ask what happens next, after a reader
finishes a piece of content – your core resource included.
9. Host your guide on a single URL, whether in a blog post or
on a specific landing page. All related content you create
after this should link here, as well as all your marketing.

29
HACK THIS!
Robots haven’t replaced the writers, but these free tools can help you create content with ma-
chine-like efficiency and ability, without skimping on quality. (Click the logos to visit a given tool.)
Design your cover graphic and any other images in Canva, a free service offering
pre-designed assets which you can manipulate before downloading. The tool
was built to enable anyone feel like a pro designer.
If you’re creating an infographic specifically, this tool – like Canva – helps you
design beautifully without in-depth knowledge of creative tech like PhotoShop.
Dafont offers a huge library of great-looking fonts which you can download.
Interesting typography and fonts improves any piece, especially guides
containing lots of plain text, SlideShares, and social graphics.
Skitch is a free app from Evernote which lets you take screenshots and easily
and quickly mark them up. Great to visually explain what you’re writing about
in your guide.
Storify allows you to collect media from across the web about a single subject
and arrange it into a single story. A story can then be embedded anywhere.
Unsplash is, in their words, “Free (do whatever you want) hi-resolution photos.”
No legalese to decipher.
ClickToTweet lets readers more easily share your work in the moment. You simply
pre-write a tweet, along with the link back to your content, and ClickToTweet
generates a link you can add anywhere. For example, you could add “Tweet this
quote” and hyperlink the text, making it much more likely that people will share.
Thinglink enables you to upload an image and add callouts, links, and other media
as hot spots right over the picture. They can then be embedded anywhere.
This is essentially a cloud-based version of PhotoShop. While it’s pretty
complex, it’s also free.
Free Content Creation Tools

How to Edit Your Resource (Without Getting Stuck Forever)
Editing is critical – it helps you catch errors, smooth out language, and increase
your credibility and quality. You can also catch issues that would have hurt your
marketing results, like broken links. However, it’s very possible to write and re-write
and edit for days on end. (There’s a reason most valedictorians don’t come from the
English department – you can always improve your writing. You’ll never get that
perfect 100 out of 100.) The goal is to make something great through editing but
without crippling your ability to move forward.
To help you edit more efficiently, try using this framework:
Efficient Editing Cheat-Sheet
Grammar, spelling, and facts are all
correct and checked.
Our “one simple story” comes through
overtly or implicitly (i.e. our unique angle
is present).
Content is helpful for our persona, not
simply an interesting thought exercise or
ego-driven piece for us.
Hyperlinks, images, videos, and other
embedded media function properly.
Mentions of our product and company
are clearly marked and feel natural. No
sneak selling is present.
The piece will directly drive results for
our main goal. If not, it assists by driving
traffic to something that more directly
hits our goal.
A call-to-action in, around, or below the
content ties this to our marketing funnel
and main goal.
There is a clearly-stated thesis with fact-
based research, logical opinions, or true
stories supporting it.
The POV (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd person) and
tense are consistent throughout.
Subheaders are used to break up blocks of
text and are descriptive and actionable.
The piece references and links to past
content created by the company to extend
its life, aid search rank, and point readers
to more of our content.
Sources and examples are clearly cited
using the primary work (and no Wikipedia).
All “nepotism” has been disclosed (e.g.
“Disclosure: X is our customer/board
member/investor/in-house masseuse, etc.”)
The headline is optimized to attract clicks
and get shares, while not over-selling what’s
inside the actual work.
The argument/thesis is considered from all
angles and defends/supports each, appro-
priate to our mission (i.e. This isn’t blind bias
and can’t be easily refuted)
It’s creatively written/designed/constructed.
Competitors can’t easily copy this piece
without significant work.
It holds attention throughout, and could
trigger an action or emotional reaction in
doing so.
It’s packaged in a unique format beyond the
tried-and-true mediums. (Note: This is rare)
Branding and style is consistent with
all other marketing touchpoints for
the company.
Multimedia is incorporated in ways that add
value, not just take up space (e.g. charts/
graphs, video, icons, etc.)
The piece offers original learning/
entertainment found nowhere else,
even if the content was curated.
Tier 1: Mission Critical
(The entire purpose of our company
creating content. Never, ever skip.)
Tier 2: Important
(Skipping won’t contradict your strategy
but could hurt results or public perception.)
Tier 3: Ideal
(Skipping these is okay if pressed for
time, but it may be harder to stand out.)
Get a larger, standalone version to view or print on the author’s blog.

Dan Levy is the content strategist at Unbounce, makers of landing page and conversion
optimization software, where he oversees their blog and other content. He previously helped
build the award-winning business blog Sparksheet.
How does Unbounce find and hire quality writers who are also subject matter ex-
perts in your industry niche?
Finding awesome writers who are well-versed in our very nichey niche of conversion rate
optimization is one of our greatest challenges. In the early days almost all our content was
written by our co-founder, Oli Gardner, who is a super funny and engaging writer and also
happens to be the authority on this stuff. So that set our editorial standards impossibly
high. We source writers all the usual ways – by reading other blogs in our field and by
vetting incoming pitches. But this niche is so young that a lot of experts have been
brought up on the content we’ve put out over the past 5 years. In other words, not only
are we educating online marketers (and potential leads and customers) with our content
marketing, we’re also educating future writers. It’s quite cyclical and meta and cool!
Content Marketer Interview: Dan Levy
Attracting and Editing Talented Writers for Tough Topics
If you’re working with a subject matter expert who’s not a great writer, how do you ensure quality in the final piece?
We do a lot of back and forth with our contributors. A lot. But that doesn’t just go for the weaker writers. In fact, the better the
content is, the more I tend to engage with it – you can go a lot deeper when you don’t have to deal with comma splices and
subject-verb disagreement. And the best writers appreciate that level of engagement with their work. I’ve been told that many blog
editors just say thanks and hit publish, and I think that’s disrespectful to both the writer and your audience. Regarding experts who
can’t write, we’re very transparent about our editorial standards and guidelines from the get-go and I have no problem politely
declining content from a well-known topic expert if they can’t deliver the goods. But my job is to help conversion experts tell their
stories and transmit their knowledge, so I have a lot of patience for willing writers who just need that extra push.
What 1-2 critical editorial processes did you learn in the media world prior to your time in content marketing?
Fact-checking and attribution. There’s a lot of sloppy writing and editing in the content marketing space. And I’m not talking about
typos. I’m talking about people using quotes, data, and case studies from other places and not properly attributing the content. Some-
times people will just throw in a link without providing any context and often they’ll misinterpret the data – or worse, spin it to fit their
own thesis. My journalism experience has taught me to click through every link, double check every stat, and question every supposed
“fact” in a piece of content. I once had to kill a post I’d worked on for weeks. The night before it was scheduled to go live, I discovered
that the author had lifted every single case study he cited, in sequence, from another blog – and gotten a lot of it wrong to boot. Con-
tent marketing isn’t journalism per se but we owe it to our audience to hold ourselves to the same standards as any other publisher.
What should startups require from guest bloggers to ensure quality while also building a pipeline of posts?
Startups should require guest bloggers to demonstrate off the bat that they understand their audience and have the chops to
deliver content that is useful to them. The writer’s pitch should be as delightful to read as the post itself. But it also works the other way
around. We’re constantly refining (and testing!) the editorial guidelines on our landing pages, in our kickback emails, and on the blog
itself. […] We realize that our guidelines may be intimidating to some people, and we’re fine with that. But intimidating isn’t the same
thing as mean. We try to practice what we preach by making our guidelines funny, cheeky, surprising, delightful, and useful. It’s our way
of saying, “This is who we are. Are you on the same page?
Contributed by:
Dan Levy
Content Strategist, Editor
@danjl
Unbounce.com/Blog
Background:
Content Strategist, Unbounce
Editor, Sparksheet
Content Manager, Dailybreak

32
3. Blog About Your Resource
Next, you want to “atomize” that core resource. This is content marketerese for the act
of producing a lot more, typically smaller, related pieces around a single work. These
smaller pieces help promote that core resource. So while we’re still talking about
content production, you should know that some content you create in this playbook is
built to distribute your main resource, helping you hit your goal.
Content marketing is meant to be a sustainable, consistent approach, and this core
resource frames your ability to think up and create much more content – another
reason that single piece in the middle is so critical.
This is easiest to understand through an example. Let’s say we sold premium
coffee pods for single-cup brewers, and our “one simple story” centered on busy
professionals needing to find time to de-stress and reflect on the important things in
life. (Just go with it – that’s our 60-second branding.) The “oh by the way” moment is
that the best way to do those things is to buy and drink our coffee. Assume our core
resource is “De-Stressing at Work: The 10 Best Tricks You Can Use in 60 Seconds or
Less.” Atomizing it might looks like this:
1. Launch Post
We need a single blog post to announce/distribute the resource directly. The
headline matches our resource’s, and the content merely introduces the fact
that we’ve created something the reader should see, leading to a big link or
Blogging
“Atomizing”
Email
Social
Paid
Promotion
Partnerships
Syndication
Core
Resource

33
other call-to-action to get the guide to de-stressing. Since our goal is growing
our email database (see above visual playbook), we’ve put the resource behind
a subscription form and incentivize signups with the content as the prize.
2. Brainstorm Blog Posts
We’ll now take 10-20 minutes to think up potential blog post headlines that
stem from the core resource, such as “X Stats Proving the Value of De-Stress-
ing at Work,” or, “Tools, Apps, and Other Products to Help You Manage a Busy
Schedule.” Every idea gets saved to the idea pipeline app we opened during
the first half of this Growth Guide. The best ideas then get either discussed and
scheduled or outright scheduled onto the editorial calendar, which we also
opened earlier.
Hugely Important: When we do publish these blog posts, each will link to our
core resource in both the copy and through a graphical button somewhere
around or below the post to drive traffic. The goal of the posts is to drive
traffic to the resource.
3. Brainstorm Graphics
We also want to think up some visuals that could incentivize social sharing. Be-
cause our resource is about a stressed-out persona, small, “snackable” tips on
simply-designed graphics, as well as beautiful, inspirational quotes and visuals
packaged as slideshows, might both make great content. These ideas also get
saved into the idea pipeline.
4. Curate Graphics, Videos, and Trending Posts
Next we’ll do some searching or pull up an RSS reader like Feedly to scan rel-
evant sites and look for inspiration. We might also search on Facebook, Twit-
ter, and other social networks where our target persona typically resides. Any
relevant infographics and videos we find will be saved to our idea pipeline to
embed on our blog later, along with our own unique commentary. For trending
blog posts and/or news, we’ll save the URLs into our idea pipeline and write
reaction posts through the lens of our “one simple story” and unique beliefs
about the need to de-stressing at work.

How to Structure a Great Blog Post
If you’re creative and can write incredibly well, rely on that! But for the rest of us mere
mortals, it’s possible to use a loose template for structuring a compelling blog post. It runs
something like this:
1. Hook: A statement or very brief paragraph that grabs people’s attention. You have precious few
seconds to get someone excited to read the rest of your work. (For inspiration, simply look to your
favorite blogs. They’re probably your favorite for a reason and wouldn’t be your favorite unless
they could consistently hold your attention.)
Example: Everyone thinks blogging is about being a thought leader. They’re wrong.
2. Nut Graf: This is a term that journalists use to describe a paragraph (or graf) that gives you the
who-what-where-when-why of a story. For your purposes, it could be a combination of these or
simply the thesis or main takeaways that you’ll explore later in the post.
Example: The best corporate blogs focus instead on being helpful to their target buyer.
3. Body: The body should be a combination of stories, data, and other points and opinions to
logically support whatever your nut graf said to be true. As a general rule, the longer the body, the
more visual breaks or subheaders you should use. To keep it simple, try to work in at least three
supportive points in a post.
Example: Helpful blog posts (1) rank well on Google, (2) drive traffic over time (instead of
relying on viral luck), and (3) address the same problems as your product, helping you reel in
qualified traffic.
4. Conclusion: This is where you add tons of value and showcase your expertise by adding
a few key takeaways.
Example: So the next time you blog, instead of being clever, try to answer
customer questions.
5. Call-to-Action (CTA):This is where your core resource comes back into the picture. If you ran
the playbook properly, your blog post’s initial concept was based on that resource, so the reader
moves seamlessly from the blog post to this CTA to grab your resource. To claim it, a reader will
ideally take an action. In the example playbook we’re running in this Growth Guide, the goal is to
build an email list – so we’d ask a reader join our newsletter or blog subscription list to download
the content for free. (Note: The CTA should be both a hyperlink in the blog post text and a graphi-
cal button/banner.)
Example: Ready to get started? Download this cheat-sheet for generating better blog posts.

35
How Often Should I Blog?
At first, just focus on consistency. If you’re getting your blog up and
running for the first time, set a reasonable goal (e.g. two times per
week; five times per month, etc.) before getting more aggressive.
Then, look at your competitors. If your competition is prolific, you
need to either match their cadence (to reach the same target audience
at the same rate and index a similar number of pages on Google), or
you need to find a style or medium that will help you radically
differentiate (e.g. you do mainly videos and graphics while they keep
doing lots of text blog posts).
Brilliantly creative and prolific writers are adept at taking one core concept and
coming up with all kinds of angles and related tangents for content. The below
exercise mimics that approach by force-framing your options. Use this to brainstorm
a ton of content ideas quickly, all of which relate to your resource and can point
traffic to it, helping you hit your goal.
HACK THIS!
1. What is the overarching topic or idea behind your core resource?
2. What is your audience’s knowledge of that topic?
3. What will your content “physically” be? Randomly pick one.
4. How will the information in your content be presented? Randomly pick one. (The formats above can be
presented multiple ways. For instance, a blog post could be a list, news, how-to, etc.)
5. With your brainstorm now more tightly framed, write down as many potential headlines as you can.
Save them to your idea pipeline.
6. When the ideas dry up, change number 3, 4, or both, and brainstorm again.
Brainstorm Like the Pros
Beginner Intermediate Advanced Executive
Blog Post Graphic 1-Sheeter SlideShare Video Podcast Guide
List Interview How-To News Opinion/Why Data Analysis
e.g. De-stressing at work
◉◉ 10 Basic Tricks to De-Stressing at Work
◉◉ New to the Workforce? 5 Best Ways to Manage Stress
◉◉ Top 7 Books to Learn How to Manage Stress at Work
◉◉ etc.

36
Erik Devaney is a Content Strategist at HubSpot and has held content marketing roles
at three separate startups. Below, he discusses his time as the lone content marketer at
Placester, a SaaS startup, and offers advice for hiring content creators in general.
As the lone content creator at Placester, how did you produce enough content to
meet the needs of marketing and sales?
I worked with my director, Seth Price, to develop a production and promotion strategy
that was based around “sprints.” Each sprint covered a different topic related to real
estate marketing [Placester is a solution for realtors] and would include an ebook and
between 5-7 blog posts that were pulled from the ebook. The production portion of the
sprint – researching, writing, designing – lasted two weeks, while the promotion portion
would continue on for 6-8 weeks.
So essentially, during those first two weeks of the sprint I’d create all of the content,
schedule all of the blog posts to be published, and then schedule all of our social media
promotion on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. During the 6-8 weeks of
promotion that followed, I could also start production on the next sprint. This resulted
in a layering effect, so that after I got ramped up we had a regular stream of content that
was constantly being promoted.
Content Marketer Interview: Erik Devaney
How to Create Content Like the Prolific Pros
What’s an example of a successful piece created during one of your sprints? What made it successful?
I was really happy with a SlideShare that we created called the “Top 25 Most Beautiful Real Estate Websites.” The idea
for this particular piece of content seemed very simple at first glance: Search the internet for the most beautiful real estate
websites, and put them on display. We made a point to highlight sites from all aspects of real estate, from individual agent
sites to hotels and resorts. It didn’t matter if they used our platform and themes or not – if it was beautiful, we added it
to the list.
The end result: We tallied up 10,000 views in less than a week, which landed us on the SlideShare homepage (as well as on
LinkedIn) as a featured presentation. Ultimately, this one SlideShare brought in a ton of leads – and I think we ended up
tracing a dozen or so new customers back to that one piece after a few months.
You’ve worked in content marketing for multiple years, from freelance to startups to larger companies. If an ear-
ly-stage startup wanted to hire an Erik Devaney, how should they position the role and the company to candidates?
My general sense is that content creators are inherently creative people: When we’re not “on the job,” we’re still busy
creating, whether we’re writing for our personal blogs, making music, drawing, painting, carving, sculpting, or whipping up
culinary creations in the kitchen. If an early-stage startup wants to attract top content-creating talent, they should make
sure the innovative and creative aspects of their businesses really shine through. We want to work at places where thinking
differently, taking risks, and exploring new marketing tactics and content formats are encouraged. And honestly, a lot can
be gleaned just by looking at a website. If your website looks like it was designed in 1998, your logo is a simple, uninspired
line of text, and your team page lists employees like they’re items on a spreadsheet (instead of highlighting their skills and
personalities), content creators will likely be turned off.
Contributed by:
Erik Devaney
Content Strategist
@BardOfBoston
ErikDevaney.com
Background:
Content Strategist, HubSpot
Content Manager, Placester
Content Manager, Dailybreak
Freelance Writer

37
4. Distribute Via Email and Social
With the exception of blogging, which should be ongoing, you’re now finished
producing content and ready to actively promote it. Here are some quick steps to
promoting your content via these two popular marketing channels:
Promoting Via Social Media
Every piece of content should be shared via social. The goal is to drive traffic to your
site, mainly to that core resource.
General Tips:
1. Pick one social network and be great at it. It’s okay to be present and push content
out through other channels, but try to build a large, engaged following (“engaged”
is key) in one single place. They prove invaluable to distribute content more easily,
while driving traffic back to your core resource – the one piece built entirely around
a business objective.
2. Use free apps like Buffer, HootSuite, or TweetDeck to pre-schedule the bulk of your
posts.
3. Always post something unique, even if the link to the content is the same as a
previous social post. If you already posted the headline or your guide once or twice,
for example, use a stat, a quote, some commentary, a key takeaway, or a visual the
next time. This avoids coming across as spammy, and it also enables you to add
something original and valuable each time.
4. If you quoted or cited a thought leader in your work, share it directly with them via
social in a public manner. This alerts them and increases the odds they in turn share
Blogging
“Atomizing”
Email
Social
Paid
Promotion
Partnerships
Syndication
Core
Resource

38
it. For instance, if you quoted this guide, your tweet might be: “Great insight
by @NextViewVC in our latest post on content for startups! [URL]”
5. Not every post needs a link – mix things up as you would on your blog. But
the vast majority should contain a link to click or reason to share with others.
Tips for Posting Content to Specific Networks:
Post every piece you create to Google+ one time. Ensure you set up Google
Authorship too, as this helps you on search. If you belong to any relevant
communities, post there too, but ask for feedback or other questions, as
communities are built for discussion, not just sharing.
Post every piece once on Facebook with a visual. Always use some text, plus a
link back to the content, in the actual body of your post.
Post each piece to Twitter twice the day it launches, and about 2-3 more times
that week. Never use the same copy. (See #3 to the left.) Occasionally include
images to show up automatically in the feed – these images need to be twice
as wide as they are tall, which formats them for the feed without getting
cropped by Twitter. Make them catchy or descriptive, and avoid stock photos.
Use a similar approach to Google+, posting once to your profile and once per
relevant group. LinkedIn groups are perfect for B2B, but don’t spam – engage
people.
For B2C, consider using big, beautiful visuals which you can post to Pinterest.
Post each relevant piece just once – if your content is primarily text, then
create or curate a unique image just for the purposes of sharing to Pinterest.

39
Don’t Be Fooled: Email Still Matters Most
A single fan on your email list is still more powerful than single fan anywhere else.
You’re in the business of attracting and retaining attention as a content marketer, and
there’s no place better equipped to reach, help, and resonate with an audience than
via email, if you can do it correctly.
By sending content, not me-first information like demo requests or sales collateral,
two incredibly powerful trends emerge: First, your audience can continue to engage
with you over time, allowing you to nurture them down your funnel to sale. Second,
because you’re offering value by sending content, it increases the likelihood that your
emails are forwarded around to new people that learn about you for the first time
through their friends. An existing list, however small, is a powerful asset to expand your
reach to new people, even though your list’s contacts are people you already know.
(According to our own Jay Acunzo, Director of Platform here at NextView and former
head of content at HubSpot, there was a time when the marketing team at HubSpot
drove more new contacts through their existing email list than any other marketing
channel.)
Promoting Via Email
Not every piece you create should be emailed. Send your core resource, as well as
anything that adds unusual amounts of value (blog posts announcing major industry
news, videos, infographics, etc.) Here are a few more tips, all of which can and should
be A/B tested:
◉◉ The “From” field should be a person, with their actual name, face, and title listed as
a sign-off in the body. It stands out more in noisy inboxes and feels less corporate
and marketing-like to recipients.
◉◉ The subject line should be catchy and focus on benefits. Don’t always use the
headline of your content.
◉◉ In the body of your email, include the major takeaways the reader will learn
if they read the content.

40
HACK THIS! 2 Email Tricks to Grow Reach
◉◉ Towards the top of the email, use a large text call to action such as “Get the Guide”
or “Get My Copy,” which links to your resource.
DO NOT use a graphical call-to-action as your lone CTA, since some email apps
won’t render images automatically. When you do include a graphic, name the
image file something descriptive, as it may appear to the reader.
◉◉ Consider using a secondary CTA that asks your email recipients to forward the
resource to others who may find it useful.
◉◉ Experiment exhaustively with the right send times, subject lines, CTAs, etc.
Hacks
Forward Calls-to-Action: A secondary CTA that
overtly asks people to forward your content. Place
a subtle link, button, or both near the bottom of
your email.
“Trojan Horse” Emails: It’s rarely possible to create
a new resource in time for your next email send. You
don’t want to spam by sending the original piece
again, yet you want to (a) re-engage your list and (b)
give them cause to forward the note to expand your
reach. One trick is to send a must-know blog post
relating to the original resource. Paste the entire
post in the email body, and link very visibly to the
core resource at the bottom. The existing list will
love the new content and, if they forward it, the new
contacts will see both the blog post AND the core
resource, both of which are new to them. Best of all,
unlike the blog post, that core resource is built to hit
your main objectives.
Examples
Email #1 - Your Core Resource
Email #2 - “Trojan Horse” for Your Resource
DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD
Headline
Entire blog post.

41
5. Where Audiences Already Exist:
Partners Paid
When you start from scratch, it helps to bring your content to where audiences already
spend their time.
Paid channels can be straightforward solutions. Options include networks like
Outbrain and Taboola that hold inventory on publisher sites to place sponsored links
or amplification, more PR-focused software vendors like Cision, Meltwater Buzz, and
Vocus. For a great writeup on what to watch for and consider, here’s marketing
consultant and author Jay Baer on a recent amplification test.
As for partners and syndication, you should use the outreach list to
answer these questions:
Which influential individuals (read: large AND engaged online following) would
appreciate this resource or a related piece? Which can I reference in my content?
◉◉ Openly mention them on Twitter while sharing your content, but only if they’re
included in the piece (otherwise, it feels very spammy). Email them if you can.
Blogging
“Atomizing”
Email
Social
Paid
Promotion
Partnerships
Syndication
Core
Resource

42
Which 3-5 industry blogs possess bigger audiences than me but aren’t
unrealistic to reach?
◉◉ In these cases, you want to pitch a working headline for a blog post, with a quick
blurb and link to related content to show your expertise. Then, be very flexible on
edits they offer once you submit your draft – every editor believes they know their
audience and how to write the best (and the good ones really do). Be a dream to
work with.
◉◉ If you want to proactively request anything of the editor, it’s not the specifics of the
language. Instead, ask if you can include a call-to-action back to the core resource.
◉◉ If you can’t, be sure to include a hyperlink in your author bio or the body of your
post back to your resource and/or blog. Most blogs will at least give you this.
Which “free-to-play” sites can I use to publish related content that points back to
my resource?
◉◉ These include SlideShare for slideshows, BuzzFeed Community for fun, consum-
er-y lists, Social Media Today for marketing, SeekingAlpha.com for finance, and
others. This should be industry specific and may require you do some research.
Which smaller pieces can I create based on my resource for the purpose of reach-
ing out to influential individuals or blogs?
◉◉ NOTE: It is imperative that the same content you use to attract a response from
a third party still serves your buyer personas. Lists of inspirational quotes from
influencers in your industry are great examples of straddling both audiences – the
audience loves hearing from experts and seeing and sharing their quotes, and the
influencers may enjoy the ego boost and retweet.

43
True to startup form, Cloze has done a lot with a little as a seed-stage company, choosing
to spend time on its personal network for content distribution, rather than paid or partner
opportunities, which can suck up lots of resources that early-stage startups lack.
Large companies benefit from their many employees sharing their content
regularly, which often jumpstarts success on social media. What can small
startups do to emulate that approach?
Startups may not have the sheer numbers that larger companies do, but they make up
for it with their strong culture. This culture leads to highly engaged and passionate
employees and can easily extend to the networks of each employee, investor, partner
and customer/user. Don’t underutilize this base.
First, to get the word out: Create a newsletter giving them early access to your content -
even a few hours early makes them feel like they’re part of something special. It’s okay to
ask them to share on their social networks, but make it dirt simple. They won’t cut and
paste all day long. If you respect their time, they’ll help. You may also evolve this strategy
to include content for different audiences – the more relevant your content is, the more
likely that they’ll want to share it with their own network. Second, VCs have the
opportunity to create collaboration amongst their portfolio companies. This network
can include hundreds of companies and thousands of employees all with their own
extended networks that help amplify your content.
Startup Interview: Cloze
Scrapping Your Way to Broader Content Distribution
You wrote a post on getting PR for your startup in less than 30 minutes a day. What’s the biggest insight you can share?
The number one recommendation I make is listen. In many cases timing is everything. With all of the responsibilities of building
a product and company, keeping track of what writers are saying on social media is probably not at the top of your daily to-do
list, but setting aside the time will pay off. Take your core list of writers and influencers and break them out into Twitter lists.
By scanning these lists a few times a day you’ll find your opportunity to building relationships with writers far in advance of
pitching your own story. If you spot an article you like, retweet it, or like it. If it makes sense, comment. Often times writers will
ask questions or for help – lend a hand even if it doesn’t directly relate to your company. This is basic relationship-building 101:
respect their time with brevity, offer to help them before you ask them to write about your startup.
This Growth Guide mentions that email can also be used to grow reach (since people forward content).
Cloze has access to a lot of great email data – what new trends should marketers know about?
Roughly 50% of email is now opened first on mobile. For marketers, that creates two “gates” you need to get through: (1)
whether someone deletes your message during triage, and (2) whether they actually remember to get back to it in the future.
[…] Instead of spending your time on beautiful graphics and long prose [in your emails], focus on a killer subject line that will
get them to open. Ultimately, only the subject and maybe one sentence of content will be read, so make every word count.
Contributed by:
Alex Cote
Founder, CMO
@alexcote
cloze.com
Apps to connect with the people
that matter most. Makers of Cloze
Inbox for social and email and
Circulate.it for team sharing.
@Cloze
/ClozeBiz
(Disclosure: NextView is an investor in Cloze.)

45
Blogging
“Atomizing”
Email
Social
Paid
Promotion
Partnerships
Syndication
Core
Resource
Goal: __________ Measured by: __________
Personas, Process Problem-Solving
Content marketing is just solving the same problem that your product aims to solve.
The difference is, rather than software or hardware, you’re offering education,
empowerment, or inspiration. And – oh by the way – the very best way to solve that
problem is still, in the end, your product.
So as you look to find product-market fit and build a successful product fueling a
successful company, your content marketing should become muscle memory and a
supportive layer to everything you do.
It may take some time (we recommend 6 to 10 weeks before tweaking your approach),
but if you maintain (1) a stubborn focus on your persona, (2) a rigorous adherence to
process and (3) the desire to help your audience execute better or think and feel a
certain way with everything you publish, then you’ll be well on your way to sustaining
and scaling your content marketing.
Good luck!
Buyer
Persona
One Simple
Story
Central
Hub
Funnel
Focus
Idea
Pipeline
Editorial
Calendar
Outreach
List

THANKS FOR READING!
We hope this helps you give your startup the best possible
start with content marketing.
If it does, follow or share on Twitter:
Follow NextView Share This Guide
About the Author
Jay Acunzo is the Director of Platform and Community at NextView Ventures, where he leads the development
of strategic initiatives that provide educational and business development opportunities for NextView’s portfolio
companies, as well as the broader startup community.
Jay began his career as a digital media strategist at Google, built the editorial team at VC-backed startup
Dailybreak Media, and led content production and strategy at HubSpot prior to joining NextView.
Jay is also co-founder of Boston Content, a local community of over 500 content marketers and producers.
Follow @Jay_zo

Content Marketing for Startups

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