Messaging and Content Tips for Startups and Business Owners
A Unique Value Proposition (UVP) should communicate what it is that you do for someone and how it makes their situation better, or what problem it solves.
If you can communicate the value your product or service delivers succinctly, put it on your website so it's the first thing people see. Nailing your message will also help when you speak to someone as you will be able to quickly convey what you do, who you do it for, and why your product or service can make their situation better.
Content is also very important, people want to have all the information upfront so that they can make decisions. When writing content, think about all the questions that someone might ask so that you can answer those questions. By preemptively answering all of those key questions you are enabling people through your sales process.
Content should help people understand what it is that you know or why you’re an authority on it. It also helps with your search engine optimisation. Content's really useful and cost-effective in helping your business be found.
It's also a great way to build trust! People will get to know you through reading your blog or watching your vlog. People buy from people they trust and content is a great way to build that.
The company, the entity that is your business can write the content, it doesn't have to be written by the founder, owner or an employee. However having a human behind the content does help, as humans, we do want to interact with other humans.
Conversion can increase through content. Content doesn't always have to be written; it can be visual like a video. People tend to engage more with video content, which means your content will rank higher in people's feeds. “How-to” videos can be a great conversion tool when it comes to content. Think about all the questions someone might ask about your product or service and create a video that answers those key questions.
It's important to constantly think about our customers. How can we continue to engage them? How can we delight them? How can we enable them to talk about our business? How do we get them to purchase from us again? How do we get them to be part of our community? Do not forget customers at any stage, content will allow you to continue to engage with customers.
Content helps to retain customers. You might think customers get hundreds of emails but email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing tools. When someone has given you permission to contact them by giving you their email address, these emails have the highest conversion rates.
Most importantly is actually starting conversations, not just thinking of customers in a transactional way. Think about creating a community of people that you can talk to, that you can get feedback from that you can have conversations with. Especially in social, social is really important not as a tool to promote, but as a tool to get to know your customers, to actually have conversations with them. To create excitement, to have polls, to get opinions. It's not just for promotion, it's really there to gain feedback and to get data.
Content is a really important tool in your toolbox when you're starting out.