You know the basic case for content marketing. You’ve seen the traffic and demo request charts going up and to the right even as paid advertising plateaus. You’ve stopped the scroll on LinkedIn to see another startup’s founder going viral. You’ve heard of the social selling that generated millions in pipeline in a quarter.

But is content marketing right for you? And more importantly, even if you do try it, how do you decide which channels and tactics to deploy to reach those results others are raving about?

First, a story: one man’s content foibles

The biggest strategic error I made early on in the founding of my martech-focused content marketing agency was working with startups that just, well, wanted content. 

Don’t get me wrong. As a lifelong writer, journalist by training, and content marketing agency owner, I believe content marketing could have had a large, positive impact on the companies that came to me asking to work with us. But it took me a while to understand that creating blog posts or bylines is not in itself a content strategy. And if that sounds hopelessly naive, perhaps it is — but I’d wager that most early-stage startups investing in content are doing precisely that. So, hesitate to cast your stone.

What I eventually learned through working with dozens of tech companies on content is that content can make a difference for early-stage startups, but there are a few strategic questions content providers and their clients need to ask before signing a contract and churning out blog posts. Here are some of those questions.

What does success look like? And what’s the timeline?

Do you, an early-stage startup founder, exec, or marketer, not yet have a primary marketing channel or regular source of new business? And you ‘just want leads’? 

Content marketing probably isn’t the best investment. It’s not that it can’t work. But content marketing is famously exponential in its impact on a business and infamously, and relatedly, slow at first. You’re not going to turn on the faucet tomorrow and get an outpouring of bottom line-shifting leads. Even if a content investment pays off in leads, it’ll likely take six to twelve months to do so. At least, that was my experience with organic social, and I’ve heard the same from many SEO experts.

So, content marketing is better understood as a long play. If you’re strapped for leads and need a lever that will generate a bunch of leads right now, you probably have better marketing options (like paid ads). On the contrary, if you have the runway to invest in a marketing channel that will generate big-time results six or 12 months down the road while increasing exponentially in its impact over time, content marketing may be attractive. 

Plus, content marketing offers benefits beyond just leads (unlike most of performance or direct-response advertising). I am currently hiring for a key role at my startup agency; creating content daily on LinkedIn has been a boon in the competition for talent. Content is also a sales enabler. Plus, it helps define a brand and build a culture. These are all valuable results, so much so that some brand-centric content agencies build their entire businesses without mentioning leads at all. 

But even if you’re curious about content marketing, how do you know which part of the content marketing universe to invest in? What are the signs it’s working even before the leads start flowing? And how do you know what talent to invest in?

These are the questions that can help you determine the content strategy that’s a fit for your business.

Developing a content strategy

In addition to ‘just creating content,’ a related mistake I made early on in my content freelancing career was spreading content investments too thin. A standard engagement may have entailed sales enablement assets, website copy, LinkedIn posts, thought leadership bylines, and blog posts. 

While an agency may be fit to offer all of these, a company that’s doing all of them is robbing itself of the focused investment in one or two channels that can prove those channels’ efficacy and validate them as a viable vehicle to hit long-term objectives. This lack of focus undercuts a content marketing program before it really gets going, which is how content marketing programs end in three to six months.

A better approach is to settle on one or two channels where the early-stage tech startup believes it has a solid chance to succeed. This hypothesis should rest on analysis of a few factors:

1) The startup has or can pay for the talent it needs. You can’t just put content on a blog and expect traffic to soar. You need a distribution strategy and the talent required to execute it. Perhaps that’s repurposing and amplifying long-form content on social platforms. Perhaps it’s SEO. Maybe it’s both. But making the distribution strategy work requires SEO or social experts, either at an agency or in-house. You can’t just create content and wait for the audience to come. 

2) The channels are aligned with the audience and product. Do you have the kind of product people are searching for on Google? Is your audience spending a lot of time on LinkedIn? Are they reading industry trade publications? You need to answer these questions to determine which channels to prioritize.

3) The desired results — and attitude toward measuring those results — align with the channel. For example, I do not run an SEO content marketing agency, but we work with companies that have SEO talent in-house or hire one of the SEO agencies and consultants with which we partner. One of SEO’s major advantages as a content focal point is that its impact is measurable (traffic and more importantly demos). If a startup invested in thought leadership bylines (say, a martech startup investing in AdExchanger and Retail Touchpoints bylines) and then said, “Where is our measurable traffic?” they’d be setting themselves up for disappointment. Different channels lend themselves to different KPIs. If you need to see a certain result, invest in channels, and back your investment with the required talent, to have a shot to meet those standards.

By aligning talent, audience, and desired objectives, you can determine a content strategy highly likely to produce the results you’re looking for.

Don’t overlook quick wins

My last piece of advice for early-stage tech startups interested in investing in content is not to overlook the quick wins that content can deliver. Yes, content marketing is mainly a long play. But there are areas where it can make a near-immediate impact on early-stage companies.

For example, is your website copy clear and compelling? Do you have product pages that explain what site visitors can get out of doing business with you? Do you have effective email sequences? Do your SDRs need case studies?

Ultimately, a content marketing strategy should have long-term goals, and it should focus on one or two channels where you can obtain, prove, and then expand on success. But that doesn’t mean the first step for any content engagement is to write a thought leadership byline or blog post. Think long-term. But seize the low-hanging fruit, too.