5 Simple ways to kickstart your content marketing in an hour or less

by Startacus Admin

Looking to harness the power of content marketing, but pushed for time? It’s a familiar self-starter story. Here are five content marketing projects which you can create in an hour or less.

1. Focus on FAQs

They’re not sexy, and they’re never going to win any creativity awards but an informative Frequently Asked Questions page is hard-working content at its best.

Firstly, it’s rich in keywords, which will score you brownie points with Google. Added to that, your customers will be more likely to buy if they can find the answers to their questions or queries on your site.

What’s more, FAQ pages are easy to create. Chances are, you’ll know the key questions (and answers) off the top of your head. Start with ten basic questions relating to your product, your industry and your company and write two or three sentence answers for each. Revisit and add new questions every few months.

2. Organise an interview

No time to write content yourself? Ask a co-worker or fellow startup founder to interview you and share the answers on your website.

Schedule half an hour for the interview itself, but work together to create a list of eight or ten questions first. Beyond the obvious, these might include a favourite innovation, a lesson learnt early in your career, or what you’d do if you were Prime Minister for the day. Try to bring out your personality – it’s a vital part of your startup story.

For bonus points: record your interview and share it as a video or audio clip too.

3. Recruit guest bloggers

This can be a great way to generate content without having to put fingers to keyboard yourself.

In my experience, handpicked guest contributors work best, as you can make sure that your guest writers are experts in their field. To get the ball rolling, approach fellow self-starters in related industries and ask them to write a guest blog.

If you do decide to put out an open call for submissions, create a page on your website specifically to attract guest contributors (just like Startacus does), and promote it across social media too.

Whichever route you choose, remember that you’ll need to don your editor’s hat to check submissions before publication. It’s also worth setting some ground rules – guidelines about word count, self-promotion and links in advance.

4. Create an image post

Can you really write a blog post in just six or seven sentences? Yes, you can, if you make it an image post and let the pictures do the talking.

Could you take people on a virtual tour? Share your inspirations? Maybe you could offer them an illustrated how-to guide? If there’s a compelling visual aspect to your product, service or industry, then this is where you make the most of it.

5. Offer five top tips

I’m willing to bet you’ve got tons of tips for using your product or service. So why not take five of your favourites and turn them into a top tips article? A bit like this one admittedly!

Any content marketer worth their salt will tell you that numbered lists are particularly popular with readers. But there’s another reason we like them so much too: they make it easier to create content because they offer a ready-made, super-simple structure to work with.

Use each tip as a subheading then write a couple of sentences underneath each one, explaining it in more detail. It really can be that straightforward. Set the timer for sixty minutes and try it now.

So there you have it – five content projects you can complete in less than an hour. Why not get started today?

Amy Dugmore is a professional content writer, copywriter and marketer. You can connect with her on Twitter @AL_Dugmore.

As well as all of the above, if you are looking fo a little more tailored publicity - check out our own affordable startup publicity programme. 

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Published on: 16th June 2014