This is a guest blog from Allen Taylor of Taylored Content.
There is no better way to position your startup business as an authority than by creating great content over and over again. It isn’t so much what you say about yourself, but what others say about you. Let your content do the talking. As your content reflects your knowledge and expertise, your audience will come to know you as the authority in your niche. It’s almost magical, but in reality, it’s pure science.
The medium isn’t as important as your message, but your message needs a medium. Here are seven powerful content vehicles you can use to turn your startup enterprise into the ultimate authority.
- Your website – Your website is more than a brochure. It’s an interactive sales pitch. When your ideal client finds your website, they should be able to know within just a few seconds what you do, who you are, what your values are, and what you can do for them. Everything from your design to your actual content is important for initiating a relationship that will be mutually beneficial. If your potential client can’t see that you know your business within eight seconds, you may lose her for life.
- Your blog – A blog is often represented as a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. While it certainly possesses SEO benefits, it is so much more. Your blog should be used as a platform for communicating with your audience. Craft your message, push it out far and wide, then pull your prospects in and entice them into a conversation. That’s powerful for branding, and if you do it right, you’ll be recognized as an authority in no time.
- Articles – Articles are the versatile machinery of the Web. You can post them anywhere — on your website, on other websites, in your newsletter, in trade journals, in article directories. Wherever you choose to publish your articles, make sure they are full of expert-level content directed toward a specific part of your target audience.
- Newsletter – An electronic newsletter can deliver timely news about your company as well as news about your industry. E-mail marketing is still the most powerful, and most profitable, way to market a business.
- E-books – E-books are often overlooked as a marketing tool. The truth is, they’re not that hard to create. You can often take content you’ve published in other media and re-purpose it as an e-book. One benefit to publishing e-books is that you can use the massive marketing ability of Amazon to promote your book with relative ease, then use your book to generate leads and drive traffic back to your website.
- White papers – White papers are among the top three most influential types of content online. Also called special reports, you can offer them as free downloads on your website and use them to capture e-mail addresses, which you can use for marketing purposes later. A well-researched, well-written white paper or special report can be used for years to position your startup as an authority in your niche.
- Case studies – Case studies are also in the top three most influential types of content online. A case study allows your customers to tell how they’ve used your product or service to achieve success. It’s a powerful medium because people make buying decisions on the testimony of others.
Online, authority translates into business. If you want to see your startup grow, position yourself as an authority in your niche using content that is designed just for that purpose. Turn each of these content instruments into an orchestra that puts your authority on display.
Allen Taylor is a ghostwriter and content creator specializing in the fintech, legal tech, and digital publishing niches. He is the author of “7 Types of Authority Contentâ€, available for free at Taylored Content, and “E-book Publishing: Create Your Own Brand of Digital Booksâ€, available at all major online e-book stores. Connect with him at Twitter or on LinkedIn.