Invest in content early
It would be really cool if every software founder or technical team member saw copywriting and content creation as an important part of their role.
...not something to outsource to a non-technical freelancer.
It’s tough to get leadership to build writing into their daily to-dos because it doesn’t work the same as a direct-response channel like paid search. Measuring dollars-in and dollars-out isn’t as simple. And it means additional time invested and a little bit of ‘blind’ belief in the process.
But it’s worth it.
I have another theory that there aren’t enough examples tying success to the effort. It’s a long-term play based on quality and consistency.
So here I’m sharing an example of a project I’ve been working on the past couple years.
Above is a real graph showing the impact of great content (from the founder and early team members) on direct traffic and organic search. Over time, it’s created a ton of organic growth (also with the right optimization, content cadence, and focus on SEO, of course).
These two content plays will return you a ton of results over time if you can do them well and consistently:
Make it easy for your founders and subject-matter experts to create high-quality content that answers important questions for your audience. No fluff, no SEO bloat, just education-rich content. The early investment of technical team member(s) to build a strong base of valuable content for your buying audience is a key factor in building an inbound engine and can’t be neglected.
Consciously ‘productize’ the questions you get from customers. Capture questions your prospects and customers always ask your product, sales, and customer success teams. Turn the answers into ungated long-form content: guides, frameworks, how-to’s, and templates. Publish it and make it free and easy to access.
If you want to dive deeper into the methodology, I’d strongly recommend “They Ask You Answer” by Marcus Sheridan