Build a content mesh
Every startup needs enough content around their product that the brand feels substantial and has weight. A content mesh isn’t meant to generate traffic, but rather to build brand weight and increase conversions. Invest in:
— Excellent sales collateral
— Case studies
— Technical documentation
— Support resources
— High-quality photography & video
— Thought leadership content
All of this signals to leads that you are committed to quality, and planning to play the long-term game.
Tips
- A content mesh is all the content and information that surrounds your product(s) and your brand. It is everything that gives people a sense of how you are, and all the pieces that help people interact with you.
- Branding is all about being perceived as being the solution that’s least likely to be bad (see law #16). That means your brand needs some weight — it needs to feel like a thing with permanence and staying power. It also needs to show clear signals that you’ll help people when they need support: technical docs, responsive support, a community of happy users. Prospects need to see that you are approachable and service-oriented.roachable and service-oriented.
- Spend some money on good photography. People want to see your face, and ideally see your eyes. Even if it’s online, they want to be able to know who they are doing business with. They want to be able to connect with you and your team.
- How you dress yourself determines how serious people will take you. Excellent sales collateral, strong case studies and a well-crafted website all signal quality and serious business. Not only do people like that, it also makes it less risky to suggest your business to their boss.
- Users want to understand your philosophy and vision, because people like to do business with people that think alike. Strong content and strong vision helps people trust your brand more, because you become more predictable and accountable.
In Practice
Most mature scale-up companies have good examples of thick meshes of content around their product. Take Stripe for instance: the core product (a payment processing API) is surrounded by a truly excellent technical documentation, to help their core audience of developers. But Stripe also has an impressive online footprint, a well-maintained blog, an active community, thousands of questions answered on StackOverflow, and so much else around the product that it is easy to see that Stripe is going to be a safe bet to work with for even the largest corporate players. No matter what happens, Stripe has got you back. Stripe is the low-risk solution that you could confidently recommend to anyone.
Pair with
