At York IE, we have long been champions of drumbeat marketing.
It’s not enough to know your company and product well. What are the trends in your market? How do you address those trends differently than your competitors or comparators? The answers to those questions should form the basis of your messaging. Drumbeat marketing says you then take that messaging and hammer it through your owned, earned and paid channels—and it always starts with your owned channels.
If you’re a startup that is still seeking third-party media validation, your owned channels are the best outlet to make your case as a company. And oftentimes the best way to do that is by not talking about your company or your product at all.
Buyers are savvy. They are not immediately receptive to product-focused content from companies they know nothing about. But if you have something interesting to say, they are willing to give you a chance to say it. By providing content that solves a problem, demonstrates a unique perspective, or otherwise provides value to your audience, potential buyers are more likely to listen to what you have to say about your company and your product.
We launched Fuel News to shine a spotlight on this type of content and create a flywheel effect that further benefits startups:
Fuel News levels the playing field. We don’t care how much funding you have or what accelerator you emerged from or how many people follow you on Twitter. If you create compelling content that educates us and makes us think, we’ll feature it. Our hope is that this additional visibility will help companies attract funding and followers.
Fuel News is a natural extension of our drumbeat marketing strategy. Every day we encourage startups to develop a strong, unique voice. We do it directly with the startups we work with through our advisory services, but we want every startup to have the same brand-building opportunity.
That’s why we’re rewarding companies for creating great content.
