When Should you Start Investing in Content?

Businesses pivot *all* the time.

Especially startups and solopreneurs.

It’s a part of the process.

And I get why founders and early marketing hires are reticent to spend too much time or money talking about themselves or their mission before they’ve gotten product-market fit nailed down. But that’s a mistake.

Every person who gets introduced to your brand or solution is a potential customer or referral source.

Yes, even if your product changes or your audience shifts.

You’ve already done the hard work of getting their attention in a busy, hectic world. You don’t want to waste that! But you also don’t want to create a ton of messaging, only to throw it all out and start from scratch.

So where should you start investing?

I talk a lot about the three questions every business needs to answer: Why this? Why you? Why now?

Most startups focus on the first question: Why this. These are your value props, your jobs to be done, your digital ad copy. And this is important! But if it’s all you focus on, you will have to wipe the slate (err… website) mostly clean, and you risk confusing your audience.

So don’t stop at the first question.

Start spending more time on the second one: Why you?

The core of who you are doesn’t change because of a business pivot.

The story behind your “why” won’t need to be tossed out when you’re swapping in a new homepage headline. Your commitment to serving a particular group remains steady. The passion you have for creating life-changing solutions… that doesn’t need to – and shouldn’t – change.

You’re probably already talking about your “why” in investor pitches, interviews with potential hires, or casual conversations with friends, but you need to bring this online. Maybe that’s in a weekly founder post on LinkedIn, maybe it’s in a monthly letter to your email list, maybe it’s highlighted on your website just below the header on your homepage.

Wherever you decide to show up online, you need to be laying the pathways now that help your customers connect what you’re trying now to what you’re doing next.