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Many businesses starting out don’t have the budget that others have. I believe this should NOT slow anyone down because you still have options available to market your content. In today’s age, content marketing is very important so we should all implement strategies that help us establish the bottom line. This means through content marketing, we should convert readers into loyal followers, which, in the end, will help translate into major profits. I’m a true believer of that “budget” should always be flexible. However, this isn’t always the case for someone just getting started. Over the years, I have started many blogs WITHOUT a budget, and have been able to scale quite well. Let’s look at some small budget tips in relation to content marketing. These tips will help beginners get started so they can still keep an competitive edge online. Next,
I would like to hear your feedback on the topic. Please let me know what you think in the comment box below. Let’s get started with small budget content marketing tips I’ve used for years.
Research Your Competition
If you’ve been reading my previous posts, then you know the emphasis I put on research. Through research, you can save enormous time because it will help you understand what has worked in the past. Knowing this will allow you to implement the same strategies going forward. I always take this one step further by researching my competition because they have been in my niche longer. This helps me understand what marketing, content, social, and engagement strategies they are using to get ahead. How can this help when you have a small content marketing budget?
By understanding the content types that have helped them excel, you can then focus on writing the same type of content. By going over social shares on each content, you’ll be able to market on the same social profiles, which will help accelerate your marketing. You can even take this one step further by reaching out to the same people who have shared your competitor content, and ask them to share yours. However, you have to make sure your content stands out compared to your competition because otherwise they won’t think it’s any better and NOT worth sharing. Here’s a few things to focus on…
- What type of content these people write
- Their initial social media marketing platforms
- Social shares and comments
- Previous link research by looking at link profile
Doing this will also provide you an opportunity to see who’s an authority in your niche. At this point, you can even reach out to them because you know it will be a benefit for you in the future. You might have them endorse your website or even allow you to guest post with a link within the author bio. The opportunities can be endless.
Cost Effective Content
One of the best ways to save on content marketing is to create cost effective content. This means instead creating content where you have to invest time and money, you’ll be able to write content that is the opposite – time saving and NO cost. For example, why write content that requires you to purchase products or services before you can complete it? This will require a huge investment that many of you might NOT have, especially when you are just starting out. It’s better to focus on a content format where MOST of the work has been done for you. Here are some examples:
- How-to
- Interviews
- Videos
- Podcasts
On many of these, you have the option to create videos using FREE tools available to you. Another cool thing when creating content based on blogging interviews is that much of the work is done for you. You research influential bloggers within your niche, reaching out to them to answer a common question. You gather all the answers and create a summary of what each of them has said. The initial outreach will be lengthy, but it’s free because communication is done mainly through email. After, summarizing can be done within a single day and then you can hit published to go live with your content.
Many people love to share expert posts because it provides enormous information that otherwise will NOT be available. Next, many of the bloggers within the expert post will be more than happy to share once you go live.
Understand What’s Working
It’s NOT uncommon to create different types of content when you first get started. However, you can cut down your content marketing costs by evaluating what’s been working for you going forward. Once you find a content type that has provided engagement, traffic, and growth, then stick to this type. What does this do?
It helps you save time you would have been investing in other content types that haven’t been working. It also saves you time that you could be using to perform research, hence leading to further growth. When you write out different content formats, then look at the following:
- Traffic to content
- Time invested
- Cost invested
- CTR
- Growth stats
After, you can build a better picture of the type of content you should focus on going forward.
Get Creative Writing Content
This is a strategy you can use to create content quickly and it can still provide enormous value. I believe a few years back, “Google” started to focus on quality content because this would help increase the user experience. The success of Google would depend on their ability to provide accurate results that also provide value. This is why I encourage all of you to always first focus on quality. Next, you can focus on repurposing content, which will save you enormous time and money. Here’s how this strategy works:
First, you find a high quality piece of content relevant to your niche. You can search online or even visit your competitor sites to see what has engaged their readers. You can use tools like Topsy.com to find content that has been shared enormous times online. Create a list so you can go through, finding ways to make each one better by looking for videos, images, and infographics. If they haven’t included them, then it’s a great chance for you to rewrite content and include them going forward. Secondly, don’t forget to share your content online, and most times, this will be enough to build momentum.
You have to make sure the content is relevant and in demand. This is why I recommend doing research, looking for common problems people need a solution to. Also, sharing this content within social platforms is a great way to attract FREE traffic because you know your competition had a steady stream of shares. You creating something better will increase the likelihood of getting way more shares, adding to your engagement, growth, and bottom line.
Quality vs. Quantity
This battle has been around for years and many people believe that quantity will outweigh quality. I must admit this has changed enormously over the last couple of years with Google being MOSTLY responsible. Sometimes, the best way to get low budget content marketing is for you to ignore marketing as a whole and let nature take its course. For example, many times, I’ve noticed that when you do awesome work that adds value, everything else is pretty much taken care of.
Google has stated several times that there are over 200 ranking factors, some of which we don’t control directly. This means writing quality content will be enough to increase your blog in the SERP’s, newsfeeds, and even social media platforms. However, you have to ask: What is quality content?
First, it’s better than all of the current content available online. You do your research and include missing elements to your content to help increase overall quality score. Next, it’s content that is structured correctly through a solid introduction, sub-headings, body, conclusion, etc. Third, it’s content that solves a major problem within your niche because this adds value. Think about when you have done research in the past and the elements you have looked for. You look for content that solves a major problem and is in-depth…correct? Finally, it’s content that other bloggers find useful, and love to share with their readers. I link out to several guides because they provide an in-depth resource I know my readers will love.
If you can add all these elements to your content, then you won’t have a hard time creating something that is quality. Because you are focusing on quality, you have reduced the amount of written articles you need, which helps you save enormous time and money. Writing a lot of content is tedious and can put a strain on a new blogger. However, writing “1” solid piece every 10 days will give you time to research, create, and publish value. This will have 10 times the benefits than a handful of other posts, helping you meet your bottom line more quickly. It’s that simple!
Manual Labor
I know the title seems a bit scary, but the truth is, before the Internet, people did all their marketing through manual labor. For example, they would head out and promote their business using word of mouth. I admit this sounds tedious right now, but if you have a low budget, why not put the work in required to get your business going? Keep in mind, once you have grown your business and have a more flexible marketing budget, you can always switch to online methods. Get a few business cards ready or brochures, which will cost you no more than $50.00, and head out to do some serious manual labor. I have done it in the past and even enlisted the help of a few of my friends. After I got a few customers, I had more money to start using some of the online methods that were not available to me before.
It’s up to you, but serious business people always are willing to put the work in.
Now What?
Now that you have learned some ways to market your content with a small budget, it’s time to apply what you have learned. This usually would be hard, but I would recommend you read the above content again, making a list of the important points that you’ll be easily following. I’d like to go over some of the important steps that you can follow right now.
First, read the content over again, paying close attention to the points mentioned throughout. This will allow you to fully understand the content, and understand how each factor will help you with your goals. Next, it’s always important to research your competition because this where you learn what’s working and what’s not. Your competition has been in your niche longer so they have tried several things. This has led them to understand the best way to market content by spending as little money as possible. No company wants to spend money when they can save it by doing simple research…right?
Now it’s time to start implementing each of the strategies discussed above. I recommend you take your time while implementing because in the end, it’s about quality, NOT quantity, no matter what you do. Start with the first one and then move on to the second. It’s time to understand how each one helps you in your objective of meeting the bottom line, which is what everyone is trying to accomplish. When you have implemented a strategy, you need to ensure you have a tracking device in place so you can see how your performance is doing. You want to optimize where you can keep your end goal in mind – content marketing with as low a budget as possible.
I’ll admit, in the beginning, this will be hard, especially when you haven’t used any of the strategies before. However, after you find out what has been working, you will be able to divert your attention to using only that because it yields the best results. Keep in mind,
It’s always a good idea to network at the same time simply because when you network, you are increasing the chance of someone else promoting your content. With the growth of social media platforms, it will be a great idea to have someone who is an authority in your niche promote your content for you. Some of these people have over 50,000+ followers, which will be enormous when getting started. It’s also a benefit knowing that much of this marketing through influential bloggers will be free.
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed my content and your feedback will be greatly appreciated. I have tried to cover what I learned over the years, however, if you have anything that has worked for you then please let us know in the comment box below. I’ll admit things are rapidly changing so new marketing opportunities are popping up that’ll help promote your content quickly with very little investment from your side.
With that said,
It’s time to put everything into action by reading over the content once again, and implementing the strategies one by one.
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