Content Marketing on a Budget
Let’s face it, most of us don’t like spending money. We get you. Here are some of our tips on how your can do some content marketing on a budget. It is better to create an inexpensive marketing campaign than to not create one at all! And, a lot of marketing can be done free of charge or very, very inexpensively. So, let’s dive in!
Content Marketing on a Budget
Do Your Research.
Before we can start talking seriously about saving money through content marketing, we have to highlight the importance of research. If you are honestly trying to shave off some dollars on that marketing campaign or build it in a money-conscious way, you’re going to start by looking at a whole lot of data.
The three big ones you are going to want to spend the most time on are: target audience, platforms and content itself.
1. Target Audience
If you want your content marketing to work for you, you have to know who you are trying to reach. Let’s say you are a marathon race director trying to reach out to runners to sign up for your race. Traditionally you get a lot of middle age runners, so you want to shift your marketing efforts to reach young adults. That’s where the research comes in. Narrowing down your target audience is a great place to start, though. So, start diving into those analytics!
2. Platforms
Then you have to get into that next step: reaching out to that target audience. It isn’t enough to know who you are trying to reach — you have to know how to reach them as well! So, as race director, you might decide to look into different social media outlets to see which ones your target demographics are using.
3. Content
To insure that you are reaching the right people, you want to be sharing the right kind of content. Let’s go back to the example of the race director, s/he should note what kinds of race information are necessary for her/his runner audience. Details like a course map, FAQs, cost, etc. are all essential. If you are a manufacturing company, you might look into sharing information about cost, environmental factors, common uses, etc. This content has to come from what your audience wants to know. So, if you have lots of people asking you how they can recycle their various metal items, you should create content to answer those questions. Make sense?
In a way, this makes it simpler for you. You don’t have to come up with ideas straight out of thin air. You can get ideas from the people who are driving your business!
Start a Blog
Blogs are one of the easiest, most efficient, low-cost platforms to share original content. You can generally start a blog for free or basically free! We love our blog because it helps us share marketing tips and tricks with all of you. Not to mention, sharing blogs regularly helps your SEO.
Become Your Own Content Writer
If you really want to save money, start writing your content on your own. Yes, writing is a skill, but anyone can learn to be a good writer!
Here are some tips on how to write better content: Copy that is Impactful: 3 Do’s for Worthwhile Content Writing
Here are our biggest tips for you
- Review grammar and mechanics
- Bounce ideas off others in your office
- Ask your followers what kind of content they want
- Look at what your competition is doing
- Create a brand persona
- Find your creativity
Related content: Finding Creative Writers Throughout Your Company
Hire an Intern
As an intern myself, I can tell you that my internship has been super beneficial for our company and for me. A lot of the things I learned on the job came from researching material for content writing projects. So, I am learning while my boss is able to work on other projects. It has been a really great way for me to be involved in the marketing process while learning and growing in the field and in my writing abilities.
Related content: How to Prepare Your Business for an Intern
Repurpose Your Best Content
This is probably my favorite tip for content writing on a budget, because there are so many benefits to it. 1. It saves money 2. It saves time 3. Repurposing and updating old blog content, in particular, is a great way to increase web traffic — just be sure you don’t update the URLs!
If you have spectacular copy, there is no reason to spend time changing it and why not use it again? Hey! Recycling helps the environment and your business!
Explore Other Media Options
Not all marketing content has to be written! If there is someone in your company who is good with videography, social media, infographic creation, etc. use those skills to your advantage. A large part of building a successful marketing campaign is leveraging the skills that you already have so that you can create killer campaigns as efficiently as possible. So be creative and don’t tie yourself down to one thing!
Good luck! Reach out to us with questions.