Discover Effective Content Marketing With A Limited Budget

What do you think about when you hear the words "content marketing"? If you are like most business owners and entrepreneurs, your mind goes to high-quality videos, professional photos and graphic images, and stimulating blog posts. The goal is to create amazing and powerful content that will "go viral", spreading your company's message like wildfire to all corners of the internet. However, is it possible to create effective content marketing with a limited budget?

Content marketing is a strategy used by all sorts of companies, large and small. In some instances, especially with large regional and multi-national corporations, businesses allocate large portions of their marketing budget to crafting content. But, what happens if you do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend? Well, one of the great advantages of content marketing is that effective results can come from a limited budget. In fact, in most cases, effective content marketing will create a greater return than pay-per-click advertising. Would that be a benefit to you?

The secret to content marketing is generating an emotional response that encourages engagement and sharing. This is true whether the content piece is informational, instructional, or pure entertainment. Very often, slick and highly produced videos, images, and blogs will fall short or come across and inauthentic. Think along the lines of simple but powerful video game like Tetris. It is a simple game, with low production value, but it is also highly addictive and can become emotionally charged. Effective content marketing can generate a similar response. 

There are 5 steps for effective content marketing on a limited budget:

1. Define a Mission - Identify the one thing that you want people to think of when they think about your brand or company. As an example, innovation comes to mind when people about Apple. However, Red Bull's image, from wings to extreme sports, is energy.
   
   
2. Establish a Goal - This is one thing you need more than anything. What is the purpose of your content marketing? For many, the goal is likely generating more qualified leads that convert to sales.
   
   
3. Develop a Plan - Without a plan, there is no way to work towards your goal. Moreover, placing that plan in writing helps create accountability. Part of this plan could include developing customer personas so that you can create better content that meets customer needs.
   
   
4. Select a Matric - There is no one-size-fits-all metric that will work for all businesses. What is the most important measure for your company? You can use anything from social engagement to website visitors to quote requests.
    
5. Establish a Baseline - Your existing data will provide you with a baseline. However, if you have no data then you are starting at zero. The point here is tracking how well your content marking performs over time.

Ultimately, success depends on your strategy. Once you have a message and brand identity that works for you and your audience, then are many ways to create effective content on a limited budget. While there is a lot of upfront work, once you get your content marketing rolling, you will be able to do more with less time.

What haven't we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk about content marketing with a limited budget, or other related topics, please contact us.