In a recent survey, 90 percent of marketers said they considered content marketing to be at least a medium, if not a high priority in their company. But 46 percent of those marketers said that less than 10 percent of their budget was actually allotted to content marketing. Though the importance of content is finally being recognized, it’s not yet being reflected monetarily. So how can you mount an effective content marketing campaign without proper funding? You’ll need to use a little creativity. Here are some tips for content marketing on a budget.
- Use what you’ve got. Monitoring the Internet for important news and updates from your field is the best way to drum up content topics. But what if you don’t have the resources for that? This is not just about money, either. Keeping track of trending topics takes time and effort, and if your content marketing team is overworked and understaffed, you might not be able to commit those resources as often as you’d like to. So instead, make use of what you do have. Take a recent transaction you had and write it up as a customer success story. Take some of the questions your audience sends you and put together an FAQ. Take five blogs on a similar topic and turn them into a white paper… or take one white paper and turn it into five new blogs! Content ideas are everywhere. You just need to know where to look.
- Use free resources. The beauty of content marketing is that even though you may have to spend a bit to create it, you can distribute it all over the world without paying a dime. From content hosting sites like YouTube, Tumblr and WordPress to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s free to get the word out. Pound the pavement, so to speak, and get full use out of those free resources, creating content on a variety of platforms and distributing it via every avenue you can find. If people like what you post, they’ll share it with their friends, increasing your content’s reach even further.
- Involve your audience. Not only can you get your audience to distribute your content for free, you can get them to create content for free as well. There are all sorts of ways to get your audience involved with content creation. Ask them to submit ideas, testimonials, even fan art. Host it all on your website and publicize it on social media, to get more people excited about submitting content. Your audience’s excitement about each other’s content will translate into excitement about your brand.
You don’t need a lot of money to create a successful content marketing campaign. It certainly helps, of course. But if your boss just won’t agree to give you those extra few dollars, don’t worry. With a little hard work and creativity, you can create a successful content campaign on a shoestring budget. Use that campaign to show your company what a valuable resource content marketing really is. Then maybe they’ll give you that extra money next quarter.
