Actionable Strategies for Content Marketing Campaigns on a Shoestring

The first thought that comes to mind whenever marketing is mentioned is budget. It is true and we have to accept the fact that for some marketing campaigns, having a huge budget is a necessity. Nevertheless, other marketing campaigns like content and social media need not be too expensive. Sometimes, you don’t even have to spend, because of free or inexpensive channels where you can disseminate and promote your content.

If you are a one-man or woman marketing machine or a small team struggling with a small budget or no budget even, here are actionable tips that can guarantee successful content marketing campaigns.

Plan Strategies For Your Content Marketing Campaigns

Planning for a content strategy is something that most people overlook. Simple planning like the best platform to promote your content and business, what to post or when to post, what valuable information to contribute to the conversation can go a long way.

For a start though, you have to consider first what you want to accomplish when you are going to do a content marketing campaign. You have to set a goal to determine how this is going to be valuable to your business. This way you will not have to waste important resources to determine if you have reached them or not. You will not also have to divert other resources that might turn out to be better spent on other core competencies in your business.

Planning also helps you streamline your process and the best channel that can connect you with your intended audience. Half the battle is already won when you align your goals and strategies accordingly.

Explore Different Ideas to Create Valuable Content

When you are into the content marketing flow, impactful content is important to create a ripple and buzz for your business. Ideas must not be limited to those that are commonly practiced by many. You can get ideas from different resources and channels in order for your content to be different and fresh. However, to give you a headstart, here are some practical things that you can do to generate ideas for your content, at the same time, engage your audience without the need to spend at all.

1. Curate Ideas from Your Clients or Customers

If you have loyal a following, you can ask some of them to give a testimonial about your business. You can then curate these testimonials. Of course, with permission from your customers, you can create a cohesive article simply by putting together these testimonials. It’s not simply creating content, it is also communicating to potential clients how trustworthy your business is as customers are willing to back you up with their testimonials.

2. Create a Checklist or Template

Do you notice how many people love to do a checklist and have some sort of template to follow? Without these things, organising and monitoring your content creation and marketing campaigns can be a hassle. That’s why this is valuable content. If you know sites that provide this kind of content, you can create a list of these sites and give it away to your customers.

3. Do a Survey or Poll

You might find this tedious but actually, it is not. You can automate a survey or poll or simply raise a question in your website. You can give several options and let your customers react as to what they find best.

4. Welcome Guest Posts

If you want to save spending on content, welcome guest posts to your business blog. There are many bloggers and writers who are looking for channels to disseminate their ideas. This will save you time on generating ideas and content so you can focus more on other aspects of your business. The only thing is that you have to set clear rules and guidelines so that the tone of your business blog is consistent.

Promote through Social Media

Social media platforms are free to low cost. It is a promotion channel where you don’t need to spend much at all. You just need a good strategy in place to get your content out. But while social media can create a buzz around your business, you still need to select a platform that will work for your business. Start with one to two platforms and experiment.

Do you know other low-budget strategies for a content marketing campaigns? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

via Business 2 Community http://ift.tt/1inlxeq