How To Build A Content Marketing Strategy On A Thin Budget

Would you like to learn how to Build a Content Marketing Strategy on a Razor Thin Budget? Well, follow the leads in this article. Content marketing may sound like a simple deal. Many think it is only about creating content and updating it regularly on your digital channels. Truth be told, the content marketing strategy runs a little deeper than that.

The planning, creation, and publishing of content on online platforms is just the tip of the iceberg; a lot of QA and SEO are also involved. The exercise is quite detailed. In fact, 66% of marketers agreed that they would be seeing an increase in their content marketing budgets in 2022 vis-à-vis 2021.

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If your business is looking to invest in content marketing, it will do well by hiring a white label digital marketing agency. These professionals are well-versed in the nuances of content marketing and can help you make the most of your investment.

7 Steps To Build A CM Strategy

While content marketing strategy needs a lot of attention to detail and due process to be good for your business, there is good news in the bag. You can accomplish a lot on a shoestring budget if you have the know-how or the support of a professional content marketer. Let’s see how.

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Examine Search Trends

The content that you publish on your online channels should resonate with what your target audience is searching for. Thorough research of popular keywords and semantics would reveal the search trends, and from there, you can begin strategizing a content creation plan.

With a professional content marketing agency, you would get the benefit of using professional tools and software to narrow down your list of relevant keywords. It would make it easier for you to create a content strategy this way.

Analyze the Competition

For every business, there is a competitor who is performing far better. Learning from their experiences will help you create content that would garner consumer attention online. Visit the websites of your competitors and take a look at their content and keywords. Try to include similar topics and keywords in your own content strategy to compete for that traffic.

Try to create content that offers a unique value proposition to your customers in addition to delivering relevant information.

Set Your Goals and Value Proposition

It is important to set a goal before creating a content marketing strategy. What do you hope to achieve through publishing high-quality content? Your goals can look like this:

• Increase website traffic by 10% by the end of the current quarter
• Increase social media follower count by 30% within the next 3 months
• Boost visitor engagement by increasing the time they spend on your website

Remember: it is important to quantify your goals and objectives and break them down into achievable milestones.

When this is done, you need to add value propositions to each milestone to help your visitors get you closer to your goals. For example, to increase the social media follower count by 10% each month, what value would you deliver to your visitors through your posts and stories?

Strategize for all of this in detail.

Create Topic Outline and Decide Publishing Platforms

Once you have your keyword research and content goals in place, you need to sit with your content marketing team and decide on the posts you will create. These could be blogs, articles, videos, graphics, or anything that resonates well with your brand identity.

According to research by HubSpot, short-form video is the most popular media form that content marketers like to use in their content strategies. People find it easy to consume content this way; you can focus on creating short videos.

Create a Calendar

It may come as a surprise, but there are specific times of day when different forms of published content are more in demand. For example, early in the morning, when people wake up, they would visit their social media accounts to check what’s latest. On the other hand, the blogging sites would see more activity after noon when people take a break from their work.

A good content marketing strategy always takes into account the peak hours for each type of content planned for publishing. According to TrackMaven, for example, the peak hour to publish blog posts is 10 am to 1 pm, while the peak hours for consuming that content are 3 pm to 4 pm. Knowing the peak times helps you plan your content marketing effectively.

Create Your Content

Based on the research that you completed in the preceding steps, you can now begin creating content for your online channels. It is best to hire creative talent to write high-quality posts that follow organic SEO guidelines.

Keep in mind that you need to utilize every type of content to increase your visitor count. For example, 45% of marketers agree that they use infographics to create standout content. Use more of what your target audience wants to see.

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On that note, brands today are leveraging storytelling to gain customer attention. When done right, a lot of consumers appreciate a little insight into the backstages of the business they buy from.

Creating content in bulk and scheduling it to be posted to respective platforms using automation software will help you save a lot of time.

Start Promoting and Monitoring

Publishing content is one thing, and getting more readers to know it’s there is another. Promote your content by sharing the links to it on various online platforms. Send emails to your prospects to check out your content. Once the clicks start to roll in, power up your analytics tools to monitor the difference your content marketing strategy is making. Measure the metrics like website traffic, clicks, interactions, impressions, and shares to understand if the content you publish is working how you want it to.

Conclusion

Content marketing strategy really isn’t that difficult to create. The only requirement is attention to detail and exhaustive research. You can get content marketing agencies to manage this end-to-end, even on a small budget.