Small business content marketing on a budget

As someone who does a lot of small business content marketing, I know all too well that budgets aren?t always able to satisfy ambitions. But just because you don?t have the spending power of big brands, you can still achieve the same goals as those brands. All you have to do is invest wisely.

A Cornish hotel client of mine wanted to start producing content on a shoestring budget. He had only ?100 a month to begin with which could potentially grow as his trade grew. This challenge worked for me as the better I performed, the better known the hotel would become, which would then mean more business for the client and for me. So I took the deal.

Champagne content with lemonade money

The advantage of letting Coastal Content provide your small business content instead of a larger studio is twofold. By working with me, you?re only paying for me. You?re not subsidising swanky offices, secretaries, expensive iMacs or any of that. You?re paying for content and nothing but the content.

Secondly, I?m one person. I answer the phone, I answer emails, I do the work. If you need changes or want to discuss something, I?m right here. While I do have people working with me, I make sure I?m the one you talk to. You don?t have to go through a project manager or helpdesk to get action. You get it immediately.

How to get value from small business content marketing

To make sure we get the very best small business content marketing for your money, we first have to analyse what content would have the most impact in your niche. We look at your business and assess whether a blog, videos, e-books, infographics, slideshows, podcasts or a mixture of all of them would benefit you most.

Not all companies need video or do anything that would work on video. I certainly don?t. Would you really want to watch a video of me thinking and typing? Didn?t think so. So while video is a huge marketing growth area, it?s only suitable for certain kinds of companies. The same for e-books, slideshows and podcasts. If they work and will benefit your business we use them. If they don?t, we don?t.

Good website content and a blog are usually the first places we start. Just about every business out there can work with a blog. It?s straightforward to set up and can be maintained with a regular supply of fresh content. Coming up with good headlines and some interesting posts that are worth sharing is possible in just about any niche.

Then we get selective. E-books can offer a great boost but can be time-consuming to produce. Videos are the same and we can only provide the script for those. Infographics are fantastic if you have something interesting to say, while slideshows are more formal and podcasts require you to cover a lot of ground. All of these have potential, or not, depending on your business and your goals.

Republishing

Did you read the posts on republishing? You should because they connect nicely with getting value from a limited budget. Read ?Four reasons why republishing old content makes great sense? and ?How to republish website content for maximum effect?. I won?t bore you by repeating everything here. Suffice to say republishing done right can offer existing content a second life.

It is possible to have a small business content marketing strategy on a limited budget. For my Cornish hotel client, I reworked his website content, established a blog and wrote some mailshots for both email marketing and snail mail. So far, website traffic is growing at around 3% a month. It?s early days yet but content marketing is a long game. One that rewards patience and investment with solid results.

If you would like to enjoy the benefits of content marketing without the huge investment, contact Coastal Content today!