8 Content Marketing Ideas For A Shoestring Budget

For those working on a shoestring budget, coming up with great content marketing ideas may seem like an impossible task - though it doesn't have to be.

There are a few strategies you can implement to get more bang for your buck and maximise the content you’re sharing.

So, without further ado, here are eight low-cost content marketing ideas for small your small business.

1. Establish Your Marketing Budget

Before you even start brainstorming your content marketing ideas, you should have a clear picture in your mind of how much content you can actually afford to share.

Assess your income, evaluate your annual goals, and settle on a realistic and specific content marketing budget for your business. From here, you can start allocating funds while ensuring you don’t spend outside your means.

2. Ask Yourself: What Type Of Content Works Best For Me?

Now that you know of how much you can afford for your content marketing strategy, it's time to figure out what you’re exactly going to be investing in.

Blog posts? Images? Video? Making the decision can be difficult, especially if you’re going in blind. If possible, the best thing to do is to look over some of the content you’ve shared in the past.

What has the best reaction and engagement with your followers? What didn’t do so well? Figure out what has worked well in the past and move in this direction.

What if you've never posted any form of content with your audience before? Then it’s time to get creative and start sharing videos, images, articles, podcasts, or anything in-between.

Figure out what your followers are coming to your page to see and go all in. Understandably, this experimental phase is going to take some time through trial and error, although it’ll all be worth it in the long-term.

3. Start A Blog For Your Brand

If you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll understand how important I believe blogs are for businesses - every brand should have one!

An active blog can increase your website traffic, generate new leads, improve SEO, add value to your social media voice, and provide you with a platform to speak directly with your target audience.

If your business already has a website, take advantage of this space by setting up a blog. Establish a niche, brainstorm some topics, create your topic schedule, and start writing.

Aim to post on your blog as regularly as possible and consistently share these posts on your social media channels. From here, you can analyse the articles to determine what pages are reeling in the most views.

4. Prioritise Quality Over Quantity

Once you get started with content marketing it can be very enticing to post as regularly as you can. With successful influencers posting multiple times a day or week, it can be very tempting to do the same. Although the result may not be what you'd expect.

You’ll likely end up sharing a large sum of posts that don’t actually offer your viewer any real value, which will overall waste your time and money.

Instead, take your time at first. Create a consistent level of content for your audience - content that your followers can gain real value from.

Once you start crafting your posts over a few months/ years, your turnaround time will improve, overall establishing a natural quality-quantity relationship for your business.

5. Work On Your Efficiency

If you’re the sole person responsible for juggling your content creation, you may want to adopt a handful of time management tactics to boost your efficiency.

For example, rather than coming up with one blog topic at a time, creating an outline for that post and then writing, why not come up with 10 or more ideas at once?

With a topic library available, the blog writing process becomes much smoother. You can simply select one of the topics and start writing.

This is merely one tactic you can adopt to boost your efficiency. There are plenty of tools out there to improve your time management skills.

6. Reach Out To Guest Writers

Did you know that many talented writers are willing to create guest blog posts for free?

If your website or social media pages have a solid level of traffic/ engagement, you may be in a good position to connect with talented writers.

Offer them the opportunity to tap into a completely new audience and promote their talents in exchange for a free blog post.

Whether you want to shake things up on your blog or are pressed for time, you can reach out to a handful of talented bloggers and offer up this opportunity. You’d be surprised by how many writers jump at the chance to increase their exposure.

7. Collaborate With Influencers

Influencers can be very useful when it comes to growing your audience and increasing brand awareness. Therefore partnering with one in your niche may be a worthy investment of your time and resources.

Just by offering free goods or services, you can receive exposure on their account in return. This will overall connect your brand with a variety of loyal followers and improve your online presence.

Do your research and connect with a handful of influencers in your niche with good engagement.

8. Share User-Generated Content

User-generated content is a tool that shouldn’t be underestimated. After all, it gives you the chance to share free content specifically created for your brand (while engaging your audience in the process).

Not to mention, regularly sharing user-generated content can help form a community among your followers, breathe more personality into your brand, help consumers establish a deeper connection, and boost your social media engagement.

A great way to start sharing more user-generated content is by starting a photography competition. Ask followers to share unique photos of your products and offer an exciting prize for the winner.

You can start sharing the photos that you’re tagged in (providing credit to the creator), while your brand’s discoverability grows.

This is merely one example - there’s plenty of ways you can start increasing user-generated content. Jump online, do some research, and settle on a method that suits your brand and budget.

With these 8 low-cost content marketing ideas by your side, you'll be generating killer content in no time at all.