A content marketing budget can be a tricky thing for marketers. Give your content the necessary time to research and put together information that will benefit your audience, will add value to your brand and urge your readers to share to their networks. You are better off without low-authority publishers Cross-publishing is a great way to cut down your content marketing budget and make your content count. Before including every other channel in your content marketing strategy, read various blogs to know the recent content marketing rules and trends. Use free and low-cost content promotion tools Writing content is not enough. One such tool is Quuu which is a great platform to promote your content. It will (or should I say) grow as your brand starts getting more leads and customers. Content marketing is here to stay It isn’t surprising that most companies of all sizes are focusing on creating functional content; content that is actionable and keeps flexibility within the content budget. After all, content is the way of 2018 and beyond. Ankit also spends a majority of his time reviewing various marketing tools and platforms on his marketing blog- Sprout24.
Content marketers will have to deal with more content because content will continue to be the heart and soul of marketing.
There is no way around that.
If you are wondering why it’s probably because content marketing is estimated to become a $300 billion industry by 2019. And at this pace, in next four years, it will be triple of what it is now. This prediction comes riding high on the fact that Google’s indexed pages have crossed 30 trillion in the last seven years.
Image Source: Statista
Since content is the present and the future, it is only evident that B2B marketers are spending 39% of their marketing budget in developing customer-centric content. That’s right. Not just any content, but content that customers want.
Content marketers have become smart in their approach. They are more focused on creating content that aligns with their potential leads and existing customers. Everything seems to fall into place except the fact that 27% of marketers suggest that their content marketing efforts fail due to a budget crisis.
A content marketing budget can be a tricky thing for marketers. Often, it becomes difficult to show immediate results because content takes time to show up as a revenue booster. It is not a short-term marketing activity where you post a blog and voila! You have leads. Nope.
It takes a lot of patience and proper budgeting to get things rolling for your brand. But first things first.
Why spend on Content Marketing?
There is no alternative to content. Neither a replacement. Content happens to be the most functional form of modern advertising. It incurs a lesser cost as compared to traditional advertising but creates a better emotional impact on its readers.
Content triggers emotions in your readers. And emotions contribute to sales. Add to this; the modern day content bots are taking the world by storm already.
Here’s the thing: You can lower your content marketing budget effectively and still succeed with your content efforts. How? Below are 9 tried and tested methods that proved beneficial for my company.
#1. Go for quality over quantity
Your content will educate and nurture your leads and customers. So a poorly written piece of content will only cause damage. Well-researched content can help your leads and customers gain value, become more aware of the current problem statement, and keep them hooked on your brand for more.
Your content quality is of prime importance here. While it is necessary to publish content frequently, it is also not at the cost of compromising with the content quality.
Make room in your content budget for quality writing. Give your content the necessary time to research and put together information that will benefit your audience, will add value to your brand and urge your readers to share to their networks.
Some well researched content examples:
#2. Identify your buyers before you start creating content
Your content has a purpose. If you are not clear about your target audience, you cannot create content that will benefit them. The starting point has to be: Identify your buyer persona and customer lifecycle.
Based on your buyer’s persona, your content material, topics, and marketing channels will alter.
The sole purpose of your content is to educate, nurture and propel your leads and customers to the next stage of their buying cycle. If your content is not doing that, then it is a waste of time and resources.
Image Source: Single Grain
For instance, if your ideal buyers are social media marketers of a mid-senior level, articles like How facebook’s F8 announcement will impact your social video strategy and Does social media impact SEO? We ran an experiment to find out by Hootsuite will be of great help. Notice the topics of these two articles – the first one deals with the impact of a recent announcement and the second one is about an experiment with realistic results and data. Both these articles are a good read for a mid-senior-level social media marketer.
However, if you are writing about anything else that is not even remotely related to social media marketing, you are instantly driving away your potential readers (and leads).
Key takeaway: Know your audience before you write for them.
#3. You are better off without low-authority publishers
Cross-publishing is a great way to cut down your content marketing budget and make your content count. When you contribute to another platform, you get the scope to connect to a wider audience. It gives your content more exposure, as revealed by Sharon Hurley Hall from BasicBlogTips. Sharon contributed to other platforms apart from BasicBlogTips and saw a 9% increase in traffic.
However, we all know how much time and effort goes into writing a single content piece. Also, many platforms charge fees to accept your contribution. In light of these two factors, opting for platforms that have low authority can potentially rupture your content marketing budget.
Publishing your content on platforms that have lesser follower-base than yours or do not write quality content, will only exhaust your resources.
If you want to contribute, get connected with publishing…
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