There’s no denying the Internet has revolutionized commerce. We’ve gone from a time when you had to drive to the local store to pick up toilet paper to ordering it online and having it shipped directly to your front doorstep. What does this have to do with content marketing on a budget? I’ll explain:
Even though the Internet itself has led to a whole new form of shopping, it’s retailers and businesses themselves who have taken marketing to the next level of success. And as surprising as it may be, effective marketing these days is not based on a demand for ads. Instead, consumers want content.
More importantly, they want valuable content that outlines and highlights the multiple reasons they should purchase products from specific brands. They don’t want the content to sound like a commercial. In fact, a whopping 71% of consumers agree they are turned off by content that comes in the form of a sales pitch.
Even content that is shared through emails needs to be informative instead of overly promotional. A 2017 Consumer Email Survey conducted by Adobe discovered that 40% of consumers prefer emails that are full of valuable information rather than salesy.
If you think targeting consumers with ads is going to boost your sales revenue, it’s time to think again.
A study performed by a 2015 McCarthy Group found that 84% of millennials are completely against traditional ads because they find them untrustworthy, and even 67% of this generation go to the length of installing ad blockers. Targeting consumers with ads is not going to provide a strong return on investment (ROI). Studies show, however, that content marketing is the way to go, with ROIs increasing a mind-boggling 300% over the past three years.
Here’s the ultimate go-to guide for inbound content creation on a budget. If you’re a small business with a limited amount of funds to spend on marketing, these six tips are going to be of the utmost help.
Keeping Your Content Consistent
Regardless of the content you share, you want to keep it consistent. Guess how much this costs? Zip, nada, zero dollars. Keeping your content consistent in regard to its formats, theme, and publishing frequency can easily be achieved by creating a content calendar. There are literally hundreds of free content calendars you can find all across the web that greatly simplify keeping your content publishing schedule organized and consistent.
The most important thing to remember is that consumers prefer a consistent experience across all of the content you publish, whether it be on social media, your website, emails, etc. And when you maintain consistency across all of these platforms, you can achieve the ultimate goal of creating a unified omnichannel experience.
Blogging Is a Necessity
Any effective inbound marketing agenda is going to include blogging. Ideally, you need to be posting at least 16 times a month. Statistics show companies publishing 16 new postings a month attract 3.5 times more traffic than those posting only up to four posts a month.
You may think acquiring content to publish 16 new posts each month is going to eat your entire marketing budget. Still, the truth is, if you look in the right spots, you can easily find content creators who are willing to provide content for 16 blog posts at an affordable price. Take, for example, you pay $25 per post. This is only $400 a month. If your blog posts attract only four new leads who end up spending $100, this in itself will pay for what it’s costing you to outsource content creation for your blog. You can also always take advantage of repurposing your existing content, which takes us to our next tip.
Repurposing Content
According to an article posted by Neil Patel –a highly-successful inbound marketing guru– 60% of marketers take advantage of repurposing content anywhere from two to five times. For businesses that don’t have time or money to consistently produce content that engages consumers, repurposing serves as a viable, time- and cost-efficient method for producing new content on a tight budget.
When repurposing content, use analytics to see which of your existing content has garnered the most engagement; this is the content you’re going to repurpose. Best of all, you can repurpose it into multiple formats, including videos, infographics, social media posts, eBooks, and more.
Using Customer Testimonials
Image via Flickr by Gayla Baer
Customer testimonials are like gold to inbound content marketing because they showcase why your brand is worth doing business with. Instead of being promotional, they initiate an emotional bond. When you share them on your website or social media, you convey your appreciation to your existing clientele. You also highlight the reasons potential customers should purchase your product or service — it’s a two-fold benefit.
If you’re like many businesses, though, acquiring positive customer testimonials can be difficult. It seems the customers who aren’t pleased with your brand are the first to hop online and leave bad reviews. The thousands of other customers who were more than pleased with your brand, however, tend to forget to leave a positive testimonial.
To incorporate positive customer testimonials into your inbound content marketing agenda, you have to get them first.
The easiest way to do this is by enticing your existing customers to leave them by offering a next-purchase discount or free reward, like a t-shirt or coffee mug. You might think offering a 10% next-purchase discount, or a free t-shirt is going to put a dent into your cash flow, but if a single testimonial acquires at least one more customer, it will easily pay for itself.
Customer testimonials are also advantageous from a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint, which is vital to effective inbound content marketing. You can easily transform a testimonial into a blog post by quoting the review and then elaborating on how you exceeded the customer’s expectations. And as we pointed out before, the more you blog, the more traffic you’re going to attract to your website.
Incorporating Videos and Images
Images for Inbound Content Marketing
When publishing a new blog post, you must make sure to include an image. If you can include a video, this is even better. Studies show consumers prefer content with images because it helps them better understand the message you are trying to convey. Images are also advantageous because your postings on social media are much more likely to get shared if they include a picture.
Images have multiple advantages when it comes to SEO.
From captions to image titles and alt tags, you can incorporate pertinent keywords into these small pieces of content. When search engines crawl your site and they see a posting with an image that has keywords relevant to the search term being searched, this informs them your content is likely to meet the needs of the searcher. This means your content is likely to achieve higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). And the higher your SERPs, the more likely a consumer is to click on your link.
But I don’t have money to pay a professional photographer to create images for my content. Thousands of brands that have established success don’t have the money to hire a professional photographer. Instead of paying someone to create an image for each posting they publish, they simply use sites like Flickr, where they can find free-to-use photos.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to using Flickr to source free-to-use photos:
- Go to the Flickr Creative Commons.
- Think of a keyword that relates to the image you are trying to find and type it into the search box. Take, for example, you need an image to include in a blog post about Botox. Relevant search terms might include Botox, cosmetic procedure, lip injection, etc. Once you type the search term into the search box, hit the Enter key to perform the search.
- A page of photos will appear, and above the photos to the left will be a tab with a downward arrow that says Any license. Click the arrow and click on All creative commons; these are going to be the pictures that you can use free of charge and without having to contact the owner.
- Once you have chosen the picture, you want to use, click on it, and you will be taken to another page. In the bottom right-hand corner of the page will be a downward pointing arrow with a line under it; this is the download symbol, and you will need to click on it.
- From here, you will be provided with a list of various image sizes to choose from. You can choose the one you want or click on View all sizes. I recommend clicking on View all sizes.
- Now you’re presented with a page with the image and all of the available download sizes. Once you click on the size you want, the image will resize itself. You can right-click on the image and click on Save Image As… or Copy Image.
- After you have uploaded your picture to your blog post, don’t forget to link back to the image.
- If you happen to click on an image and it says All rights reserved, this means the photo is not free to use, and you will need to continue your search for one that says Some rights reserved or No rights reserved.
Creating a Value Proposition
Our last tip focuses on creating a value proposition, and when carefully crafted, it can be like pouring gasoline on the fire of your inbound content marketing agenda. Even better, it doesn’t cost a penny to create one.
A value proposition should be set on your website’s homepage, and it clearly explains in only a few short sentences what your brand offers and how your product or service can benefit the consumer. Most importantly, it will include details that outline how your brand is different from the competition. When used correctly, a value proposition will enhance the customer’s lifetime value.
The key aspect to remember when creating a value proposition is that it should be easy to understand. If it includes confusing keywords or requires an explanation, you’re going about it the wrong way. Think of your ideal customer, and make sure to use a language they will understand. You can rely on social media to get a better understanding of the language your ideal customer speaks in. You can also speak with existing customers and analyze the language they use with you.
Here’s a format guide you can follow when creating a value proposition:
- Headline
- Short paragraph consisting of two to three sentences
- Three benefits in a bullet list (e.g., free shipping, free 30-day trial, etc.)
- Image
The Takeaway
Probably the most notable aspect of inbound content marketing, other than its effectiveness, is its cost. You don’t have to be a multi-million dollar company to take advantage of content marketing. More importantly, this form of marketing allows you to compete with industry big boys. All of the tips outlined above are great starting points for implementing effective inbound content marketing on a tight budget.
Editor’s note: This post is by nDash community member Whitney White. Whitney writes a variety of business articles and website copy on topics such as inbound marketing, accounting, SEO, and more. To learn more about Whitney or to have her write for your brand, sign up for nDash today!