How to Succeed at Content Marketing Without Unlimited Resources

In a world that’s hungry for more and more content, marketers must continue not only to increase but improve the content they push out. So, how do you keep up with the demand if you’re on a marketing team of one or two? Well, you’re not alone. It’s a lot more common than most think. This blog post is going to focus on helpful tips on how to succeed at content marketing (without outsourcing) even if you have a lack of resources to do so.

Key Points:

The benefit of content marketing.
Do you have a content marketing strategy?
Tips to start creating content.

1. The Benefit of Content Marketing.

Would content be king if it didn’t have a ton of benefits associated with it? Nope. So while we could go on and on about all the great benefits of content marketing, here are a few that we picked (it would be quite a long list if we listed them all!).

Conversions: Conversions are considered by many the most important metric in digital marketing. According to Life Marketing, research shows that companies who create consistent marketing content experience conversion rates that are nearly 6 times higher than their competitors who don’t focus on content marketing.
Traffic: We hate traffic when we’re on the road, but when it comes to our website - we love it! It’s simple, really, posting more (quality) content will lead to more traffic. According to HubSpot, companies that published more than 16 blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times more traffic than those that only published 4 or less posts. While that is an impressive statistic, keep in mind the number of times you blog depends on what your capacity is. Google crawls your website pages for SEO, so every quality blog post has a chance to make an impact.
Awareness: Without a doubt, brand awareness is one of the most important reasons to focus on content marketing. According to a study from the Content Marketing Institute, more than 90% of B2B marketers prefer to use content marketing strategies to build brand awareness over time. In the end, the more quality content you share with your customers will show them not only who you are, but what you represent.

2. Do You Have a Content Marketing Strategy?

Having a content marketing strategy is more than just writing and publishing blog posts. A content marketing strategy helps you not only understand what type of content you should push out but for who and why. A content strategy doesn’t have to be a 50-page document, either. According to HubSpot, you can build your content strategy by answering these questions:

1. 1. Define your goal.
  2. Conduct persona research.
  3. Run a content audit.
  4. Choose a content management system.
  5. Brainstorm content ideas.

After you’re done reading this blog post, check out HubSpot’s Content Marketing workbook for a more in-depth dive into your content marketing strategy approach.

3. Tips to Start Creating Content.

So now that you understand the foundation of building your content marketing strategy, you’re ready to start creating quality content! Here are a few tips to help you get started on your content creation journey, even if you don’t have a massive marketing team or budget.

What’s going on in your industry?: Start your morning off by reading something about your industry or check in on what your competition is doing. It’s likely that what’s working for them, will work for you. Be curious, and keep reading. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be just your industry. And when you find something that interests you - save it and start building your content library.
Share curated content: Most days, you’re lacking one thing in the office: time. So when you need to push something out, it’s ok if you didn’t create it. Curated content is merely adding your company’s voice to a piece of content from an outside source and sharing it. Some marketers don’t consider curated content as part of their content marketing strategy. Still, the way we see it - content is content!
Ask your colleagues: Don’t let professional titles define who the writer is. Sometimes your best sources of information could be sitting right next to you. Whether you do a one-on-one sit down or even a group brainstorming session. Just asking for your colleague’s input will get them excited, and often times they’ll want to assist (Trust me, it happens!). Two questions that can help start the conversation are: (1) What are the industry questions you hear most? (2) What do your clients need the most help with?
Get help from free platforms: There are many platforms out there that can help you pinpoint topics that are trending, so you don’t waste your time writing something no one cares about. Some free platforms to research further are BuzzSumo (Content discovery), Canva (Graphical help), Quora (Topics people have searched for), Keyword Research (What your audience is searching for), and Google (Autocomplete, related searches, people also search for).

Now what?

So now that you have the tools to get you going, you’re probably asking yourself, “How can I keep the momentum going?” Well, content and strategy go hand and hand. As stated at the beginning of this post - your content strategy is your best friend. So stick to the strategy you put in place, while utilizing these tips to continuously improve it:

Plan ahead: Whether you want to plan month by month, quarterly, or annually - having an idea of what’s on your radar will eliminate last-minute chaos.
Assess: What’s working and what’s not working? Run your content marketing program by trial and error so it can run efficiently as possible.
Start small and build gradually: The number of things you can do with content marketing is endless, and it can be quite overwhelming.
Keep learning: This one may seem like an interesting one, but sometimes the only thing stopping us is ourselves. Developing and sticking to a content marketing strategy is tough, especially if you’re doing it alone. It’s ok not to know everything - there are endless videos and workbooks online that can help you fill in the holes of uncertainty. After all, when it comes to marketing, there is no right or wrong. It’s merely just testing until you get things right.

We understand this is a lot of new information to grasp, but don’t worry if you don’t get everything right on the first time around. Take small steps and continuously build up your content marketing with the resources you have.

Happy Content Marketing!

Sources:

McGill, Justin. “How to Develop a Content Strategy: A Start-to-Finish Guide.” HubSpot, Apr. 2018, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-marketing-plan.
McGill, Justin. “How to Develop a Content Strategy: A Start-to-Finish Guide.” HubSpot, Apr. 2018, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-marketing-plan.
“B2C Content Marketing Research for 2013: Benchmarks, Budgets, Trends.” Content Marketing Institute, 27 Mar. 2015, https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/11/2013-b2c-consumer-content-marketing/.