How to Invest in a Content Marketing Strategy on a Ten-Dollar Budget

Content marketing sounds like an expensive thing. However, it is also costly not to incorporate content marketing into your budget. Studies show that B2Bs spend around 30% of their marketing money on content marketing. But what if your overall marketing budget is under $100 at the start? Can you really afford to put some of that money into content marketing at this time?

Even if your budget is so tough and you only have ten dollars to spare, there are some things you can do to drive traffic to your website and reach your target demographic. It’s better to start with a lean content marketing budget rather than to not start at all. Here are five ideas you can try.

Allocate Funds to Content Marketing

The first step is to set aside specific funds for content marketing. Whether you have $10/day or $10/month, this money should specifically be allocated towards content marketing. Also, take a look at what tasks can be completed internally. Even though time is money, there is often down time where workers could pitch in and do a bit of content marketing as you work towards growing the company together.

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You’ll also need to figure out where you want to spend your small budget. Ideally, you should track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. If you place an ad on Facebook to point back to your blog, create a unique landing page, so you know exactly how much traffic you gained from $10 spent on advertising. Keep track of the things that work well and repeat those over again.

Hold a Contest

Drive traffic to your website by running a contest on your blog. The prize can be something worth $10. Be careful here, though, as it shouldn't resemble a lottery. You’ll want to check state and federal laws to ensure you are holding an appropriate contest, without violating any rules.

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One thing you should focus on is coming up with a prize people within your target demographic would want. If you offer an Amazon gift card, for instance, you target a very wide audience who might or might not be interested in what your company has to offer.

On the other hand, if you have a targeted prize, then you’ll also attract a highly targeted audience. Let’s say you run a business selling toys for toddlers. You will want to offer either one of those toys as a prize or offer a similar item that would appeal to the same age range. By selecting the right reward, you also select the right traffic for your site.

Add Infographics

Infographics add visual content to your site, which can draw your readers in. They present information in an easy-to-understand way. Allow people to share your infographics, and you may reach additional traffic on other blogs and websites.

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Eye tracking research shows people pay more attention to images that carry information than to the text on a web page. Adding infographics can help information stay with your readers and even make your page stickier.

Hire a Freelancer

Probably, your marketing budget doesn’t allow you to hire a full-time content marketer at this particular moment. However, you can hire a freelance marketer for as little as $10/hour, especially if you seek out a student to help you out.

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To get the most bang for your buck out of a freelancer, you should do a couple of things:

• Ask that the freelancer tracks their time with the help of an online tracker, such as Toggl, so you know they are working the full hour.
• Come up with a list of tasks you could complete in an hour of online marketing. While the freelancer might not get all of the tasks completed, you’ll have given them direction so that they make the most of their work time for you.

You can also use sites such as Fiverr to hire freelancers for one-off jobs. Many of the tasks on Fiverr run $5. So, with a $10 budget, you could have a Facebook banner designed and hire someone to tweet out a note for you, for example. Try different tasks to find the ones that work best for your business.

Automate Social Media

Since 79 percent of Americans who are online use Facebook, social media is a vital part of any type of marketing. A social media presence is a must, but you likely don’t have the time or resources to devote to building your social media channels.

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Fortunately, there are some ways to automate social media that don’t cost a lot of time or money. As your business grows, you may want to devote more resources to this important online marketing tactic, but for the time being, you can reach those on social media by utilizing schedule-ahead software such as Hootsuite.

Another idea is to use WordPress plugins for your WP blog that will automatically post to your social media pages when a new post is published on your website. There are various plugins, but you’ll want one that targets the social media spots where your target demographic is most likely to hang out, such as Facebook and Twitter. Also, try to find a WordPress theme to truly fit your business, like one from TemplateMonster, which will help boost your overall exposure and to reach your targeted audience.

And keep in mind that some of these plugins do charge a monthly fee in order to reach out to the different social media platforms, but most are under $10/month.

Content Marketing on a Shoestring

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You spend a lot of time and possibly even a lot of money generating stellar content. You understand why it is important to get that content in front of your readers. Making sure your content machine is running on schedule and reaching the right audience is not an easy task. Even though you might have limited resources, though, do not give up. You'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish with only $10 spent here and there.