You've heard the old sayings: "Nothing in life is free," "there's no such thing as a free lunch," and so on. These clichés certainly apply to the myriad of content marketing and online marketing strategies that you can use to boost brand visibility, generate leads, and drive conversions for your business.
If you're worried that your digital outreach efforts will break the bank, force you to raid funds laid out for other essential expenses, or cut into your profits, you can rest easy with the knowledge that some forms of digital marketing offer a tremendous bang for your buck.
These five (5) cost-effective content marketing strategies are a great place to start.
1. Repurpose Infographics and Other Relevant Content with Proper Attribution
An infographic isn't the first thing that comes to mind when one hears the phrase "cost-effective content marketing." It takes time and money to produce high-quality infographics.
However, there's no ethical or legal prohibition against reusing infographics created by others - as long as you provide proper attribution to the original creator.
If you use a "secondhand" infographic, make sure you directly relate the data or trends it describes to your own experience. For instance, you might use, with attribution, an infographic to highlight similar trends that you're seeing in your own business.
2. Invest in Press Outreach
Public relations and other forms of traditional press outreach can quickly become time consuming. However, you don't have to retain a PR firm or hire a team of communications specialists to flesh out your internal media relations team.
Instead, form social media relationships with influential journalists, product reviewers, and other key press people in your trade area. Email "teaser" releases to a regularly updated list of folks who have covered your company in the past or expressed interest in doing so in the future.
Write up tailor-made press releases for direct distribution to relevant publications - either through a wire service or your own digital Rolodex.
3. Break Down Your Gated Content Walls
Gated content certainly has its place in a content marketing arsenal. However, there's also something to be said for repurposing previously gated content in free, available-to-all form.
For instance, you might turn a lengthy, formerly gated white paper into a series of blog posts outlining "bite-sized" solutions that add up to the same "whole" described in the white paper. Visitors and prospects are sure to appreciate your charitable spirit.
4. Mine Your Email Inbox for Blog and White Paper Ideas
Who said your inbox was a wasteland of trivial communication and spam? Maybe some of your old email falls into one of these two categories, but there's also plenty of content marketing gold in your email trove too.
Set aside a few hours one weekend or evening to go through your email archives and extract useful ideas for blog posts, white papers, and other forms of content marketing.
5. Repurpose Sales Presentations for Online Distribution
Get in the habit of immediately repurposing sales and informational presentations (unless they contain proprietary or customer-specific information) as public-domain slideshows on a platform such as SlideShare. Your website visitors and prospects are sure to find the information useful.
Slideshows are also great for cost-effectively conveying concepts best described using visual media - and appealing directly to prospects best described as "visual learners."
Learn How to Improve Online Marketing from the Pros
You don't have to invest a significant sum to improve your online marketing strategy or hone the individual tactics that you use to snag qualified leads, drive conversions, and boost sales. All you need is a sensible, comprehensive approach to cost-effective content marketing.
If you need any help figuring out how to improve online marketing for your business, don't hesitate to reach out to us at your convenience.
Content marketing is just one way to grow your business. To learn other tactics, download the free whitepaper “Learn the 8 Critical Ingredients of a Digital Marketing Plan.”
