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4 Affordable Ways Small Marketing Teams Can Create World-Class Content

This article is more than 4 years old.

When trying to grow your business, few activities are more important than marketing. At the same time, few tasks often seem more challenging than marketing, especially if you’re on either a small or single-person team that’s responsible for creating all of your marketing-related content.

The idea of coming up with an editorial calendar or social media campaign that’s on par with what major brands (and million-dollar marketing budgets) create can be intimidating, to say the least.

The good news is that you don’t need a large budget or a big team in order to create marketing content that’ll grow your audience and exposure. By leveraging smart marketing tactics and taking advantage of affordable resources that’ll help you create standout content, even a one-person team can get the job done today.

1. Focus On Your Target Audience And Key Platforms

Advertising agencies with big budgets have the resources to target almost every platform imaginable where their customers spend time—from stalwarts like Facebook and Instagram to newer social platforms like TikTok.

As a small marketing team, you don’t have that luxury. You only have so much time and money, which means you’ll need to direct your attention to just one or two social platforms. Of course, the right platform to go all in on could vary widely based on your industry and where your target audience spends their time online.

For example, a study from HubSpot found that for B2B brands, LinkedIn’s lead generation rate was a whopping 277% higher than that of Facebook and Twitter. On the other hand, B2C brands targeting younger audiences are often best served by focusing on Snapchat and Instagram—picked as the favorite networks by 41% and 35% of teens, respectively, according to Statista.

It may also be beneficial to look at which platforms are currently generating relevant traffic and leads for your site today, in order to determine where you should invest more of your marketing budget. Based on your research, you might benefit from targeting a more niche platform, rather than a more popular one where costs and competition will both be higher.

2. Stay On Track With An Organized Content Calendar

According to studies conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, 53% of the most effective marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, while 40% of the least effective marketers report having no strategy in place at all.

Determining which article ideas you need to write about in order to attract the right visitors and deciding when they should be published, is key for lasting marketing success. Documenting your strategy and then keeping everything organized with a content calendar are essential steps to keeping your marketing efforts on track. 

Your content calendar should cover important categories such as focus keywords, content type, target publishing date and any external assets you’ll also need created (like custom images, videos or software). Putting everything into context with a streamlined calendar will make it easier to keep your big-picture marketing on track, while still leaving some room to talk about breaking industry news or react to other last-minute demands.

3. Make Your Job Easier With Content Creation Tools

As a small team, you may not have the budget to hire a professional photographer or videographer in order to help create your content. If it’s just you, your computer and your smartphone, you might worry about your ability to create compelling content—particularly for a visually-driven social platform.

The good news is that there are plenty of low-cost resources to help you create stunning visual content. For example, the social media story making tool, StoryBoost, provides over 1,000 templates that can be used to create visually appealing Instagram Stories. Their themes are even complemented by filters, animations and text options that can enhance your photos and videos beyond the capabilities of your smartphone.

Another popular tool in the design arsenal of many small marketing teams is Stripo, which helps simplify the design process for email marketing campaigns. Their drag and drop email tool allows you to quickly create mobile-friendly templates that provide a professional, visually appealing look. This makes it easier to spread the word about your latest product or promotion in a way that’ll actually resonate with those on your mailing list.

With the right kinds of marketing tools, you don’t have to be a design expert or shell out for hiring a graphic designer every time you publish new content. You can make professional-grade content yourself without breaking the bank.

4. Embrace The Power Of Automation

There are only so many hours in the day—and for many startups, a small marketing team often has to take on other responsibilities as well. But, you don’t want the quality of your content to suffer because you spend so much time working on mundane marketing tasks. The more you can automate, the better.

Scheduling social media posts in advance by using tools like Buffer or HootSuite will ensure that you won’t need to worry about logging in to post content every day (or on weekends). You can even set your account to automatically share new blog content from your website as it gets published. Similarly, many email marketing tools and web platforms allow you to schedule the timing for emails and articles. 

Beyond that, a recent survey from eMarketer found that 56% of managers in the United States and United Kingdom reported bad data resulting in lost sales opportunities. If you work in a B2B company that captures emails and nurtures leads, having an automated platform for gathering and organizing your customer data will be essential for increasing future conversions.

Utilizing a customer resource management (CRM) platform will keep data properly organized so you can prioritize leads and guide them through the buyer’s journey. 

Being on a small marketing team may seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be.

Implementing best practices like crafting evergreen blog content, writing strong calls to action and focusing on valuable keywords all still apply when it comes to building your audience.

If you can incorporate these additional elements into your marketing mix, you’ll be even better equipped to do your marketing in an efficient way that delivers measurable results.

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