Content really is king when it comes to promoting your band or business. According to Hubspot, promoting your content is “one of the most effective methods of growing audience engagement, developing your brand presence and driving sales.” This is why it pays to have a content strategy that is on point.
The dilemma: content creation and building out a solid content strategy can get pricey, fast. So, what can you do if you have a small budget or need to create yours DIY style?
Creating content for your content strategy can be effective without being overly expensive, and more than one expert agrees with this. Andy Tatt–founder, photographer and videographer of Andy Tatt Media, a music marketing and production company–and Laura Dolan–Senior Marketing Manager at Optimizely, a digital experience software service–compiled their best pointers to get you going in the right direction.
12 budget-friendly content creation ideas…
Now, you have a budget you need to follow, but you need to promote the brand you’ve busted your butt creating. Here are a few content ideas that will help you do that at a reasonable price.
…for small businesses, advice from Laura
- Write blogs: Blogs are one of the most common tools out there that you can use to drive traffic to your website and get to your ideal client or audience. You can announce a new product in a few lines with a photo or create a list of ways to use that product. Additionally, as Laura says, you can work together with other businesses to boost each others’ blogs: “[G]etting involved in a blog exchange or a linkback program with another like-minded company is a great way to find a fresh set of eyes, raise brand awareness and attract more traffic to your website.” Ahem, kind of like what we are doing with this blog, wink, wink.
- Make the most of social media: Love it or hate it, social media is one of the best ways to easily and affordably reach people. You have to choose the platforms that fit your brand and use them to your benefit. When it comes to optimal posting practices, Laura recommends, “posting up to four times a week so that you show up on your audience’s feed just enough to be top of mind without inundating them. Because the last thing you want is an ‘unfollow.’ There are also infographics and research out there that will help you determine the most optimal time of day to post on each platform to ensure you get the most amount of exposure and engagement possible.”
- Reuse or repurpose old content: You did the photoshoot, wrote the blogs and collected those reviews. That’s all usable content! “There are no rules saying you can’t post the same update twice,” Laura tells us. “Simply take the same caption you wrote for another product from a few months back, modify it slightly to match a new product, and post it without taking up any more of your precious time. You can do the same thing with an old blog. If you have content on your site that’s more than two years old, rewrite the story, change it up, refresh the info and keywords and soon you’ll have a brand new piece of content that will attract new readers and keep your site relevant.” Get the most out of the content you’ve already made, especially if it made a big impact the first time around.
…for artists and musicians, advice from Andy
- Create behind-the-scenes content: People love to feel included and “behind-the-scenes” material offers that experience. It’s attention-grabbing which is exactly what you want. Andy points out that the more content you can make the better. “When making music videos or having promotional shoots, as well as rehearsals, see if someone can take behind-the-scenes photos and video,” he advises. “Any way to get relevant and engaging content for your fans in the form of photos, video, lives etc.”
- Tell your fans about your process or your progress: People love a good story so if you have one, share it. Write about your experience creating your latest art piece and what inspired it. Write about the struggles of putting together your latest EP. Or even just write about what you love the most about what you do. It shows you’re active and engages your followers on a more intimate level which helps grow your audience.
- Give people a chance to ask you questions: This is a fun and easy one because it allows your audience to guide the conversation. Hop onto Instagram and allow people to ask you questions, or create an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit. You might be surprised by what people will ask (no reward without some risk right?) but overall it should be fun and helpful. And of course you can record your reactions to the questions and use the video as content to post later too!
…for personal brands, advice from RM Creative Services
- Create regular vlogs: Choose a day or two to shoot and edit your vlogs and post them consistently. Talk about your latest adventure when you walked your dog. Or discuss how you’ve changed your eating habits lately and the impact it has had. People want to know about you so if it would make for a good story that you might tell a friend, share it! Overall, you want to make sure you stick to some kind of schedule when you vlog so people know when to tune in. Consistency is so important.
- Create educational content: People love to learn so why not share what you know? Maybe you are learning about a new subject in history and want to share some fun facts. Or perhaps you have a background in recovery and want to share some encouragement for Mental Health Awareness Month. You can create infographics or engaging videos that offer educational info to your followers. Content like this is going to be highly shareable which, you guessed it, gains you more followers.
- Showcase your favorite things: Have a unique Evil Tea Co. blend you love or a new clothing brand like Sisters of the Black Moon that you can’t stop raving about? Make sure to share it with your followers. Take photos, make brief videos, and get the most out of letting the world know what you love.
…for businesses with a bigger budget, advice from all of us
- Get content from your customers: You want to engage your customers and make them feel heard. Make the most of this by using that feedback to increase awareness and engagement. Send out an email and make posts on your social media asking for photos or videos of people using your product or collect video snippets of customer feedback to make into a video that you can share. It may take a bit more time to collect the materials for this, but it is well worth it.
- Put together a co-marketing campaign: Time for a giveaway! Reach out to other businesses to work with and collaborate. You can each select products or services that people can win in a contest or drawing. The requirement that your audience has to fulfill is spreading the word! This is a win-win for you and your customers! What’s more, the posts that you create about the campaign present a perfect linkback opportunity.
- Build a regular newsletter: If you are building an email database of your customers (and you should) it is a good idea to put together a newsletter to engage recipients. Using an email service provider such as Marketo, Flodesk or Hubspot where you can build a monthly newsletter will help boost your brand. “Email campaigns are a fantastic way to raise awareness about company news and updates, new products, new locations, and creating calls-to-action to get more customers to your website and social media platform,” Laura says.
Remember: when you are building your content strategy you want to create content that is made for your ideal customer or audience. Make that content count and you’ll enjoy a show stopping boost for your brand without major additional costs.
You want to grow your band or business and we want to help you do that. RM Creative Services can help you put together a content strategy that fits both your brand and your budget. Connect with us by sending a message to info@rachaelmattice.com or visit our Contact page to get started.