Key Takeaways
Maximize Content Use: Repurpose a single content piece across various platforms (like turning a video into podcasts, social media clips, and blog posts) and use free or affordable resources (royalty-free images, free tools for editing and design, and free trial periods of paid tools).
Smart Channel Selection: Focus on channels with better organic reach and content longevity, like LinkedIn, TikTok, blogging, and YouTube.
Efficiency through Outsourcing: Save time and maintain focus on business operations by outsourcing content creation and management, especially for high-volume content across multiple platforms.
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Repurpose Content
Repurposing content means utilizing the same content multiple times.
A basic example is posting the same image across your social media platforms.
However, there are far more effective ways to repurpose content.
Consider this scenario: you record an hour-long video podcast. From this, you can:
- Extract the audio for podcasting platforms
- Upload the full video to YouTube
- Create shorter clips for YouTube from the original video
- Post engaging, bite-sized video segments on social media
- Transcribe the audio for a blog post
- Highlight key points from the blog on social media
Suddenly, from one piece of content, you could have 20, 30, or more unique pieces.
This is repurposing content on an impressive scale!
Remember, this concept isn’t just for podcasts. The idea is to break down long-form content and distribute it across all your marketing channels.
For more ideas on content repurposing, check out my article here.
Use Royalty-Free Images
Stock images can escalate the costs of blog articles or social media posts.
For example, Shutterstock’s monthly subscription costs $125 for just 50 images, equating to $2.50 per image.
While paid stock images are often of higher quality, they may be prohibitively expensive for new content marketers.
Fortunately, there are excellent free and hybrid options, such as:
- Pexels – known for its high-quality, royalty-free images
- Pixabay – offering nearly 2 million royalty-free stock images
- Canva – a graphic design tool with a vast collection of royalty-free images
Caution is key: avoid lesser-known royalty-free image platforms. They often host copyrighted images falsely labeled as royalty-free.
Larger platforms are vigilant in removing such content, but smaller platforms may lack the resources or inclination to maintain a clean inventory.
Take Your Own Images and Videos
Taking your own photos and videos for your content is always beneficial.
You don’t need high-end cameras and tripods.
Just use your smartphone to start capturing images and videos.
Modern smartphones have sufficiently good cameras for this task.
While the results may not be ultra-professional, they’re free and authentic.
Your own photos and videos add relatability and authority to your content.
For instance, showing yourself using a barbecue grill in a review enhances the audience’s trust.
Use Free or Freemium Tools
For almost every task, there’s a free or freemium tool available.
Looking for free video editing tools?
- Try Lightworks or OpenShot.
Need free graphic design tools?
- Try Canva or Visme.
For English grammar and spelling help,
- Try Grammarly and HemingwayApp.
To remove backgrounds from images for free,
- Try RemoveBG.
For keyword research,
- Try Answerthepublic and Keyword Sheeter.
If you need specific functionalities for your website,
- There’s likely a free WordPress plugin for it.
Numerous free and freemium resources are available online.
You just need to explore them.
Use Free Trials of Paid Tools for Bulk Work
Paid tools usually offer superior features compared to free ones.
Most paid tools provide free trials, which can be strategically used.
This approach is particularly beneficial for tasks like keyword research and competitor analysis.
Tools like Semrush are excellent but costly (around $129/month).
However, they offer a 7-day free trial with full access if you want to try it out for free.
Utilizing both trials consecutively gives you two weeks for comprehensive keyword research and competitor analysis, usually sufficient.
This strategy can yield hundreds or thousands of vetted keywords and topics, while also saving money.
The same principle applies to other marketing tasks like graphic design or video editing.
Choose Your Content Marketing Channels Wisely
Content marketing channels are platforms where content is published.
Not all channels are equally cost-effective, particularly for newcomers.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter now face an imbalance with more content creation than consumption.
This leads to diminished organic post sharing, as these platforms push paid advertising.
However, platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok still offer significant organic reach.
Another crucial aspect is whether a channel functions as a search engine.
People use search engines to actively seek solutions, allowing your content to be discovered over a long period.
In contrast, content on platforms like Facebook or Instagram vanishes quickly after posting.
Evergreen search engine content marketing channels include:
- Blogging – essential for tapping into Google’s traffic.
- YouTube – the second-largest search engine, with content also featuring in Google SERPs.
- Pinterest – a visual search engine and social platform often appearing in Google SERPs.
Podcasting has been gaining immense popularity.
It’s not too late to establish a presence in the podcasting world, especially with location-based content.
Podcasting offers a unique opportunity for audience building and industry networking.
Outsource Content Creation
For business owners new to content marketing but fully engaged in their businesses, these last two tips are crucial.
Creating content is time-consuming.
A 2,000-word article typically takes 2 to 4 hours from start to finish.
Similarly, producing a 10-minute video can demand an equivalent amount of time, depending on your editing process.
If content marketing compromises other business operations, it’s not practical to pursue it.
Outsourcing emerges as an effective solution in such scenarios.
Initially, outsourcing demands some of your time, but finding the right freelancers makes it worthwhile.
Popular freelancing platforms include Fiverr and Upwork, along with many smaller, specialized ones.
Additionally, there are numerous online writing services where you can order articles on any topic with ease.
Essentially, for any content need, there’s a skilled freelancer available online.
Outsource Content Management
Content creation isn’t the sole time-intensive aspect of content marketing; there’s also content management.
The decision to outsource depends on your volume of content and the number of marketing channels used.
If your output is limited to a few articles monthly on a single blog, outsourcing might be more trouble than it’s worth.
However, for those producing 3-5 articles weekly, maintaining a podcast, creating videos, and spreading content across 7-10 channels, managing this content can consume a significant portion of your day.
Hiring a dedicated virtual assistant for these tasks could be an ideal solution.
Although finding and training the right person takes time, it’s a small upfront investment for the significant amount of time you’ll free up for more critical tasks.