Ways to Create Content on a Budget

In last week’s blog post, we talked about ways you can create content on a budget. We discussed four tips any small or medium-sized business can use, including how to cut things down to a bare minimum, improving your process, repurposing content, and using what you have or know.

All these are great ideas, but there are many more ways you can make your own content without spending a lot of money. So, let’s dive right in an talk about 4 more ways you can create content on a budget.

Don’t break the bank creating good content

1. Create Content Types That Works For Your Audience

One way to save money is to create the most efficient types of content. Content isn’t limited to articles and blog posts. You can make photos, videos, slideshows, infographics, podcasts, animation, e-books etc. All of these cost money to make (and make well). Whether you’re looking at doing it yourself or having a professional do it, you still have to put resources into it.

But, you don’t have to do all of it – if you find YouTube videos and podcasts work well with your audience, then you should produce mainly this type of content, so you get the most bang for your buck.

If you’ve tried different types of content, then try to measure which ones your followers leave the most comments or share the most with their friends, to help you figure out which ones are the most productive for your business.

2. Look at What Your Competitors Are Doing

You can always test to see what performs best with your audience and perform A/B testing or measure your social metrics. Another way is to take the shotgun approach – try different things until you hit the target.

However, a faster way to find out what works is to look at what your competitors are doing. Look at your closest competitors and find out what works for them. See how many people look or share their content, and then once you find out which ones are more successful for them, then try to replicate what they did.

There are many tools available today that you can use to measure your competitors’ success. Take advantage of many of these tools like LinkTally (which measures how many times a link has been shared across Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn) or sites like SimilarWeb (which shows web analytics for websites).

3. Prioritize Quality of Content, Not Quantity

When trying to create content on a budget, are you spending all your time trying to make a lot of content?

Focusing on quantity of content is one rookie mistake many people make when starting their content marketing efforts. They see their competitors writing out two or three blog posts a week or posting five pictures a day.

But, if you can’t afford to create content like new pictures, videos, or blog posts everyday (or even several times a week) and the quality of your posts suffer, then you would have just wasted resources trying to keep up with your competitors.

Instead, think about what your audience wants and create content around that. Even if you only post one or two blogs a week, if you do it consistently enough, you will gain traction – especially if you keep the quality good.

In the end, quality always wins over quantity. Your audience is smart and they want content that’s of high value. It’s always better to spend your limited budget on excellent content, rather than several pieces of mediocre junk.

4. Find Free Sources of Content

They say that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Writers, photographers, videographers that create high quality and original content are certainly worth their weight in gold. You shouldn’t begrudge them their high fees, because after all, they spent a lot of time perfecting their craft and investing in themselves and expensive equipment.

However, there are ways you can still find good and FREE content – by simply asking for them. Guest posts, exchanges, and ex-deals are a great way to get amazing content without having to put your hand in your pocket.

Consider exchanging services to get great content

It’s an “I’ll scratch your back, if you’ll scratch mine” sort of thing. You can offer non-monetary incentives in exchange for content, like publicity, backlinks, even discounts on your products.

There are many experienced professionals who may turn their nose up at this, but also, there are young and hungry newcomers that are willing to offer their services quid pro quo. By using what resources you have, you can create content on a budget.

Create Content on a Budget: Not Impossible

Are you working smarter (not harder)?

Once in a while, if you can afford it, invest in some truly high-quality content that can give you a good ROI. But, if you’re just starting out, there’s no need to spend resources on creating content. Work smart, and do what you can with your limited budget. There are lots of people out there who are creating original and fresh posts, articles, pictures, and videos, without spending a king’s ransom, and get lots of shares and traffic.

Want to know more about how to create content on a budget? Or want to share your ideas on how to create content inexpensively? Contact us today or leave us a comment below.

By the way, we’d like to extend a SPECIAL invitation to readers of our blog – we are offering a trial access to the Nova Profit Mastermind program for only €1! Just follow this link and sign up today!