Don’t blow your startup budget on inbound marketing and content generation

Inbound marketing and content generation are vital to establishing a new business. However, the process is super resource intensive and can seem impossible for a resource strained startup. There is good news - there are some strategies that will help you stretch your resources further than you thought possible, allowing you to successfully implement inbound marketing and content generation in your business.

So what is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a way of attracting customers by offering them tailored, valuable content and experiences rather than pushing unwanted content and sales-led messaging on them. Rather than just pushing your product at prospective clients, you will be developing strong relationships based on trust and building your reputation as experts in your industry - so at a point of need you are top of mind.

Content generation usually starts with deciding what content will bring value to your clients and figuring out how to present that information in the most compelling way. Written and video blogs are the most common form of content marketing today. Both of these require careful planning and execution. This process requires a significant amount of time to do properly and when time is money, costs can start to add up very quickly.

Ways to reduce costs

1.  Use content that has already been created by someone else

   With permission of course. This can save a considerable amount of time and resources while still achieving a similar result. If you come across a report or blog created by someone else and you believe it would benefit your clients, using it would have the same benefits as if you created it yourself but require very little resources.

   Most organisations that post helpful content are happy for you to share their work if you reference them. It’s a win-win situation where you get the benefit of helping your customers and building a reputation in the industry and the creators reach a wider audience with their content.

2.  Re-purpose successful content

   So you have spent a significant amount of resources creating an amazing eBook and your clients love it. What’s next? You can definitely repurpose things like eBooks into a blog series or a series of videos. Presenting the information in different formats like video blogs, infographics and social media posts can reach an even wider audience and be a way to expand ideas further if they were not fully developed.

3.  Outsource the implementation and promotion of your content

   Promoting your content can be resource intensive and often the difference between a successful piece and a waste of resources. If your piece does not reach the right audience at the right time it can be a missed opportunity and therefore budget spent poorly. The planning and implementation of content can take as much, if not more time and resources to do successfully than the initial writing.

   Creating content in-house can be important to reach your target audience successfully. It is often necessary to create content in-house for accuracy, appropriate tone and context for your clients. By outsourcing the promotion and implementation of your content you will be able to leverage the cost savings of offshore staff without compromising content quality.

4.  Outsource the majority of the inbound marketing process

   When you are a start-up company, you need to stay as lean as possible. Marketing requires a specific skill set and if you are light on, resource execution of your plan will suffer. If you don’t have the time and/or resources to successfully implement an in-house inbound marketing strategy, outsourcing the majority of the process could be your key to success.

   So how much of the process can you outsource, and what needs to be kept in-house? We recommend that management, strategy and content production should all stay in-house. Roles such as marketing assistants, graphic designers, video graphic editors, web developers, digital marketers and software developers can all be offshored. Offshore marketing staff have the same or similar qualifications and English skills as onshore employees, just at a fraction of the cost. From our experience, blended marketing teams can work very successfully - providing great cost efficiencies and results for your business.

The inbound marketing methodology can, but doesn't have to, drain your valuable resources. Learn more about offshore marketing. Read our Q&A blog with our Marketing Team Leader in the Philippines.