This is perhaps the greatest thing about content marketing—it’s scalable. Setting aside the fact that it’s effective and efficient, you can achieve a measure of success no matter what amount of money you want to put towards it.

There are different factors, of course, but by and large, you can achieve great results despite having little to no budget. Here’s how:

1. Define a Compelling Story for Your Brand

Smaller businesses will find it especially hard to compete with bigger names with even bigger budgets for content marketing. But what they can do is put more effort into their brand story. When you create an engaging, compelling story about how your business got started, what your vision is, what your mission is, you don’t necessarily have to put a lot of money behind advertising to communicate it.

You can document your efforts and share the journey organically, allowing the compelling nature of the story to pique the interest of your audience and drive its shareability. Without a lot of advertising money behind it, it may take a little more time to spread the word, but trust that it will pick up if you make an effort to create an interesting brand story.

2. Be Strategic About Your Content Marketing Approach

I often hear marketers highlight the importance of strategy for content marketing, but this is especially true if you’re a business working with a very limited budget. To be strategic, take a step back and ask yourself, who are you trying to reach, exactly? What are their main motivations for buying? What pain points do they experience before they make a purchase? How can your product address that? How does your audience spend their time online?

Once you answer these questions, you’ll be able to develop a plan and a solid approach towards your digital marketing.

3. Repurpose Old Content

It’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel in content marketing. True, originality and unique content have great value, but so does repurposing old content in smart, thoughtful ways.

Take a look at your old material and see which pieces performed best. You can tweak them a little bit and republish them. Take the same content and use it as an infographic. Use the material to create a video.

The goal is to make your content—existing pieces that have proven to be effective previously—work harder. Don’t be afraid to reshare content across your social media platforms, seed to influencers and thought leaders, or ask your readers and followers for feedback.

4. Learn to Piggyback on Trending Topics

Pay attention to social media trends. Most platforms will show you top content and what’s being talked about. Check what topics you can tie back to your own business and ride on its coattails. The trick here is to make sure that you’re not forcing it. Make sure that it fits your brand’s tone and voice, and that it’s relevant to your readers. You’ll see that it can help boost engagement and following.

Hope my answers help! If you have any questions, feel free to join the conversation on our LinkedIn or Twitter. Or simply leave a comment below.