Marketing on a limited budget can be confusing.  If you are a premium brand, how are you expected to add social media, blogging, paid advertising, email marketing, public relations and SEO to your already jam-packed days?  Where should you start?

At the heart of any marketing tactic you pursue is content. Think of content as the story behind your brand.  This story is essential to reinforcing the value you provide, creating awareness around who you are and what you do, and distinguishing your company from others.  As a premium brand, your story is everything.  

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is simply creating and sharing that story to achieve marketing objectives like increasing sales, creating more brand awareness, grow market share, or launch a new product.   Content marketing has grown more prevalent as consumers have grown less responsive to traditional advertising and opportunities to capture a wide audience have dwindled.  Content marketing engages prospects in a conversation and can be promoted in various mediums.    Here are some examples of what it is and how it works:

Blogs

Blogs are a great place to start with your content marketing efforts. Google loves unique content and so do social media networks, and that’s why bloggers attract large audiences.  If you are writing blogs to enhance your SEO, make sure your blogs are text-heavy and your titles reflect common search terms.  If you are writing an article on your sources of inspiration for example, your title should be "Top Inspiration Sources for Premium Design Brand ABC" rather than something more opaque like "My Inspiration."

You can also use your blogs as the root of a more comprehensive content marketing strategy.  In other words, create a long-form blog, but then from that pull out smaller snippets for Facebook or short quotes for Twitter that drive social users back your site to read the article in full.

If you aren't sure what to write about, think about the top questions customers ask you about your products or your brand and start there. What questions have you heard more than once?  What are some reoccurring themes that people always seem to come back to? Chances are, those are great subjects for a post.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your particular field and they are often less time-consuming than writing a blog post.  Think of the topics in the same way, write an outline, and then talk to that outline.

Often numerous voices are more interesting than a single voice, so if there are different stakeholders in your organization, invite them to join the conversation.  If you are a sole proprietor, invite other designers, makers or industry leaders to participate once your podcast is up and running. 

In order to produce your podcast, you'll need a media host.  You'll also have to think through things like the name, episode titles, theme music, and more.  The most important thing is deciding if this is a worthy effort for you and your brand. 

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories can be collections of images organized around a theme or a live video.   They appear as a bar on the top of your feed and vanish after 24 hours.  Recently, Instagram introduced hashtags and location stickers to Instagram Stories, which are great to use whenever possible. If you have over 10K followers and a business account, you can add links to your site in Stories as well.

If you have a large Instagram presence, Instagram stories might be a way to use content to further engage your followers.  Because these stories are ephemeral, it can be a lot of work for a limited reward - so consider whether this the right strategy for you.

Videos

One of the best aspects of content marketing is that potential clients will connect with you in a more meaningful way. A video is a wonderful way to do that because viewers feel like they are really getting to know you.  You can produce videos on Facebook Live, YouTube, or Instagram.  The topics you discuss can be similar to blog post topics.  

These videos are not the polished, produced videos of advertising.  They are conversations with your potential clients.  Lighting, sound, and background should be good enough that it's not distracting, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

How to get started with your own content marketing strategy

Craft an approach you are most comfortable with and makes sense for your brand.  Whatever tactic you choose, source your subjects by speaking to existing and former clientns on what sort of queries or concerns they have.  Take a common theme and explore it in different ways, perhaps a blog post, video and a series of Facebook posts.

You don't have to produce original content every day but make an effort to be regular about your content marketing.  Whether it's once a week or twice a month, find a schedule you can stick to.

While your efforts may not yield immediate results, they are an effective form of marketing, especially as a brand trying to tell your story.  You control the messaging and the medium its delivered in, and by doing that, you open up the doors to conversations with future clients.