Content Marketing on a Small Budget

The week the content engine started

A one-person HVAC company posted nothing for years. We built a list of the fourteen questions customers asked most, answered one per week in plain language, and turned each answer into an email and a social post. Eight months later, those pages bring in more leads than the Yellow Pages ever did — at zero ad cost.

Content marketing is not publishing for algorithms. It is answering your customers’ questions where Google can find them. Related reading: email marketing basics referral programs.

The weekly loop

Pick the question you answered most this week.
Write 400 words: the answer, one example, one mistake to avoid.
Post it on your site with a descriptive title.
Send it to your email list with two sentences of framing.
Turn it into three social posts.

One hour of writing becomes a week of marketing. The compounding starts around month three and does not stop.

What to skip

Skip keyword stuffing, daily posting, and anything you cannot sustain. Ten useful pages beat a hundred thin ones; twelve consistent emails beat a hundred scattered ones.

Keep reading

Where the details come from: Google guidance on helpful content and Local search marketing overview.