Grow Your Content Marketing as a Team of One
By: Nicole Kow
Tags: Lead Generation, Small Business, B2b Content Marketing, Productivity Tips, Content Marketing

Grow Your Content Marketing as a Team of One

Trust me, you don’t need an army of marketers to stand out online — you just need a little more focus Nicole Kow May 21·8 min read

Working in a small team doesn’t have to be daunting.

Content marketing can be both a blessing and a curse.

When done well, it can generate great sales leads and position your brand as an authority in the industry. However, it can also seem like a giant monster that needs to be fed constantly, lest it fizzles out and dies.

In 2020, amidst the pandemic, furloughs, and job cuts, I found myself developing, executing, managing, and reporting on all content marketing strategies for a small B2B tech company, alone and on a shoestring budget. Throughout the year, I managed to maintain a steady stream of leads for my sales team, generate high-quality content to keep our blog relevant, and execute crucial customer campaigns to reduce churn.

Today, I’m a freelancer learning to run my own writing business and marketing consultancy. I not only work with other small, one-person marketing teams, I also find myself dreaming up and executing marketing strategies for my own business.

While running your content marketing as a solopreneur or a tiny team can seem daunting and difficult, the truth is, there are many ways to simplify the process, reduce workload, and double down on what works.

It all starts with a little more focus.

1. Clarify Your Content Marketing Goals

Who are you writing for?

“We only need a small part of the internet to succeed at Buffer.” — Ash Read, Head of Content at Buffer

Knowing your target customer segment is key to successful content marketing. Who is your most profitable and loyal customer segment? What do they care about? What do they find interesting? Where do they hang out online? What do they talk about on Facebook or Reddit or Hacker News or GitHub? What content do you need to create to keep them engaged with your product or brand?

A clearly defined customer segment helps you prioritise the content and distribution channels that will get you seen by the people who will want to buy your product or service.

Do your content marketing goals align with your company’s overall goals?

Oftentimes, marketers get distracted by vanity metrics and lose sight of their real purpose.

Sure it’s cool to say you’ve written for Forbes or Fast Company, or if a blog post you published goes viral. But if your efforts do not translate to paying customers, are you really doing your job?

When considering your content marketing goals, ask yourself:

Does this get me closer to my target customer segment?

Does this align with my company’s long-term goals?

Keeping these two questions in mind can shift the focus of your marketing strategy, help you get in front of the right people, and bring in real, tangible results.

2. Simplify Your Tasks

Now that you’re a little more focused, you should look for ways to reduce the number of tasks you have to do, and cut down on the number of steps it takes to complete each task.

What’s in your control?

As the only person managing communications for an entire company, I often found myself juggling multiple ad-hoc tasks while trying to keep up with the routine stuff like social media posts and newsletters. While the ad-hoc stuff was difficult to control, and sometimes they were simply out of control, the routine work was within my control.

So, I made a list of all my tasks and responsibilities, noted down how much time it took to complete each task, and the ROI per task.

Our marketing newsletters stood out. While it took me roughly five hours to put it together every two weeks, the newsletters did not generate enough high-quality demo requests to justify the time spent creating it. Our automated marketing and sales workflows did a much better job.

Less is truly more

Even with the numbers in front of me, the decision to send out the newsletters once a month instead of twice a month was a difficult one to make. We had been sending fortnightly newsletters for five years, how dare I change this?

Once it was decided though, the constant pressure to send out yet another newsletter was gone. In the following weeks, I experienced a renewed sense of joy when creating those newsletters. I had more time to prepare the content for it and more time to write thoughtful sentences to engage our readers.

I also cut down the number of steps it took to create a newsletter by simplifying our newsletter template. Small changes like replacing the header image with a text header meant I no longer spent time fiddling with font colours or scouring Unsplash for the “perfect” header image.

3. Let Your Data Guide You

When you’re short on resources and don’t have much time to experiment with new ideas, looking at past data to find out what works is a great way to replicate success.

Drawing in the right crowd

When I looked at our blog analytics, I learned that the topics that generated huge amounts of organic traffic did not necessarily bring in the right leads. Instead, the topics that really resonated with our target customer segment did not drive nearly as much organic traffic to our site.

Since massive amounts of web traffic alone does not pay our bills, I decided to double down on topics that drew in the right crowd, not a large crowd. To make my content go further, I also pitched similar topics to popular industry publications to get in front of more of the right people.

If you’re just starting out and might not have a large pool of historical data to analyse, go online and hang out where your users hang out. Facebook groups and Reddit communities allow you to filter for popular posts with plenty of likes, upvotes, and comments, all of which can help you identify the topics you should be writing.

Reviving old content

Instead of writing new content from scratch, I updated previously published posts that performed well and covered timeless topics such as “How to write killer content to build your brand” or “How to find the right price for your product.”

Refreshing old blog posts included:

Adding new content or removing old content to keep the article fresh

Citing newer research where relevant

Updating old images

Removing dead links

4. Automate as Much as Possible

Automations are a great way to save time on repetitive tasks such as reporting or importing/exporting data. While this might take a while to set up, it will save you a lot of time and energy down the line.

Automate lead generation emails

Drip campaigns are a great way to qualify and engage new leads, and gently turn away leads who just aren’t a good fit. This means you don’t waste time replying to every single person who fills out a form on your site, you only spend time on leads who have the potential to become a customer. Tools like MailChimp, HubSpot, and ConvertKit are great for setting up time-saving, automated email workflows.

Automate repetitive tasks

As a team of one, tools like Zapier can also help reduce time spent on repetitive tasks. Need to report on website views every Tuesday and Thursday morning? Set up a Zap to deliver those numbers to your inbox before you have your first cup of coffee.

Don’t like spending hours a day on social media? Block out two hours each month to schedule all your posts in one go on platforms like HubSpot or Buffer, and spend 15 to 20 minutes a week for the rest of the month responding to comments and engaging followers.

Automated email replies

You can also create automated email replies for your inbox.

If you’re the only marketer in the company, you’re probably the go-to person for every marketing-related question or task. Compile a list of frequently asked questions, add them to your automated reply, and only respond to requests that truly need your attention.

5. Outsource or Barter

If you’re bartering, offer value

When freelancing was still a side hustle, I was hired by a coaching company that could not afford my services. So, I accepted a lower rate and the opportunity to work with a career coach over five sessions. The coaching sessions turned out to be invaluable as I came to understand and appreciate the value I brought to the table, which ultimately gave me the courage to strike out on my own.

Hire freelancers or contractors

These days, companies often hire me to take on tasks they don’t have the time or expertise to execute on their own. Sometimes it’s setting up lead generation from scratch — from writing the first ebook to embedding a form on their website and setting up their CRM — other times, it’s researching and writing an in-depth blog post for a specific audience in mind.

For tiny teams, outsourcing work can be a great way to free up your time to focus on the bigger picture, while ensuring the work that needs to be done is done well.

6. Prioritise and Then Prioritise Again

The great thing about being in a small team or being in a team of one is that you’re able to move things around and reprioritise tasks as your company’s priorities shift, the market changes, or new information comes in.

Being small allows you to be lean and quick, an advantage that most teams lose as they get bigger. However, you also need to make smart decisions with the limited time and resources you have. To make sure you’re always on the right track, review your tasks and responsibilities again and again so that the important stuff gets done.

The Eisenhower Matrix

Image from How to Master your Priorities with the Urgent-Important Matrix

Identifying what’s urgent and what’s important can help you prioritise the stuff that needs to be done now, what can be scheduled for later, what can be delegated, and what can be dropped.

As a freelancer, I have multiple deadlines a week for various clients. I also have big dreams for my own business. At the start of each week, I highlight key pieces of work that need to be delivered and arrange them based on their deadlines. I then arrange my daily schedule such that I have one big task each day, accompanied by 3 to 5 smaller tasks.

With each new day, I have my big task, which could be researching and writing an article, accompanied by smaller tasks such as replying to an email or invoicing a client.

Communicating your priorities

Whether you’re part of a larger company or you’re a freelancer, clear and consistent communication can help you stay focused on the important stuff, getting you closer to your long-term marketing goals.

One thing I do with my clients (and prior managers) is to let them know what I’m working on for that given day or week. If something ad-hoc crops up, I let them know gently that I will have to deprioritise something else to focus on the new task.

These were awkward conversations to have at first, but with time, I got better at communicating my priorities and why certain things were a priority given the limited time and resources.

Take Care Of Yourself

Whether you’re a solopreneur or a team of one juggling competing needs with limited time and resources, you’re not alone.

When things get chaotic and out of hand, revisiting your target customer segment and aligning your content marketing goals to your company’s overall goals can help you cut out the noise and focus on the tasks that truly matter.