FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

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Time to Market

You have an advantage over other entrepreneurs.

Your business is all about content and audiences. So unlike someone who invents a product or opens a small retail business, you already have some of the knowledge and skills necessary to market your business. In many cases, your content products can be treated as a form of marketing.

But too often, marketing gets pushed to the side. (Insert valid and not-really-valid reasons/excuses here.) I get it. I really do. Marketing, however, is essential no matter your business stage.

How much time should I devote to marketing? A Constant Contact survey of small business owners found they spent an average of 20 hours a week on marketing (using three to four vendors to help in their work). A Vertical Response survey says 43% of small business owners spend six hours a week on marketing.

Short answer: Spend as much time marketing as you can without jeopardizing the other aspects of your business (or life).

How much should I spend on marketing? BrightEdge shares that marketing budgets typically range between 5 and 25% of the company’s revenue or revenue target. If the company seeks to maintain its position, that share could drop to between 2 and 10%, but if the business wants to grow more than 50%, it should plan 15 to 30% of projected revenue.

When it comes to startups, HubSpot says the average marketing budget should be about 11% of overall revenue. Web Strategies found B2B services average about 9% of the total budget and B2C services average 17.7% of the total budget. (The B2C higher percentage likely happens given the increased work necessary to stand out in those more crowded marketplaces.)

Short answer: As a relatively new content entrepreneur, your overall budget is likely small. Fortunately, your non-marketing expenses also are likely less than most traditional businesses. So invest a higher percentage of your total budget on marketing. As you build traction – and other expenses increase because of that – reassess the marketing share of the budget pie.

How should I build a marketing budget? In a content business, your marketing strategy likely is close to your business strategy (your Content Inc. model). If your marketing strategy doesn’t break down the specifics, now’s the time to do that. Your budget should act as a translation of your marketing strategy.

To help in the process, HubSpot offers helpful marketing budget templates (requires registration). Or, if you prefer not to sign up for templates, the business mentor program SCORE offers a marketing budget template (adjust as necessary).

Short answer: Prioritize spending on those things that will attract an audience. I’ve seen more than one entrepreneur get so concerned about their branding creative – logo, etc. – that they didn’t have any budget left to use that branding creative.

Bottom line: Make sure you budget time and money to invest in marketing for your business. This deliberate effort makes your short- and long-term success as a content entrepreneur much more likely.

– Ann Gynn

To get some free marketing tips, read the full story. ​
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Entrepreneurs: Jenna Sinatra and Will DeVane

Tilt: Life as a Gen Z couple

Scene: YouTube (1.16M), TikTok (Jenna, 1.8M; Will 1.5M), Instagram (Jenna 164K; Will 100K)

Snack Bites:

• Jenna Sinatra and Will DeVane cured their pandemic boredom by making TikTok videos.
• They realized most of the couples content on social media was about older adults and families, not late teens and early 20-somethings. So they made their content tilt about life as a Gen Z couple to fill the gap.
• Jenna and Will united to form a YouTube channel, leading to big audience gains in what they call a more authentic way.

Why We Stan: Jenna and Will always involve their viewers. Whether it’s advice on where to go in their new dart-throwing travel series or votes for winners of their gingerbread house-making content, their video descriptions include a thank-you shoutout to their subscribers. We also think it’s smart to maintain their individual channels on TikTok so they each have their own audience.

– Ann Gynn

​Learn more about Jenna and Will by reading the full story.​

Know a content creator who’s going full tilt? DM us. Or email [email protected].

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• Are you interested in helping us launch the next edition of Epic Content Marketing? We’d love your help!​
• Speaking of help, the creator economy research survey is still open. Please be sure to complete if you have a few minutes!
• Joe talks about why you need to edit like Lizzo. (Content Inc. podcast)
• In this very special episode of This Old Marketing, Joe and Robert break down the good, the bad, and the ugly for social media platforms in 2023 and beyond. (This Old Marketing podcast)
• Have you seen this lecture for founders from nine years ago by the founder of ChatGPT? (Insider)

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Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Pam Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony.