The focus of today's podcast episode is content marketing, and specifically how to do it on a shoestring budget. Let's face it; we all need to create content consistently but we all love to save money, right?

Because we're all so busy, consistently creating content is a challenge and is often an afterthought -- something we'll do when we "have more time." However, in the same way that paying bills and answering email is a priority in order to keep your business alive, so is content marketing. Few people survive in today's fierce online world if they don't continually produce unique content!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The answer to the question, "What is content?" I provide a quick list to remind you of how many opportunities you have to create content.

• The most important question you need to ask yourself regarding your content. The answer to this question will help you create content that engages and interests your audience. I also talk about the importance of solving problems and providing information that will enable your audience to take action and implement what they learn.

• How to brainstorm ideas for content.  I cover 3 tips for coming up with stellar content ideas that fit your ideal audience.

• How to repurpose your best content. Brainstorming is important, but you may have already created a lot of content that you can repurpose. In this segment of the podcast I give you ideas for ways you can repurpose your existing content and provide examples of how I use this strategy myself.

• How to get inspired by mixing things up. I share one of my best sources of inspiration; it drives my husband crazy, but it's one of my favorite ways to get fresh content ideas!

• How to become a ninja outsourcer. I cover 3 main roles you need to have in place when it comes to content creation. I provide tips for finding great people who will treat your business as if it's their own; content marketing is a direct reflection of your brand, so it's worth investing in the relationships you have with your contractors.  I also talk about the importance of staying involved in the process and how to communicate your needs and expectations  without micromanaging.

• How to optimize your content calendar. To get the most from your calendar, it needs to be extremely easy to use and easy to access. I explain how and why I use Google calendar for my content calendar.

• The importance of creating content with the big picture in mind. My tip here is something that most people don't teach. (Hint: less just might mean more for you!)

• I share some tactical content creation tips including how to capture and keep track of ideas for future content. I talk about mistakes I made early on and what I did to improve my process for organizing my content creation ideas so that I can find them when I'm ready to use them.

• The importance of responsive design.

• I wrap up this episode by sharing my motto, "Give more than you ever expect to receive." Tony Robbins put it perfectly: "If you can make it your goal to always find a way to add more value to people's lives than anyone else, then you'll never have to worry about success."

Welcome to the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast.

I am seriously thrilled to jump into this podcast! I know it sounds a bit silly, but I could talk about online marketing all day long - I just can't get enough of it. (But I must admit, sometimes it drives my husband crazy!)

About this podcast:

As you might already know, for the past few years, I’ve been focused on Facebook marketing, and while I’m obviously a big fan of Facebook marketing, I've also found great success in other social media platforms and online marketing strategies outside of social media marketing.

So this podcast is going to go beyond Facebook marketing and dive into smart, proven strategies worth implementing when it comes to marketing a business online.

In this first episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we dive into social media list building strategies to help you attract your ideal audience, strengthen your relationships beyond your social media platforms, and of course grow your email list.

In this episode, here's what we'll cover:

• The 3 big reasons why some emails always get opened and most are ignored

• Learn the very specific, big questions you want to ask before you create a free giveaway offers

• The most successful valuable giveaway offers are those made up of premium content. I'll give you a list of the most popular giveaway offer formats that work great on social media sites.

• There are two types of social media list building strategies: Indirect and Direct.  Get examples of each to make sure you're maximizing your social media activity to ensure your list is growing daily with quality leads.

I'll  also cover specific list building strategies for Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. To help you better understand each strategy, I've included image examples below:

Experiment with Facebook Offers

Facebook Offers are a FANTASTIC list building strategy.  Offers are highly valuable because they get out into the news feeds of fans, friends of fans and non-fans, depending on your targeting focus.

Step 1: Create Your Facebook Offer and Promote it with a Facebook Ad

Step 2: An Email is Sent to the Facebook User's Personal Email

Step 3: Drive Traffic from the Email to Your Opt-In Opportunity

YouTube List Building Strategies

It’s important to strategically leverage your videos to drive traffic to your opt-in opportunities. When people watch your videos all the way through, they are likely interested in what you have to say, so you want to make sure not to lose them after the video ends.

Pinterest: Optimizing Your Images

Recent data shows that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined. Facebook is the only social media site that drives more traffic than Pinterest. And that is precisely why Pinterest can be a solid list building platform for you when you get strategic with your images.

When list building on Pinterest, create images that are relevant to your giveaway offer and then pin them to Pinterest.  Make sure to include the link to your opt-in page in the description field when pinning your image.

Optimize your profile by adding a link to your opt-in page via your Pinterest profile. Plus, make sure to add your website to your Pinterest profile; it doesn’t have to be a link to your homepage, but can instead include a link to your opt-in page to drive more traffic to your giveaway offer.

Twitter Strategies

List Building Tip: Embed your opt-in link in your Twitter bio.  This will allow two different links in just one profile.

List Building Tip: Use the free tool, Click to Tweet, to create an automated tweet you can use all over the web. It's easy to use and works like a champ to help you promote your content on Twitter.