Sep
04
Small Biz Marketing For $100 a Month
I was going to title this post “Small Biz Marketing for People with No Budget.” Then I realized that there is a very big difference between zero and $100 for many people. (If you have NO budget, start commenting on blogs like a crazy person and get active on Twitter and Facebook. Or sell your Xbox and follow the rules below.)
I get a lot of questions about low budget marketing ideas. People are like, “I have $100 a month. How the hell can I get people to my site?” (It’s always $100 for some reason.) Here’s my answer:
Go to a conference.
Take the $100 a month you would’ve spent on random banner ads over the course of a year and go to a conference. You can do South by Southwest for that, and you can do SOBCon for half if you’re careful with where you stay and how you get there.
Conferences are just like those lame ass Small Business Association meet and greets except the booze is better and they’re not so sleazy. People are away from their families and other responsibilities, so their inhibitions are lowered. They’re more amenable to meeting new people and hearing what they have to say. They’re conducive to actually getting the same type of people in the same room and talking.
If one more person complains to me about how expensive conferences are, I’m going to do something drastic. If you make one decent connection at a conference — and I’m not talking Arianna Huffington here, I’m talking me or Michael or Clay — you will make more money in a month than banner ads will get you in a year. And if you do it right, you’ll meet ten. Do the math, people.
If you’re not a people person, fake it or learn. Read a book on self esteem or loving yourself or whatever. Go hang out in the self-help section of your nearest big box bookstore. Talk to the Havinator for a cyber-snuggle or take the course. Call me and have me kick your ass. Whatever. Just channel all the balls you’ve got to go to a conference, paste on a happy face and meet some real, live humans.
Other $100 Marketing Ideas
Hire a VA.
Get them to rock the shit out of your Twitter or Facebook profile. Give them a starter list of people to follow people or add as friends or whatever the latest social networking jargon is, then spend 20 minutes a day finding new people. I hated Facebook until one of my favorite authors in the universe added me as a friend, totally out of the blue. I don’t hate it anymore. (You can get me here on Twitter or here on Facebook.)
Teach something.
Head down to your local library, book a room for fifty bucks, and buy a box of donuts. Teach something. Ideally this “something” would be at least peripherally relevant to what you do for a living. Repeat each month.
Learn something.
You know how many friends I made from the home office asskickery yesterday? A bunch. Not only is my house cleaner, but now I know people. Knowing people is useful. If one of those people tells one of THEIR people that I am awesome, I will make money. That course in particular cost me $46. I will have made my money back from that by tomorrow. Plus I’ve got a cleaner house.
Sponsor something.
Sponsor a contest. Give away something cool. This must be repeated, though, because you won’t really get any traffic the first time you do it. The most important takeaway for the sponsoring thing is that it MUST BE COOL. (Rules here are similar to the rules for cool swag.) Also, try to sponsor something where the audience is similar to your own, but not so similar that the holder of the contest competes with your offering. IttyBiz example: For me, Problogger yes, Duct Tape Marketing no.
As with any marketing initiative, any of the foregoing MUST BE REPEATED. Do not quit after two months (or one conference). One push does not make you internet famous. You have to be there, over and over. Sooner or later, everyone eventually says, “Jesus, I keep seeing this guy. I should go check it out.” If it’s good enough for Leo Babauta, it’s good enough for you.
Holy shit, this is the truth.
Was on the phone with someone way up the ladder from me who reminded me that whatever time you spend learning stuff and hooking up with others will help you earn far more than the time/money you invested in it.
Huzzah.
Well, this just sealed the deal that I really MUST make it to one of the big knitting/yarn events in the coming year. Do you think trade shows count as a “conference” (in the knitting industry these trade shows have magazines, books, publishers, authors and lots of classes)? How about a big art festival with magazine editors, book publishers, etc?
Good advice. I definitely need to learn to be more of a people person and get out to a conference. I’ve been finding good contacts over the internet, but I imagine it’s much easier face to face, because no one will mistake you for a spammer.
I’ve been doing the contest thing on my blog for a couple of months now, and it works out pretty decent.
The mistake I made on my first contest was letting it run for a month for a $10 prize. By the time I gave away the prize, the winner forgot who I was and didn’t want to give me their address to send the prize. At least I saved $10.
By the way, I’m re-gifting a shower timer I won as a prize last month, this month in my contest. It’s good for kids, and forgetful adults.
You made my everfuckinglasting day! (Did you know fuck is the only infix in the English language? All I remember from linguistics class). I’m flattered beyond belief that I’m a favorite author of yours… and hey, need one of my books you don’t have? Give a whirl through the store http://comfortqueen.com/cqshop/catalogue.php and I’ll send it to you signed. Because I so needed a hit of feeling like a person again, a creative author no less! and you gave it to me.
And a question: what do we do if we are so shy and afraid to attend conferences that we would rather give money to Palin along with pom-poms to her daughter? I so suck at networking in person – I’d rather speak in front of thousands. A blog post in that for you?
You can spend $75 out that $100 for a phone call with me–just one, for one month, and get your site/blog in gear. Damn, Naomi, this is a great list of options. People get paralyzed trying to figure this stuff out and really need some basic options spelled out for them. This is it.
In spite of the funny spin you give it, what you say is the total truth, because I’ve been there myself. Most people have no idea how hard it was for me to network at SOBCon, because normally I’m quite an introvert. But it makes a huge difference. In some cases, it may be THE difference. You’ve got to suck it up and be brave.
I’ve decided I’m hitting a conference next year :-)
Hope to see you there, everyone :-)
I am always amazed when you point out the things that I “read somewhere” that I thought were good ideas! Adding a blog to my already crowded day has been a challenge to say the least. Now you want me to comment the hell out of the otherstoo! (Is you is or is you aint crazy?) Well okay I’ll do it….I think that it is a fantastic idea and naturally,,,now that YOU said it, it is a bonified, reputable, has-to-be-the-answer!, great answer!
As someone living in Spain promoting my blog (and business) to the English-speaking world, the best tips for me are all the Internet based ones – and I’m going to save the $100 a month and be my own VA for a while.
Connecting to you via Facebook now…
Spend an hour emailing the people who’s work you admire and if you have a blog, see if you can get a quick 5 question email interview with them and post it on your blog.
Get some link love and you’d be surprised how much further that will go than 100 dollars. We’ve never spent 100 dollars on marketing for any of our stuff, that 100 dollars buys us 9 more t-shirts that we need to sell.
Come to Naomi school. Read and do what she says.More great advice. Bought her book. Best money I ever spent.( Less then $100 too)
I’ve done these things in every off-line business I’ve ever been involved in. Turns out the on-line world is no different.
I have to totally agree with Naomi here, though my investment was more than $100. I focus on grass-roots marketing for independent fashion businesses, and I bit the bullet and attended the apparel industry’s big hoo-haw trade show in Las Vegas last week. My niche is a bit cash-poor, but I was able to create some alliances that will be mutually fruitful very soon. Plus, the warm-fuzzies I generated from among my newsletter/blog readers in attendance was remarkable. I’m loving it. Thanks, Naomi, for speaking out what I felt in my gut all along but couldn’t articulate.
Just lovin’ yo’ shit up in here!
Funny you should mention contest… we happen to have a Kick-Ass Contestravaganza coming up that has EVERYTHING to do with marketing – no wait, launching your brand-new business. Stay tuned ;)
On a side note, I’ll add one tip to yours: read. With $100, you can buy more than 3 fantastic books from Amazon (and more if you go used or get deals) on how to do just about anything you need to do. When you have knowledge, you have the world in your hands.
@James –
Dude, the world is in *my* hands now.
Get your own world.
:-p
@ Dave – Okay, look, buddy. Someone taught you too damned well how to play this game, and whoever he is, he’s *not* amused.
*snatches back the world* Gimme this. Go make your own.
:P
@James –
Aw, maaaan ….
Fine. I will. Actually, that’s pretty cool, because in this new world, all the good domains won’t already be taken.
(PS – thanks for all the World Domination lessons)
Good idea. Now, I have this little nest egg set aside for some investment in prime real estate… complete with the best domain names, of course. I think we can make a little agreement that would mutually benefit us both. Just step this way…
Naomi,
You’re my IttyHero. I talk to folks constantly who “can’t” manage minimum fees to propel their business forward, but can manage HDTV unbelievapackage with 742 channels plus chews your food for you.
Get basic cable for a few months and listen to Naomi. Lots of good, cheap ideas here.
I will throw out that sage advice people all over the world hate: Go Local.
It costs a lot less to promote yourself locally—walk in anywhere and start talking!—than to do almost anything else.
I second James’ advice—read! read! read!—although amazon is an addictive habit. (I can quit any time….)
Regards,
Kelly
Wait a minute …
Who gets to be the “Evil” Kirk? I wanna keep my goatee.
(Naomi, sorry to hijack the thread here … hmm. I guess that would make me the Evil Kirk after all …)
Naomi, I’ve only been a reader for a few weeks and I love you. I love your advice, your “voice” and….well…everything.
Thank you for starting this blog. Thank you for directing me to others like Dave Navarro, James C, and the many others I now read. Thank you for making your tools accessible to folks like me just starting on a shoestring (a frazzled one,at that).
I am printing this post and I will do everything suggested in it and the comments. Even I can afford $100 a month to be successful.
Anybody who has time to watch TV isn’t going to succeed as an entrepreneur.
I so love your blog! And I am psyched you’ve teamed up with Havi- that rocks.
Really, for this post, I’d just like to say thanks for shout for Virtual Assistants. One could easily get an hour a day for week to have some spank their Twitter and Facebook accounts. I just might use this to market myself!
MM—LOL. So true. Sad but true. I only watch t.v. on vacation.
Good ideas, Naomi. To the “Teach something” bit I would add, you can probably do this for free or maybe get paid. There’s probably a local community ed program looking for interesting course ideas, or a local association that might like guest speakers. I did one on social media etc. for a local networking group, made some cool connections, and was invited to do the session for another group.
Once again, brilliant advice! I’m always telling the ladies I work with to spend some time networking with folks over coffee or lunch. It never fails to provide incredible resources for both and it costs so little. I’ll definitely be passing your suggestions along to my readers and clients..yet again!