How To: Creative Marketing with $0

[Trevor Kuntz]

You know, just try stuff! I just turned 20, so I have a little bit more to invest in marketing than you, but I like trying other techniques too. Yesterday, I sold stuff at a concert here in Phoenix and I decided to make some labels (which I made at school, so they didn't cost me anything) and glued them onto 48 water bottles that cost me $5.12. I figured that if I made one sale from handing out all of those water bottles, I would make a profit and it was fun seeing people carrying around my water bottles during the shows.

Was it the best use of my time? Who knows, but I had fun doing it, I made thirsty people happy, and it made me some money. Just experiment. Yes there are tried and true ways of doing things, but all great things were made/found through innovation and experimentation.

By the way, this is the piece I'm in the middle of learning right now. Pavane pour une Infante defunte

I usually play Yann Tiersen stuff, but I felt like doing something different.

So you wouldnt recommend to use Wordpress for a blog? I just dont like how un-professional those type of sites look like.

No, you can use a Wordpress site for anything that you'll be driving traffic to. Wordpress blogs are great and I have them on most of my sites. The thing about Web 2.0 blogs is that they're really meant for Google, not potential customers. Chances are that no living being will ever actually see your Web 2.0 blogs, so it doesn't really matter what they look like. They're just for building links to your site.

 

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[Scuderia]

High quality guest posts on relevant blogs with good traffic. Can't beat that.

 

[cliqflip]

Any more?

 

[cliqflip]

Heres what we got so far:



Spread funny images on facebook/pinterest/tumblr/twitter
Blogging
Make videos that relate to your business spread on social networks
Post on craigslist
Guerrila Twitter marketing
SEO
PR - to local news
Engage in forums
Hashtag twitter marketing
Build connections with bloggers
Guest Blog
Q+A sites (related questions to your product)
URL in forum sigs
Comment on blogs (URL included) <- more for SEO
Daily Deal Site
One Word campaign
Sidewalk Chalk
Waterbottles

Added:


Press Releases
Join and attend a meetup to network
Wikipedia - Find your niche - Link yourself
Podcasters
Exchange ad space
E-mail signature link to your startup
Social bookmarking and spreading
Reddit
Mailing List
Flyers
Publicity Stunt
Referral Incentives

 

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[Melissmo]

Hey Jake -

You Tube, Facebook, Twitter <- no brainers

Craigslist <- maybe. its worth a shot

Another good "free" source for marketing is Article Marketing. Research your niche and uncover 1 - 5 key word phrases that apply to your niche. Write an article of 300 - 500 words and repeat your key word phrase 5 - 7 times within the article. Post it to goarticles, articlesbase, or similar.

Blogging. You need to have your blog set up ASAP. And for marketing purposes, if all you have is time and no money, you might as well set up several. No, I'm not kidding. There are plenty of "free blogging" websites out there. Set up a blog on each. Do not post the same content per site, but you need to get your name and concepts out there and cast a wide net.

Free marketing like the above is all good ways to build long term traffic to your site.

For a quick boost you need to take that $10 and open up a google adwords account. Look for a coupon that gives you a free $100 ad credit. Those are not really free, you need to set up a new account and they charge $10 minimum. So dont buy that bubble gum just yet. Turn your $10 into $100 worth of clicks, chose your clicks wisely, and you'll get a good boost in traffic.

Best of luck in your new business!

Absolutely cool, once you get the hype of your business going in the right places, you're good to go.

 

[Trevor Kuntz]

Press Releases
Join and attend a meetup to network
Wikipedia - Find your niche - Link yourself
Podcasters
Exchange ad space
E-mail signature link to your startup
Social bookmarking and spreading
Reddit
Mailing List
Flyers
Publicity Stunt
Referral Incentives

All good stuff! Some of it will be effective, and some of it won't be, but if you have time to do it all, you might as well and you'll learn something in the process. I will be looking forward to your "publicity stunt" ideas. Hahaha.

 

[cliqflip]

Publicity stunt is definitely going to be one were going to do for cliqflip---

Everything else we pretty much are already doing - After making this list I was thinking about making a guide of how to do each one effectively (since were doing 99% of it) - What do you think? Would it be useful

 

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[Thrive]

Publicity stunt is definitely going to be one were going to do for cliqflip---

Everything else we pretty much are already doing - After making this list I was thinking about making a guide of how to do each one effectively (since were doing 99% of it) - What do you think? Would it be useful

I will be doing that too. Just so people have an example of what to do.

 

[mlangley]

Giveaways can work well. Maybe offer a sample/scaled down/freebie version of your product to give them a taste. For example: MJ gives away a few chapters of TMF when you sign up for his mailing list.

 

[cliqflip]

I'm doing all of this and not getting as much traffic as I want

We need more ideas!

 

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[Leary]

- Charity sponsorship. Can be $0, use a service (you mention you're a designer/researcher, apply that to an upcoming charity event)
- Do one of those nude runs with your product/service painted across your chest. They always make the news. You might even get picked up by a voyeur site, and have free advertising worldwide that way .

 

[Simon Ashari]

Not sure of the market you're in, but a video on youtube that has the potential to go viral would be my best bet.

Youtube generates ridiculous views.

Elements you should think about are:

-catchy headline (exaggerated)
-nice thumbnail
-some sort of novelty in the video itself. Can be anything that people would put on twitter or their facebook pages.

Good luck with the business... let us know how it goes.

-Simon

 

[Simon Ashari]

With regards to my above post, you could do something like this.

[video=youtube;FJ3oHpup-pk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk[/video]

Grabs attention, cheap to produce.

Now I know you don't even have money for an ad like that. But that is the kind of thing I'm talking about. The video went viral.

-Simon

 

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[ManWithABeard]

Facebook was an epic fail for me. Twitter and Tumblr, so far, pretty good at creating a buzz for me and my brand.

Depending on the market, you could do a vlog on the day to day operations and can probably acquire a lot of youtube views.

Take rapper Wiz Khalifa, for instance he started a vlog way back when we was broke and just starting out, and the market really liked it. Those videos alone got him a lot of attention and buzz, and now his net worth I believe is like $30 million. A lot of his fans think they personally know him because of those videos and therefore they pretty much buy up all the tickets and album that he put out.


I edited the videos out of my post LOL on second thought. I don't really like the excessive weed smoke and drinking in those videos. But youtube them and you'll see. Very smart on his part though.

 

[cliqflip]

What are you posting on Tumblr to drive traffic?

 

[SPX]

I'v heard and I am going to try to contact popular artist on twitter to retweet my tweets, so you can gain more followers. I currently have one star that is following me and my plan is to contact them. I still don't have a website but I am trying to build interest so far.

 

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[maralevin]

Press releases to newspapers, journals, magazines are a great idea, especially if you can take the angle that your products/services help others or provide interesting entertainment. If you write a really good release, you'll be asked for interviews. A single interview that leads to a published article could be a huge boost to business. I know because it has happened to me more than once.

 

[ManWithABeard]

What are you posting on Tumblr to drive traffic?

Post things such as pictures of my clothing, who's wearing them and such. The occasional random thing, such as what I see on my travels, pictures of the stores and boutiques where I meet with potential clients and such. Oh and I have an ask box, which helps in letting people know we are human

Also, I might add that Instagram really helps with marketing too, if done right of course, I have yet to find the right formula but I sure as hell am having fun trying!

 

[ManWithABeard]

What are you posting on Tumblr to drive traffic?

Post things such as pictures of my clothing, who's wearing them and such. The occasional random thing, such as what I see on my travels, pictures of the stores and boutiques where I meet with potential clients and such. Oh and I have an ask box, which helps in letting people know we are human

Also, I might add that Instagram really helps with marketing too, if done right of course, I have yet to find the right formula but I sure as hell am having fun trying!

Press releases to newspapers, journals, magazines are a great idea, especially if you can take the angle that your products/services help others or provide interesting entertainment. If you write a really good release, you'll be asked for interviews. A single interview that leads to a published article could be a huge boost to business. I know because it has happened to me more than once.

Any tips/advice on how to go about writing a press release? I'm re-launching my brand, and this idea is right up my alley.

 

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[maralevin]

Post things such as pictures of my clothing, who's wearing them and such. The occasional random thing, such as what I see on my travels, pictures of the stores and boutiques where I meet with potential clients and such. Oh and I have an ask box, which helps in letting people know we are human

Also, I might add that Instagram really helps with marketing too, if done right of course, I have yet to find the right formula but I sure as hell am having fun trying!


Any tips/advice on how to go about writing a press release? I'm re-launching my brand, and this idea is right up my alley.

The form should be clean and straightforward:

___________________

Company name and logo

Your name and
how to contact you

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE"

Body text (announcement of news about or an event involving your company that would interest readers)

"For more information or an interview, contact Your Name at telephone number or email address."
___________________

Samples of event announcement activities that draw interest: open house or studio (especially with free food or drink), giveaway, chance to meet a minor celebrity, opportunity to support a popular charity, pony or boat rides, raffle, tour of someplace that isn't usually open to the public

 

[ManWithABeard]

The form should be clean and straightforward:

___________________

Company name and logo

Your name and
how to contact you

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE"

Body text (announcement of news about or an event involving your company that would interest readers)

"For more information or an interview, contact Your Name at telephone number or email address."
___________________

Sweet thanks! I've always wondered about that and never had anyone to ask, I appreciate that, that actually helps a lot and gives me some ideas for sure .

I'v heard and I am going to try to contact popular artist on twitter to retweet my tweets, so you can gain more followers. I currently have one star that is following me and my plan is to contact them. I still don't have a website but I am trying to build interest so far.

You've got one star following you?? That's awesome man! It feels good doesn't it? Gives a little morale boost as well LOL. Yeah twitter is definitely a big opportunity if done right, it's fun to engage potential customers and market. Especially when they know you're a human being and you're not trying to sell something every 5 seconds. I'm in the same boat as you as far as website goes (currently under construction). Not sure if you're selling tangibles, but for my business, I sent a popular rapper some free clothes to wear on his tour in Japan, maybe you send could that star some freebies after you build a rapport with him/her. Never hurts to try man!

I don't have a lot of followers, but I act as if I have a million! a lot of people would be embarrassed with my number of followers, but I prefer to build it slow, plus one of my favorite clothing brands EVER is following, so that definitely helps!

 

[Simon Ashari]

I'v heard and I am going to try to contact popular artist on twitter to retweet my tweets, so you can gain more followers. I currently have one star that is following me and my plan is to contact them. I still don't have a website but I am trying to build interest so far.

Someone on twitter following you doesn't mean jack. If they are following thousands of people then you aren't going to have much of a chance getting to them in the first place.

You may also annoy the hell out of them asking for a retweet. Good luck though.

 

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[arohan]

Subscribe to HARO (Help A Reporter Out) for free. You will get 3 emails a day with a list of stories reporters are working on and need a quote, or a story to plug in it. If you find something that matches your profile, you just have to email the reporter and pitch your story.

I got an interview that was published in New York Times and CNBC this way. All free. And best of all, it included a link back to my site. In addition to building a buzz the old fashioned way, this will also greatly help your SEO work.

 

[Thrive]

Recently I had the idea of focusing marketing efforts on a certain city or cities that have a concentration of possible customers. For example a website that sells surfboards would do well to focus on So Cal. In "The Tipping Point", Malcom Gladwell talks about the importance of groups in word-of-mouth epidemics, so to me it seems like if you have a large customer demographic, it would be great strategy to market to one place that has a lot of people that want your service/business. Do you think that this would work? And if so, what tactics would you use to market to cities you do not live in?

 

[Brander]

Don't waste your time with SEO, it doesn't convert well at all unless you are ranked in the #1 position for all keywords.

Wow.

nobody goes on facebook or twitter to buy stuff.

Nor do they go watch TV for the ads, either. What are those CPIs on TV again?

High quality guest posts on relevant blogs with good traffic. Can't beat that.

It is a good suggestion to get traffic rolling regularly IF those sites have high traffic and you can get into many of them.

Someone mentioned contacting bloggers. This is better than above if you have something newsworthy or remarkable. Bloggers know other bloggers which they can refer you to with their personal contact information or recommendation or just talk about you to them. If you are newsworthy and remarkable or better - have an interesting cause - free PR gets much easier.

If you are newsworthy you don't need to write posts, high traffic blogs will write about you when they hear about you.

 

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[tincho1492]

GuerrillaMarketing published an ebook with 50 tips (didn't found the link to it on the website) but a couple of them are:

* Place your business card (or a hand written note) inside of a bunch of balloons and then let them go into the air.
* Print your own newspaper – If you run a blog, why not take 10-20 of your best articles and turn them into an actual newspaper? (did a similar action with one of my websites)
* Custom Pizza Box Printing

 

[damien275x]

If you have a mobile site:
1. Print out card with your URL on it
2. Walk around a busy place, i.e Park at lunchtime and approach people with iPhones.
3. Give them the card, and ask them to check it out. 9/10 times their curiosity will get the better of them and they will hit your page

Source: me

 

[Thrive]

Oooh I like that one. I'll have to try it.

 

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[StuartMackenzie]

Jacob hi there -how's it going now that you are obviously well past your launch date. My observation after more than 2 years of Internet marketing is that nothing and I mean nothing is free . To clarify that statement either you spend your time which is money or you spend by outsourcing and using the OPT method (other peoples time). I have literally just set up a limited liability company, have a clear vision of what we want to do and would really like to learn how your promotion has gone. Good luck:smx8:

 

[verial]

Generally, in my copywriting experience, offline methods are not as effective for promoting a site. The exception would be a direct mail package, which can be expensive.

And I don't get the SEO bashing. Once you get your site to one of the first five slots on the first page of google, you literally don't need to worry about getting traffic and can focus exclusively on making the content of your site better.