MBA2580 The $0 Marketing Plan That Actually Works

0:00Some of the most effective marketing strategies cost nothing. Today, I'm going to show you how to market your business for$0 using strategies that indie creators, entrepreneurs, SaaS founders swear by. If you think you need a big budget to grow your business, think again.

0:19Welcome back to the$100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where we deliver practical business lessons three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, to help you take action and start, grow, and scale your business. In today's listen, we're going to be talking about the$0 marketing plan that actually works. Marketing doesn't have to break the bank. I know because when I got started, I bootstrapped my business. I didn't have a lot of money, so I had to get creative. And what I learned is that the most memorable and effective strategies often come from just being authentic and just thinking outside the box, having a bit of fun with it.

0:57Today, we're going to dive into three powerful proven ways to market your business without spending a dime. And let's step into strategy number one, get creative with your content. Sounds pretty simple, but the hardest part is just giving yourself permission to be creative, to have fun. Creativity is your secret weapon, and it's going to allow you to stand out from the crowd. And best of all, you don't need a marketing budget to be creative. Here's the thing. When you create content that's shareable, entertaining, unique, it grabs people's attention and it spreads organically. People can't help but share it.

1:31You've probably done this yourself where you've seen a video and you shared it, you DMed it to your friend, maybe you retweeted it, whatever. The point here is that it's so good, it's so funny, it's so interesting that you got to share. Let me give you an example. There's a guy named Mark Liu. He's this French guy that lives in Bali. He's an indie creator and he uses green screen effects to place himself in iconic movies like Wolf of Wall Street and The Matrix. And in these little videos, he's pitching his product as a part of the storyline of the movie. It's funny. It's shareable. It's unforgettable, really.

2:04And it costs him nothing because he uses these apps like CapCut to put himself in these movies. And the reason why it's so shareable is because people relate to these movies. They've seen them before. They think it's funny that he's in this movie. He's changing up a scene that was one way in a movie. Now it's something else because he's making it about his product. Now, this is just an example of somebody just being a little bit creative. Now, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know the legal ramifications of putting yourself in a movie. if that's copyrighted or whatever, but I'm just trying to give you an example of somebody who's just thinking outside the box.

2:35Think about how you can inject some creativity and personality into your marketing. When I do any kind of marketing video, sales video, I like to use some humor, some storytelling, some pop culture references even, just to get people thinking and get them sharing. It's just a great way to stand out. So as an action step that I want you to take, grab a paper and pen, grab your notebook, and brainstorm a creative idea that you might have in the back of your head, something that maybe you think about before and you got to toss it away, relate it to your product or service. Start with something simple, like something short, a skit, a funny video, or an entertaining post that ties into your offering, ties into what you do and what you offer the world.

3:15I want to give you one more example of this. There's a great video out there in the world called Zendesk Alternative. Zendesk is a help desk software and they know that people search on Google what are some alternatives to Zendesk? And they created a website called Zendesk Alternative, and it's basically about a band, an alternative band that plays a bit of grunge and rock that sings songs about Zendesk, this help desk software. It's funny, it's zany, it's just an offbeat type of thing, but you can't help but share it just like I'm doing right now. Strategy number two, build in public. Building in public is a strategy that maybe started about a decade ago, but really picked up steam the last five years.

3:56It's one of the most effective ways to attract an audience and build trust. So what is build in public? Well, it's when you share your journey along the way publicly so people can feel like they're a part of your story. This creates a connection and builds an engaged audience that really is rooting for you, that's really invested in your success. This is simply just updating the world on social media, how your business is doing. This could be your revenue goals. This could be your growth numbers. This could be some of the challenges you're having. People love a good story and they like to follow along the story.

4:30A good example of this is Tally Forms, a free form builder on the internet. And the founders, they share their entire product journey on social media, from their challenges to the wins, making their audience feel like co-creators. So much so that when they hit a milestone, like revenue milestone, everyone in the comments is cheering them on. Another example of this is a creator called Peter Levels. He's the founder of Nomadless. He tweets on X about his progress of all his new products. He tweets about his revenue milestones, even his setbacks. This transparency builds a loyal following. So share behind the scenes updates on social media as well.

5:08Talk about what you're building, what you're learning, and what's next. So here's an action step to put this into action. Post a short update today about your business journey. It could be a win. It could be a challenge. It could be a lesson you've learned, like this lesson, how to market your business for zero dollars. Use whatever you got to share the journey. Strategy number three, build an email list with a freemium model. Offering a free version of your product or service is one of the fastest ways to grow your audience and build trust. Freemium models let people experience your value before they buy.

5:44And once they see the benefit, they're more likely to upgrade to a paid purchase. This is very common in the software world or the SaaS world, where there's a free version of the software. There's a free trial that you can try and see if the product is valuable. It tracks users while showcasing all the premium features that they could have if they bought the premium package or paid for the service. If you're a coach or a course creator or an author or any kind of content provider, a newsletter is a freemium offer. Providing free insights every single week is a way for you to build trust with your audience and get them to feel what it's like to be a client of yours.

6:21It allows you to nurture those potential clients. This is why making sure your newsletter is top-notch is so important because it's a chance for them to test you out. So start thinking about how to create a free plan, trial, resource, or some way for somebody to see that you can solve problems for them, right? And use this method, freeing them to collect email addresses, right? Because if they give their name and email address to get access to this, so that you can stay connected and build trust with them. So as an action step, identify one thing you can offer for free, a mini course, a guide, a checklist, a trial of your product.

6:54Set up a simple page, a landing page to collect email addresses and promote it wherever you can in your signature, in your email, in your description on social media. You know where I have the link in bio? Put that link at the top to start collecting email addresses. So why do I believe these strategies work? What makes these zero dollar marketing strategies so effective is that number one, you're building trust. That's what business is all about, is building trust with your audience so that when they're ready to buy, they go and buy from you, nobody else. So whether you're sharing your journey or creating relatable content or offering free value like a freemium, you're building a relationship with your audience, with your people, so that they believe in you, they trust you, and they go ahead and buy from you in the future.

7:41Number two, they're authentic. People connect with real stories and genuine value, more than some polished ad campaign. An example of this is Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile is a mobile company that is owned by Ryan Reynolds. And they had this ad campaign where Ryan Reynolds himself was leaving voice messages on Mint Mobile subscribers' phones, thanking them for being customers of Mint Mobile. And then the whole ad is recordings of customers calling back and hitting a voice mailbox of the number that called them and leaving a message saying, thank you so much. That was incredible. Thank you for being a part of my world.

8:17I love the fact that you sent me that message. It was just like all this amazing praise from Mint Mobile. They're giving all this great testimonials about how great the service is and how affordable it is and how much they tell our friends about it. And that was the ad. It was authentic. It was real and it was effective. And number three, they scale organically. It's share worthy content. Whenever you share honestly, authentically, publicly, you are offering a way for people to see your real self. And that is attractive. People want to share that. People want to be able to promote that, support that.

8:50Now, I want to wrap this up by just giving you a tip. This takes some time. When you have zero dollars, you have time. OK, and it's an exchange. If you have money, spend the money to get the leads and get the marketing. But if you don't have money, then you have time. So use your time to your advantage. This takes some time to build that trust, to build that consistency, to build those campaigns and get that message out to have share worthy content. You don't need a massive budget to market your business. You just need creativity, consistency, and a willingness to share your journey with the rest of the world.

9:22So get creative with your content, stand out with unique ideas that are inside you. You know, you got to just be courageous enough to put it out there. Number two, build in public to connect with your audience and grow organically and use the freemium model that we discussed to provide value upfront and build your email list. So if you're an action taker like I am, then go ahead and take action by downloading our worksheet for today's episode over at 100mba.net slash worksheets. You could download a checklist so you know exactly what to do to start your$0 marketing campaign. Thanks again for tuning into the$100 MBA show.

9:56I'm Omar Zanom and I'll see you in the next episode. We'll be right back.