In this blog post, I’ll share 5 powerful bootstrap marketing techniques that you can start using today to promote your small business setup. These techniques have been inspired from a movie I saw on my TDS TV plan, and they have been shown to bear spectacular results in real life.

What if I told you that there is a way to effectively promote your business on a bootstrap (little to zero starting capital) budget? Because there totally is, and if you’re a small business owner like me – you should definitely be aware of it! And in the interests of full disclosure, you should know that the marketing techniques listed in this post have been inspired from a movie. Yes; that’s right. And not just any run-of-the-mill Hollywood flick, but the Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer Wolf of Wall Street (2013) itself – which I saw on my trusty TDS TV plan.

Other than its amazingly fun plot and storylines, the movie vividly details how an innovative entrepreneur with little to no money can make it big in the business world. With a little bit of background knowledge, some insight into consumer psychology, and a lot of determination, that is…

Using Bootstrap Marketing Techniques to Promote Your Business

These days, everyone wants to start a business. This could be due to several financial or passion-based reasons, or a combination of both. Who doesn’t want to earn some extra cash on the wayside, or a lot of it (for that matter)? But despite their different reasons, not many people have enough starting capital at their disposal to go through with their grand ambition of starting the next Fortune 500 Company.

Very few grassroots business projects can stand on their own two feet without any cash. And those that manage to do so tend to rely on their founders’ creativity and money-management skills for their market viability.

As a business growth hacker, I take special interest in the ‘creativity’ part of this equation. This is because ‘creative thinking’ requires business owners to make the best use out of the limited resources available to them. It requires them to always be alert and vigilant, and to cash-in on any marketing strategy that promotes their commercial interests for free.

This is one of the major reasons why organic marketing (which includes social media marketing, SEO, and third-party blogging) is so attractive for bootstrap startups. With only a minimal level of expenditure and hassle, they enable just about anyone to register a business onto the public radar.

Get a Load of My Top Five Easy-on-the-Budget Brand Marketing Strategies

So without any further ado, here are my top five bootstrap marketing techniques designed to make your business famous from the get-go. And if you aren’t already using them, I’d strongly recommend that you start experimenting today.

Stop fretting about your adspend budget, and begin advertising your products & services portfolio for free!

1.Social Media Marketing

Social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter collectively host more than 3 billion active users on their networks. For businesses hoping to promote their outreach efforts to newer groups of potential customers, these platforms appear highly attractive. Think targeting millions of people with a single, well-developed ad. And the best thing about social media is that it requires 0 expenditure for its community/group ad posting efforts. All that you need to do (as a brand marketer) is to connect with a particular group or page admin, and make a posting request. Once accepted into the fold, you can freely publish your product advertisements – and start receiving orders.

Email Marketing

Many websites and free online applications offer email lists of people who share some customized preferences with each other. When looked at from the marketing perspective, these individuals can easily be categorized as the ideal target audience available for instant conversions. As a brand marketer on a bootstrap budget, you can freely sign up for these software utilities – and extract your desired email listings. The next step is to compose a series of attractive email messages that should be sent in a regulated time frame.

Targeted customers should also be given the option of unsubscribing themselves from the email list. This prevents the risk of brand marketing emails from being considered as spam.

SEO

SEO optimization allows brand websites to rank higher than their competitors hailing from the same industry. It requires skilled marketers to insert strategic ‘keyword’ phrases into their website content. So when web surfers search for these terms through their browsers, these optimized web pages show up above others on a preferential basis.

4.Third-Party (Guest) Blogging

This strategy entails posting original articles on third-party (brand unaffiliated) websites. These blogs contain ‘anchor links’ that direct readers to a business’s website instantly. In this way, blogging – which is also called guest posting – is a great way to increase visitor traffic to your sites.

And it’s free!

5.‘Early Bird’ Discounts & Promotions

Early Bird discounts and promotions are offers that promise lowered product & service prices to customers who make purchases within a given timeframe. By doing this, they serve to ‘lure in’ new consumers to a company’s fold – and significantly minimize marketing outreach time.

Recently, I discovered that by calling the TDS customer service number, you could gain a twenty-five percent discount on the company’s internet subscriptions. Even though this offer was short-lived, it vividly demonstrated how even established brands rely on early bird discounts to expand their clients’ base.