“How do I market my small business with little to no budget?” gets asked in the Small Business Owners Community all the time. It’s such a common question that I answered it on the very first episode of Businessing.
To solve it, I think we have to change the language a little bit. When you’re a solopreneur or a very lean small business, what we’re really asking is how to get a steady stream of customers when there’s no budget. Brand awareness is important, and so are overall reach and meeting new people. But when you’re my size small, you’re trying to build a customer treadmill. How do you meet people and get them to give you money? That is all.
Start with your best product
Identify your very best product, the one you crush, the one that makes you tons of profit whenever you sell it. Let’s use monthly fitness coaching as the example, because it helps to have one. When you get someone, you do a great job with them, and it makes you almost 100 percent profit.
Name the exact transformation
Next, describe the exact transformation. Skip the summary, the features, the side benefits and the nice to haves, and get to what’s in it for them. You could talk about how they’re going to feel great and be more flexible, and I don’t care. The transformation is give me your money and you’re going to lose 10 pounds. They have to do the work, of course, but you know how they’re going to lose 10 pounds.
So ask yourself what transformation your client gets when they give you money, and leave the list of features out of it.
Get narrow, then narrower
The third step is knowing exactly who you’re trying to reach, and I encourage you to get narrow. If you’re a product for everyone and you’re not Coca-Cola, you’re probably a product for no one. Do you want to work with men, women or seniors? Let’s say men over 40. Now I‘m a fitness trainer who wants to help men over 40 lose 10 pounds.
If you have no budget, subdivide it one more time into a life stage, because it’s a gigantic market out there. That might be men over 40 who are recently divorced, men over 40 recovering from a heart attack on doctor’s orders, or men over 40 who’ve challenged themselves to run their first marathon. Now the offer is losing 10 pounds for men over 40 who want that outcome, and that’s a lot easier to remember than fitness coaching.
Say it until you’re sick of it
Once you’ve worked all that out, say it as frequently as possible, until you’re sick of it. When you’re sick of it, everyone else is just starting to hear it for the first time. I want you to run for office with that phrase.
Marketing as a concept can be completely overwhelming when you’re a very small business, so think about building a customer treadmill instead. Be clear on the transformation and exactly who you serve, keep it clear and don’t stop talking about it. That’s how you get clients without a big budget, because you’ll be known for the thing, for these people, in this way.
Here’s the homework. Write one sentence this week that names your best product, the transformation and the life stage you serve. Then put that same sentence in every ad, post and conversation for the next month.
If you want help writing that sentence, here’s my post on how to explain what your business does so people remember you.
About the author
I’m Pat Miller. I help small business owners build a better business. I host Businessing, a weekly show for small business owners, and I run the Small Business Owners Community, where owners get help from other owners. Come find us at smallbusinesscommunity.com.
