An ILLUMINATION Opinion Piece: Budget Effective Business Marketing for Solopreneurs.

Business Marketing doesn’t have to come with deep pockets.

Today, we are spoilt for choice.

It is time that we pivot for best results.

We have all been there. We struggle with marketing because there aren’t hard metrics for Marketing the way Finance or Operations departments have to measure process and outcome efficiencies. Campaign viewership and funnel impressions can be hard to justify with traditional Marketing channels such as Billboards, Light-boxes, Television, Radio and the vast majority of static advertising means.

It is time to find the best way to market our business.

As independent consultants and up-and-coming solopreneurs — One point is clear.

Understanding how to market our business without upfront capital outlay is about understanding capital. Broadly speaking, there are two types of capital.

• Monetary Capital — These are the string of digits in your corporate account and is represented by the digits on the screen. Cash, coins and foreign currencies are forms of Monetary Capital.
• Network Capital — This is less known to many. It is about who we know. And the ultimate real test here is who knows us.

The more people we know, the more Network Capital we have. When more people know us, our Network Capital account will be exploding with interest.

Network Capital has to be measured by active business connections and not be mistaken as passive followers on social media. These active business connections have social relationships and networks they can leverage and we can tap on.

That is, if we are smart about it.

It begets the question.

“What has Network Capital got to do with budget effective business marketing for Solopreneurs?”

In fact, there is everything and anything to do with managing Network Capital.

Read on.

Network Capital, Barter Exchange, Quid Pro Quo

Highly successful people focus on building a large network. They grow their Network Capital in parallel with Monetary Capital.

Network Capital has to do with relationships. That currency, is favours. The more nett favours people owe us, the more Network Capital we have. Favours can be accumulated today and expensed off in the future. Used wisely, this is huge in-build social leverage.

You might not understand how the language of business is tied to social norms.

Let me explain.

“Favours”, should be interpreted as Value.

Provide service-of-value.

Does that sound familiar?

Through well deliberated value proposition and offer, we can dramatically increase the Network Capital account we hold. Higher Neetwork Capital bank balance means it can be spent on bigger favours.

It is that simple.

Now we can start elaborating on ways of $0 Business Marketing after understanding Network Capital.

1. Offer Services For Free FIRST (Give something, Ask something).

We can start by providing value by offering our services for free.

Wait a second. For free?

Yes, let me explain.

When we are starting out as aspiring entrepreneurs, we do not have a track record of successes: no case studies, referrals, portfolio of contents, testimonials, or results we can show to a sea of prospects. At this stage, proof of work is more valuable than cash in the bank.

A track record of fantastic work done brings greater return than all small projects would.

A Portfolio of success stories can be used to market to prospects we provide value. In that sense, money cannot close the deal on effective organic marketing based on results. This is why a track record is much more valuable. The Portfolio of success stories can be recycled. Deployed capital cannot do the same for the business.

Offering our services for free at the very beginning is the one method to market our business with no money.

The trick is this.

We have to offer our services in exchange for proof that we are great at what we do. This is the Principle of “Quid Pro Quo” in practice. If we can run the social media campaigns for a Small Business bringing them extensive reach and sales conversion, we can ask for a testimonial in social media which is transparent to millions of views daily.

Keep asking for testimonials in order to amass Network Capital which builds the Personal Brand critical to Business Marketing.

2. Content Marketing

I am a huge fan of this method.

We market our business by creating content.

We shouldn’t be foreign with this method. Content comes in many forms. Posts, images, videos, audios. Contents can be presented and distributed across various platforms. YouTube, Podcasts, FaceBook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Linkedin, Medium, Quora — We are literally spoilt for choice.

When the universe of content creative is as huge as the Milky Galaxy, the important thing is to find that 1 or 2 that we can excel in.

Practically speaking, when we have no money then we should expense time for marketing purposes. Create contents. Create organic contents that speaks to the prospects allowing them to see us and hear us. When our business attains the stage of financial stability — for instance, a sales revenue of $5,000 month-on-month — we can then think of running advertisements or start Influencer Marketing campaigns.

We have to understand that starting content marketing from scratch means we will not achieve Influencer status overnight.

It doesn’t work that way.

When we are starting out, we have to create a barrage of content. This is for Post Feed penetration purposes and it gives us an ounce of opportunity to stand out.

If we work on our business earlier than our competitors, and if we start content creation earlier than our competitors, we would have way more contents circulating round the Digital World working 24/7 to our comparative advantage.

That, is key.

3. Ask to be a Guest Speaker.

We don’t need to spend a dime to be a guest speaker.

We just need to open our mouths.

And ask.

Oftentimes, Livestream and Podcast hosts have a huge following and they have sponsors behind their programs. Hopping on allows us to access their network. To do this, we need to be good at what we do.

And we have to be able to articulate the value we can bring to the table for a win-win.

Remember the part of Network Capital?

The ability to tap into a large audience means we don’t need to build one. In return, we can offer insights to the host and their giant followers.

Writing blogs and hopping on shows are the main go-to as a Guest Speaker appearance. Star athletes do that as well. They earn an appearance fee being a panelist or partake in a friendly exchange with the young.

If we own a website with heavy traffic, a guest could help contribute an article to boost website funnel. In exchange, their article can reach a large number of followers which wasn’t possible previously.

Guest appearances build great relationships too. If we are good, we can get reappearance requests. Many doors and windows of opportunities can be opened.

Before that can happen?

We have to open our minds and start embracing Network Capital.

We have to understand that anything is possible.

Marketing today has to focus on the value we deliver.

This applies to both digital and physical marketing campaigns.

The value our business can deliver to the Marketplace has to exceed the price that prospects and clients transact with us.

In the business realm of budget effective business marketing, the ability to use and exploit the readily accessible tools at our disposal is critical.

It is critical in terms of growing our business with financial prudence.

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About the Author:

As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.

Because simplicity adds value.

Simplicity helps us gain clarity, and clarity helps us to grow.

And if we are not growing, then what’s the point of anything else?

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