How I Spend Just $100 on Marketing to Make 5-Figures
Learn to make every single cent count.
Most people think you have to spend a lot of money on marketing for it to be effective.
I beg to differ.
Trading cold hard cash for eyeballs isn’t marketing. That’s called advertising — a whole nother ball game.
As a small startup owner, I’m all about optimization. Making every cent count is an invaluable skill — that’s how I was able to start my business with just $1000 and transform it into a 5-figure revenue-generating machine using nothing but an old iPhone.
To top it off, I typically spend around $100 total on marketing per event. That’s a lot of bang for your buck.
Here’s the complete lowdown of how I did it.
Make Sure You Have A Good Business Model
“No amount of great marketing will help a shit product.”
— Gary Vee
This isn’t a business article, so I’ll try to keep it brief.
I highly recommend new business owners read this section. If you’re seasoned and confident, go ahead and skip to the bottom.
Before you even think about marketing, there are 2 fundamental aspects of a business that first need to be in place. These marketing tips will not work without them, so pay attention.
1. Have a Great Product
Sounds like a no brainer, right? But you’d be surprised how many people try to use fancy marketing to camouflage a bad product. That’s not marketing — that’s deception.
Here’s a business truism I first heard from Gary Vee:
No amount of great marketing will help a shit product.
If you don’t believe in the superiority of your product, don’t bother selling it. Find, or make, something else.
Once you’ve discovered something truly amazing, something that the world is dying to have — your product will fly off the shelves.
Because an outstanding product sells itself.
2. Be A Big Fish In A Small Pond
Here’s a personal example.
I started my company (Singapore BJJ Open) with the intention of being a big player — but only in Singapore. The name speaks for itself.
When we started gaining traction, there were many voices calling out for me to scale and to take my business overseas.
I ignored them all.
You see, words like scale and grow are sexy. It looks good to see a company expanding, establishing roots and branches everywhere. But I knew something that these people perhaps didn’t consider.
I knew it was possible, quite common even, for small and ambitious companies to expand too fast, reach too high — and implode spectacularly. I call it the Icarus parable.
To paraphrase Russel Brunson, it is far better to be a big fish in a small pond than another fish in an ocean full of sharks.
If you have limited resources, running a niche business — and then charging a premium for your expertise, is a far better option
Moving On To Marketing — Focus On Social Media & Content Marketing
Now that we’ve got our two pre-requisites out of the way, it’s time to talk marketing!
Specifically, how to spend little to zero money — in exchange for optimum results.
The first thing to note is I rely extensively on social media.
Social media is to me, the best way to market your brand. It’s simple to use, ubiquitous, and costs next to nothing if done right.
As someone who used his entrepreneurship resume to get a job as a digital marketing manager, I often hear terms like marketing strategy and ROI thrown around.
These people are missing the point. Social media marketing isn’t rocket science. There are 2 main criteria for success.
- Create content, and create it often.
- Said content should be valuable to your target audience
It’s as simple as that.
Create Valuable Content, Often
Gary Vee wrote a mindblowing article detailing how he creates 64 pieces of content a day.
He repeatedly stresses not to be fancy with content. Successful content creation, he says, relies on three things.
- Speed
- Volume
- Quality
Most people let quality get in the way of the first two points. They fuss over small details and end up posting three times a month on Instagram instead of 20–30 times like is best.
Striving for perfection is a form of paralysis. Don’t cripple yourself. Create, and let it rip. Rinse and repeat.
Content can include any of the below.
- Photos & Illustrations (Instagram, Facebook)
- Videos (YouTube, TikTok, IGTV)
- The written word (Medium, blogs)
- Voice (podcasts, music)
Although it may be a good idea to pick one skill and stick to it, you don’t have to. Indeed, many master creators excel at a variety of different mediums — one of my favorite writers, John P. Weiss comes to mind.
Feel free to play around.
Lastly, the definition of value is simple. You need to tick 2 points:
- Is your content informative?
- Is your content entertaining?
Masterful marketers do both seamlessly.
A perfect example would be this personal finance blog. It includes cute illustrations to engage their readers while educating them about financial independence.
People love being entertained — and leaving with some useful knowledge is a happy bonus.
How To Create Quality Content For Cheap
To be a competent content creator, it’s important to learn one or more of these skills.
- Writing (copywriting is especially useful)
- Drawing (painting, illustrations, any form of visual art)
- Photography
- Image Editing (Photoshop etc)
- Videography
Sure, you don’t have to do everything yourself.
However, hiring skilled professionals can be prohibitively expensive.
The answer to this conundrum is two-fold. Firstly, as much as possible, roll up your sleeves and do the work yourself! If you have a good eye for pictures, pick up the camera and shoot. If you have a feel for words, blog.
I personally write all my company’s social media posts and blog entries, such as this one.
This way, not only will you hone a valuable skill, but you’d also be able to drastically reduce the operating costs of your business.
Secondly, outsource the work you’re hopeless at, or absolutely loath to do, to freelancers.
I prefer to engage them to create reusable content.
For example, the photographers I hire typically take hundreds of pictures. Pictures are great visual marketing tools, and I post them on my website, Instagram, Facebook — even right here on Medium, as you may have noticed.
Since digital content doesn’t diminish with use, I get a lot of value in exchange for a one-time fee.
And that brings us to our next point…
“Evergreen” Content Pays “Marketing Dividends”
Whelp, that’s a lot of quotation marks.
Let’s dive right in, I promise you it isn’t as complicated as it sounds.
Evergreen content means content that doesn’t go out of date. Can you think of something that will always be relevant to your audience?
A good example would be, well, this article.
Marketing is a popular topic, and learning how best to leverage small sums of money will never go out of style.
Other great examples are content relating to personal development, money, business, relationships, and yes, sex. Think timeless, instead of trendy.
By writing about an evergreen topic, this article will (hopefully) be read for years to come.
That’s what I mean by marketing dividends. Full disclosure, I stole this term from my favorite Medium writer, Nicolas Cole.
Nicolas stated that he has had readers reach out to him and become clients after reading what he published two years ago.
A great example of well-crafted marketing paying dividends.
The last thing to keep in mind is your content has to be specific to your audience.
Your Content Must Engage Your Audience
“I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.” — Herbert Bayard Swope
The above formula is as true for life as it is for marketing.
Trying to please everybody is a sure-fire way to failure. Instead of trying to create content that is accessible to everybody, create content that your audience will appreciate.
What does your audience like? What language do they speak? What are the inside jokes they laugh about, the jargon they employ?
A personal example would be my company tagline: #JustRollLah. “Roll” is a Jiu-Jitsu jargon, meaning to spar, and “lah” is a commonly used Singaporean slang.
Notice how it’s specifically geared towards the Singaporean Jiu-Jitsu community? Unless you have a fortune at your disposal, it is incredibly difficult to break into a large and generic market (see ‘Be A Big Fish In A Small Pond’ above).
Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Think about what they’re interested in.
Then craft content geared for them, and them only.
Ignore Statistics — Build A Community Instead
Lastly, all this content serves one specific purpose — to build a community of die-hard fans that will support you come hell or high water.
Kevin Kelly’s famous 1000 true fans article posits all you need are 1000 loyal supporters, paying $100 a year, to run a successful business.
Quick maths, $100 x 1000 = $100,000. A six-figure annual income is nothing to sniff at, no matter where you live.
The content you create must serve your community. Educate them, entertain them, provide great value, and ask nothing in return. Throw open the doors and invite them in. Make them part of your brand.
Take time out to reply to every comment, every email. Make sure your reply is personal, not some canned corporate junk. People can tell.
Show up at events, be a member of Facebook Groups (pro tip: Facebook Groups are an incredible marketing resource), be present and helpful, and contribute.
Community is king. Everything else is secondary, even the much-vaunted marketing statistics.
People love statistics because they’re concrete.
X amount of time/money = Z amount of views and money in return.
Statistics are useful to track immediate, short-term results.
The problem is we’re playing the long game here. On paper, it makes zero sense to spend an hour a day replying to comments and engaging with your audience. But keep in mind we’re not gunning for short term results — you’ve got advertising for that.
Our game plan is conducive for something far greater.
Building an empire.
Your Takeaway
So that is the complete lowdown of how I spend $100 or so on marketing for a 5-figure return.
Here’s a breakdown of my spending:
Official event poster: $30-$50
Student Photographer/Videographer: $60–$150
My Marketing & Copywriting Skills: Free
Facebook Ads: Depends, ranges from zero to $60
To recap, before you spend all your time and effort ton marketing, first make sure you have a solid business model. A great product and a distinctive niche are mandatory.
Stretch your money by creating your own content as much as possible. Keep in mind that content creation is the most important aspect of marketing. Content should be created quickly and often.
Pick up a skill such as writing, and outsource the rest to freelancers. Keep things lean and affordable.
Evergreen content is best as it will be useful forever. Remember the entire point of posting content online is to engage your audience, so make sure your content is specifically crafted with the audience in mind. Trying to please everyone is the surest route to failure.
Lastly, statistics can be misleading. Focus on community engagement instead. Build your 1000 true fans by being patient and present. Take the time to reply to all emails, all comments. Engage your audience. Earn their trust. Tickle them, help them, be a part of them. Give them unbelievable value and ask for nothing in return.
And when you have something great to sell — they’ll come running with cash in hand.
That’s the secret of great marketing.
