4 Bootstrap Marketing Ideas to Boost Revenue

Have you found yourself in a revenue crunch with your business? Generating revenue – fast – is your first priority, but how can you do that when your marketing budget is small or nonexistent.
 
At one time or another, every business owner has stumbled across this same challenge. The challenge being, how do you boost revenue when you have none to spend?
 
Making money doesn’t always take money. These 4 Bootstrapping Marketing Ideas will help you to boost revenue, fast.
 
Bootstrap Marketing Tip #1: Reach Out To Past Clients
We’ve all heard the business adage: attaining the business of new clients far outweighs the cost (expenses, time, and effort) of attaining repeat business of existing clients. Reaching out to past clients via phone or email is one of the fastest ways to boost revenue easily. Find out how you can help them and ask them to work with you.
 
Action: Pick up the phone. Call your past clients and remind them you are here to help them in whatever way you can. If you are rolling out a new program, call them to let them know that you thought of them. If you’re running a special discount, give them the details (include a deadline to prompt fast action!) and let them know you’d love to work with them again. You don’t need to hard-sell…just extend a genuine offer of service that you think will benefit them in their business and/or life.
 
Bootstrap Marketing Tip #2: Create a Solution
This is the time to get back to the basics: How can you solve your clients’ problem(s)? Identify their biggest point of pain or challenge – and create a solution. Creating a simple product, program, or service that serves as a solution to their problem can be done in a matter of days – not weeks or months.
 
Action: We tend to over-complicate the process of creating new products, programs, and services and delay the very thing that can help you boost revenue – fast!  Creating a solution is actually quite simple:
1) Identify the problem –
2) Identify the solution –
3) Identify if you can deliver a high-quality solution –
4) Design the solution so it’s profitable –
5) Identify and protect any legal liabilities.
It’s a very simple 5-step process.
 
Bootstrap Marketing Tip #3: Everyone Loves a Sale
Discounting the value you bring to your product, program or service is not the point here; the point is to utilize one of the most powerful sales trigger points: everyone loves a sale. Everyone loves to save money; to feel like they are receiving even more value than what they are spending. To boost revenue, offer a 10% – 20% discount on services or programs, while offering deeper discounts (25% – 50%) on passive income items like products.
 
Action: When designed properly, sales will not sacrifice your profits. Generally speaking, offer minimal or moderate discounts (10% – 20%) on high-cost items like services and programs, while offering deeper discounts (25% – 50%) on passive income items like books, ebooks and other strictly passive income items.  Make sure to have the sale for a specific period of time to get people to act quickly to get the ‘deal’ before it ends.
 
Bootstrap Marketing Tip #4: Leverage Free Networking Resources
Of all business challenges, leveraging the right resources at the right time is an endless refining process. It’s easy to forget about the numerous free networking resources right under your nose: Neighbors, Friends, Family, Church, Social Groups, and the biggest networking resource of them all – the internet. These all come in handy when you need to boost revenue on a bootstrap budget.
 
Action: You never know where your next client will come from. Instead of worrying about being “sales-y” to the people in your personal life, approach connections with people as an opportunity to be of service. Genuinely engage in conversations without being pushy. Find out how you can help them – and be a good listener. Take the “sale” out of it…build the relationship first. Relationships are key to a successful business…
 
Remember, you don’t always have to spend money to make money. There are thousands of ways you can market your services without spending a dime – these are just a few examples.
 
Above all, keep in mind that marketing is a 24/7, 365 days per year part of running your own business. One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is stopping the marketing process once they find clients. The key must be to market continually, even when you have clients, so you don’t find yourself backed into a corner, so to speak. You are as much a marketer, as you are a business owner. You must get over being shy or reluctant about talking about your business. Get off the ‘rollercoaster ride’ and smooth out your revenue stream so it is a consistent incoming flow of ‘green.’