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"16 Ideas
for Low-Cost Promotion"
by Charles Sisk
Promotion and advertising can be a heavy
expense for any small business, especially for a new business that
wants to make itself known in a community. All small business owners
need to make the public aware of his or her product or service at
the lowest possible cost.
There are many ways.
A pet breeder in a large city was struggling
for several years-until he came up with a novel idea. He started
giving away customized "birth certificates" for the pets
he sold. Almost immediately, his sales rose more than 10 percent.
The owner of a new home cleaning service was
trying to attract clients. She couldn't afford much advertising, so
she began offering "home cleaning seminars" to civic
groups. After two months of seminars, she was swamped with inquiries
and clients.
Promotion often makes the crucial difference
between business success and failure. Customers or clients must know
about a business or product line before they'll buy and they must
have a reason to buy.
If you are trying to promote your business now,
you can move in one of two directions:
1) You can take the conventional route
to promotion and mount an elaborate media campaign, spending a
considerable amount of money.
2) You can let your creative juices flow
and mount a low-cost promotion effort, using a potpourri of
attention-getting gimmicks to bring your message to the buying
public.
Now, to be sure, conventional advertising is
valuable. If your enterprise is large enough or if you're selling
numerous product lines, you may find that a full-fledged media
campaign is the most efficient and cost effective way to promote
your business.
However, for most small businesses money is
tight, and you can't afford the heavy cost of a media campaign over
a period of time.
The following is a assortment of low-cost
techniques you can try. Not all may be appropriate for your
particular business, and certainly it would be costly to try them
all. But you're sure to find some ideas that will work for you.
GIVEAWAYS. People love to receive
"free" items, especially items they can use to gain
knowledge or improve their lives. You can base and entire
promotional campaign on this desire. If you're running a furniture
repair business, for instance, you could give away a furniture
repair brochure, free furniture planning guides, or color swatches.
Once you begin giving away authoritative information customers will
begin to perceive you as an expert in your field.
NEWS CREATION. Want to get names and
news from your business in the local newspaper? It may be easier
that you think. If you don't have any news to report to the local
media, create some. Maybe you've taken on a new associate. Or maybe
you're selling an unusual product line. Or maybe you've opened a
free advice center for the community. Or maybe you've received an
award from a civic or professional group. Local Pennysavers and
weekly shoppers are often quite interested in business news of this
sort and can help you attract the attention of thousands of people.
EVENTS. You may be able to attract the
attention of the media or a crowd by staging a special promotional
event. If you run a fitness classes, for instance, you could stage a
celebrity instructor day. If you're promoting a new real estate
business, you can offer tours of a model home in the area. If you're
selling children's products and it's springtime, you can offer lunch
with the Easter bunny. Get the idea?
CHARITY TIE-INS. Are you launching a new
product? trying to increase visibility among a particular segment of
your community? Offer your product to one or more local charities as
a raffle prize or for use at a fund raising event. You'll receive
lots of exposure among people who buy tickets or attend the event.
CONTESTS. Offer a desirable or unique
item-or even several items-as contest prizes. First, find a contest
theme that ties into your business. A caterer might offer a
quiche-eating contest. A photographer might offer a young model
contest. A mail order craft firm might offer an "Early
American" handicrafts contest. Invite contest submissions and
offer prizes to the winners. Do contests attract attention? You bet.
All it takes is a few signs, a small press announcement or two, and
the word will spread throughout the community grapevine.
COMMUNITY SERVICE. Nothing brings you to
the attention of the people faster-or more favorably-than community
service. Ask yourself how your enterprise can be a "good
neighbor" to your community. If you're running a lawn care and
gardening service, perhaps you can offer one season's services at no
charge to a needy charitable organization or nursing home in your
area. Hundreds of people will hear about your work in the process.
Volunteer for various community causes. If appropriate, you can step
in during community emergency, offering products and services to
help an organization or individuals in need.
COUPONING. Americans are very
coupon-conscious. Test the market: at what level will coupons
increase the volume of various product or service lines? When you
get some tentative answers, start distributing coupons that offer a
discount on your services. Distribute them to area newspapers, on
store counters, in door-to-door- mail packets (which can often be
quite inexpensive), at the public library, at laundromats, at any
location where people congregate.
BADGES AND NOVELTIES. You can easily and
inexpensively produce badges, bumper stickers, book covers, and
other novelty items for distribution in your area. You can imprint
your business name and the first names of the customers on many of
these products at little cost and distribute them for free. Or you
can tie your novelty program into a contest: once a month, you can
offer a prize to any individual whose car happens to carry one of
your bumper stickers or badges with peel-off coupons, redeemable at
your place of business.
CELEBRITY VISITS. With a bit of
persistence, you may be able to arrange to have a local media
celebrity, public official, or entertainment personally-even a
fictitious cartoon character or clown-visit your service. The
celebrity can sign autographs, read stories to children, perform
cooking demonstrations, or perform any one of a hundred other
traffic-building activities.
CELEBRATE HOLIDAYS. You'll probably want
to celebrate major public holidays with special sales. But celebrate
some of the offbeat holidays as well. Almost every business has a
few little-known holidays. Ever hear of National Pickle Day, for
instance? Or Cat Lovers Month? Once you find the "right"
holiday, you can sponsor a special sale or special product arrange
special media coverage of a holiday event.
GO WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE. Can you open
sales information booths at community fairs and festivals? This
promotional technique can work for gift retailers, craftspeople, and
personal service firms. If you have the people and the time, can you
handle regional fairs or even trade shows?
MAILING LISTS. Once you begin
establishing a committed clientele, gather their names on a mailing
list. Save the names from your mail orders and telephone inquiries.
Eventually, you'll be able to send product circulars or even
catalogs to the folks on your list and you'll be able to promise
your products by mail.
SCAVENGER HUNTS. If you want people to
buy NOW, offer them an unbeatable deal. If they bring an old
product-a small appliance, a book, whatever-to you, you'll give them
a worthwhile discount on a comparable new item. Or stage a general
purpose scavenger hunt. Customers who bring in three canned goods
for your community's food bank will receive a discount on products
purchased that day.
PARTIES. Everyone loves a party. Why not
celebrate the anniversary of your business or some special holiday
by offering baked goods and beverages? If you're running a service
business, perhaps you can offer an open house or obtain a small
banquet room in your community. Besides refreshments, be sure the
place is brightly decorated.
GREETING CARDS. Do you send out greeting
cards to major customers or clients? Holidays, birthdays, and
anniversaries make nice greeting card occasions. Greeting cards
create enormous goodwill and keep your name in front of people. They
also make an excellent time to sell to your customer again or
solicit referrals.
SEMINARS. In this information hungry
age, people love to receive advice, especially about their personal
needs and hobbies. If you sell health foods or run fitness classes,
perhaps you can offer "wellness" seminars during lunchtime
to your area's business community. If you're an interior decorator,
perhaps you can offer one-hour decorating workshops to any group of
ten people who will gather in someone's home. If you're running a
printing business, perhaps you can offer tours and layout seminars
at your plant.
If you're not pleased with your promotional
efforts today or if you simply must increase your exposure among
customers and prospects-it's probably time to increase your
publicity efforts.
By all means, advertise in the media if you can
or must.
But don't neglect your greatest promotional
asset-your mind. Ponder the products, services, and events you can
offer the community and devise a creative promotional strategy
around them. You'll have to invest a bit of time and energy in the
project, but the payoff will be worth it. You'll save hundreds-or
even thousands-of advertising dollars and, better yet, you'll travel
a well-worn shortcut to profit.
 By:
Charles Sisk Contact: Charles Sisk
Charles
Sisk is President of Marketing Prosperity, a small
business marketing consulting firm and publishes the
Marketing
Prosperity Super Tips Newsletter,
the #1 Source of Small Business
Marketing Ideas.
Subscribe now at: http://www.MarketingProsperity.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
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