Getting Really Cheap Publicity for your Business
In a related article, we discussed getting free publicity for your business. But if you have a few dollars to spend, your options multiply. Here are three thrifty and effective ways you can call attention to, and generate enthusiasm for, your business.
Helpful Hints
No matter what line of work you're in, you can probably come up with enough tips and good ideas related to your business to fill a small booklet. (If you have a lot of good ideas, you can offer a series of booklets, or even start a newsletter.) It doesn't have to be extravagant, elaborate, or expensive. You can create attractive, professional-looking documents with just a PC and a $200 color printer.
For instance, if your business is teaching dance, you can publish booklets on the 10 best places in town for Swing, the 10 best for Ballroom, and, the 10 best for Square Dancing. If you're an allergist, "50 Unexpected Places Dust Mites Hide." If you run an antiques shop, you can give people advice about evaluating their heirlooms; a toy store, 10 predictions for the next big craze.
The purpose of these booklets is to promote you as an authority in your field, and a businessperson who is available to help consumers solve their daily problems. You can make the booklets available on your store counters, or mail them to clients and prospective clients of your practice. Or you can even try to sell them by sending copies to magazines, along with a press release, and see if they'll give you a plug. (Help with your press release is just a click away: software can be found at office update @ microsoft, and advice at yudkin.)
Get Wired
The Internet is a great equalizer. No one will be able to tell from your website how big or small your operation is unless you tell them. Some sites will develop a Web page for you. There are also software and kits you can buy to create home pages, electronic catalogues, links, search engines, interactive features, and so on. If you run a merchandise-based business, you can sell products online through auctions ( SnapMart is an online auction that is completely free to use and one that reimburses shipping charges*), your site, or others' sites.
Give people a reason to log onto your site, and to come back. Offer advice and tips, as with the booklets, update it regularly so there's always something new to look at, create chat rooms. To make your site truly useful, offer one-on-one advice in your field to users. You can have them answer questionnaires to "register," thereby collecting information about your customers that will help you in your future marketing efforts.
Contests and Giveaways
These kinds of promotions are fun, they generate interest in your business, and if yours is unusual enough, or if it will benefit the community, you can probably get your local press to publicize the event beforehand and cover it while it is in progress. Here are some ideas to get those creative juices flowing:
? For the price of a donation to the local Humane Society, customers can get a professional picture of their pet with Santa Claus (or the Easter Bunny or "Elvira," depending on the holiday).
? An auto dealer or jeweler might announce the giveaway of a big-ticket item to anyone who makes a purchase during a two-week period as long as it snows more than two inches in the town plaza on January 1. Sales skyrocket during this promotion, and the retailers are protected irrespective of Mother Nature's notorious fickleness, because they have purchased weather insurance ( weatherins).
? Home furnishing retailers often run "ugly" contests: ugly couch, ugly kitchen, ugly bedroom. Entrants submit photographs of the offending item, along with an essay or poem about why it deserves to win (lose?). Best entries receive a new couch, kitchen makeover, bedroom set, or whatever is appropriate to the theme. One manufacturer of slipcovers that sponsored such a contest donated $1 to Habitats for Humanity for each entry.
? Every year, a regional dairy invites families to build milk-carton boats--life-size, to be piloted by children--which are then entered in a race during a popular local festival. This promotion allows the sponsoring dairy to show its support for its community with its involvement in the festival. It also encourages contestants to purchase the dairy's products in order to enter.
Remember, don't outspend your competition...Outsmart it1x
By Lisa Schinhofen
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