As I discussed the other day, your marketing efforts in this down-turn economy must be supported by a simple but vital three-legged stool:
- Excellent customer service
- A customer-appreciation and retention program
- A customer referral program
Once these three vital elements are in place, any other marketing ideas you put in play will have a far greater chance of success. Now, based on your particular business, your past marketing successes, and your personality, take a look at the brainstorming list below to consider what other free or low-cost marketing ideas may get the word out about your products or services. Feel free to mix and match, using as many of these concepts as you can (in a synchronized, non-competing way) to build your brand, bring in customers and explode your profit!
Note: The $ indicates this method will require some cost to implement. A method is noted as free if you can implement it for no more cost than the time and supplies you use to create it (i.e. a flyer is called free because it costs you nothing to hang it up on a bulletin board, but you will need to pay for the paper and ink to print it up.)
- Flyers/coupons hung on local free announcement bulletin boards
- Eye-catching signs outside your shop
- Local Pennysaver ads ($)
- Local classified ads ($)
- Cold-calling to former customers you haven’t seen in a while
- An e-mail newsletter
- A print newsletter to hand out…
- …or mail ($)
- Ultra-targeted direct mail (i.e. mailing a circular to everyone within a mile of your retail location) ($)
- You do have a website, don’t you? ($)
- Blog posting
- e-newsletter
- Forum conversations
- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc., etc. etc. ad nauseum.
- Print circular
- Free consultations
- Public Access infomercial ($)
- Press releases to local newspapers
- Web press releases
- Search engine optimization
- Search engine submission
- Online classifieds
- www.Craigslist.org
- all the Craigslist wannabes
- Write articles on your specialty for online and offline submission
- Business cards to hand out everywhere ($)
- really, anything at all that you can think of that keeps your name and product or service in people’s minds constantly.
If you have any questions at all about how these suggestions can be molded to fit your business, contact me at copyghost@copyghost.com and I’d love to discuss it with you.
