So each entrepreneur or small business owner has a unique business, it's really you and a product or a service that you offer to your customers. No one else really does what you do within your community ( or maybe you have one near by competitor). So, you have an opportunity to uniquely market your business to your constituents.
There are so many options. the old school way: attend networking events, advertise in local newspapers and penny savers, rent bus stops booths, hire a billboard, local radio spots, conduct a snail mail campaign to local zip codes, buy a coupon in one of those neighborhood coupon books. Certainly lots of ways to spend your money...and we haven't even tackled social media.
I actually found a local radio station at a college where I sponsored a one hour radio talk show Monday-Friday and they played my audio ad 3 times a day, 5 days a week, that is 60 ads a month, all for $100. Can't tell you what my return was after 6 months, so I moved in another direction.
You have to try things out, for many retailers, those coupon books work well, attract new customers or even bring old customers back in. A client of mine sends out 50 mailers each week to shoppers they haven't seen in six months, a personalized letter with a $50 coupon inside. It brings people in. I tried a snail mail campaign to small offices to promote my Apple iphone break/fix repair service but I didn't see results after three mailing so I moved on.
The bottom line is some things will work, some won't but you don't know until you try it but you have to invest in each tool for at least 4-6 months to determine if there is a success or failure.
Stay tuned for Part 2 on social media.
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