No Cost, Low Cost, Fun Marketing

Yes, there are some fun, unique and low cost ways to let people know about your products or services. What follows is a list of ideas from a variety of sources; the internet, personal experience, word of mouth and various business periodicals. The list isn’t exhaustive. Let it inspire you to come up with your own ideas. Not every approach will work for every business, but hopefully you’ll see something that will work for your business and personality.

• Send thank-you notes: Send a thank you note to businesses you patronize. Tell them what you appreciate and include your web address and/or phone number.
• Give your customers a no-strings reward: Hand these out to customers who have blessed you in some way; maybe a smile or a laugh in a tough situation, or patience when things didn’t go so smoothly, or for their birthday....
• Give out three or four business cards at a time: Invite people to give your card to friends and colleagues...and give them the ability to do so.
• Co-host a team open house: This is especially suited to the holidays. Team up with neighboring businesses and give away a free gift or coupon if visitors go to every store on the hosting list.
• Go one step further and make it a scavenger hunt using business cards or some promotional item. Think progressive dinner with different businesses (in close proximity) as the hosting parties.
• Hold an individual open house: Provide treats and coffee for adults and goodies for the kids.
• Create a helpful handout: A shoe-in for the open house idea. Write up a handout with helpful and useful information related to your business. Don’t limit this to information about your business. Think more along the lines of helpful information the receiver would keep. For instance a pet shop might make up a handout about dog training. A computer store could make a list of monthly computer maintenance to be done at home. Make sure your web address and phone number are on the handout, and well, hand it out!
• Create a valuable coupon: Make your customers feel like they are really getting something useful or valuable. Hand them out. Put them in the newspaper. Share coupons with compatible businesses.
• Reciprocal advertising: You’ve heard of reciprocal website linking. Use the same principle to team up with compatible, complementary businesses. This concept is almost limitless. You can share advertising, offer reciprocal discounts, co-host open houses, co-teach classes, co-sponsor events..... It just makes things more fun and two heads (or three, or four) are almost always better than one.
• Create a frequent buyer punch card.
• Develop standard phone operations: Train employees to answer the phone with a standard greeting. Teach them how to handle common questions and requests.
• Follow up. Really: It is uncommon today for people to actually follow up with a phone call or letter. It’s promised a lot, but rarely done.
• Attend tradeshows: You may want to have a booth, or just circulate your business card to likely customers.
• Go to chamber of commerce meetings: An obvious place to network. Networking need not be self-centered. Most business owners appreciate making mutually beneficial contacts. You’ll be surprised how many people will say “I have people ask about such-and-such, but I don’t know where to send them.”
• Teach a class/seminar/workshop: Do you have a skill or knowledge others would benefit from? Don’t use this time for the hard sell. Come at this from the attitude of wanting to help people with their needs, but hand out your business card.
• Similarly, host a tour: Would your business be interesting to tour? Give school kids free tours.
• Sponsor a charitable event/organization: Again, people can see right through this if the only motive is to benefit yourself, so find a cause you believe in and can support with your heart. Have a sale and donate part of the proceeds, or donate an item for silent auction. There are endless ways to be involved in the community which gives a face to your business’ name.
• Send out press releases: Is your business doing something community oriented or otherwise newsworthy?
• Give a discount to first time buyers: You’ll have to be a believer in the honor system, but it sends an immediate message of appreciation which just might turn a one time visitor into a loyal customer.
• Honor with standing discounts: Is there a group of people to whom you could offer a standing discount for your products or services? Seniors, teachers, high school seniors, elementary kids, 4H kids, college students, scouts and people who donate to a particular cause are all possible choices. These people have friends and family, and the next item will tell you why it works.
• Don’t disregard word-of-mouth: Your customers’ experience at your business can be your best (or worst) advertising. You may not see the results immediately, but word-of-mouth is very powerful.
• Add a button to your website for viewers to “tell a friend about this site”.

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