Keeping your company’s name in front of current customers and prospects is key in a recession or a robust economy. Although advertising is one way to accomplish this, it’s not the only way.
There are approaches to promotion that don’t involve advertising and are easy on your pocketbook. The only catch is that they require time and creativity to develop. Here are 10 ideas from businesstown.com to get you started.
1. Coupons. Hand them out at trade shows or send them to your best customers only. Make your coupon offer generous to assure your chances of establishing an ongoing relationship or getting an additional sale.
2. Contests. Infuse it with fun, make it silly and don’t forget to talk it up. If your contest is wacky enough, you might be able to get good media coverage, which is essentially free advertising.
3. Gifts. People love to receive something for free, even if they have to pay a premium price for a more expensive item to get the freebie.
4. Frequent buyers. The most common approach is to give customers a card that is marked after each purchase and results in a free or reduced-price product or service offering after a specified number of regular-priced purchases.
5. Exclusive offerings. Offering exclusive purchases or previews of new merchandise to existing customers is a great way to inspire a feeling of excitement and loyalty.
6. Events. Hosting a special event in your business establishment, such as an open house or fundraiser, is a terrific way to introduce people to your business or maintain contact with existing customers. It also will create an aura of excitement and goodwill, and you may even obtain media coverage.
7. Cross promotions. One great business-to-business cross promotion is to offer free tickets to a ball game to any business willing to invest 15 minutes of time just to listen to your sales pitch.
8. Trades. Ever notice the ads on taxi roofs? If you are sold on developing an advertising campaign, remember that smaller media outfits will sometimes accept products or services in lieu of payment.
9. Giveaways. Selling business to business, you can generate goodwill with your best customers or a select roster of potential clientele by occasionally giving them a small gift when you call on them.
10. New customer offers. Attracting new customers is one of the most difficult marketing challenges to achieve even with powerful advertising or a dedicated sales force. That is why different businesses – from national greeting card manufacturers to local oil delivery services – offer incentive pricing or freebies.