Small business marketing ideas for the shoestring bourgeoisie.
I’m not sure this ad achieves what Motorola and Verizon hoped to achieve. I don’t see people untethered by longer battery life; I see a digital culture of disconnect. No one is actually looking at each other. All eyes are on their phones. Yeesh. Is this what we’re becoming?
The digitally divided?
The best and most obvious reason for visiting some tables at trade shows is for the free giveaways. You will find that many people will make the rounds to collect the free stuff. In some cases, the booths without free giveaways may experience lower traffic as a result. It’s a cheap ploy, but the right giveaway can gain you exposure you wouldn’t have had without it. Of course, you have to question the quality of your traffic if it’s only coming over to steal another one of those great metal pens…
Tip: Have fun with your giveaways! After all, if it’s really good, it will likely end up in the hands of their kids.
Consider the signage at your office or facility. Can a visitor find you easily? Can he find his way around your facility easily? Large buildings such as hospitals, office buildings, and malls often suffer from poor signage, creating a sense of unease and annoyance in their patrons. You know that even grocery stores can benefit from clear signage if you’ve ever had the misfortune of searching for way too long to locate a certain item on your grocery list.
Send reminders to refresh your clients’ memory of specific recurring events, such as dental appointments or subscription renewals. If you’re using direct mail (postcards, letters, and so on), have your clients fill out the address information for their next reminder at the time of checkout.
Tip: Go one step further and hand them a sticker with the date of their next appointment, for easy placement in their wall calendars.
Example: Oil-change shops are great at this. They are always certain to leave those little window clings on your windshield for easy reference. As a result, you always know exactly when you’re due for a visit!
Better: Send them their calendar appointment electronically. (You are collecting their e-mail addresses, right?)
When your business is the first one that comes to mind as a place to find a product or service, you have achieved what is called top-of-mind awareness. Top-of-mind awareness is built and reinforced through repetition.
If you hold a retail store, 85 percent of your customers live or work within a five-mile radius of your business. When driving to and from work, school, and shopping, they pass your location some fifty to sixty times a month. Your sign should be designed so that it commands their attention every time they pass.
That’s how signs help build top-of-mind awareness and brand your business. To further this effort, make sure your sign is included as part of your overall marketing strategy.
A great rule for a brochure is, “If you can’t say it all on a business card, you shouldn’t say it at all.”
(Okay, so it’s not really a rule, but it should be.)
Distill what you want to say about your product or service and fit it on a business card. Instead only offering your contact information, place a few bullet points and add some nice, simple graphics to the back of the card. By doing this, you are able to leave those you meet with a message that they can carry with them or organize into their Rolodex. (This presumes you made a great enough impact to compel them to keep your card.)
Example: Feeling clever? Leave off your contact information to complete the “brochure card” effect. Place the logo and tagline on the front of the card, and the content on the back, for a playing card–type feel. Also, by utilizing both front and back in your design, you can leave two cards on a bulletin board or elsewhere, flipping one over to create a small, two-piece brochure/billboard effect.
Why is it you occasionally see billboards that attempt to be brochures? Is their message so important that it couldn’t possibly be distilled down into a couple brief phrases? Is their key message so complex? When you get ready to make your billboard investment, don’t insist your billboard become more than a billboard. A message received from a billboard is geared toward the audience on the go—and they’re usually going over 70 miles per hour. Keep it eye-catching, short, and simple for greatest impact.
How often are you bringing value to your clients? Offer a regular newsletter, article, or column. Ensure that whatever you put out maintains a consistent look and feel with the rest of your image; this assists you in furthering the development of your brand.
Better: You should be collecting the e-mail addresses of everyone who comes to you. Reduce your printing costs, save trees, and extend your reach by offering your network an e-newsletter.
How long have you had your current logo? Does it still reflect the culture of your organization? Does it still reflect the promise of your brand? Is it time to recreate it? Time for a logo update?
Remember: Reinventing yourself is a marketable event, which—if it’s done well—can help you shed some negative feelings or associations your brand might have picked up along the way. If you have been in business for a while, updating your logo with an appropriate amount of buzz can help to breathe fresh air into your marketing.
Additionally, remember to present your final few logo designs to your key stakeholders and engage them in the process. This can be a simple poll that asks, “Which do you like best? Why?” or “Which do you feel best reflects our personality? Why?” Getting that feedback will be illuminating, to say the least.
Many a cheap diaper has been bought because of commercials showing it can hold the contents of an entire water balloon. Whether at trade shows or in your TV ads or videos, demonstrations prove your products work. This is why those late-night infomercials are so successful. Even brochures can illustrate a step-by-step series of images that prove success.
What can you do to illustrate your product in action?
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