Advertising on radio, TV and in print is very expensive and there is no way to guarantee results. If you are a small store, you don’t want to spend lots of money advertising in any media that is broadcast to customers very far away for things they already have available locally.
There is a way to optimize your chances of getting new local customers by sharing the cost of advertising with other, but non-competing, businesses. Local shops can get new customers by sending a $5 ‘gift card’ inside a nice business card file, like a mini directory filled with a dozen other gift cards from the local restaurant, oil change shop, florist and others in the area. Instead of relying on newspaper coupons that are rarely cut out and saved, the plastic cards are considered ‘actual money’ that can be spent at local stores.
Potential customers will also want to save the card case, an actual useful product that the set of cards come in, because they can add their everyday business cards into the file and even if they have no use for a particular card in the case (taxidermist anyone?) they may save it and give it to a hunter friend rather than toss it.
Better than radio and TV because your prospect has a physical product in his hands, no 800 number or address to jot down. Better than the yellow pages because you are not competing for customers attention on a sea of yellow ads. Better than direct junk mail which is rarely read and often trashed before even opening!? Better than hand flyers and coupons that won’t be saved by most, and worse, become instant litter. Better than cold calling customers at home at dinner time. Better than . . .?
This is the idea for a new business I am looking to start in the near future, so any comments and suggestions are helpful.
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Close though, is sometimes buisnesses pool to advertise on something somwhat widely distrubuted, such as a coupon booklet or phone book cover (or even an alternative phone book or yellow pages). Usually in either case, it may be a third party doing this for their own profit.
Thanks for your comment. I was looking for a way to advertise my beeper store business when I originally thought of this, but after 13 years in business, I closed for lack of customers. Cellphones killed off beepers. In my case, I would go from being one of the advertisers to instead being the 'third party' selling the ads.
I do think a dozen plastic gift cards with a big '$5' value on each card will be more impressive then a paper coupon book. Yellow pages have too many same competitors listed next to your business name, and many useless listings from 50 miles away. I want to keep to one zip code or two so the cards can be more utilized.
Only one downside is if one customer brought in a stack of the things and got a free ride. Perhaps make them "1 per customer per visit" or somesuch restriction, so that the business would not lose money.