How do I stretch my promotion dollars?

SCORE counselor Alan Yarnoff advises small business owners on how to stretch their promotion dollars.

Small business owners face a tough decision on how to best invest their promotion and advertising dollars in today’s economy. They operate with smaller marketing budgets against larger companies with greater funds and resources. However, all is not lost because there are many ways to draw attention to your business without overspending your budget.Some of the best strategies offer a very high ROI [Return on Investment] with very little capital outlay. For a relatively small financial investment and some of your time, you can get leading ads and promotions that will draw customers to your business and ring the cash registers.

Let's take a look at some of these options: Companies like McDonald’s advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business cannot afford to operate this way; they need to create advertising to produce immediate sales. To accomplish this, you must include a special offer in your advertising and an easy way for your customer to act on the offer. Think out of the box: always look for some unconventional marketing ideas your competitors are missing. This can lead to the discovery of some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid the competition. Reduce the size of your ads so you can increase the frequency without increasing your spending. On many occasions, if the message is on the target, the size of the ad will not determine its success or failure.Set up joint promotions with other non-competitive businesses. Offer to promote their products or services to your customers if they promote your products or services to their customers. This can generate incremental sales with very little investment by your company. Be the expert by offering seminars to help establish your business as the local source for the products or services you offer. Seminars can help cement relations with current customers, attract prospects, and increase your company’s identity in the community.One last point, make sure your selling materials are professionally created. Every brochure, flyer, email blast, ad, and mailer should be competently produced. Do not cut corners; this may be the final element in a successful sale or lost customer.

Richard Strug
Greater Princeton Area SCORE (Chapter 631)
Serving Mercer and Middlesex Counties