You don’t say what kind of business you run, so I’m going to be very general here from my own experience.
- While social media is certainly a great low-cost resource, don’t rely on it too much. We use it as just another tool in our arsenal. Also, social media is more abut building a following, keeping folks current with our business, and occasionally reaching out to the masses around us, rather than about “advertising.”
- I can’t stress word of mouth enough. Much of our post-lockdown business comes from our loyal guests telling others about us. This is tricky, since you don’t want to come across as desperate by asking your guests to recommend you. The only sure-fire trick I’ve found here is to be the best that you can possibly be always and consistently. The rest seems to sort of happen by magic. Ha.
- This year, we decided to “sponsor” a show on our local NPR station. It is one of the most popular local broadcasts in our market. We sponsor it one day a week, and it runs us only $75 per week, which includes a pre-show spot and a couple of mid-show spots. While I’m a public radio junky, I was pleasantly surprised at how many others there are. We’ve had quite a few people “find us” for the first time through this avenue. They thank us for supporting public radio, and they’ve become regulars. Best advertising dollars I ever spent, honestly.
- We have sent electronic PDFs to the neighborhood resident associations and the neighborhood apartment complexes. These are distributed in new resident packages and placed on tenant-only portals, usually free of charge. Occasionally we run promotions specifically for these folks, again through the same channels. Apartment complexes, especially, love to promote other local businesses, because they know a thriving local scene can only benefit them by making their complexes attractive. This is the classic “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” form of guerrilla marketing.
- We are an ice cream shop. This year we returned to an old marketing trick from our early days. We have tri-fold paper menus, rather than traditional menus. We find we have to print more every few days because guests take them home, share them, etc. Yes, there is an added expense of regularly printing more menus, but for us this is an entirely justifiable marketing expense that just keeps on giving.
- We reside in a corner property in a busy, walkable, growing, thriving city center. We have two sidewalk signs with information about us and MOST IMPORTANTLY a QR code that links directly to our website/online menu. I quit trying to count the number of people who walk by, scan the QR code and then move on. If even a fraction of those folks eventually look at our menu those signs have paid for themselves over and over again.
- We are members of a few local and regional business organizations. Even after 9 years, I’m still surprised at how many people “find” us because of those relationships. A few of them (hotels, for example) send business our way, bring their employees over occasionally as a bonus, etc.
- We partner with local schools for special ice cream treat days, offering small discounts when they bring groups and pre-order.
One other that we are working on now. Our shop is in a mixed-use residential/business neighborhood, on the Kentucky side of Greater Cincinnati. Lots of people are moving back to the cities here, leaving the suburbs as they rediscover the many perks of urban living. In an effort to help support and strengthen all of us, we are working to partner with other local businesses this year. The idea is to give our local retailers discount cards they can give to customers who purchase something from them. These cards (with an accompanying purchase receipt from the retail store) would earn guests a small but noticeable discount for buying ice cream, etc, from us — a “thank you” for supporting our retail neighbors and for coming to “discover” us.
Just a few ideas. Good luck.
Chip
