Marketing ideas? My business has a visibility problem...?

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Where can i advertise my guest house by free?

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deft.lefthand

Marketing ideas? My business has a visibility problem...?

People can't see my shop from the road. Do you have any ideas of how to attract new customers? I own a small coffee shop. The city won't allow me any more signs out near the road, and unfortunately, advertising is out of the question. So, how can I get people to come to my shop, and not that big, corporate place down the street? Open mic nights? Game nights, like chess? I've just run out of ideas... thanks in advance!

wendilawhorn

Hi,

I specialize in advertising. I usuallly answer question about online businesses, but much of the same applies for other business as well. I am frequently posting ideas on free or very inexpensive ways to advertise. You can visit this blog at http://www.squidoo.com/workathomefree

However, here are a few ideas. Your best solution to this problem is advertisement and becoming better known.

Build a website and some of the online advertisements can also apply to you.

1 - Nothing beats word of mouth. I suggest reading the book "Buzzmarketing" by Mark Hughes

2 - Snail Mail still works. Mail out fliers

3 - Join forums and put a link in your signature. Make topics related to your website

4 - Good ole fashioned link exchanges still work

5 - Post flyers around town

6 - Cold call

7 - Post reviews on other websites, leave your URL

8 - Write articles

9 - Write an eBook

10 - Write a book

12 - Adjust your meta tags and submit to search engines

12 - Bug your friends to bug their friends

13 - Sponsor an event

14 - Sponsor a charity

15 - Publish regular articles on your website

I hope this helps,

Wendi
EverythingInLife.com

Phyllis Boulton

Your open mic idea was an great innovation a local coffee shop used in my area. Local community talent came prepared to perform and share whatever they had on Saturday evenings in a small rural community over the winter. Children to seniors provided fun by singing, playing piano, reciting poems and more. The performers brought friends and neighbours and soon it exploded so much that a bigger venue had to be found. Now it has become our community's winter Saturday evening "Coffee House" where a non-profit group supplies the refreshments with attendees making a free-will donation to them and individuals or groups impromptually and informally perform.

So... depending on your space and available resources can you handle that type of entertainment to draw more people into your coffee shop?

How about donating something "free" for monthly draws (place it in your budget according to a yearly plan and stick to it reasonably well or you could get inundated/overwhelmed with requests) or even hosting a fundraiser within your business for a worthy cause? Become more visible at trade fairs or fundraisers outside of your business. As the people in the local area and businesses around you get to know more about you they will likely recommend your place of business to their customers. Do an exchange of advertising with them. Feature advertising for various businesses in exchange for them advertising yours. There is no new advertising dollars spent just a different advertising method.

My experience is that the more involved and visible the business owners are the more business they attract... it is the relationships you develop that will expand your business... not the signs.

Mike H

If it's impossible to use advertising, one of the strongest weapons you have is your current clientele. Try to come up with ways for them to spread the word to their friends and coworkers. One of the simplest ways is to reorganize your space to be conducive to group meetings. Lots of the corporate coffee houses have a very stale, individual image - the kind of place people go to read newspapers by themselves. Try to be community and workplace oriented, even offering discounts for work groups that come for meetings. Maybe offer some incentives on a loyalty program (i.e. if a new client indicates that ____, your regular client, advised them to do so, give them both some form of discount). Depending on your clientele, try to use different parts of the internet to spread the word - promote among teens and young adults with Facebook groups, for example. Community email newsletters?

That's all I have right now - trying to stick to the whole "free" idea! Good luck.

EncycloMedia

You say that the city won't allow you "any more" signs on the road. Which means that you do have some signs that you have up there. Since yours is a small coffee shop which is not as well recognized as the corporate one, you need to use your signs effectively and cleverly so it becomes a talking point with people who pass by and create a curiousity value prompting them to walk to you. I would say that is your most economical and safest bet using your existing resources. Once you start getting your walk-ins, you will need to focus on offering something unique within your coffee shop that will ensure that your customers act as your mouthpiece and spread the word attracting more customers to come in. Write to me and I will give you some more ideas in detail.

G.V.

Try local ad magazines, Val-Pak, Money Mailer.

amy_imagin

Do an open house night and give everyone who comes a free vacation. I own a vacation company where you can buy vacations to be used as incentives. The prices are wholesale. The more you buy the cheaper they are. If you advertised that, people would come.

Josh D

So many ideas here, but what would work. The open mic night sounds fun, and it could draw people in, but you have to have a way to get the word out about it and you are saying advertising is out of the question.

Number one is that your advertising or marketing campaign is going to help you bring people into your store. Try to get a budget for it. No matter what you do, you still have to get the word out about it.

I would start by thinking of a discount that you would be willing to give out to help draw people in. Nothing large, but something that sounds good. Then offer it to different groups. Maybe find a book club and give them a discount if they have their meetings in your shop. Contact churches and find out about different group meetings, maybe offer a catering service to any at the Church. I would also work with different local businesses. See if they would use gift cards to your shop as an employee reward.

There are many different things you can try, but you need to find a way to get people to know your name. Do that by going to the people. Cater to them, because some of those other big names can't do that. So what if it is just a coffee shop, I like my specialty coffee and teas, and feel that it would work as a catered type of service.

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