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ADVERTISING IDEAS

Special Event Advertising

No matter what product your business sells, holding special events at your store is an effective advertising tool. First, decide on what kind of event you want to have. Open houses work well especially if you offer some type of food and drink, free drawing or free gifts. You will need to advertise your event in your local paper, mail out flyers or place your flyers on the windshields of cars at grocery stores and shopping malls. Don’t make your flyer too busy and make sure to include your free drawing or give-away and the food that will be at your special event. Food and gifts are guaranteed to draw in customers.

On-site Radio Spots

This will cost you some money, but call one of your local radio stations and ask them their costs for on-site day or evening live broadcast events. These events are where the station sends one of their staff to your event and holds a live broadcast from your site. Many people listen to the radio while they drive and if they are close to your site, they may be enticed to drop in. At these events, it is also a good idea to have some type of free refreshments and give-aways.

Hire a Hero

People love their local heroes whether they are sports heroes, television personalities, or local politicians (if they are well liked). If it is a local sports personality, you can call their PR office and ask the cost for an appearance. Pricing for a sports hero will depend on how well he or she is known—the better liked, the bigger the price. You can also call your local television station to see if their news anchors, especially their weather people can come to your event and ask how much the fee is. If it is a local politician you want to come to your event, call their office and see if there is a fee. While some politicians are willing to do these types of events, others are not, so make some calls first to see if this is feasible in your area. Advertise your heroes with flyers, print ads in newspapers, and radio spots. If autographs are offered, this too is an effective way to draw in new customers.

Hold a Seminar

You can do this with almost any business—if you do it right. If you have a finance or mortgage business, offer a free seminar for people on how they can get financed or repair their credit. If you have a vehicle repair center, offer a seminar on how do-it-yourself people can complete minor vehicle repairs on their cars or trucks at home (this will still sell you auto parts if not additional service). Professional offices like new doctors or dentists can also do this by holding free health or dental seminars to draw in new clients.

Arrange a Fair

If your business has similar competitors in your area, call them and see if they want to join up and hold a fair in one location where all of you can split the advertising costs. These are often referred to as "tent events". Auto dealerships do this often and will have finance people on hand to get customers approved immediately at the event. Most credit unions will come to these types of events free—after all, they want business too. If you are a florist, ask fellow florists if they want to have a free flower arrangement class where again, you can split the costs. If you are a pottery shop, you can also do this by joining up with like businesses. This is an effective way to advertise where more than one company can share in the expense of advertising the event. If will be cost-effective to share newspaper print ads, radio spots, and flyers if more than one business is chipping in for the expense.

Online Business Advertising

If your business is an online business, you can still develop a great advertising campaign. One way to do this is to submit articles using good SEO (search engine optimization) words. Once the article is written, you can submit it to a free article submission sites. If you sell online custom candles, for example, when you write your article, keep it only 300-400 words using short concise sentences. Use good SEO words like "custom candles," "unique," "free gifts," and, "free shipping." People who are looking for a certain type of candle will often do a search for “custom” or “unique” candles. If you article includes these good keywords, you will draw people to your site. When you submit these articles, make sure to include a link to your website. Don’t stop at just one article either, write numerous articles, and submit they to as many sites as you can. If you aren’t familiar with article submission sites, search for them by typing in "free article submission sites." Make sure you include exciting specials on your home page, and don’t make it too busy—too many things to look at on one page can deter people.

These are just a few ideas on effective ways to advertise your business. Advertising is a necessity if you want your business to succeed. Figure out your budget and explore the many ways you can advertise your business and with a good campaign, you’ll be drawing in customers in no time!