Old School Marketing Fun
The Making Business Fun Podcast, Episode #109
Today's episode is going to be particularly exciting.
I hear it time and time again, from all my clients: why do Facebook ads not work for my business? What do I need to do to rank on Google? Why are my Instagram ads not working? The answer is, sadly, these digital ad market places are over saturated with advertisers. The noise is immense, their systems are complex, and the time, effort and money to mount and effective digital marketing campaign can be overwhelming. Particularly for a business owner who is in the business of running a business, not in the business of running a bunch of digital marketing ad campaigns.
Today we're gonna be talking about old-school tactics to get the word out about your business, on a shoestring budget. What does it require? Well, more than anything it requires creativity and consistency. Of course, getting the word out about your business is not the primary objective. The primary objective is getting people to your business, and having them buy your products. By the end of the podcast, you should have a few ideas as to which channels you may want to explore for your shoestring marketing initiatives. One thing I will tell you, it is very important that you measure the results. It's important that you keep track of what you spend, it's important that you pay attention to the reports that you get back from whom you spend your advertising money with, and it's important that you pay attention to how many sales, and how many dollars are generated from, your shoestring marketing efforts.
The name of the game of course, is to drive as many sales as you can, with the lowest possible spend on advertising. A little bit of terminology: the amount of money that your business receives as a direct result of what you spend on advertising is known as your ROAS — the Return On Ad Spend.
Co-op advertising
We start with something very interesting, called co-op Advertising. This kind of advertising is a split payment arrangement, where the cost of the advertising is paid for partially by you, but also partially by one of your suppliers. For example, when you see an ad for Weber grills, and the ad points out that Weber grills are available at Ace Hardware, this is an example of co-op advertising.
The national advertising budget of Weber grills are partially paying for the ads, as are the local advertising budget for the Ace Hardware. And this can work for you, too. If you have good relationships with your suppliers or manufacturers, you can check with them and see if they have advertising funds available for co-op advertising. It certainly does not harm to ask, and in many cases, national brands have large marketing and advertising budgets, with monies earmarked for co-op advertising, that typically goes unused. This type of advertising works particularly well if you are carrying a unique product from a unique manufacturer, that is unique only to your store in your area. If you really want your customers to know that you're caring a very special product, then advertising that product, and your store, and splitting the cost between you and the manufacturer, could be an awesome way to get more bang for your buck.
Remnant Advertising
This is a little bit of a throwback to the print advertising era, but it does work in digital space as well. It goes like this: right before the end of a sales period, or right before publication goes to print, there's usually some leftover space for advertising that has not been sold. That's called remnant space. And if you want to buy some advertising space on the cheap, remnant space in a topical or regional publication is a good place to start. What you need to do is connect with the publications that you would love to see your ads in, and tell them that you are interested in remnant space. Let them know that you were interested in buying leftover space at bargain prices. This puts it in the publication’s mind, in the sales team’s mind, that when there's ad space left over, you're the one to call. The only downside is, when they do call and offer you remnant ad space, it might be in an odd size, or in an odd place. It may require custom artwork, and it may require that custom artwork right away because they are getting ready to close the issue. That means you need to be able to make fast decisions, and deliver artwork and ads to the publication quickly as well. Still, it's a great way to maximize advertising impact at bargain costs.
Discount Radio
This is a fun one, and I love advertising on radio. Radio has the ability to reach many many many potential customers, and unlike social media marketing, search engine marketing, and other forms of digital advertising, radio is oh so simple. You work with the radio station to produce your spot, and then off it goes. Also radio ads can make you and your business a little famous.
Typical terrestrial radio during the daytime can be a little bit expensive, depending on which radio station you're advertising on, of course. But a great way to get bargains is by buying advertising time during overnight broadcasts. The trick to being effective on radio is repetition. And, repetition requires a lot of ads. And daytime radio can be expensive, so repetition becomes cost prohibitive. However, with discount nighttime radio ads, you can get the ads, and you can get the repetition, and you can get the impact. If you have a product or service that appeals to a wide-net consumer, then you might want to consider radio. This is as simple as calling up the station, and asking to speak to the ad sales department, and telling them that you're interested in overnight and other discount radio packages.
One quick note: Specify terrestrial radio — that means, broadcast. They’ll try to see you pre-roll ads for streaming radio, but that’s less effective in my experience.
Local cable television
Television advertising can be expensive, particularly if you're advertising nationally, on major networks, during major sporting events. However, advertising on local cable television, especially at night, is not expensive. And, so cool about advertising on local cable, is that you have a ton of channels and interests to choose from. So it should be relatively easy for you to pinpoint where your prospective clients and customers are, and advertise to them directly. I've heard stories of overnight local cable television advertising costing as little as $10-$20 per commercial. And depending on where you are, it might even be a lot less expensive than that.
Newspapers and local magazines
It's true, circulation is down. Newspapers and magazines are certainly not what they used to be, but that doesn't mean that people don't pay attention to them. And, with lower circulation, that means advertising in them is often a lot less expensive than it used to be. And, in your local community, newspapers and magazines and get picked up and noticed in a bunch of different environments: doctors offices, hair salons, and there’s even direct subscribers who get it at home. Particularly interesting are local regional awareness magazines. These are magazines that are typically named after the city in which they cover. They are typically full of local news, and lots of coverage of local businesses that are new and interesting to check out. And you may want to very well have your business in these kinds of magazines.
The next time you pick up a copy of the New Yorker magazine, a very highbrow, expensive, literary, and successful magazine, flip to the very back pages. Back there you'll find a bunch of classified ads. Some of these ads in this classified section have been running for decades. And the reason why? They work. There's a particular ad for a gardening hat, that has been running in the back pages of the New Yorker for decades, and I still believe runs there today. Why? Older people who have a lot of time to sit around reading expensive and lengthy magazines, often have time to work in the garden. When they get to the back of the magazine, they're just about in the mood to buy a gardening hat.
Classified Ads
Classified ads in local newspapers, and also specially publications like the Auto Trader, are often a great place to advertise because the people who pick up these publications are ready to buy. This works great in local markets, particularly for things such as hard goods like grills and chords of firewood. It's also great if you're running a small used car lot, barber shop, hair salon, or even a dentistry practice that’s getting its start. Classified ads can be very inexpensive, and when you talk to your ad sales agent, ask if you could buy bulk package of ads at a discount.
And while we're on the subject of classified ads, it's a good time to transition into digital. Craigslist is an amazingly vibrant and amazingly inexpensive place to advertise. There are literally tons and tons and tons and tons of people who are looking for stuff to buy on craigslist, and there is no reason your business should not be there telling people that you have what they need. Like I said, in a lot of cases it's free, in other cases is totally inexpensive, so Craigslist is just one of those places that your business should be, if it could be.
Flyers and coupons
This is a little bit guerrilla, but having a bunch of flyers printed up, especially if they have a bunch of coupons, is still not a terribly bad way to attract attention to your business. Granted, this is more for your main street kind of businesses, but if you're on Main Street, it's not a bad idea to have flyers for your business on other non-competing businesses counters. A little bit of a neighborhood coupon exchange is not a bad idea either. The way this works, of course, is that you have some flyers for other businesses in your store, and these businesses have flyers for your business in their store.
To be effective, flyers should be eye-catching and attractive, they should be well designed, and they should be clear on what your store is, and what it has to offer. And, I might suggest adding a coupon. Coupons can have a bad reputation, from decades of penny pinching grandmothers. But, you are a creative and cool individual, so I am sure you can come up with a cool way to do a coupon. To be effective, they say coupons have to offer at least a 15% discount. I think that's a good starting point, but I think if you exceed that with creativity you'll get better results. For example, if you are faced with two coupons for a sandwich shop, which would you find most appealing? Come in to Sam's Sandwich Shop and get 15% off your sandwich? Or come into Sam's Sandwich Shop and get a free milkshake with every sandwich? I guess it is kind of a trick question, because if you have a health-conscious crowd, the 15% is probably going to be more appealing. If you have a more fun loving crowd, then that free milkshake is going to pay dividends.
Contests
OK, this is a super fun one. It's not for everybody, and I don't recommend it for everybody, but it’s still pretty fun. It's a nice way to get a lot of free publicity for your business, and also to create some excitement. Perhaps the best contest example I can think of is Nathan's Hotdogs hotdog eating contest in Coney Island in New York City. That hotdog eating contest has been going on for decades, and still it seems to make local TV news across the nation every year when it happens. Now, in your local hometown you could do the same equivalent by having a chicken wing eating contest, or a dirtiest car at the car wash contest or, I guess, if you were an adult-use marijuana dispensary, a bong hit contest. I don't know, maybe that's a bad idea. You would know better than I would what the best contest is for your business. And while the idea of contests may sound cheesy to you, when a bar has a darts league or a trivia night, these are all just forms of contests, intending to bring in the business.
In-Store events
Whatever takes to get people into your store, think about what it might be that would provide a little bit excitement. I once had a business, where we thought about bringing in a barber and offering free haircuts every Friday to our customers. What would it take to get people in for a special event at your store? Do you have a manufacturer or supplier who could come in and speak about their products? Could you do product demonstrations? Could you do a class? Could you do some sort of monthly wine and cheese event? No matter what your business is, I bet you can come up with some event to get customers into your location.
Become the expert
In this scenario, you establish yourself as the expert on the focus of your business. If you are a jewelry store, this means establishing yourself as the expert jeweler. If you are a record store, this means establishing your self as a music expert. There's a lot of ways to do this beyond just being a smarty-pants and a know it all. You can reach out to local media outlets and make sure that they know that you are available for interviews on the topics of which you are the expert. You can also do this online by reaching out to podcasts on the topic and offering yourself up as an interview subject.
Also, you could take the initiative to come up with a presentation on a topic of what you are the expert, and then find places to go give that presentation. I'm talking about presenting at anywhere people are gathering. You could do your presentation on YouTube, you could do it at the local PTA, you could do it at the Chamber of Commerce. Whatever it takes to establish yourself as the expert in your field. This usually leads to more customers.
Free consultations
This is the last of today's shoestring marketing tactics, and it's a simple one. Offer free consultations. There are people out there who are interested in and have questions about your products, and what your product can do for them. Offer free consultations — because this usually leads to customers and sales. The best part about this one is, it's extremely easy. All you have to do is put a line on your marketing materials that says "come in for a free consultation,” or “call for a free consultation,” and you're good to go.
Final thoughts
So often, it seems to business owners today, when it comes time to market our businesses, all we worry about a social media search engine optimization. Part of today's discussion was to explore other areas of promoting your business. What I say about these sort of old-school methods of shoestring marketing is that your competition is probably spending too much time and money on Google and Facebook and Instagram, and like you, are probably frustrated with the results. But unlike them, now you have a bunch of old school tools and tactics to play around with when it comes to marketing your business.
I would love to hear from the listeners any stories of shoestring marketing they have tried and had results and successes with. Or, if any of the listeners have any other suggestions for shoestring marketing tactics, I would love to hear about those as well. Perhaps we can use these at a future show.