5 Penny-Wise Marketing Ideas
If this sluggish economy has got your market down, you may be going through a little cash crisis. All businesses experience this at one time or another, so don’t fret. But do remember some sage business wisdom for times like these – conserve cash.
When times are tight and money comes in slowly, do all you can to put unnecessary expenditures on hold. During this temporary situation, you need to make Mr. Scrooge look generous by comparison.
But what about marketing expenses? The best thing for cash flow, actually is to crank up the marketing to get some much-needed business coming through the door.
The mistaken idea is that you need a bunch of cash to market your interiorscpae company. Cash may be king in some arenas, but marketing with some creative bootstrapping will work nicely, thank you.
Anyone can promote his business with a huge marketing budget. But it take a creative guerilla entrepreneur to bring in new business with limited funds.
Here are five of my favorite cost-effective ways to bring in new customers:
- Bartering to build your business. Perhaps you have enjoyed this benefit of being a small business owner – bartering your services with other companies for products or services you need. No cash ever changes hands, just the agreed-upon value of eat other’s products or services.
The value for a cash-strapped interiorscape business owner is that you can receive valuable products and services with little or no money out of pocket. This works especially well when you barter for marketing to build your business.
One of my favorites is bartering our interiorscape services with companies that can supply us with advertising. Try this with the best local business publications in your market. The publication owners are generally open to this arrangement because their costs are fixed and adding another advertiser costs them little.
Your contribution, obviously, is to supply their offices with plants. Try to negotiate the best ratio you can, though. Since you have real product and labor costs and apbulisher does not, a $2-for-$1 barter would be best – for example, $200 worth of monthly advertising for $100 of monthly plant service.
Another win-win barter is trade show marketing. The promoters of local trade shows love to have the common areas decorated with love plants. For your contribution of rental plants, you get a booth at the trade show to market interiorscape services to show attendees.
Other trade show marketing ideas to negotiation into your agreement are:
- A list of the names and addresses of all the exhibitors to sell them rental plants for their booths
- Advertising signs for your plants placed around the show
- Brochure racks placed around the show
Speaking of short-term plant rentals, if this is a service you offer, one of our best barter arrangements is with a store that rents party supplies and tents for events. We supply plant leasing services for their showroom for free, and they give us all the leads for people wanting to rent plants for an event. In addition, they allow us to place a plant rental brochure rack in their showroom of party supplies. This win-win relationship supplies us with a constant stream of plant rental customers and our actual costs of marketing (six leased Areca palms) are minimal.
One last idea is bartering with businesses that can give you small premiums you can use as gifts to clients, prospects or employees. For example, we do the plants for a local cinema and we get 50 percent cash and 50 percent movie tickets for our work. We give away the tickets in many different ways and create a lot of goodwill.
Other businesses you could do this with include gourmet food and wine shops, car washes, restaurants, hotels or resorts. Get creative and think of a way to turn these “free” gifts into a marketing premium to bring in new customers.
- Fax your way to new sales. One of the best tools to get your sales message in front of your prospects is already part of your office. Your fax machine can be a valuable resource to build your business and costs you nothing.
The benefits of a well-executed fax massage are huge. Compared to mailing a letter, your sales message is delivered with minimal cost. Another huge benefit is that your “letter” is already opened. Considering that many letters are sorted for the trash before they are even opened, this is a big deal.
We have been told but have yet to get a definitive answer) that all fax flyers must include a disclaimer and phone number so the recipient can have his name removed from your fax list. True or not, it is probably good business so that your fax flyer annoys no one. As well, do not overdo it in the fax flyer department. Too many faxes to the same person can have the opposite effect.
- Postcard marketing. For the last couple of years, many people have discovered postcards as an effective and cost efficient form of direct mail. The first benefit of postcards is the relatively low production costs. Printing technology has advanced so that you can now get 5,000 full-color postcards for as little as $250. That translates to about 5 cents for a full-color mini brochure that can be printed on both sides. Because the interiorscape services we are trying to sell are visual, full-color pictures go a long way to convey our ideas.
Of course, the mailing costs for postcards are considerably less than other larger marketing pieces. In addition, the fact that they arrive already opened means that your sales message has a much greater chance of being seen that if it was enclosed in an envelope.
The most effective way to use postcards is as part of a timed mailing program. Instead of blowing your whole wad on one huge mailing to blanket the city, use three to five different postcards that are sent out once every two to four weeks to a smaller, more select list or prospects. This creates more awareness and the chance that your mailing will hit a need.
- Join a “tips” club. If you want to get a steady stream of quality prospects that will only coast you the price of a meal out, then find – or better yet start – a “tips” club. A tips club is a group of salespeople that meets once or twice a month for the sole purpose of sharing qualified leads – tips. If you are not aware of any in your city, then call your Chamber of Commerce office and ask.
If you cannot find one to join, then start your own. Begin by contacting a salesperson you know well form another industry. The best way to build the group is by referral only. Good salespeople know other good salespeople. Try to get salespeople from trades that share the same types of prospects as you and only one person from each industry.
A tips club can be a great way to stay current with what is going on in your market and the fellowship of other salespeople can be encouraging as you share not just leads be sales and marketing strategies, too.
- Public Relations. About three months ago, I had an idea for a newspaper story about plants, so I called one of the reporters for the business section of our local paper and pitched my idea. She was courteous but noncommittal. The following week, I got a call. She had rejected my angle but instead wanted to do a story on the interiorscape industry. We received a front-page business section story about our company with a full-color picture of one of our technicians doing her work and testimonials form building owners who were sold on live plants. Total out-of-pocket costs – zero! An awesome score. We received all that – for the asking. Such is the power of public relations marketing.
That same story told in a paid advertisement would not have received the same exposure and would have cost a bundle. In addition, public relations is credible because a news story is an unbiased report whereas an ad is assumed to be touting only your good points.
The current economic situation will turn around – it always does. Until then, conserve your cash and market like crazy. The two work well together.
