Local Store Marketing Tactics

Saving money is what all stores are looking to do in 2014 going into the new year. The local store marketing tactics I will be discussing today are some of the cheapest, cost-effective ways to grow your business without all the headaches of getting into debt. When I talk to local store business owners in my surrounding area of Shreveport, Bossier City and Minden, one thing that I stress to them is how in this market you must think creatively not with the dollars you can spend, but with the tools and resources available to you.

So, the question comes down to how can I market my business locally without going into debt?

I will bet that most of the business owners run promotions of some sort to get more foot traffic through their stores. No matter if you have a restaurant, clothing store or a beauty salon your overall goal is to get people coming through those doors every single day without spending a lot of money.

Those promotions that you’re running may or may not be as profitable, or if it is then unfortunately you may be losing money. Don’t worry because I’ve decided to produce my 5 local store marketing tactics that works, and most importantly saves you tons of money and time.

Piggyback off other Businesses

With my 31 tips of dominating your local market I go into this subject a lot more deeply. But, what you can do here is exchange business cards, coupons, products or anything that will be of value for someone to have for free. You can approach any of the local stores in your community to exchange promotion items.

Example: Your hair salon shop may want to exchange promotional items with the local beauty store. That beauty store sells all of the items your hair salon uses, and plus your potential clients shop there. Not only that, to reverse it, the beauty shop would love to give you their promotion also because your clients will benefit from shopping in their store. So at the end of the day, you’re not competing with each other, the money is just flowing hand to hand without you going into debt.

Your Cost: Price of promotion items

Benefits Who: Local businesses with brick and mortar

Put on an Event

Putting on events is something a lot of local businesses just don’t do enough of. Those who do try, are all catering to a small group of local businesses. Putting on an event in your local city that invites everyone together, will be effective in networking. You can make a simple event where everyone just introduces themselves, and explains what type of business they run.

Light Bulb Moment: One of the main reasons that I would do this is to implement step one of these local store marketing tactics. I will be on the grind to create some cross promotions with them while I have all of them in one place. That’s called killing two birds with one stone.

Your Cost: $50 to $200

Benefits: Who: All Local Businesses.

Be Everywhere

My good friend, Pat Flynn, talks a lot about being everywhere so that people can find your business. Take out some time to view your local market, but first look at your local competitors to see what they’re doing. Just go to their website and see if they’re on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and so on. If they’re not on all of those platforms, then please believe that I’m signing up and building my business up through those profiles.

Remember: You still need to have a website even though you’re on these social sites. Reason for this, is because there is nothing like owning your own home, if you get what I mean. So, don’t build your house on someone else’s land and expect them to let you stay there forever.

Your Cost: Totally Free

Benefits Who: All businesses in a competitive market

Give, Give, Give

Education is something that I preach all of the time on CMG. This is to teach people what you want them to know, and they will come back for more. If you own a gardening store, I’ll create a website for my store.  In front of the page, I will set up a big opt-in box for gathering customers and future customers that I will be getting.

From here, I would write a simple guide on how to keep a beautiful garden. How many people do you think will enter their name and email address just to get that valuable information? From here, you can email them updates on items for sale and countless  other things.

Your Cost: $20 for auto responder..get a free trial here

Benefits Who: Any business who wants insane business and growth

Support Fundraisers

One of the best ways to get your brand, product or services in front of your targeted audience is through fundraising. I’m not saying to do a fundraiser yourself, I’m saying it would be wise to give to certain groups who would present your business to their given audience. You can support the fundraiser by giving money, products or offering some form of your services.

All you’re trying to achieve here, is to get your name out there by supporting a cause to build even more creditability for your brand.

Comment Time: What type of things are you doing to get your brand out there locally?