Marketing and Advertising Ideas Without Spending a Ton of Money

In 1984, shortly after what was then thought to be the most devastating recession since the Great Depression, an advertising executive by the name of Jay Conrad Levinson published a book entitled, Guerilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from your Small Business. This book outlined ideas, anecdotes and strategies small businesses could employ to help them maintain sales and generate consumer interest during a very difficult economic period. This book and the series of books that followed sold over 14 million copies and became the best-selling marketing series in history.
Guerilla Marketing et al. based its success on the premise that not all businesses could promote or advertise like General Motors, Microsoft or Colgate-Palmolive. In fact, 80 per cent of all businesses in Canada are considered small businesses (defined by Industry Canada as one that employs fewer than 100 employees or generates less than $10 million per year in sales revenue). Suffice to say that unlike the multinational corporations, small businesses – including most if not all health food retailers – do not have the financial wherewithal to afford 'round-the-clock marketing programs or all-encompassing advertising campaigns. Who could?

Economic crisis is hitting hard

To further exacerbate the difficulties of small businesses operating and marketing in a big business world, the current economic crisis is hitting hard. Very hard. Although some industry experts have forecast that the natural health industry is mostly immune to the vagrancies of the down economy, many stores are hurting. In Welland, Ontario, for instance, over the past three years seven major corporations have ceased operations and released ALL of their staff. The downward trickle of this has impacted on every aspect of the community including all retailers, regardless of their specialty. Welland is only one of hundreds of communities in Canada that is feeling the economic pain.
So, in the spirit of the original Guerilla Marketing, I would like to offer a series of no-cost or low-cost ideas and strategies specifically designed for natural health retailers, to help you maintain or perhaps even increase customer traffic and sales in these trying times.

• In-store coupons

Pick a variety of products, design and print a coupon, stick it right on the product on the shelf and make 'em an offer they can't refuse. Keep changing the coupons, the specials and the days. Why not try 'Coupon Days,' where 50 or more products in the store are couponed for a limited time. Your customers will recognize and react to good value every time. These same customers are likely to shop with greater frequency. Take it a step further and build a coupon board at the front of your store and fill it with your vendor coupons!

• In-store promotions

The key to good merchandising is to keep your store looking fresh and new, changing the look and feel of your displays regularly. Your in-store promotions should be no different. The difference between a regular customer and an infrequent visitor revolves around your ability to make your store interesting and exciting. It's all about the 'shopping experience.' In-store promotions are the ideal mechanism to attract repeat visits to your store and enhance the visit while customers are shopping. New, innovative and interesting promotions not only make the shopping experience more enjoyable, they can also be used to augment your other activities - information on a ballot for a promotion or a prize draw can be utilized for your email list which can be used to send out an e-flyer or e-newsletter - which brings customers back again, and again.

• Treat Customers like Royalty

The number one method to keep them coming back is to treat your customers like gold. You should always provide exceptional customer service, interesting products and displays, up-to-date and compelling education and reading materials and thanking your customers for taking the time to visit you.

• Free Coffee

One of the greatest techniques is to give your customers a free coffee or tea. They get a chance to relax, try out a new type of coffee or tea and wander around your store looking at all of the new and interesting natural health products and ideas. Sometimes they even come to your store just for a cup of coffee! Many times, I have seen customers come in for a coffee and leave with a month's supply of groceries and supplements. Imagine that... cashing in on a big sale and all it cost you was the price of a cup of coffee. That's low cost marketing at its finest.

Ideas to keep bringing them in

Sandwich Board

If you haven't one already, take the time and effort to either build or buy a sandwich board. Put it on the sidewalk out front or by the roadside. It is a simple but incredibly effective technique to direct traffic in to your store, to ignite those precious impulse buys and, at the very least, to reaffirm your presence in the community. Make sure it is colourful, clear and concise and best of all – keep changing the offers and sales information regularly to keep the readers interested.

Small Run Targeted Direct Mail

With direct mail, you can target the areas you want with as many or as few mailings as you want - suited to fit your budget and your needs. For example, you can easily and at very little cost (for as little as 25¢ each) produce postcards promoting a special sale item, event or promotion and distribute it via Canada Post for only 12¢ each. How about promoting a new product with an amazing introductory offer and mailing it to 100 homes around your store for only $37? For slightly more postage, send out a free sample with your name, phone number and address attached! How's that for a killer promotion?

Reward Programs

There are many groups in your community that are in need of support. Why not offer these groups incentive programs to help them raise funds? Set up something as simple as offering a three to five per cent cash reward to these groups for collecting cash register tapes from your store. Local seniors groups, bridge clubs, cycling and running clubs to name a few, are ideal for reaching new customers. These new customers will repay your store in kind with interest.

Cross Marketing

Quite a few of your potential customers work out in your local gym and fitness club. And vice versa. It pays to work with other local, like-minded businesses and develop cross promotions – they offer their clients incentives to shop at your store and you offer similar incentives to your customers to visit their club. Or it could be the local yoga studio, tanning salon, massage therapist or body workers, pilates studio, or perhaps the local spa.

Targeted Media Buying

It's always a good strategy to advertise to as wide and diverse an audience as you can, to maintain consumer awareness and promote your brand (your store). In times of tight budgets, however, a more targeted media buying approach is warranted. With fewer resources available to spend on media, it is imperative to buy advertising that is highly selective to get the best return. I recommend targeted media buying at all times (in less austere economic times, it's a very effective tactic to combine mass advertising with selective media to receive a bigger bang), but in difficult periods, you need to spend wisely to generate a better response for every dollar you invest.
How? Instead of buying large blocks of radio time, buy specific times or channels and customize your ads to fit the media. Run melatonin ads after midnight when rates are drastically reduced but all of the insomniacs are listening. Or promote protein powder and L-glutamine ads during the sports announcements. Do you sell gluten-free products? Perhaps an ad in the local celiac newsletter. It is usually quite inexpensive and targeted to the audience you want to reach.
Other media buys might include advertising in the newsletters of your local arts group, cycling clubs, arthritis society, local tennis, golf, and soccer associations. The opportunities to advertise directly to potential customers are seemingly endless and the probability for success is great.

Email Marketing

It costs very little to advertise your products and your store via email. Unlike newspapers, radio, Canada Post or any other delivery format, with email marketing there is no charge to send your promotion directly to the recipient. On the contrary, the recipient is probably already an interested or established contact who has asked for the information and is likelier to respond than an unknown mailbox or an anonymous reader of your local paper.

• E-flyers (flyers that are transmitted exclusively via email), for example, are a surprisingly economical way of sending out information about upcoming sales and promotions. For merely the cost of designing and co-coordinating the flyer, you can reach hundreds or thousands of your customers once or twice a month, which can positively increase traffic and sales activity in your store.

• E-coupons are another very cost efficient technique to create interest in your store and to help keep the stock moving regularly. Pick a product, give it an irresistible price point (with a short redemption period) and send it out via email. The longer you use e-coupons, the greater the response.

• E-newsletters – The basis for all of your marketing materials should be to help educate the consumer. Store newsletters are the ideal format to write articles and provide interesting information on products, ingredients and natural health modalities. Rather than stuff them in the bottom of the shoppers' bags, why not email customers the newsletter? It is cost efficient (no printing costs), it is better for the environment, and the customer can read it at his or her leisure.
Whether you are implementing e-flyers, e-coupons or e-newsletters, you can rest assured that many of your suppliers will be interested in teaming up with you to develop specialized promotions featuring their products. •