#11: Improv Event

Think of an improv event as  "flash mob promotion" (without the dancing. unless you coreograph one). The whole point of it is to cause as scene [the good kind!] and get some buzz going around your community. It might take more effort to put together than say a flyer, but if you do it right, then it's a great way to get publicilty in your neighborhood. And for small businesses, that's good marketing.

Some points to remember are:
1. make sure it's legal (like trespassing and all that)
2. look for a busy area
3. timing is key
4. have it relate to your business!

I'm sure there's more depending on your business, but thats a very basic list.

Here's a few examples from Improv Everywhere (a NYC based group). There' not a marketing agency or anything, but they do a great job at improv events! You can use them for inspiration.
These are some of my favorites:

You can apply this to a biz sponsored movement

                                                 I love this one for the Salvation Army!

                                                      Great idea! And easy to put together, too!

       The basic idea is great if you own a formal wear store! Or any clothing, just make people wear it in ironic situations

#10: Give a Shout Out



Merci!


When it comes to business, and even life, there's alot of people who've helped you along the way. Sometimes you might not realize it, but when it hits, always remember to give them a shout out, or even just say "Thank you".

Today I'd like to thank Vacancy.com for choosing my entry as the winner for their scholarship (You can see it in older posts)! It was a great opportunity and definitely the most fun I've ever had writing anything! Much less a scholarship 'essay' - which here it was a blog post.

If you, your kids, your neighbor, or you neighbor's kids are going to college or just going away and need residence, definitely check out Vacancy.com! They have the cleanest and easiest user interface - so it's easy to find a place to live based on city, university, etc. To be honest, I just went to their site for the scholarship and that was suppose to be it. But their site as well as their Facebook page have great resources on college living, residency, tips, etc that any college bound kid would need to know.

And as Thanskiving rolls around, use this holiday as an opportunity to thank your loyal customers. If you're successful, alot of it is because of their word of mouth (and the great promos on this blog. Eh?EH?) - and that's PR you can't buy! Here are some great ways to appreciate them:

• Hold a meal (A small breakfast, lunch, or even brunch) that you can let your customers know about and they can come in throughout the day and grab a meal


• Host a small event (a more fancy version of the meal) 

• handwritten thank you cards with a purchase (dep. on the size of your biz)


• have a small pre-thanksgiving sales


• put up a large banner! It can say things like thank you, messages from employees, names of loyal customers


• "Good Neighbor" program - like a double coupon for customers and a friend!


• send them holiday cards (stick to Happy Holidays unless you run a religion based store)


• Donate on their behalf (there are some silly ones like buying a sheep for a poor farmer or you can let them choose!"

#9: Black Friday

I realize it's not a 'creative' idea, but it is one that alot of businesses suprisingly overlook! One of the best promotions during the holiday season is to participate in Black Friday!


But wait - the fun doesn't just stop at having major sales and discounts. There's alot more you can do than just that! Here are some of my ideas:

• Hold a bag of crap sale (maybe during the later hours when it's slower? or even during rush)
• make sales into little 'Happy Hours' where you can discount one type of product at a time
• team up with local stores in your area and create a "Black Friday Survival Guide" to cross promote
• create a gift giving survival guide with your store's  (or partner stores from above) merchandise
                  - call it the "SOS: Season of Savings"... well I think it's clever
• start the sale at a very specific time (4:27am)
• have "doorbuster" sales for popular items
• COUNTDOWN - it makes it so much more dramatic
• give out special passes to people during the month if they spend over a certain $$$$$$$
• hold contests throughout the month (more posts to come later!)

Hope these helped!

#8: The Power of Words

STORY TIME!

As a business, you've probably have a lot of writing to do - proposals, legal stuff, brochures, marketing pamphlets, etc. And in situations where you personally can't be there to sell your idea, your writing takes your place - so you have to make it good. Just remember:

What you say is definitely important, but how you say it matters even more.

#7: THANK THE VETERANS

Sometimes politics and whatnot can create negative feelings towards the country, but it's people like our veterans that remind us what our country is about and make us proud to be a part of it. Thank you.


In light of Veterans Day, a great promotional idea would be to hold a sort of "thank you" event for the men and women in service. A couple companies do something like it, for example Krispy Kreme gives out free doughnuts! You can definitely play around with the idea; here are some of mine:

• offer a great discount to service men and women


• give out a free item


• have paper cutouts (you decide the shape) where people can wite a thank you note and post it up somewhere public in your building/office/store/etc


• depending on what kind of business you are, you can hold a breakfast and invite any servicemen you know (and invite them to bring their friends too!)


• if you work with kids in any way, hold an activity where they can draw and write cards and deliver them to an organization that can send them over


• try hosting an event at a senior center? if possible, you can work with a local one that has veterans to honor them


• ask for community donations! money and items can be donated to organizations such as Operation Homefront who will use it to assist military families

These are just some I came up with at the moment, but there's definitely more you can do! There's no way we can fully thank them for all that they do, but we can do our best to honor them and their dedication to our country. God bless America!

#6: GO GREEN

Image from gogreenliving.org

As much as I can't stand the noise of the new Sunchips bags (you know the kind!), I do give them credit for 'going green' with the biodegradables. They've followed the new trend of businesses becoming more environmentally friendly as people are starting to focus on the bad effects of emissions, chemicals, etc.






As a business, you should consider 'going green':
1) It's a great promotion in itself because of the issue's popularity
2) People will want to interact with you more because it shows your are responsible and it'll make them feel better (like the Prius drivers effect)
3) It'll create a good rep for you
4) I've also heard that you can (to some degree) get tax cuts and all that as well (but that is legal biz stuff- I just do marketing) Look into it though!






Imagine if a maid/cleaning company offered a "green clean" service? Or if you ran a promotion or contest trying to reduce your 'footprint'? Or even made lists of ways to 'go green' and gave them out to customers? How about using recyclable paper (which it already is, but putting the triangle logo can help!) for direct mail?
You can do alot with the idea!


Also, here's a link to a great article on Fast Company  : 10 Ways Your Business Can Go Green

#5: HOST A "HAPPY HOUR"

... no, we don't mean drinks! Unless you run a bar or restaurant, then go ahead!

Good question! (picture from Cafepress)

We're talking about using the idea of a "Happy Hour" to boost sales for whatever your shop or company sells. Bars usually use it during the slow hours to attract customers; what if we used that idea for other businesses?


Think about it: for one hour on a given day, customers can come in and buy your product at a low price. Because the time is limited, they'll buy as much of it as they can. They might even bring a few friends!






You can play around with this idea, too. Give it a new name. Make it from a "Happy Hour" to a "5 Minute Frenzy" (or any other time limit). Hold it a special day of the month, or just every Monday after noon. Make it throughout the whole store, or just a certain type of product (like accessories in a boutique).


That's all I could think of, but I'm sure you've got some great ideas! Lemme know by posting a comment!