#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!