Is it almost time to open the doors for your Real Estate open house or seasonal sale? Are you having a furniture clearance sale? A non-profit joint yard sale? Do you have back-up plans to make sure people attend your special event? Will you look like a fool if no one attends? Perhaps, you should have done a little more marketing? There are still some things you can do.
Here are some helpful marketing sales tools to help you save the day . . .
- Social Media – Put your “likes” and followers to good use by sharing the news of what you are doing. Post on your own pages and ask your friends to post on their’s.
- Do you have a local radio talk show? If your event is for a non-profit organization, you might be able to score an intereview on the air even at the last minute. If not, then the host might mention you in hopes a snagging a new client down the road a piece.
- Most people have computer programs to design simple brochures or one page PDFs. Kinko’s is always happy print a hundred or two and decent prices, Print out flyers and go where your customers are and hand them out. Take your flyers and leave them with neighbors and encourage to them to stop over as well. Will you be open after church? Then by all means stop my nearby churches and greet the people as they leave.
- Even though it’s last minute, there might be be some professional marketeers who could help you. It never hurts to ask. Look on-line for local marketing.
- Curbside Attractions – Have you ever wondered if those poeple standing and waving signs on the sidewalk actually do any good? They do. Take a look at Cable-TVs “Undercover Bosses” for examples of CEOs wearing stupid costumes and greeting new customers and discovering the value of glad-handing. You can find college student anxious for weekend cash or actors who can put the experience of mime and ad lib to good use. You can pay minimum wage or put relatives to work for you for free. You might find that this kind of marketing will pay off for you full time instead of just a special event.
Have your “Human Billboards” positioned down or up the block, so cars can be directed where to go. This gives people room to be entertained and then detained.
Here are some comments by human billboards:
“The hardest part was coming out of my shell and being goofy.”
“Flexiable hours, you work at your own pace, you make you job fun and the people there were just wonderful. It was a pleasure going to work. You could make all the hours you wanted.”
“I was surprised. People were happy to listen and little kids were easy to entertain.”
Be prepared next time. Last minute is not the time for making plans, but for having them.
