Great Marketing On the Cheap
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By Richard Ensman, Jr.
When you talk about sales and marketing plans, your mind probably gravitates toward elaborate strategies, complex long-term plans and big dollars. As important as plans and strategies might be, however, you need not rely entirely on these tactics to increase sales or exposure. Think also about the marketing tools you can buy with very small sums of money …
• For $100.00, you can commission a rough draft of updated stationery and business cards.
• For $75.00, you can design an old-fashioned sandwich board displaying one or two key products.
• For $60.00, you can place a bold-face listing in your local telephone directory.
• For $50.00, you can obtain colorful new door signs.
• For $25.00, you can have a few informal cartoon sketches drawn for inclusion in your product brochures or newsletters.
• For $20.00, you can place a small ad in a business directory.
• For $15.00, you can create new marketing-oriented wording, such as a slogan or ad campaign theme, for your stationery.
• For $14.00, you can take a lapsed customer to lunch.
• For $12.00, you can place a classified advertisement in your local or trade newspaper.
• For $10.95, you can purchase an additional pack of business cards for easy distribution everywhere you go.
• For $10.00, you can provide a gift certificate to a charity sponsoring a fund raising event and have your name recognized in the program.
• For $9.95, you can send a promotional package to a prospect by overnight mail.
• For $8.95, you can furnish a customer with one month of free e-mail he can use to contact you.
• For $8.00, you can give a valued customer a ticket to a local sporting event.
• For $6.00, you can buy a movie ticket for a member of your staff who has been instrumental in identifying new customers.
• For $5.00, you can present a box of chocolates to a customer who recently placed an order.
• For $4.95, you can obtain a badge, suitable for wearing, bearing your name and the name of your business.
• For $3.49, you can set out a plate of gourmet cookies for customers who visit you.
• For $3.50, you can make a tape recording describing your business and products, and send it to someone who is thinking about buying.
• For $2.99, you can give a potted plant to a prospect’s secretary.
• For $2.00, you can send a personalized memento to a customer.
• For $1.99, you can buy a planning pad and sketch out your marketing objectives and timeline for the next quarter.
• For $1.75, you can blow up a favorite advertisement into a poster.
• For $1.00, you can place a coupon in the hands of a consumer.
• For $.75, you can create a table tent that can be strategically placed at a luncheon or trade show.
• For $.60, you can make a brief telephone call to a long-distance prospect in an attempt to open up a new market.
• For $.59, you can give a customer a small packet of memo pads imprinted with your name.
• For $.49, you can provide an important customer with a marketing calendar noting key product and ship dates.
• For $.45, you can purchase and send a local postcard to a long-distance customer just to let him know you’re thinking of him.
• For $.39, you can create an "action" photograph of a product and send it to a prospective customer
• For $.35, you can purchase a plastic enclosure that dresses up a product circular.
• For $.33, you can mail a brief note about a new product line to a customer.
• For $.30, you can create an overhead transparency, suitable for presentations, showing the workings of one of your top-selling products.
• For $.15, you can fax an action-packed one-page product circular to a valued customer.
• For $.10, you can make a local telephone call to a customer who has not ordered from you in a while.
• For $.05, you can enclose a product circular with an invoice.
• For $.04, you can reprint a complimentary newspaper article that’s been written about you (with permission of the newspaper) and distribute it to a prospective customer.
And the list could go on and on. The point isn’t to find the perfect low-priced marketing gimmick from this list. Instead, use your imagination to identify a few promotional tools that cost but a few dollars (or cents). Use them, and you may find yourself generating big sales dollars in return.
Editor’s Note: SGIA International does not guarantee costs listed here, which were compiled by the author of this article.
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Screenprinting & Graphic Imaging Association