Bringing in business in tough times

By Angie Chabot, AAM

As the world battles a pandemic, businesses, like yours, are battling to keep customers coming in the doors. Just when it seems that every penny must be spent wisely, it also is a prime time to look outside the industry for marketing ideas that can bring both current and future customers into your shop. Here are a couple that Stacy Tuschl, a local business marketing consultant and owner of two performing arts studios, provided recently during an interview with Social Media Examiner, a social media marketing blog.

Growing organic social media exposure

Tuschl dropped a number of social media tips during her interview, and this is one that works across any industry. Band together with a few other businesses that offer completely different services or products, such as florists, massage therapists, gas stations or dry cleaners, and create a giveaway or contest that each business promotes on its social media platform. The beauty of this type of partnership is that you will be cross-promoting each other’s businesses to a whole new set of audiences, ones who may have never heard of you before.

By limiting participation to only one type of business in the promotion, no one is competing with each other. Each participating business provides a prize or giveaway of predetermined equal value, and they are combined into one – or several – packages. Turn it into a scavenger hunt, or an online puzzle that people have to watch in order to find a daily question for the week. Whatever you and your band of fellow small business owners can come up with should be easy and fun for people to follow. But most of all, make sure it brings people in your door to learn more about your services. (Read More)