Help me brainstorm 3 local marketing opportunities please

[Desereh]

So we're working toward getting more involved in our *local* community. As in, the folks who could walk or almost walk to see us, as opposed to those who have to get on the highway to get to us. We have 2 opportunities before us:

1) The local city (as n the actual city in which we live, not the whole group of four "sister cities") does an annual "shop where they put out a coupon book and each participating business has a coupon or offer in the book, and the city puts a "drop box" at each participating location, and when people come in and redeem their coupons, they put a ticket into the box and at the end of the time the city mixes all the tickets together and draws for a neat prize (she said she thinks it's a laptop this year). This will be *free* for the businesses to participate, and new this year they're allowing service businesses to participate too-- so we can do it. I need a good offer for this.

2) *Everyone and his brother* keeps telling us to market to the local schools. There is a program through the local chamber where they make up gift baskets for new teachers in the system, so we can participate in that. I am thinking what we might be able to do for that. We'll need about 35 useful items, or coupons, to put in those baskets (and I need them by next Friday!). I'm thinking of ordering some Traumeel sample packets (which are usually free when we place an order, but I don't need to buy any right now), *or* I could order a few dozen 1-oz jojoba bottles to put in there, and create a cute hang-eforum.xxx to attach to them, perhaps with a $5 coupon good on any massage? The jojoba will cost us about $1.50/each, IIRC, but... it could be a good opportunity to reach out to these new teachers. I'm a little bit...wanting something a little more "glamorous" than just jojoba, though. We don't sell anything "glamorous", though! Thoughts?

3) Another "teacher marketing" thing... at the chamber meeting this morning I had the opportunity to speak with the local superintendent for a few minutes. She said that the *best* way to reach out to the teachers (since they really DON'T allow marketing through the school system) is to get involved with this local discount card someone has going. I imagine that this *would* cost something, but basically, it's a little credit card-type thing that the teachers and parents all get, and when they present it to local businesses they get a discount on something or something for free. Her example was a .99-cent route 44 from Sonic. Again, we have basically ONE service-- massage-- and we don't have "little piddly stuff" to discount/give away like that.

Maybe we need to GET something just to have for giveaways? I feel like every time we have the opportunity to participate in "goodie bags", we just do a coupon for a perceneforum.xxxe off, and that hasn't been a very good draw. We need a little something tangible, that folks might just walk in the door to grab, without any commitment on their part,and then when they come in we get the opportunity to talk to them about their issues/needs, etc..

Thoughts? How do YOU participate in stuff like this/your local community, to raise awareness?

I've been thinking on a few possible "little giveaway things":

~ pocket hand warmers (on the long shot that we actually WILL get a winter this year-- sigh! [Texas drought])

~ Baoding balls (these are SUCH fun to play with!)-- would be a larger, more expensive item but could be nice for when we only need one or a few at a time

~ pens (typical-- I love getting advertising pens, but *everyone* does them!)

~ stress balls, with our logo on them

... any other ideas?

 

[Newell]

Help me brainstorm 3 local marketing opportunities please

I would bet against 2 of the 3 working, if not all 3.

Teachers -- can they really afford to become regulars? To hear the unions tell it, they are the most underpaid people in the country, and Texas is one of the worst in teacher pay. Hyeforum.xxxole aside, is this really your target customer

Coupon book -- eh... We have done this for our spa, in the most popular shopping center in our town. The results have been barely noticeable.

 

[R0B0T]

Help me brainstorm 3 local marketing opportunities please

Well -
#1 - it's free for you to participate so put together an offer that is enticing to a savvy consumer, and one that you can live with. It doesn't have to be much really...you will gain a little bit of exposure from the booklet itself. Oh and make sure that you have your web address in the ad because even people that do not take advaneforum.xxxe of the offer will visit your website to check you out.
If you get any results then you can do it again the following year.

#2 Yep - everybody says to market to schools/teachers. Everyone that I know who has done this has not seen any return except the redemption of freebies that they may have offered, with no return visits. So your discount offer is reasonable. I don't know if anybody would necessarily WANT the jojoba - but it makes a nice vehicle for the hang-eforum.xxx/coupon. I say it's a pretty small investment - again, even if no coupons get redeemed, you will get a little bit of exposure.

#3 - Coupon books - having been a parent and having BOUGHT these things to suppport the school, I can admit to NOT using the coupons at all. :
From a business standpoint - I haven't been able to come up with ANY giveaways that would encourage people to make a special trip to see me. So...I'm not liking this one so much. But don't discount it yet...