advertising for small business ideas Archives

I recently discovered some easy ways on how to promote your business locally.

Back in the fall when I was on vacation in Vermont, we went to a local restaurant for breakfast that all the tourists go to. Since I am always on the hunt for clever marketing ideas, I was impressed to see that the coffee mugs the restaurant was using all had ads on them for other local businesses that would be of interest to tourists. Pretty smart. The restaurant sells ad space on their mugs as an additional source of revenue and other local businesses get directly in front of their target market.

When I was at a popular indoor water park resort this past weekend (I really don’t travel that often) I was looking around and saw so many opportunities for the resort to sell some untapped ad space – on the white towels they hand out, on the giant refillable beverage mugs they were selling, to even putting peel off ads onto the rental locker doors (they really should hire me).

So many great advertising opportunities for local businesses that want to get in front of tourists, not to mention more money for the resort.

Therefore, have you thought about:

how your small business can advertise locally with opportunities such as these?
if you have a brick and mortar business, how it can earn additional revenue by offering advertising and promotional opportunities for other businesses?

Next Steps to Advertise

Simply approach any popular local business, look around and then ask if there is an opportunity for you to advertise your business and what they would charge. Maybe it is leaving cards at their counter, or giving them a clock to display that has your business name on it, like the one above.

Advertising Opportunities Your Business Can Offer

If you have a bricks and mortar business of some kind that gets lots of traffic, look around to see what potential ad space you have.

Bars are a great example, as beer companies put their logos on everything from lit wall signs to coasters to bottle openers. This is space you can sell (or at least get another business to supply for you, saving you money).

Some other advertising ideas:

Maybe you’re a restaurant that caters to students. You could put out table cards that advertise a local teen clothing shop.
Maybe you’re a popular coffee shop frequented by small business owners. Ask a local graphic design firm if they want to advertise on the face of a giant wall clock that hangs in the shop.
Maybe you’re a dentist with a large kid clientele. Ask a local store that sells kids products if they wish to advertise on the bag that holds the new toothbrush and floss handed out to each patient.

Only have an online business? Create a free download that has advertisers, such as a calendar. Offer to include business cards in packages you ship out to customers. The point is, get creative and you can make more money!