3 Small Business Marketing Ideas

Small business marketing ideas come in handy when competing for customers. Attracting customers never ends. So businesses that are creative about how they tell consumers about their products will often lead the way. And by leading the way I mean bringing in a lot of customers.

Take for example the April fool’s joke or press release. Some time ago an ad appeared in a major newspaper with the headline that Taco Bell (TB) bought the Liberty Bell, one of America’s most historical and well-known pieces. The ad revealed that TB will rename the bell “‘Taco Liberty Bell”.

What took place subsequently was that 1000s of folks called the National Historic Park in Philly where the Liberty Bell is located. Later that day, TB admitted their April fool’s joke but not without grabbing the attention of more than 500 newspaper, magazine and TV outlets reaching well over 60 million Americans. TB’s sales went up $500k that day and the day after compared to the prior month.

Therefore, using humor in your small business can pay off. So can the use of creativity in the name of charity.

For example you could purchase Tom Cruise’s kidney stone for $50,000 and then auction it off for charity. But that would set you back 50 grand – ouch! Maybe another time…

What about a partly consumed grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary burned into the bread?

The Goldenpalace casino got nationwide attention for the purchase of this sandwich and received coverage from the New York Times to the Chinese press.

Another of their small business marketing ideas was to buy the actual pan that the sandwich was grilled on to attract even more attention to their business. They sold T-shirts with the image of the Virgin Mary’s sandwich and organized the Goldenpalace Cheese Eating Championship.

If sandwiches are not your cup of tea listen to this. DC Comics released a comic book called “The Death of Superman”. Probably not a soul really believed they would stop producing their most famous character since the late 1930s.

So as a consequence the issue featuring Superman’s death sold out the first day. As more issues were placed into stores, they kept selling out. Actually, countless readers purchased not only “The Death of Superman” but several other issues to come.

Who would have thought that scarcity “sells” so well. In case you carry a popular item in your store but then notice that sales are flattening and your clients’ enthusiasm toward the item is wearing off, it might be time to “revamp” your product. You can do that easily with a small business internet marketing campaign.

One of the small business marketing ideas you might consider introducing into your business is a scarcity mentality around an “old” and very popular product. First it gives you a reason to talk to your customers and secondly you might find plenty of customers willing to spend money to hold on to a product that will be “gone” or different next month.

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