It Pays To Advertise

[cdthayer]

My wife and I have a small shop with a very small advertising budget. It's our choice that it's as small as it is. We assign very little money to it. Why? Because we're still not sure where to spend our advertising dollars, even if we could come up with a large sum.

So, we had a big hoopty-doo Grand Opening Sale and Ribbon-cutting when we reopened the shop 4 years ago with pictures in all of the papers. There has been a shop like ours here in the same building for 30 years. We had big ol' banners flying everywhere, including a permanent banner with our business name on it that stays in the front window. We have a sidewalk sign in front of our store for everyone to walk by and to view while looking down the street. We have a big lighted "Open" sign in the window and change our window displays at least every month. We run a weekly ad in one of three news publications in town, plus a monthly ad in one and "sporadic" ads in the third. We're members of the Chamber of Commerce and get included in all of their advertising and on their website. We have our own website, and are linked from a few other sites including suppliers and some internet directory sites. We sponsor a community event once a year (quilt show) and get our press releases published before and after the event in multiple issues of the newspapers. We've handed out hundreds of business cards and brochures, and have several banners that we use when we're vendors at remote shows or in local parades. And we have a very nice group of customers that promote us every chance that they get.

But for some reason, we're just not getting the word out.

We had an out-of-town customer tell us that on a recent trip through our community, she had asked about a shop like ours at a local fast food shop, and was told that the town didn't have one. That was disturbing, but maybe she had asked an employee that was new to the area or something.

It finally hit home to us the other day that we simply can not afford enough advertising to catch all of our potential customers. A customer that has known us and lived here for a long time came into the store and said, "Well I didn't know that you were here! When did you open the store back up? I walk by here all of the time, but I never noticed that it was open again."

We need to advertise more you think?

CD in Oklahoma

thayerrags.com

[dirtclod]

I have felt your pain. I had a tack shop one block off of main street in my town for 5 or 6 years. It was like i was in a different state as far as the town doing anything for myself the other business's on that street. I had a customer stop one of the police one time and ask where my shop was. The cop didn't even know i was there and most of them got their hair cut at the barber shop next door. I never joined the chamber of commerce after i seen what my parents went through when the owed a business in the same town. It was a waste of money.

Ninety percent of my business came from out of town. Advertising in the local paper was a waste of money to (it comes out twice a week now, used to be once a week when we had two papers). At the time i had my shop in town the internet was just getting to where you could get on the internet locally. I did have good luck with advertising in a free Trader paper that went out to about 20 counties. A regular add worked better for me that a block add and was alot cheaper. You might want to try that if you have one in your area. Like they say word of mouth is your best advertising, but you have to be able to get customers in your store so they can tell other folks.

[Johanna]

If you have a storefront website and/or are willing to ship, a "Directory" ad here on LW could help you attract more business and improve your site ranking and traffic. Many people come here to browse and shop. CD- you have a fabric and notions store? I see slightly higher prices at the mom & pop shops, but they seem to make up for that in customer service. As a consumer, I will go out of my way to deal with someone I trust and doesn't treat me like another transaction. Click on "Directory" on the toolbar and look at what we have collected so far. You have to create an account separate from the board (security reasons) and all plain text ads to vendors are FREE through February.

Hope this helps someone.

Johanna

[Denise]

Just an idea, but maybe you could spend some of your "advertising" money to make things to donate to local charity auctions etc. Your name gets out there and seen by people, plus you get to deal with people in the organizations you may not normally come in contact with that may know lots of others. They remember what you gave and pass your name on when someone is looking for a similar item. Sometimes you even get a charitable reciept, but the best part is that you are doing a good turn to help others raise money for a good cause.

[CitizenKate]

Who do you mainly sell to, CD?

Kate

[Randy Cornelius]

I find that the best way to get your name out is to get involved in the community. For one I have the group of guys that I meet with almost every morning to drink coffee with, I call them the rusy zipper club. I get more business from that bunch of guys than anywhere. They tell everyone what I do. Also I teach leather craft classes to the area 4-H and boy scouts. Become a 4-H or Boy Scout leader. Volenteering costs you time but it pays you back in ways you cannot measure. That is time and money well spent. It really gets the word out. Also having booth at the local fairs, chili cook offs and any other event that draws people from the community together. I too have spend money on adds in the local paper without a single phone call. But pass around something I have made at the local coffee shop an the phone starts ringing.

Hope this helps.

Randy

[cdthayer]

....The cop didn't even know i was there and most of them got their hair cut at the barber shop next door.....

Ninety percent of my business came from out of town....

We thought that we had the local area pretty well covered, and had been concentrating on getting our name out to surrounding communities for the past 2 years. Now it seems like we need to concentrate on the local area again. Maybe we should "cycle" our concentrated effort back and forth from local to distant advertising about every 2 years to stretch our advertising dollars best. Things change and people come and go. It seems like it takes new customers about 6 months from the time that they hear about us to finally get around to stopping by. At least that's the way it sounds from their comments. About 50% of our business is from out of town now.

....you have a fabric and notions store? I see slightly higher prices at the mom & pop shops, but they seem to make up for that in customer service.... Johanna

Yes, we have a retail fabric and notions store. I'm here at leatherworker.net because we also do mending and repair to leather and vinyl items, and I was a tooler back in the 80s. Everyone thinks the prices are higher at Mom and Pop shops. The chains have done a good job of convincing shoppers of that. We mostly use suppliers that don't sell to the chains because we can't compete with the volume and our customers know that, but the times when we do handle some of the identical items of the chains, we can actually sell it cheaper because our floor space costs are much less. (Some large retailers decide what to sell based on return per square foot of floor space.)

... maybe you could spend some of your "advertising" money to make things to donate to local charity auctions etc....

Yes, that's good advertising, and just a nice thing to do. I forgot to mention that we donated a bunch of older upholstery fabric to the local animal shelter a couple of winters ago for use as disposable bedding. They had put out a plea for help. I submitted a photo and press release to the media and we got front page exposure. We're working on sorting out another batch for them. It's a good way to clear out products that aren't generating income, get some advertising use out of it, and do something good at the same time.

Great suggestions folks. Thanks!

CD in Oklahoma

thayerrags.com

[cdthayer]

Who do you mainly sell to, CD?

Kate

Anybody that walks in the door. Actually, our business is just about split 50-50 between retail and services. Our retail is mostly quilt fabrics, but it also includes sheep and goat sock fabric or canvas, headliner, vinyl, and upholstery fabric for the do-it-yourselfers, and our line of custom sewn gifts. The services include alterations, mending, zipper replacements, ironing, and sewing machine service. I tear out seams and my wife puts them back together, I help with the starching, she does the ironing, and we both do mending, repairs, and zippers. I service machines.

.... the best way to get your name out is to get involved in the community. ....teach leather craft classes to the area 4-H and boy scouts. .... also having booth at the local fairs, chili cook offs and any other event that draws people from the community together....Randy

I agree. I'm not currently involved with the 4-H or Boy Scouts, but I'm a past Assistant Scout Master here. We have a great bunch of guys & gals in our community doing exactly what you mentioned. We're a Tandy Leatherfactory retailer and stock or order what we can for the independent leather crafter. I keep a supply of leather remnants, lace, thread, and rivets on hand for the local knife makers.

We finally got set up to go "take our show on the road" 2 years ago. We now hit some quilt shows and celebrations in surrounding communities, and we try to have a booth at every event in our town where our products are appropriate (craft shows, county fair, chili cookoff, etc.). We started taking a little handcrank sewing machine with us, mainly to use to kill time. We've pieced quilt blocks at quilt shows and made vinyl pennant strings at the county fair, and we've seen a definite increase in booth attendance since then. Using the sewing machine is a good attraction. We've seen an increase in booth sales too! Usually, I crank and the wife tends to customers. I'm getting pretty good at piecing quilt blocks on a handcrank. A lady came into the store and bought the sewing machine after seeing it at one event, so I have a couple serviced up and ready for the next show, which is next weekend's Annual Oyster Fry. Fresh raw or cooked gulf oysters clear out here in Oklahoma farm country!

Great suggestions folks. Thanks!

CD in Oklahoma

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