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I started selling AVON a couple of months ago and I am wanting to grow my business. Does anyone know how I can do some creative free advertising? I have been sending business cards in the mail when I send in my bills. Any answers will be helpful. I can also send products out of town with free delivery so the ideas do not have to just pertain to my local area. Thanks!
Carla,
It depends on what you mean by "free". Are there things that you can do that don't cost money to display? Sure. But they're never totally free - you have to factor in your time and effort (and especially nowadays, your transporation costs).
Some good near free stuff? Yup! Lots!
1. Put together a website. Many cost less than $2-3 a month to run and need not be fancy. Have your contact info so people can find you when they're ready to order, rotate through a featured item or two a month and have a calendar of when you're doing events and such things.
2. Get involved with your local Chamber, networking group or group such as the Jaycees. You will meet many people with whom you can trade services with. Join any women's business groups you can - its a way to meet people as customers, fellow vendors and suppliers.
3. Offer fundraising. Give part of your commission or all of your commission to a charitable group, and you will meet a LOT of valuable customers.
4. Get involved with shows and fairs - not like you need to do the State Fair or something, but pick smaller ones with a targeted audience. I've seen Avon sell very well at Relay for Life vendor fairs, for example.
5. Buy small ads from the local school kids. Lots of people read those little books that come at Graudations, sports tournaments, etc. and many are under $10-20 for a business card sized ad.
6. Have some information to hand out or put on display EVERYWHERE you go. Put it on the board at the Grocery store. At the bookstore. At the dentist. At schools. Whereever you can - remember, your potential for recognition is only limited by where you choose to market yourself.
7. Offer to do demonstrations and seminars on various topics. Avon has a great line of skincare products - demonstrate how to use them at a local college event or local nursing home event. Or demonstrate how to do the latest eye lining shape. Etc, etc, etc. This is a great idea for when you participate in a big vendor fair or whatnot - send notices out to the local press and it will really draw people to you!
Hope this helps! For more information, I HIGHLY recommend the book "Guerilla Marketing". Most libraries have it - great stuff!
Put your business card everywhere you can think of. Go to vistaprint.com. You can get free or next to free business cards there. Good Luck!
I am a mortgage broker. I am needing to boost my business with the realtors. What ideas do you have for Thanksgiving?
I worked for several years for two of the largest mortgage companies in Dallas. I also worked at one of the top real estate firms in the nation. I can tell you from experience that realtors get courted - alot. The things that I saw that worked the best were either very personal (like hand written cards sent in the mail) or very, very unique (good luck on this one). One broker I worked for used to go around and put candy into the realtors mailbox slots at their offices. They liked it because they could snack on it - we used the fun-size candy bars. With a hole punch and a little ribbon, we simply attached a tag (we made them on the PC) that said Happy Thanksgiving and a business card, or just the business card with a quick note on it.
Another thing you can do is provide those single-serving cookies with your card or latest specials attached - at the monthly or weekly realtor association meetings (Mama's Cookies or something you can buy in bulk at Sam's)
One thing we found that worked even better was asking if we could photograph their listings and then doing loan scenarios on the opposite side of the sheet. We called them Open House fliers because we used them for open houses. Also, if you go photograph their house and make them fliers for free, be sure they agree to let you put up a sign in the yard of the listing and one of those cylinder things that holds the Open House fliers. It helps them sell the house and people will often call you for more info on your scenarios. I also called For Sale By Owner listings and offered this same free service to them, and we got alot of takers. I used to photograph the houses and make up the fliers in Publisher. It's fun, but the fliers can get expensive because of the color ink, so watch out. Good luck.
