Xigaware

The simple task of letting a prospective customer know that you exist is a huge part of marketing. For many people the first place that they notice becomes the place that they do business with. When they move to a new town the first car dealership they notice gets first shot at their business. But by no means is the first one that they notice always the one that is closest or the one that is the best it is just the first one they notice. When I moved to Florida last year and my brand new car got a ding I took it to the biggest and brightest body shop without even noticing at the time that I drove past four others in the process. The first insurance agent I called was the one whose small office faced the main road and had a huge green sign. The very first dentist I called was the only one whose ad said he would take calls twenty four hours a day. I of course had extremely bad tooth ache at 6:00AM on the first morning of a three day weekend. Think back to how you choose a particular business especially when just moved to the area, you more than likely went to the first or most familiar looking place that you saw without even realizing it? With that in mind allow me to share with you several simple methods to attract attention and put more prospects, clients or customers into your business. Also, don’t forgot to pick up a marketing book to learn even more internet marketing strategies.

1. Business Signs
Often you see huge and expensive signs with nebulous headings like Smith and Associates. Make you marquee sign as specific and clear as possible, letting people know exactly what your business does. Printer Repairs, Family Dentist, Attorney at Law, Gift Shop, or aresort management company. Remember people only buy solutions and benefits nothing else! Putting your business’s name in lights may appeal to your ego but it most cases it will do nothing to increase your income!

2. A-frame Signs
One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to attract business is to invest in a colorful A-frame sign. These signs often attract a great deal more attention than your regular marquee sign. This is due to the fact that it sticks out because it’s new. And also, because it is right on the sidewalk at the person’s eye level. Move it around every once in a while to different positions in your shopping center and you’ll be surprised how many people walk in and ask you if you’d just opened, even though you may have been in the same location for years.

Now, one little tip. A lot of towns have rules against this type of signage. They employee important people often directly related to Napoleon to drive around and tell you that it’s unsightly and against city ordinances, written of course by government officials who never had to meet rent or payroll in their lives. An easy way of getting around this is to use the signs in the summer evenings after 5:00 or 5:30 when the inspectors go home, or you can put them out on the weekends when the inspectors are off work. I even had one client who swore that his A-frame sign brought in so much extra business that he gladly paid a expensive weekly fine!

3. Car Signs
Get little magnetic signs made up and put them on your vehicle and you’ll promote your business all over town. If you have a van, you might even custom paint it on both sides. Always put your company’s phone number in extremely large letters. As well as being a fantastic ad while you’re driving around, a well-positioned van parked at the edge of your center parking lot can be like a giant billboard. It also gets around a lot of those pain in the butt local ordinances about signs. As long as you have staff and assistants that have decent cars, why not get all of them put magnetic signs on their vehicles as well? Having business signs on several vehicles also makes your business seem bigger, more successful.

4. Use a Prop to Get Attention
In my martial art schools I use to dressing up a mannequin dummy putting it in uniform and sticking it on the roof of your building doing a flying sidekick or a front kick at the highway. People who have driven past our school for years suddenly started coming in when they noticed that we have dummies on the roof. We only did it for a few of weeks in the fall. It may sound silly, but it got our karate school noticed. It would work equally well for clothing stores, uniform shop, sporting goods stores and just about anything else you can think of as long as you use an appropriate prop to tie the dummies into what it is you actually sell.

For those businesses a dummy doesn’t suit there are all kinds of custom balloons and giant blow up icons that certainly make you business stand out from the crowd. From monkeys to pirates, Ford mustangs to Ferrari F430s you name it and you can get a massive inflatable that matches your needs. Giant spotlights are another way to capture attention particularly in the winter or for those businesses that do a bulk of their business in the evening such, as car dealerships and dance clubs. Letting people in your area know that you even exist is a big part of getting the ball rolling towards conquering your market. Take whatever action you must to let people know you are there!

5. Change Your Stores Front Window Even If You’re Not In Retail
Make use of your windows for some type of thematic display even if you are not in retail. There are thousand of businesses like insurance agency’s, lawyers and even doctors offices that have retail based locations with windows and walk by traffic. Instead of covering them up with dirty blinds these could be put to far greater use tempting people to stop look and remember the name of your company for a future date when they might have need of your services. You want people to stop, to look, to listen. You want them to say, “Wow!” every single time they walk past your front window.

6. Paint Your Company’s Building for Success
Paint you building a unique color, Kathy’s Hairstyling might go well in neon pink. Green Desk’s paint shop might have splashes of brightly colored paint all over the walls of the building. A laundromat could get more attention by putting up inflatable washer and dryers on top of the building. The key is to find the right color combination that works in a prospects mind for your specific field of expertise.

7. Five Sense Marketing Smell
There are five different senses to attract people’s attention to your business, you are not limited to just getting visual attention. Place a small all-weather stereo speaker on the outside of your building and play music into the street to attract people as they walk by your business. If you own a clothes shop for teen’s rock makes sense, if it’s a chiropractic office water sounds or oriental music would be far better. Whatever you choose make sure that it sets a mood congruent with what you do. Just as on TV, advertisers get your attention by honking a horn or ringing a doorbell, people will automatically give your business more attention if they hear music drifting out from it as they walk by.

Trying just one of these ideas will help a lot, but why not use all of them and really attract some attention?

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