Revamping Today's Marketing Plan, Old-school Style - Written by: Ed Carter of ablefutures.org

Image courtesy of Unsplash

What can you do with your marketing strategy when sales are flagging and the office seems a little too quiet? Take It To The Edge Marketing suggests having a business open house for your current customers and the community.

What You Will Need
• Slogan. LookinLA says to create a catchphrase or slogan that resonates with your clientele. Hire a freelance slogan maker, or use a free slogan generator online.
•  Flyers and postcards. Use your slogan along with high-resolution business images and verbiage tailored to your clientele. Pro-tip: when emailing your images, first convert all images into one batch file using a JPG-to-PDF converter rather than compressing JPGs. Your email will send quicker, and your images will retain their quality.
•  Yard signs and billboards. Use a series of yard signs and banner billboards with images and your slogan to build anticipation about your event and create a buzz around town.
•  Goody bags. Give every visitor a goody bag filled with useful giveaways like pencils, stickers, nail files, key chains, etc., all emblazoned with your slogan and your brand.
Is this sounding a little retro to you? Good! It should. Read on.

Old Meets New
These are all effective, old-school marketing tips that still work today to pique interest in your local company and leverage your brand identity. You can implement them on your own or discuss them with your website creator, graphic designer, and marketing professionals like Take It To The Edge Marketing. They'll help you update the successful tips from the past to make them relevant in today's tech world, with digital marketing on your platform and creative emails about your event, all meant to create a buzz online. It’s a good idea to get started with a Facebook ad template, which is available online for free, a quick and streamlined way to publish your ad on social media to test its effectiveness.

Working the Event
When it comes to the open house, get your facility set up early, so you are free during the event. When customers arrive, greet them and break the ice by asking them what convinced them to stop by. No doubt, new people from the community will visit, too. You can ask these potential customers what they feel would be most valuable to them about your product or service.
Pro-tip: Listen to their answers carefully. It's pure gold for your future marketing strategy. To learn even more about your visitors, give them a chance to pitch their products and services to you. You might find yourself new providers for your office needs or possibly a new employee.

Business Cards Then and Now
As a smart salesperson, you always have your business cards available. Sure, electronic business cards can be added to emails, but the smarter salesperson will turn their paper business card into a tangible and memorable marketing opportunity. To make a lasting impression, personally write a coupon offer on the back of your business card before handing it to someone, giving them a reason to keep your card handy. Hopefully, you'll get a future sale from it, too.
Pro-tip: As Gimmio points out, Making DIY trackable business cards online is easy. Simply pick from the many ready-made styles, add a QR code or SKU, then personalize it with various colors, text, fonts, and images to get your card noticed.
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The End Is the Beginning
The party's over, but it's the dawn of your new marketing plan to lift sales. Going forward, always remember to combine today's ideas with some updated golden oldies, and you'll have the best of both worlds in your complete marketing strategy, reaching the most people.  
 
Take It To The Edge Marketing provides excellent sales, marketing and consulting services and products to small, medium sized and start-up businesses while maintaining the highest levels of customer service, integrity and professionalism at the most affordable cost possible. Contact us for more info today! 520-904-8258