Retail business marketing is all about extending the reach of your business beyond those who shop with you today and know what it offers. It serves to raise the relevance of your business to others.
Today’s marketing idea seeks to better connect your business with the local community.
Create an award. Create an award that a person or group in your area could be eligible for, an award recognising effort the community appreciates and needs. The ideal would be to recognise unsung effort, something other awards do not already cover.
Call this the 2013 [insert your business name] Award for [insert what the award’s for].
Do your research before you announce anything. Make sure you are up for an annual award – organising the judging, funding the prize and linking with an event where the award could be awarded. This could be the local shop or some other region-wide event. Ensure that the award has appropriate criteria for judging or voting.
Awards could be best best community project of the year, local hero of the year, best regional promotion of the year, best community event of the year.
Set a budget so you don’t go overboard. promote the award for plenty of time, to get the best marketing value possible. Promote the winner in-store.
A good award will extend your community connection and this should play well for sales. While doing good is good, growing sales is more important as this gives you the resources you need to do good.