If someone were to ask you “what’s happening?” at your store, would the answer be “not much”? If so, it shouldn’t surprise you if sales are slow.  You need to give shoppers a reason to come in and shop — and you don’t need to spend a lot of money to make that happen.

Social media such as Facebook and Twitter, coupled with permission-based e-mail marketing, make it possible to host special events in your store for almost nothing.  You no longer need to spend hundreds of dollars on print ads or direct mail in order to let customers know what you’re doing.  In fact it seems to me that you should easily be able to put together small events for under $40.  So why not do so often?

In order to put my theory to the test, we decided to hold an ice cream social last Saturday afternoon.  I set a budget of $40, not counting staff time, and announced the details with regular postings on our Facebook page, as well as Tweets, throughout the week. I also sent out an e-mail blast that talked about our summer Cooking School classes and mentioned the ice cream social as well.  Cost for PR: $0.

We have a wonderful frozen custard stand on Monroe Street, and when I asked if we could buy some in quantity, Michael’s Frozen Custard offered to donate a large tub as a neighborly gesture.  Since we sell chocolate sauce from Gail Ambrosius, a Madison chocolatier, we asked for a few sample jars, which they were happy to provide.  We baked some bars using a Barefoot Contessa mix that we sell. Cost for refreshments: $0.

I can’t say that we managed to pull the whole thing off for free, since we had to buy a bag of ice, some fruit (to demonstrate our cherry pitters and strawberry slicers) and a few other incidentals, but the total cost was minimal. And we scooped up about 75 servings of frozen custard, some to customers who were in the store anyway (and who enjoyed the party atmosphere) and some of those who came in specifically because of the event. 

We sold chocolate sauce, we sold cherry pitters, we sold strawberry slicers — but most important, we increased store traffic on what would have been a slow summer afternoon.

If ice cream isn’t your thing, what else could you do inexpensively to attract shoppers?  Here are a few ideas:

•    artists demonstrating their craft

•    sales reps showing their full line, and answering questions

•    authors signing books

•    wine and cheese to unveil a new line of products

If you’ve done a successful inexpensive promo and are willing to share information about it, I invite you to post a comment.  We can all benefit from finding new ways to get shoppers through the door!

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder