A fellow store owner was contemplating an advertising deal offered to her from Yelp that was going to cost about $400 per month. That got me thinking about what different things you could do to draw traffic with $400/month.

1. You could rent a bouncy house and run it in your parking lot every Saturday.
2. You could run a customer survey poll in your store and donate that money to the charity your customers vote on every month.
3. You could give away eighty $5 gift certificates to people who have never been in your store.
4. You could buy an espresso machine and give away free espressos every day.
5. You could have your customers help you invest it in the stock market and track each investment on a big board in the store with proceeds going to a local charity.
6. You could use it to send eight $50 gift baskets to your top customers each month.
7. You could use it to hire a valet parking service for your busy days.
8. You could use it to host classes and meetings at your store.
9. You could use it to pay top-level local entertainers to perform at your store.

Don’t be limited by your media choices for getting the word out. There are far more options than just online, broadcast, print and billboard. There are as many ways to draw a crowd as your mind can conceive when you let it get creative.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS My favorite is #2. Just imagine all the charities sending their people in to your store to stack the vote each month.