Breathe new life into your marketing with these 50 marketing ideas and strategies for your small business!
This week on the S.O.B. (Small Owned Business) Marketing podcast, Vivian and I are speed running through 50 different marketing ideas, from leveraging your “free real estate” to using affiliate and loyalty programs.
Have a marketing idea you love that we didn’t mention? Share it in the comments! We don’t gatekeep around here.
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction (Please Leave us a Review)
01:46 Marketing HOT TAKE - The Importance of Simplicity in Marketing
07:21 Leveraging Community Engagement
20:12 Creative Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
32:24 Guerilla Marketing Idea
47:30 Advertise On Podcasts - Including This One!
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Chelsea: Hey everyone and welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing podcast. Where we celebrate to S.O.B. you are, and if you haven't figured it out yet - we mean Small Owned Business, we don't mean S.O.B...
Vivian: Listen, we know that as a small business owner you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.
Chelsea: Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, and promoting your business. And then what doesn't really work.
Vivian: And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.
*Beginning of Episode*
Chelsea: *singing* Da-da-da-dada-dada-da.
That's my, I guess, game show music. I've never actually watched a game show before.
Vivian: I think you need to work on that a little. You didn't watch The Price is Right?
Chelsea: I think maybe once, but I don't remember what the theme song was.
Vivian: Her age is really coming out, you guys.
Chelsea: Today, y'all, we're having a little fun. Kind of like a game show, kind of not. We are bringing the fun back into marketing and we're doing 50 marketing ideas for your small business. We're just going to run through them.
Vivian: Yes. This is not going to be a snooze fest, so don't worry. We're going to keep the chit chatting minimal, if you guys have just been feeling maybe not too inspired for new things to do as far as promoting your small business. This is the episode for you. Cause like Chelsea said, we're just going to rattle them off.
Chelsea: Yeah, we're going to give you 50 ideas. But before we get started, Vivian, it's time for the *pew pew pew pew pew* marketing hot take.
Vivian: I love it.
Chelsea: Thank you. My marketing hot take works really well for this episode because it is to stop overthinking it. Marketing is not hard. Okay. It can be hard. Trust me. It can get a little, a little hairy sometimes, but really at the core of it, marketing is about showing your potential customers why your business is worth their time.
Vivian: Absolutely. I will agree with that. I do think sometimes we get too much in our head about what to do or you know what it is, Chelsea, I blame social media for this. We were never intended to binge 20 videos in a row about how to promote your small business, how to grow your sales using Instagram. We were never intended to consume this much information, and so if you feel maybe that you're stuck right now, that could be the culprit and we're hoping that we will just shake you a little bit today, loosen you up and remind you that really you have an opportunity to be creative with the way you show up in this world and with the way that you introduce your small business, your product or service to people.
Chelsea: Absolutely, and Vivian, I just want to say there is no TLDL for this episode because since we're just rattling off ideas, I'm not going to name all 50 ideas again at the end of this episode. So no TLDL, and if you don't know what that is, then go listen to our other episodes and you'll learn. You'll figure it out.
Vivian: Yeah. Let me talk to you, those of you that have been coming back to our podcast repeatedly, but yet have not hit that subscribe button. I mean, can we get a little love around here, right? The best way that you can support our podcast and to really help other small businesses because we are a community, we're a unique group of people that have gone out there and decided that we wanted to create something out of nothing and we got to stick together, you guys. There are such limited resources for us and we...this podcast is just one of them. So if you want to help your fellow small business community, go ahead and subscribe so that way we can move up in those Apple Podcast ranks and get our podcast in front of other small businesses.
Chelsea: Absolutely. Or you can buy us a coffee.
Vivian: That's true.
Chelsea: Look at the link in the description or if you're watching this, I'll put it right on the video. But Vivian, let's go ahead and get started.
Vivian: Excellent. All right. Let's start with number one, and like we said, we are just going to list 50 marketing ideas for your small business.
Chelsea: Okay. Number one, Vivian, sponsor a local sports team, a youth sports team, or really any local youth group. Great idea.
Vivian: I like this. One of the things, asterisks here, you guys. Don't just sponsor through a banner, but potentially there could be other opportunities. Reach out to the team, not team captain, what do call him? The team parent and potentially ask-
Chelsea: Like a coach?
Vivian: Yeah, coach. Can I bring snacks after the game one day and then that way you could set up a little table, have the snacks, you know, hopefully something healthy like bananas and stuff like that.
Chelsea: Boo.
Vivian: Not, what do you call it? Little Debbie cakes or anything.
Chelsea: Yeah, no twinkies.
Vivian: That's right. So just be sure you're taking the full opportunity to do that. Number two, cross promote with other local businesses in the area. I love the way that one of our community members did this for his holiday drop-in. So we went to the record store and remember you could spin and win a prize. One of the prizes I won was actually free beer at one of the local breweries right down the road from him. So he had teamed up and gone to local businesses and said, Hey, would you guys be willing to give a discount, a coupon or whatever it is to be included and that way it promotes you and it helps to promote me.
Chelsea: Okay, Vivian, next, start a weekly video series on your social media.
Vivian: I love this. It gives people something to look forward to and they probably will then subscribe or follow you or actually, what do you call it? Save the video. Instagram now lets you tag previous videos, right?
Chelsea: Yes. So you can tag them all together. The key with this one, y'all, is to be consistent. You can't be like some of us. I'm calling myself out.
Vivian: She's pointing to me.
Chelsea: No, I'm calling myself out because I've tried to do this multiple times with like marketing Fridays. You got to be actually consistent with this for it to work to its fullest potential.
Vivian: Absolutely. Number four, reviews. If you're not asking for reviews, what are you doing? These are not only great because Google loves them or if you're selling through Amazon, Amazon loves them. It legitimizes your business, but it also gives you extra content to be able to promote. So either you can feature these on Facebook or any of the future ads you have. You can read off a review and all of that good stuff.
Chelsea: Love. One of our favorites, Vivian, vendor markets. So if you have a physical product, maybe do a farmer's market or an artisan market, something like that.
Vivian: Yes, and I'll even say if you're a nonprofit, this is a great opportunity to you. We've seen so many SPCA's take full advantage of vendor markets where they need to go get puppies like adopted, and so they'll take the animals out there. So this is great for a lot of reasons, mostly because if there's good foot traffic at the event, you get to capitalize on that.
Personally, one of my favorites, postcards. You can target people in specific neighborhoods, in specific routes, specific areas. Don't write it off just because it's a little old fashioned, you guys, okay?
Chelsea: One of my personal favorites, offer free samples. Everyone loves a free sample, and if your product is really worthwhile, they'll make a purchase.
Vivian: We had a guest one time on the podcast, Arielle, who sold, she had made her own sunscreen that was safe for babies as well. That is a great way to be able to package up something like that, give it to a mom and say, hey, if you want to try the product and then if you love it or like it, you can go to the website to buy. I also personally, when we went to Montana, one of my favorite things was to go and try some of the samples for the food. So I bought some hot honey mustard from there, but it was, they had a very nice selection that you could try before you buy and I loved it.
Chelsea: That's a great example. See, she actually bought some of the stuff she tried.
Vivian: That's right. Another idea, use sidewalk signs and have fun with it. You guys, we have seen this. So many people, if there's a boutique in like a small walkable area or even if there's a lot of car traffic that drives by, don't discount what a nice chalkboard sign can do on the sidewalk because for one, you could switch out the creative work, the artwork, and then you can also spotlight certain products that you have that may be aligning with the time of year.
Chelsea: Absolutely, and you can get fun with it.
Vivian: Yeah, and if you run discounts, let's say you're doing a back to school discount for teachers, whatever that is, you're able to spotlight that.
Chelsea: Yes. Okay, Vivian, our next one is a fan favorite here on this podcast, email newsletters.
Vivian: They're like, oh, with the emails again.
Chelsea: Yes, with the emails again y'all, because emails are effective. They're easy. Well, they're easy enough. They're cost friendly, and they're great for targeting and segmenting your audience.
Vivian: And they work
Chelsea: And they work. So get creative with it, and if you're feeling little iffy about emails, go listen to our many episodes about email marketing.
Vivian: Another idea that I think people, they think it's going to be a lot more work than it actually is, actually create a rewards program. All right. When we talk about psychology and creating little...I want to say people that are addicted to your product or service, a rewards program is really great for this because people don't want to waste rewards. So if you're a spa service, if you're a hairstylist, perhaps there's a way for you to incentivize people to come in every six weeks or whatnot, because you can say, by the way, sign up for my rewards program. We track how many times you come and on your fifth visit, you're going to get a discount, a 20 % discount, right?
Chelsea: Or points, whenever you get that email that says your points are going to expire, better use them soon. You know I'm about to use those points. I don't want them to go away.
Vivian: I know. So Alex and I, my husband and I have been going up to, we love a good smashburger. One of the local barbecue places here does a smashburger on a particular day of the week.
I realized the other day, now that we've gone in there like three consecutive weeks in a row, I was like, huh, this guy presented his card, which is a reward card. So it just tracks how much money you're spending and then it gives you money back on it. I was like, we definitely need one of those. So rewards programs work, right?
Chelsea: Yes, exactly. Going off of the rewards program, you could also start an affiliate program.
Vivian: Now, what's the difference between rewards and affiliates?
Chelsea: So rewards specifically is rewarding your customers for spending with you. An affiliate program is when you get customers to bring in other customers.
Vivian: So to increase your sales.
Chelsea: Uh-huh, and then you reward them for bringing in new clients.
Vivian: This has grown tremendously in the last, I want to say last decade because of all the social media stuff you guys. So remember every influencer that's like, buy the hair dryer that I bought, use this code and you get 20% off. Well, every time you use that code, they get compensated. So either they get a part of the sale or they get a percentage of the sale based on their contract. That's affiliate marketing.
Chelsea: Yes, and it's not as difficult as it sounds. So don't knock it if you want to try it.
Vivian: If you wanted to do it for your small business, you could do it very strategically and on a much smaller scale until you work out the kinks and then you're able to get more people on there. All right. So the next one is, go ahead and write a press release for an upcoming event. This does a couple different things. It's going to promote your event and hopefully get more people out there. It helps the local media company, or the Facebook group, whoever is sharing the event because they are going to seem like they're in the know. They have newsworthy stuff to share with their audience. It also allows you to promote your small business at the same time.
Chelsea: Absolutely. Going off of that, Vivian, host an event or a class. Whatever you want to do. But hosting something can bring your community closer together. A great example would be here in downtown Summerville we have Motherland Essentials. She likes to do, she likes to do multiple classes. She has candle pouring or DIY bracelets, stuff like that. So great thing to consider.
Vivian: Yes. The other thing we love is create a lead magnet to get people into your ecosystem. Ecosystem, what we mean by that is into your world. Into the world of whatever it is that you do. But one of the best ways to do this is if you create some type of downloadable offer that people are looking for. An example of this is something we did last week. So if you listen to last week's podcast episode, it was about SWOT analysis. We said, by the way, if you're going to do a SWOT analysis, we've got to download for you. Go to this link. Once you go to that link, you put your email address in, it sends you the template, then you can print it and use it. If you are introduced to us through that one podcast episode, now you're in our ecosystem. We created that template, which served as a lead magnet. Then you're going to get a second email from us. Then you're going to get our weekly emails. That is a wonderful way for you to give something of value to someone and introduce them to your business. Then they can continue to follow you.
Chelsea: Love. Our next one, Vivian, kind of going back to affiliate marketing, but not affiliate marketing. We're talking about micro influencer marketing. I specifically say micro influencer because we're a small business podcast. I really, I'm not trying to be a hater, but I don't think we're getting Kim Kardashian.
Vivian: I mean, we can dream big.
Chelsea: Maybe the entire SOB community can come together. We can all pull our money and I still don't think it's going to be enough for Kim Kardashian.
Vivian: Also, can I say, I'm surprised you used Kim Kardashian as an example because I don't think you're particularly a fan of hers.
Chelsea: No, I'm not. I'm just thinking of who's probably the most expensive-
Vivian: Biggest influencer.
Chelsea: I was going most expensive. The most expensive that I could still buy.
Vivian: Okay, gotcha.
Chelsea: That doesn't have value. Never mind. I'm not going to go there. What I am going to say is; micro influencers are great for small businesses because they focus in on a very specific community. If you can find a local micro influencer, then that's even better. So don't discount influencer marketing, just go micro.
Vivian: Another option you have is to host a live stream. Go live, you guys. Now, this, you may be thinking you guys are, you're out of your damn minds. Okay. We're not though. If you've listened to some of our previous podcast episodes, you know that this is actually a pretty big deal. It's going to be an even bigger deal throughout 2026 and going into 2027 because this is where all of the selling on TikTok and all that. This is where it's moving towards, live stream. So, you know, go ahead and do a live stream. If you sell a product, we actually had a girlfriend who owned a boutique in the area and she would do these like every Thursday night. She'd go live and then she hold the product up, talk about it, give them ideas on how to decorate with it. Then she'd say, hey, if you're interested, put the number so-and-so and then she'd send them a bill for it and they'd pay for it. So it's a great option.
Chelsea: Yes. Do want to point out, you don't have to live sell on a live stream. You could just do a live stream to, I don't know, promote an event or to talk with your community, anything like that.
Vivian: Good point. Because you can still promote your business without having to sell anything. So if that feels a little too much, just do a live.
Chelsea: Okay, so our next one, since we're sticking on social media, user generated content. I feel like we need like bright blinking lights for this one. User generated content, because that's where everything's going, right? User generated content is exactly what it sounds like. It's getting your customers, your clients to post about your small business. If you can, finding ways to be able to use that content in your marketing.
Vivian: That's right. Video tutorials, also a great way to promote your product or a service. Education can be a powerful tool, especially if you are in some type of industry or a niche or you're trying to sell something that is a little newer to market and people don't really understand the concept. These types of videos could work extremely well. So it's not only going to warm them up to your product and service, it's going to introduce them to your business, but it's also going to give them the confidence that they know exactly what they're signing up for and how to use it.
Chelsea: Vivian, this is going to be the most hated one, I feel like. Networking events.
Vivian: I actually like networking events.
Chelsea: Of course you would. She's such an extrovert. I know people don't like networking. I'm also an introvert guys, but networking is a powerful marketing tool and it will help you grow. Grow roots. That's what it is. Grow roots. Yeah. Grow roots in your community. Find those connections to become a part of your community.
Vivian: Let's not forget that being small business owners does mean we have to develop relationships. We're not telling you guys to go out and do 100 networking events, anything like that. We know you have other things to do. Your time is extremely valuable. Select networking events that you think are well aligned with your business that are going to actually help you to establish relationships with people that can help you along in your business. Also, pick ones that are going to be fun to you. Ones that are not going to be a drag to go to. So there's a way to navigate this.
The other idea that I have is, this one's fun. When's the last time you took out an airplane banner? Besides for a wedding proposal.
Chelsea: I love that. Tim, write that down. Airplane banner.
Tim: Airplane banner wedding proposal.
Chelsea: Absolutely. I'm still going to say no, but I want to see it in the sky.
Vivian: I love it.
Chelsea: Okay. Airplane banner. I love that. I'm going to one up Vivian and I'm going to say host a treasure hunt.
Vivian: This is fun.
Chelsea: This has become a thing Vivian. Have you seen this? No. So a lot of small businesses and a lot of like bands have been doing this where they're like, we're going to hide a prize. I think Weezer did this, but I can't remember, so don't quote me on that. I think Weezer did it. They hid one ticket in every city and they gave hints or clues as to where the ticket is and whoever found it, you won a free ticket.
Vivian: Yeah. So very Willy Wonka.
Chelsea: I mean, yeah.
Vivian: Willy Wonka, Weezer, W's. I mean, is there a pattern here?
Chelsea: That was kind of a stretch, but okay, fine.
Vivian: No, that is a great way to, I was having trouble there. It's a great way to use creativity to get people excited about something you're doing. Maybe you can do this if you have a storefront. But really you don't even need a storefront. You could probably do this in some other way to promote your business.
The next one I really, really, really think is one-upping that.
Chelsea: What?
Vivian: Which is to break a record. Break a world record you guys. Literally if you guys have seen this. The pizza place that makes the largest pizza. Look for something that's somewhat related to your industry, to your business or product, and then go ahead and see if you could break that world record.
Chelsea: I'm going to give you guys a hint on how to do this. You got to really niche down. You got to be the first woman to do the, like really niche. Be very specific so you can be the first one because breaking world records can be hard. I think that's a great one.
Vivian: Listen if you guys are going to do anything with that we want to hear it in the comments.
Chelsea: Oh absolutely. You're going to break a world record. We want to be there. Okay I don't think this next one Vivian is going to be beat breaking a world record: mural art. Y'all, I'm very stuffy today and these are really hard words to say with a very stuffy nose. Mural art.
Vivian: Okay, perfect.
Chelsea: Yeah, we've all seen businesses do this. They have a blank wall right next to their building or on their building and they go ahead and use that empty space to bring the community together, but also still promote their business.
Vivian: Yeah. The local Chamber of Commerce in our town actually has this on one side of their brick wall. What I love about it, because the Chamber's whole purpose is to promote the town and the businesses in the town. It's actually something people can stop by, take a picture with, and it promotes the town itself. It kind of checks all those boxes. You could do the same, you know, and then just have something, your business logo or whatever it is on the bottom.
Chelsea: My only thing is please get a professional. Don't get Vivian and I painting your mural because it's not going to...
Vivian: It's going to be the laughing stock.
*S.O.B. Community Ad*
Vivian: This episode of the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is brought to you by the S.O.B. Community. If you are a small business owner that is neglecting your marketing and you feel like you've wasted time and money on marketing help that didn't deliver. Or if you're just craving support from people who actually get what it's like to run and promote a small business, then our membership community is for you. Visit skool.com/sob to sign up today to get instant access and weekly support. That's S-K-O-O-L dot com slash sob.
*End of S.O.B. Community Ad*
Vivian: This one is a little harder and it takes way more time, coordination, and effort. But it's worth it, okay? If you're actually dedicated to the long-term growth, start a podcast. I mean, it has never been easier. Equipment-wise, you don't have to spend a ton of money to begin with. Go ahead, start recording, learn the process of it. As you go, you can upgrade equipment. You could get quicker in your editing process, all that good stuff. But starting a podcast can really help in growing your business if you promote the podcast and you funnel it into your business, what you do overall.
Chelsea: And if you're committed to it, you have to actually be committed to it. That's a big thing.
Vivian: Correct.
Chelsea: You could also, if you don't want to start a podcast, you could sponsor a podcast.
Vivian: I love that.
Chelsea: Yeah. You could, I don't know, even sponsor our podcast.
Vivian: Hit us up if you guys want sponsorship rates. We got those.
All right. The other one is a little more in line and not new: Google ads. Remember, we always talk about around these parts, we always talk about how Google is not being replaced. It's not going away right now. Everyone's like, AI, AI, perfect. Google is still around and it's pulling in more money and more views and more traffic than ever. So that is a great way to promote your business.
Chelsea: Yes. Or Vivian, still a standard marketing idea, but not Google ads, YouTube ads.
Vivian: If you're looking to run YouTube ads, actually run them through Google, you guys. Yeah, because Google owns YouTube.
Chelsea: Yes, I think sometimes we forget that.
Vivian: Yes, but that is a great way to take full advantage of their wide array of options as far as where you can promote your business through their ads. All right. The next one I have is to create a Facebook group for your community. This does require effort as well because you want the community to be engaged. So that may mean that you have to pop in there and kind of stimulate conversation a little bit, share things, just to get people to start commenting and to share their thoughts or opinions. But if done correctly, this is a great way to build community, get people excited about your product and service and still get visibility for your business.
Chelsea: I think a key thing that we all need to remember is any of these that are about, that focus on community building is going to take effort.
Vivian: Everything takes effort.
Chelsea: Yes, everything takes effort. Absolutely. But if you want to build a community, you have to actually build the community. You have to be invested in that community. Moving from there Vivian, I have two wrapped into one because I have radio ads. A classic. You don't want to do radio ads. You think that's old school, old fashioned. I mean, I guess. Fine. You can do audio streaming ads.
Vivian: Yes. Lots of opportunities now, whether that's through, I think you could do advertising on, I know on Spotify, you could pick the programs that are aligned with your target audience. That's the key for any one of these too. Be sure that you're thinking about where your target audience is in that platform. Okay. So if you say radio ads, they're old school. Maybe it's not for business people. Maybe for people who like politics. There is a local political show that maybe gets a lot of views. That's the thing, you want to research, make sure that they get a lot of listenership, but it can still be truly effective.
Chelsea: Absolutely. Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, all of those have advertising opportunities. So don't discount that.
Vivian: All right. So that one's got to do with the ears. This one has to do with the eyes, billboards and signage. So if you've never done a billboard, you might be surprised. A lot of people, a lot of these billboard companies are now using digital billboards, which means the price rates are actually a little more affordable and you get to kind of upload in an unlimited amount of like creative work or ads. Now, they're not going to let you upload like 10 or 12, but you could supply them with three different designs and they'll run them at the same time. I think if that's something you haven't looked into, you got a little money to spend for marketing this year, maybe hit up your local billboard company. Also, if you're ever driving around and you notice the name of the billboard, it's usually on there. So some of these are not owned by big national companies, especially if you're out more in rural, rural, that word gives me problems.
Chelsea: Rural.
Vivian: Rural areas. They're usually owned by somebody. If it is owned by a person or a family, typically those rates are a little better and they still get visibility depending on where they're located.
Chelsea: I love that one. Kind of focusing on the eyes as well, but in a different way, we have ribbon cuttings. Y'all, if you have not listened to our episode on ribbon cuttings, go listen to that. It's a great conversation. A lot of small businesses think that because they've already opened, it's too late to do a ribbon cutting. You can still do a ribbon cutting if it's for your five year anniversary or something like that.
Vivian: A milestone.
Chelsea: Yeah. Do it for a milestone. Don't just say, I missed out on my ribbon cutting and it's done forever. Forget it. You can still do it.
Vivian: Now you don't want to do it just on an average Thursday for no reason.
Chelsea: Don't do it for no reason. Wait for a milestone, but don't say, I'm never going to have a ribbon cutting now.
Vivian: The other thing you can do is donate a percentage of your profits to a charity and let people know about it. This is great. For one, we 100% think you should be involved in the community and we love to see small business owners give back. But also you can use that for, I don't want to say content, but be sure you share it on Facebook. If you feel weird about that, look at it this way. It not only helps you, but it gives visibility to that nonprofit or that charity. That's truly what you want is to be sure that you can somehow maybe introduce that charity to someone that's never heard of it.
Chelsea: I love that one. Make sure that you are getting visibility-
Vivian: You just did this thing with your hands. I was like, are you karate chopping? What's going on?
Chelsea: Yes. Anyways, make sure you are getting visibility by keeping your Google Business Profile up to date. Or if you don't have one, creating one. Y'all, if you're a part of this SOB community, you better have a Google business profile. If it's not up to date, I'm going to forgive you. I'm going to let it go, but make sure you're updating it from now on.
Vivian: That's right. Taking a play out of the guerrilla marketing playbook, all right?
Chelsea: Okay, I love guerrilla marketing.
Vivian: Get custom stickers made and then put them around town. Now I know this is a little controversial because some people are going to be like, you're, you know, you're making the town look like-
Chelsea: You're vandalizing.
Vivian: Yeah, you're vandalizing.
Chelsea: It's vandalism, that's what makes it fun, Vivian. No, I feel like, be considerate about where you're putting these stickers. Put it on a stop sign. Don't put it on like a hundred year old monument.
Vivian: You said put on a stop sign? I'm almost certain you could probably get in trouble for that one.
Chelsea: On the back of a stop sign?
Vivian: I don't think you're supposed to put anything on traffic signs.
Chelsea: Well, then why are there a bunch of, well, there's a bunch of stickers on the back of all the stop signs I see. So, I'm just saying.
Vivian: All right, we're just going to leave that there. You guys put your custom stickers wherever you want, but you are responsible. Okay? Do not tell the officer that the SOB Marketing Podcast told you to do this.
Chelsea: Fine.
Vivian: I don't want no ticket in the mail.
Chelsea: Okay, okay. Vivian, our next one, text marketing. We talked about this recently as well. I feel like I'm mentioning all of our episodes today. It's almost as if we have a catalog of almost, not almost, of over 150 episodes.
Vivian: Well, and if anything that tells you guys we cover a wide variety of marketing topics.
Chelsea: We sure do. We really do. So we've discussed text marketing. It's a great tool for small businesses. Almost everyone has a phone at this point. So something to consider.
Vivian: Now, Chelsea can give us the scoop on this next one because she actually used to work at a local movie theater in high school, but you can actually advertise in local movie theaters. Consider that if that is part of where your target audience is, then it might be a good idea.
Chelsea: That was some lore. I forgot I even worked. I think I worked there for maybe 30 days. It was not a good job. It was not fun. I hated that.
Vivian: But they did have opportunities, right? For businesses.
Chelsea: Yes. They have opportunities for small businesses and businesses alike, all the businesses to advertise.
Vivian: She's like, they will take your money.
Chelsea: They will take your money. Trust me.
Vivian, I have a great story with this next one. Participate in your local parade or just show up to it. So I was once working with this small business owner and she forgot that the Christmas parade was coming up in our local community. So instead what we did is she printed out these coupons, bought some candy canes, and we just walked the parade route next to the parade and then we handed out the coupons and the candy canes to people who were interested. Is that legal? I don't see why it's not.
Vivian: Well, and I think the big point too that we're kind of missing is her storefront was actually, it was where the parade route went. So ideally to and I've seen other business owners do this. If you have a storefront that is located on a parade route for like a Christmas parade in your town, because it's their storefront, they literally just put a table outside, do a little setup. I think someone locally had done hot chocolate for kids last year, which was a big hit. So I mean, you can easily find a way to be involved without having to officially be involved.
Chelsea: Yes. Or you can officially be involved. And that's fun too.
Vivian: Yeah. Honestly, it's a minimal rate. So some of these, I want to say it's like $100 or $200 at the most. They have stipulations. They tell you, you could bring a car, truck, all that stuff. You can have people walking, whatever it is. Of course, they're going to share their rules and regulations, but it is something that is cost friendly for small business owners. So if you haven't thought about it, definitely think about it.
All right. So the next one I have is kind of like an old school thing that I think most people know they can do. But if you haven't done it or just haven't thought about it recently, maybe go back to posting on community boards. Find a local coffee shop. Go out there and leave your business cards, pin your business card on that community board at Starbucks. I think they still have them. If not, local coffee shops usually do, libraries do. Sometimes the visitor centers can go ahead and let you drop things off.
Chelsea: Another great one, Vivian, and kind of on the same note, you can put an ad in a community newsletter or in a church bulletin.
Vivian: Yes, you can. I know when I was actually living, when I was a single girl and bought my first house, the neighborhood I lived in had a newsletter that they did. Honestly, $50 you could pay and put an ad in it, because all they were looking for is to offset the cost of the printing. They had, I think maybe three businesses take advantage of it and there you go.
The other one is you can run a refer a friend promotion.
Chelsea: You know, this is really popular in the beauty industry.
Vivian: It is? Okay.
Chelsea: Yeah. For waxing or getting your eyelashes done, your nails done, stuff like that. You come in, you refer a friend, you both get $10 off. perfect.
Vivian: A little bit like an affiliate marketing thing, but not really.
Chelsea: Yeah, it's affiliate adjacent. There's a little less work involved.
Vivian, first off, we're down to our last 10.
Vivian: Our last 10 what?
Chelsea: Our last 10 marketing ideas!
Vivian: Oh, I was like, what? What am I down?
Chelsea: We're down to our last 10 marketing ideas. This one I stole from Vivian specifically. I can't remember which episode it is. Again, because we've done so many, but use your free real estate.
Vivian: You get free real estate. You get free real estate. You get free real estate.
Chelsea: I don't know what this is from.
Vivian: That's from Oprah. You don't remember what she used to do give aways.
Chelsea: I've never watched Oprah.
Vivian: Oh my gosh. I'm going to have to find a clip and share it. You guys, Chelsea, if you guys don't know, she's only 27. So a lot of the stuff I talk about, because I'm 40, she doesn't have a point of reference to because she just don't know. So apparently she doesn't know about Oprah Winfrey.
Chelsea: I mean, I know who Oprah is. I just never watched.
Vivian: When you used to go to her events, she would surprise the guest audience.
Chelsea: With free real estate?
Vivian: With free cars. There was one where she was like, that's where it's from, "and you get a free car and you get a free car. You get a free car." Everyone got free cars that day.
Chelsea: I want a free car. Okay. free real estate. What we mean by this, your website, your store window, if you have like an actual storefront, these are all spaces where you can use it to your full potential.
Vivian: If you have a Facebook page, you have a Facebook cover photo you can upload that promotes your product, services.
Chelsea: Yes, be creative with these things. Don't just upload a Facebook cover page and then leave it for years and years. Try to change it consistently and be up to date with what's going on in your small business.
Vivian: All right. This next one, similar. We had told you guys to go ahead and send a press release in if you're going to host an event. Contact a local news reporter and offer them to be an expert quote unquote for any future stories. Let's say for example, if I have a Brazilian spa, we do a lot of waxing. We do all kinds of stuff like that. Maybe I reach out to the person that typically does health related stories at the local news station and just say, Hey, if during the summertime you want to spotlight anything that's related to skincare or trends in this area, I'm available. Then that way they have someone because they always love including a little local flavor and also someone that deals with it. So if they're running a story during the summertime that has something to do with skin breaking out or this and that, they may want to get someone to contribute and they may want someone that they can interview.
Chelsea: I love that. That's a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.
My next one, Vivian, we probably already touched on, I believe, but advertise in your local visitor center. They allow you to put your business cards places. You can buy ads in their display cases. All of that good stuff. Don't forget about the visitor center.
Vivian: Yeah, and just so you know, a lot of the visitor centers are tied to Chamber of Commerce. So if you go in there and ask about those opportunities, they may say you need to be a Chamber member, so therefore you need to join the Chamber, which is another one y'all can do, okay? Join your local Chamber of Commerce. It will allow you to pick networking events, which Chelsea mentioned earlier, and it also gives you some of these discounts on advertising opportunities.
All right, the next one that I have is advertise in your local DMV, you guys. Yes. This is something that's a little new. The other day when I was at the DMV, of course you spend quite a bit of time in there and I'm sitting there and they have these like two screens that are running. I do see that they have programming and then they also have some ads that are popping up. Then they had a screen that said, if you're interested in putting your ad here, call this number. I was like, this is interesting because if you're a local real estate agent, if you're someone that is, maybe you're a commercial roofer, anything-
Chelsea: Car insurance.
Vivian: Car insurance, my favorite. If you are anything along those lines, that may be a good group of people to, especially car insurance. These are people that are going in to get their DMV, their car stuff fixed. So maybe car's already top of mind. That may be a great way to kind of land that connection for them.
Chelsea: Okay, Vivian, we're going in the opposite direction. Let's say you take the bus everywhere, which I love. I love that for you. Or trains, the subway, taxis. All of these things that I just named have ads. Contact them. See what their advertising rates are, especially if you're in a city, and they have a subway that everyone uses, find out how much that costs.
Vivian: Now, even in good old Charleston, South Carolina, you guys, where we don't have like the biggest public transportation, we do have buses. Those buses have opportunities for you to wrap your business name around them. Even if it's not that, because I do know that cost a couple thousand dollars, they have another option where you could just wrap the back of it. You know that back area, it's a little cheaper. So reach out to any of these public transportation if that's where potentially your target audience is. Your target audience doesn't have to be actually riding the transportation. Think of where the route goes and if there are going to be people in those areas that you want to see your ads.
Alright, the other one. Contact your military bases, believe it or not. Military bases are full of military personnel and their families. All right, and they'll be doing stints here for a couple years sometimes. Sometimes they end up retiring where they're at. Great segment for you to advertise to, and they do have sponsorships sometimes that they will let people come in and do for events. They have a newspaper that they'll run on the base and businesses can take out ads in there. So if that's a demographic you want to reach, that's a really good option for you.
Chelsea: Yeah. Let's go back to cars, Vivian. Your own personal car. That's free advertising. That's free real estate. A lot of people have company cars or you don't want to go that far. You can just get a magnet to put on your car or you want to go all out, you can wrap your car.
Vivian: Yeah. Take it from someone who literally just did this. my husband now does flooring services and he bought a company van. One of the first things he wanted to do was get his stuff on there. Phone number, all that good stuff. I didn't know, cause I hadn't done it in some, in a while. Whenever we had put logos on company cars years ago, it was maybe like $300, but he got quite a bit on there for like, I want to say 700 bucks. So they can always give you a quote. You can tell them what you want on there. They could design it for you. Don't let any of those things hinder you. But like Chelsea said, even if you don't want to get vinyl on there, go the other route and just get a magnet. VistaPrint.com.
Chelsea: Vivian, I'm just going to wrap my entire car. It's just going to say SOB on it.
Vivian: This one has become popular, but if you guys haven't already, maybe take a peruse through the Reddit forums. Just know that is another way for you to get engaged with people and potentially be able to introduce your business to them. Someone that we know owns a record store and he was saying that sometimes he'll go in there, people will be talking about music and maybe they're saying, hey, I haven't been able to find this record or do this and that. He'll contribute to the conversation then just be like, by the way, I sell records and here's the link to stuff. So as long as you're contributing to the conversation and you're providing value, it's not really out of line for you to also mention your business if it fits in with what you're recommending. So Reddit could be a really good source to promote your business.
Chelsea: Our last one, Vivian. We've already mentioned today, but I'm going to mention it again. You can advertise on this podcast.
Vivian: Yes, hit us up.
Chelsea: Yes, our rates are very friendly.
Vivian: They are small business friendly.
Chelsea: That is correct. I mean, that's our focus. That's our goal is to make sure that our resources are available for all business owners.
Vivian: All right, so that's all of our 50 marketing ideas. We want to encourage you. If there's one that's been working for you and we did not share it in this list, go ahead and drop it down below because we don't want you gatekeeping. All right, share it with other small business owners. If it's working for you, it could potentially work for them. Another reminder, go out there and listen to our other 150+ episodes. We promise you there's going to be some little nuggets, takeaways that you'll find in each one of them. Lastly, if you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe so that way you could get a notification the next time we drop another episode.
Chelsea: Yes, and leave us a review. We've had this discussion already, but I'm saying it again, leave us a review and go be the best SOB you can be.