Ad Events  

The key to a successful ad is to have items that people want at an aggressive price. By using merchandising, signing, and a good pricing program, you can sell many other items to the customer. If you try to advertise poor selling items, your results will be terrible no matter what the price is.

You do not need to make a profit from the ad item to be successful. The purpose of the ad is to get people in your small business willing to buy merchandise. I would go ½ off for most sale items. Any time you run an ad, put the ad on the doors for more exposure. I would run the ads for one week at a time.

Here are some suggested ads that you should considering running.

1. Buy 1 get second at half price. If they buy a lower price item, the half off is on the lower priced item. For example, let’s say a customer buys a $20 Item and a $10 item. The $10 item would be half off or $5.

2. Have a 20-80% off sale price, with customers selecting slips for the discount. Have 1 at 80% off, 2 at 70% off, 5 at 60% off and 6 at 50% off, 7 at 40% off 8 at 30% off. And 70 at 20% off. Your expected markdown is about 27%.

3. Run a low-priced item at cost or close to it. If you pick the right item, it will bring in more traffic. This extra traffic is likely to buy some of the regular price higher ticket merchandise.

4. Have an ad the customer can get one item at 1/2 off. Like the item mention before, you can make your profit with the extra sales.

5. It would be a good time to have an ad that takes an additional 50% off your clearance items. You may sell merchandise below cost, but you could have thousands of $ tied up in unproductive inventory. You can use the cash to pay bills or buy good profitable merchandise. There is another added benefit of giving the customer the perception of good ad pricing.

6. Get a free item with purchase. The free item could be a gift certificate, food item or anything else your customers may like. Do not use items that you normally sell.

7. Once a year, you should run a promotional sale. I would have everything on sale. You will find more about on our website.

8. Buy special items just for sale items. Here is an example:

Let’s say you get an item that normally costs $3 and retails for $6. You get a special cost of $1. Sell the item for half off ($3) and run the ad price either $1 or $1.50 depending on how aggressive you are advertising. Show the regular price and the sale price for advertising purposes.

9. You should run one sale monthly for one week at a time. Track your sales increases for that period with the other weeks of the month. If after several months, you noticed sales are much better during sales weeks, you may want sales perhaps two weeks a month with several items.

10.  You could have a special ad pricing policy any time there is bad weather. You may be able to get some of the locals to buy from your small business on poor sales days because of weather. For example, if it is more than one inch of snow or raining one hour or longer. I would have a window sign made up explaining your bad weather sale. I suggest a sign about 36 x 24.

11. You could have a Surprise Special of the week and run it 3 days a week (Thursday-Saturday). Do not let the customers know what the item is, but the purpose is to get them to visit your small business.

12. Have a sale offering a specific % of the sales to a charity, such as 10%. They will do the advertising for you. It may also result in free publicity.

13. You could have a New Year special ad. For example, let’s select 2009.  You could have a New Year special ad. For example, let’s select the year 2009. You could advertise many items for $20.09, or take off $20.09 or have a discount of 20.09%. You could use all three if you like.

  14.  You could have an early bird sale. It would be ok on a weekday, but better on a Saturday. For the first two or three hours, you are open have an additional discount. Give an extra discount of say 20%. It would be a good suggestion to have coffee and doughnuts for your visitors.

15.  You could try a page full of coupon items. Customers love to cut out coupons and save money. Make sure you have some lower price products as coupons.

16. Private sale is an after hours sale for your best customers. Having a snack and something to drink is a good start. Sometimes, private sales are used before a big upcoming ad promotion. This gives your best customers first shot.

17. Give a gift to the first 20-50 customers. This needs to be advertised heavily. The item should cost you between $1 - $5. Do not give away something you normally carry in the small business. You may be able to get a deal from another small business or a special price item from a vendor. For example, let’s say you give away a picture frame with a normal cost of $4 and it is on sale for $1. I would list this as a 2 x $4= $8 Value.

This gift giveaway will bring traffic to your small business. Most people will buy something from your small business because they see something they want or feel guilty getting a free item from you. Do not use this more than every 3 months. Otherwise, it may not be as effective.

18. Advertise private label products. The advantage of advertising these is because you have no competition on these items. If it is a new item you are carrying, you need an aggressive ad price. If customers like your product, you will get plenty of repeat business.

      19. You can have a sale discount depending on the size of purchase. For example a $50 purchase would be a 10% discount and $150 purchase would be a 25% discount.

     20. I save the best one for last. This one can produce the highest reward for a Small Business owner, but will be the scariest for most owners. You give the customers a gift certificate for a specific amount. It should normally be $1-$10, but about 20% of your average sale amount would be about right. This works best before your busiest season. The key is that you make money on the second transaction.

Many owners will not do this because they fear people taking advantage of this free offer. Yes, some people will, but if done correctly, the results can be outstanding. For the first time, I suggest a limited test and try the gift to the first 20-50 customers first. Track their sales at the time, but the key is obtaining lifetime customers. Too many owners make decisions based on the present instead of what is needed to keep their small business viable in the future.