Here is how you should promote your Clothing Store

The first thing I think you should always keep in the forefront of your mind is that your ultimate goal is to build brand awareness. So you need to do things that will place information about your company before your potential customers. That’s what all major companies do.   Obviously if you don’t have the kind of money they do, you are going to do this the best way you can within your budget. You will think about the things that you can leverage to get the most awareness from while considering you budget limitations.  For example, NIKE finds top athletes early and uses them to promote their brand. This is because NIKE knows that millions of people will be watching and researching these athletes. I assume you don’t have NIKE money, so I have listed some low budget things you can do to promote your stores.

1. First thing you should do is to invest in a nice sign on your building. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but professional and large enough for people to see from the street.
2. Make sure you have some business cards with your logo on them. Simple white background with your logo and contact information on it. This is obvious and simple, but it is important. You should always be in a mood to network and give people your cards no matter where you are.
3. Print flyers/postcards with some sort of sale or discount on it. You should go out in the parking area, on the road at a stop light close to your store, another shopping center close by, or wherever you see people going about their business and encourage them to come into your store by placing your postcard into their hands. Let them know verbally to come in and get the discount. Don’t just give them the flyer and say nothing. Make sure to let them know that if they shop today they will get the discount or sale on the flyer.
4. Have a big banner on your storefront that says SALE 70% OFF SOME ITEMS. You can mark down some t-shirt or something to make sure you not false advertising.
5. You must employ people who are not only great at customer service, but also know how to sell. You could have a commission-based system that will encourage your employees to make the sale.
6. Your employees should dress and look uniform. This could be as simple as placing your logo on some t-shirts and have them wear the same color bottom. Remember it’s all about building your brand.
7. Build a website. This will help to expose your company to the whole world. Make sure you have a form on your website that can capture visitors’ contact information when they sign up for something. It could just be a 10% discount coupon that they can print from the website and bring it into the store to redeem. In time you will have 1,000s of people’s contact information to promote your brand to. You should optimize your website so that when people search for items that you offer within your area, they will find you on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This is a powerful thing and it doesn’t have to cost you anything if you know what you are doing.
8. Distribute your postcards to all the restaurants, hair salons/barber shops, and other similar places in your area.
9. Put car magnets on your vehicles with your company logo and information.
10. Go into the adjoining neighborhoods and knock on people’s doors. Give them a flyer and tell them to come into your store and get a discount. Remember, you are networking. Actually I would say you are making friends. If people like you, trust me, they will do business with you. I know this method may sound far fetched, but in challenging economic times like these you better be prepared to go the extra mile to beat the competition.
11. Sponsor or put on your own event. You could put on a weekly event. Don’t go all out and put on some large event without proper planning. Start small. Invite your friends, family and have them bring at least two people with them. Do it in a public place where lots of other people attend. They will want to know what’s going on and there you will get your opportunity to network. You could join with someone who already has a weekly event going on, just make sure it’s not a competitor.  Think in terms of events that compliment your business like a fashion show, night clubs parties etc. It would be most effective if you could have the event at your store. Brainstorm and try something unique.
12. You should have a SALE every week! People love sales and this will bring more customers through your doors. Just chose some selected items to put up on sale.
13. GIVE AWAY THINGS! People love FREE and will remember your store. Just make sure your logo and contact information is on it. You could give away some wall calendars with your logo big and bold on it. People keep these all year long.
14. Lastly you should have your own unique shopping bags with your logo on it and contact information. Make sure it has a unique design or color to draw attention.

I certainly hope that you will find at least some of these marketing tactics useful. There are many things you can do to get the word out. Just remember to always be in a networking mood and be ready with business card in hand when you see or meet new people.

Michael Reid

Small Business Pr0motions, Inc.

http://www.BusinessABCPages.com

http://www.DesignsnPrint.com