{"id":42273,"date":"2011-10-11T11:43:10","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T11:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=9556"},"modified":"2011-10-11T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T11:43:10","slug":"6-ways-to-promote-your-retail-business-before-you-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/publicity\/6-ways-to-promote-your-retail-business-before-you-open\/","title":{"rendered":"6 ways to promote your retail business before you open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Coming<\/a>Create a buzz all over town long before your store opens.<\/p>\n

These days, in a sour economy, businesses opening just about anywhere are major news. So don’t shy away from publicity. Here six ways to promote your retail business before you open.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Display a large banner or sign outside your building letting people know you’ll be opening<\/strong>. Thanks to Alyson Stanfield, a business coach for artists and an art marketing expert, for this idea which I read\u00a0at her blog<\/a> yesterday.
    \n
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Pitch the story to the local media<\/strong>. Contact a reporter at your local newspaper, business journal or business magazine and pitch a story about the opening. Angles can include why you chose this time, when the economy is bad, to open a new business.
    \n
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Write a press release.<\/strong> Post it on a site like Craigslist<\/a>, which gets millions of eyeballs. Post it only in one category and only in the city closest to where your business is located.
    \n
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Plan a fun grand opening celebration<\/strong>. Publicize it on a local event sites like Yelp<\/a>, EventCrazy.com<\/a> and MeetUp.com<\/a>. \u00a0This list of 27 questions to ask before promoting your event<\/a> will stimulate ideas and help you plan a more interesting event. Please, no boring ribbon-cuttings. You can do \u00a0better than that. Here are some alternatives to ribbon-cutting events<\/a>.
    \n
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Just before you open, create a business profile on Google Maps.
    \n<\/a><\/strong>
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Contact related businesses and offer to cross-promote<\/strong>. Ask them to display flyers about your grand opening at the front counter. Tell them that once you open, you’ll be happy to promote something they’re doing. If you’re opening a pet store, contact owners of dog kennels, dog obedience schools and veterinarians.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What other ideas can you offer for ways that retail businesses can promote long before they open? Any examples in your own community?<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n


    \n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Create a buzz all over town long before your store opens. These days, in a sour economy, businesses opening just about anywhere are major news. So don’t shy away from publicity. Here six ways to promote your retail business before you open. Display a large banner or sign outside your building letting people know you’ll\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":37,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[691],"tags":[623,634,328,621,167],"class_list":["post-42273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-publicity","tag-brick-mortar","tag-craigslist","tag-event-publicity","tag-retail-marketing","tag-yelp","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}