Nicole Leinbach Reyhle is the Founder and Publisher of Retail Minded, the Co-Founder of the Independent Retailer Conference and a regular contributor to various publications. Additionally, Reyhle is the Author of the book “Retail 101: The Guide to Managing and Marketing Your Retail Business” from McGraw-Hill and has been the Spokesperson for Small Business Saturday from American Express since 2014. Follow Reyhle on Twitter at @RetailMinded. Creativity and spending a lot of money do not have to go hand-in-hand. There are countless designers and artists available to support you in your creative needs without robbing your personal ATM. Among the one-of-a-kind services they may offer include logo design, brochure creations, website graphic images and more. To your benefit, these are all fantastic ways to help build your brand, business and even yourself should that be your goal. To help trigger what creative ways may be the right fit for your next project, consider the following:
From the Vegas strip to your local strip mall, flyers are among the top ways businesses, party-promoters, charities, local organizations, neighborhoods and more deliver news they want to share. Of course, typing in a few details of an event and printing it on your own standard white piece of paper may appeal to those of you looking to make this easy…but do you really think this will appeal to the people you are handing these out to? The value of a flyer is only as strong as the value of its design and the copy used to deliver the information shared on it. Take the time to get creative and have others support you if this isn’t your cup of tea. Fiverr.com, for example, has thousands of talented designers ready to help bring your dream of a stand-out flyer to life and as a result, those receiving it will be more responsive to it, as well.
Nostalgia triggers everyone in one way or another, and what better way to trigger those who appeal to retro designs? Retro – representing a style that is consciously derivative of trends, music, modes, fashions, or attitudes of the recent past – typically highlights styles from at least 15 years ago and up to 75 or so years back. Victorian, for example, would not be retro. But the '60s would. By incorporating retro into your creative marketing, you can introduce an updated logo, caricatures of yourself and all employees, retro influenced graphic images for social media and more. Possibly you do this for a singular event taking place within your brand or business – or maybe you introduce this simply to have some fun via social media marketing. Whatever the reason, you can do so on a dime. Creating a retro pop art Lichtenstein style headshot, for example, is as little as $5. It’s impact on your marketing, however? Priceless.
Have a door that customers walk through? Surprise them with a bold, soothing, or welcoming sound unique to your business once it opens. Have a voicemail customers often leave messages at? Instead of “at the sound of the beep” introduce a unique sound effect that is custom to your brand. The ideas are endless but the core idea is very simple… use sound effects to help strengthen your brand identity and leave more memorable impressions on your consumers.
For that matter...get a few! Theme songs or jingles are fantastic ways to be creative within a business environment while also aiming to stand out among your competition and among your customers. Think of your own favorite theme song that you have heard over the years. Is it your local carpet commercial jingle? Or possibly a short and sweet song you hear every time you your local subway doors close? There are so many ways in which you can incorporate a song or jingle – and yet too often, businesses overlook this as an option for their brands because they think it’s too expensive. This is far from true when using Fiverr.com, where you can discover a variety of different artists ready and willing to deliver a song or jingle uniquely for you.
Who doesn’t love a handwritten thank you note nowadays? If customer service is part of your business goal, consider how personalized greeting cards may be right for your biz. As a way to say thank you, happy birthday, share news, or just because, a greeting card is much more personal than a postcard. It’s a thousand times more exciting than anything cookie-cutter and a million times more memorable than almost all other marketing efforts you may do. That’s right, folks, a greeting card may be old school but it’s far from out of style. In fact, you may be among the only ones in style within your immediate competitive work environment if you introduce catchy greeting cards to your biz. Finally, consider how introducing multiple creative marketing efforts into your business can make a stronger impact than simply introducing one or two. And fortunately, you can do this on a budget thanks to Fiverr.com – where the ideas are endless and your personal ATM won’t mind. Have any other creative and thrifty marketing tips? Share them in the comments below!
