Once you’re sure of your marketplace, the next question is how to advertise. Nelson is a strong believer in trade magazines because their audiences most closely match your potential customers. She thinks wholesale businesses, for the most part, should avoid television, radio and newspapers.

Telemarketing, which means having your sales force make pitches over the phone rather than in person, should be done only by established companies.

“It’s a waste of time to do it at the beginning,” said Nelson, because people haven’t heard of your business and will probably hang up without getting the pitch. “If they’ve heard of you, they’re more likely to listen to the next 30 seconds.”

The rules of the game for retailers are a bit different. Reaching local customers means knowing your market and competition, running well-planned sales promotions and advertising at key times during the retail season.

Sales Promotions

Porter, who consults for several retail clients, is a fan of sales promotions – that is, giveaways that bring customers into your shop.

“It’s an incentive to come in, try and buy,” said Porter. “Hopefully, they’ll come back.”

An important caveat: Make sure your coupon or special sale is really worth something. “It has to have perceived value,” Porter said.

Don’t substitute sales promotion for advertising, however. Sales promotion is “an incentive to buy now,” said Porter. Advertising, on the other hand, builds awareness and customer loyalty.

There are several ways for small retailers to stretch their advertising and sales promotion budgets.

If your store is in a mall with an in-house publication, you can run a coupon there. Several retailers can band together to send out a sheaf of coupons to consumers, cutting mailing costs. There are also professional sales promotion firms that put such packets in the mail to target neighborhoods.

You can also talk to the advertising and promotion departments of local radio stations and theme parks. Both are willing to run co-operative promotional activities with the right retailers.

Don’t be put off by seeing a retailer the size of Safeway working out a deal with Marine World.

“It doesn’t cost you any money to think like Macy’s,” said Porter.