Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Judy asked: I have just contacted our community’s chamber of commerce with the idea of including a $5 Gift Certificate to my store for the “Welcome Baskets” which are given to Moms in our hospital –about 25 baskets every couple of weeks.

Does this make sense as a

means of advertising while at the same time “giving” back to the community?

I realize it isn’t “free” advertising, but perhaps could be minimal enough–even cheaper than some of my current means of advertising. I think it could have some positive effects–i.e., word of mouth advertising from hospital staff, the staff that coordinates it and the moms themselves who receive them. What do you think?

Auntie Kate says:

What’s the downside? That you give $5 worth of free merchandise to all 25 redeemers? (If you’re a 50-50 shop, that’ll cost maybe 2.50 each right?)

That’ll never happen, because they won’t all be redeemed, but 25 mothers, AND maybe 25-50 new grandparents, AND countless new aunts, etc etc will SEE and hopefully remember the coupon.

Plus, of course, those who DO redeem will, with some salesmanship on your part, spend WAY more than just the coupon when they come to visit.

Plus each of them gets on your mailing list when they DO redeem, assuring you of a wonderful list of itsy-bitsy customers/ consignors to market to. Heck, you could even start a “Welcome Baby X Y Z” bulletin board, if you grab your phone to snap a pic (with permission of course!) Hey… how about collecting Baby’s Birthday at the same time to use yearly as an automated email send?

Make sure your expiration date’s far enough in the future that Mom can get into a routine with the Dribblemeister before it expires (the coupon, not the baby!)

Heck, I’d even add “redeem this coupon for a chance at our drawing for [name something the new parents will need in six months, NOT immediately].”

Resale Report: Coupons is available here, on our Resale Reports Page. If you’d like to build traffic, increase profits, and bolster your shop’s visibility in the marketplace, you need to use coupons. But doing couponing haphazardly, without a plan and a goal, eats into your profits and downgrades the perceived value of your business. Don’t let that happen to YOUR shop. Find out how to coupon right.  Kate tells you HOW, WHEN, and even WHERE.