Power Promotions

Yule Fuel
“At Christmastime we co-host a ‘Holiday Magic’ event with the stores around us. We have a face painter come in and there are sleigh rides outside. We also participate in fashion shows in the area by providing clothing for the models. Oftentimes, the models end up buying the clothes they wear in the show, and we give them a 20-percent discount. The fashion shows have been really helpful for us.” —Mary Slidell, owner, The Giant Peach, Annapolis, Md.

Ladies’ Night
“We had a Girl’s Night Out event where we invited our best customers and told them to bring a friend. Experts like chiropractors, breastfeeding consultants and an infant CPR instructor came in to answer questions. It was held after hours, so our customers felt special and were able to shop the exclusive sale while eating and drinking.” —Anne Marie Burroughs, owner, Now Showing, Virginia Beach, Va.

Happy Hour
“We’ve held an after-hours cocktail party for those on our e-mail list. Customers can make purchases during the party.” —Nina Kon, owner, Play, Santa Fe, N.M.

Fashion Feature
“We’ll choose a
particular garment and promote it for the week.” —Hentchy Jacobowitz, owner, Kinder Corner,
Monroe, N.Y.

Spreading Cheer
“We do a lot of holiday-themed events. For Christmas, we held ornament-decorating parties and coloring contests in which our customers were the judges and each child got a little toy. For Valentine’s Day we did ‘Mommy and Me’ photo shoots, and we’ve done cookie-decorating around other holidays and theme parties, where kids come in and make a craft they can take home.” —Aimee Falgout, store manager, The Red Wagon, Boston

Out of the Box
“We do a lot of trunk shows to give
customers great deals. And one of our most popular events is
storytime for the kids.” —Allison Holmes,
owner, Oranges & Lemons,
Greenville, Del.

Knockout Savings
“Through our rewards program, shoppers receive a punch card and get a punch every time they spend $20 or more. After 10 purchases of $20 or more, you receive $10 toward any other purchase.” —Jeremy Merrill, co-owner, Dimples, Cedarhurst, N.Y.

Good Neighbors
“We build strong relationships with families in our area by offering not only classes but fun events and community get-togethers. For example, we have a Cinderella story time coming up; in May, we are raffling off a new Cybex stroller at an open house for our new location; and we frequently hold music and dance parties for families.” —Susan Izatt, co-founder, Moonsoup, New York

Catwalk Cues
“We’ve participated in fashion shows at local country clubs. They get a lot of press, and many customers who haven’t shopped here before come in to buy what they saw in the show.” —Michelle Patterson, owner, Ava Grace Children’s Boutique, Sugar Land, Texas

Sunday Best
“We have a lot of
christening apparel that we advertise in local church bulletins. We have tried almost everything, and the church bulletins have proven time and time again to be the most effective.” —Charlotte Reppy, owner,
Grammie’s Attic, Gaithersburg, Md.

T.G.I.F.
“My store is located in a historic district with a lot of other small businesses. During the warmer months we have ‘Fourth Fridays’ when we all host late-night shopping. It’s great because we are open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., when most of the other stores are closed. There is also free food and music, so many people end up walking in and shopping. I like to carry items from local vendors, so we hold different events like ‘Meet the Author’ or ‘Artist’ or ‘Inventor.’ I found that more people will buy the book after meeting the author. Customers enjoy the novelty of it and seeing the face behind the product.” —Stacy Roberts, owner, Hey Diddle Diddle, Westerville, Ohio

Flash Mob
“We hold an annual cutest baby contest. People bring in pictures of their babies and we post them up on a board. We have judges pick two winners—a boy and a girl. We also have a popular vote where people pay $1 per vote, and all of the proceeds go to a local charity. This works well to bring people into the store because they love looking at the baby pictures and it gets people talking about us. We do it around February, when traffic is slow.” —Teresa Ford, owner, Kids’ Ketch, Lewes, Del.

Mom’s the Word
“Since we’re a baby and maternity store, we try to get a lot of customers from birthing clinics and midwifery. We have booths at different events in town to hand out information about ourselves. Around Mother’s Day, we offer free massages for moms and advice from physicians. I also do portrait events where I shoot discounted portraits for a whole weekend. I have a photography background, so that has done really well. Over the holidays, we were featured in a lot of gift guides, which was also effective. We’re also planning to have a moms’ night out, where moms can come in after hours and get a special discount.” —Tara Chatterton, owner, MamaBaby Boutique, Portland, Ore.

First Place
“We won an award last year from our city because we do a lot of inexpensive marketing. We participate in our local MS Walk and sponsor a biannual baby crawl organized by our local radio station. For that, we provide $1,000 for the winner and we are included on all marketing collateral, plus we’re able to sell merchandise at the event. We don’t often hold sales in our store because our product is higher-end. We do a weekly “Cravings Deal” that we send out via Facebook. We also have two big shopping parties where we invite the 5,000 people on our mailing list and provide food and discounts.” —Rebecca Simpson, co-owner, Cravings Maternity and Baby, Saskatoon, Canada

Sharing the Wealth

“We do a lot of things with local charities. For the past six or seven years, we have run a promotion where customers can buy a shopping pass at a discount, usually from
the charity’s website. It is valid for a certain amount of time—usually the beginning of the season—and customers can come in and shop, with all of the proceeds from the card going to the local charity. It’s a great way to get new customers.” —Dennis Brito, store manager, Jacadi, Atlanta, Ga.

Heart Felt
“We have charity events where we open after hours and have a sale with cookies and drinks. A percentage of the proceeds made during this time will go to a chosen charity. We also give out scratch-off tickets to certain customers. They have to scratch them off to see their percentage of savings.” —Tammy Labarbera, owner, Madison’s Avenue, Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Community Service

“I’m very involved in the community, and I find that really works. I donate a lot to charities and I use Giggles as the sponsor at charity events. It increases the visibility of my store. The more we participate, the more people see our logo. These types of things give my store free publicity. Also, for Mother’s Day we are putting on a mother/daughter fashion show with a local country club.” —Marcia Kimball, owner, Giggles, Captiva, Fla.

Capturing the Moment
“This season we have partnered with local photographers. We give away a free photo with each communion purchase. Customers love it, because they usually go get communion photos taken anyway.” —Carol Harvey, owner, Hansel & Gretel, Wilmington, Del.

Picture Perfect
“If you spend $100 or more in our store, you get 45 minutes with a portrait photographer. That has worked really well. We also have a silhouette artist come in every few months.” —Karen Kaiser-Sharp, owner, Madison Avenue, Cornwall, N.Y.

Birthday Gifts
“For our third anniversary, we’re giving a $25 gift certificate to anyone who sends in a picture of their child in clothes from the store. We post the pictures in our online gallery. It’s really sweet. People love that they can see their kids on the website. It also helps me avoid having a sale. I also offer free shipping on certain items. I send out newsletters three times a month and find that people are putting [the featured] items in their carts.” —Michelle Marx, owner, WestVillageKids.com, New York

Digital Hype

“Launching our e-commerce store in June 2009 changed the way we market our brick-and-mortar stores. It used to be that direct mail, newspaper and radio ads were best. Now we use Facebook, our weekly blog and e-mail. Within two hours after an e-newsletter goes out, we see a response in the store. In my 40 years of being in retail, I’ve never seen a way to communicate with customers on such a personal level like this.” —Phil Olinghouse, co-owner of The Toggery, Little Rock, Ark.

Photo Flash

“Facebook has been very successful for us. I take pictures when new merchandise comes in and make an album on Facebook. Customers comment and it creates a great conversation between me and the customers. Also, twice a year we have what we call ‘The Big Sale.’ We offer 60-percent off whatever’s left from the season. We open early at 8 a.m., and by 5 p.m. we’ll have sold everything.” —Nancy Jackson, owner, Sugar Plum Tree, Perry, Ga.

Caught in the Web
“I have been utilizing Facebook, Twitter and our blog quite a bit. People seem to enjoy reading our blog, and utilizing the social networking sites helps to keep our store fresh in people’s minds. We also have play days for kids where we’ll feature a certain product. For example, if it’s an art product, they can come in and make something free of charge. And we have someone come in monthly to do ceramic handprints and footprints. That usually brings in a lot of people.” —Amy Rowland, owner, Wee Little Sprouts, Fallbrook, Calif.

Wined & Dined

“We are still relatively new, so we do a lot of advertising on Facebook. We also donate small items to local school events whenever we can, to try and hit targeted audiences. Quarterly we stay open late and have wine and cheese and offer discounts on certain items. There are lots of restaurants in the area, so staying open later brings in a lot of foot traffic from diners.” —Heather Muenstermann, owner, Green Genes, Chicago

Video Games
“We are an online resale and overstock site for children’s clothing. We mainly use social media like Twitter and Facebook to get into people’s awareness. Plus, we have a blog feature on our site where we provide content for moms explaining where to find the current sales or when the best time is to list items for resale. We promote that content on Facebook. I also made a video for SpendlessTV.com about buying quality goods, which supports the environment and small businesses in the U.S. You can find that on YouTube.” —Suzanne Rielle, owner, Loobalee.com, Midland, Mich.