Customers love special events. Many of the sale promotions that I have been involved with result in certain customers coming into the store every day. It is fun and adds excitement to their life. You would be shocked by some of the customers most interested.

For Valentine’s, you might want to take pictures of the
couples. You could offer these at your cost or even better
free. The purpose is to get people into your small
business. If you use a digital camera, you could send them
the photos by e-mail and attach a special offer with your
business. If your business has a younger crowd, consider a
Caricaturist. This would make a unique attraction to your
small business.

You could even have a contest giving away gift cards or
gift certificates to your business. It could be for the
longest and shortest married or have a contest where the
couple who knows the most about their partner wins a prize. Other possibilities could include having a greeting card or love song or poem contest. The key is to use creativity.

For President’s day, you could have a skit involving the
two presidents. In fact, you could make it a comedy having
the two meet or debate with each other. Other possibilities
would be a look a like contest, cherry pie eating contest
just to name a couple. You could also involve something
with silver dollars or anything else connected with either
George Washington or Abe Lincoln. The key is to get people want to come to your store to see and or enter your special event.

If you have an event that needs judges, you may want to
consider using the local media. This will make it easier to
get free publicity for your event. Also, you want to take
pictures. You can post these after the event in your
business and use them in the local paper to show the
exciting things happening in your small business. Issuing a
press release before and after any unique event would be a plus for your business.

You need to advertise for these promotions. It could be
done by radio (week before), newspaper (1-2 weeks before) and list in your store 3-4 weeks in advance. If you run a normal ad in the paper, just change it to this the week
closer to the event and the previous week at least mention
it.

Take advantage of all the holidays, you can for special
events. Many employees love getting involved with the
special events. It can have a positive effect on your
bottom line while making your small business stand out from the competition. The previously mentioned suggestions are just a small sample of what can be done.