Try Something Different With Cross Channel Marketing

If you are like most businesses and you are trying to increase your sales without going broke, then you should consider some ideas from cross-channel marketing. Marketing gurus are talking about SEO, PPC advertising, lead generation, social media marketing and word-of-mouth marketing these days. Its a wonder, we just don't go crazy.

So what do a candy store, pet store, paint store, and contractor and real estate agent have in common? Periodically, I enter a store and see business cards from related businesses on the counter. I always find this a little bit odd; but, it's the rudimentary beginnings of cross channel advertising without the frills.

And, you may have noticed recently that KFC and Subway go together as though dating. Tim Horton's ldonuts hangs out with gas stations in Canada. So, what can we learn from all these partnerships, and relationships that seem to last while these days even people seem as a short commodity? Perhaps, the lesson to be learned is that we should work together in curious ways that complement our own businesses and those of our partners.

The pet store can give candy, oddly, as a treat for buying puppies. (The candy is not for the dogs or cats because I was told that chocolate harms one or the other.) The real estate agent can also offer candies to buyers, home visitors, Christmas thank you's and even discounts on house paint. The contractor or cabinet maker can build a beautiful dog house to promote his skill and craftsmanship inside the petstore. And if all these oddly related businesses existed on the same street, then they could create a "Jones Street" advertisign campaign offering discoungts to neighborhood shoppers.

The websites can network togther. Instead of one website, they can collaborate on a Jones Street website. In this way, the businesses that tend to pull online traffic pull others toward your store, similar to a shopping mall. While visiting your unique web store, customers can watch a short video introducting the business, real estate agent, pet store owner, and candy store to neighbors.
After the success of the initial Jones Street campaign, retailers may want to work together to consider a collective Jones Street full page newspaper ad. The cost for individual ads is always greater. But the costs for a Jones Street festival page is much less enabling businesses, radio stations, and even the newspaper to promote themselves.

Some Simple thoughts for the curiuos at heart.