![\"Presidents_of_the_United_States,_1861\"](\"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Presidents_of_the_United_States_1861-232x300.jpg\")
As we look through our blog statistics, Facebook shares, 1+s and retweets, we can see that you like new ideas. Thinking outside the box and marketing a small business in different ways can interest new customers and bring old customers back for more.<\/p>\n
With Presidents\u2019 Day looming on the horizon, we thought we\u2019d help think up some creative promotions. Going patriotic is the obvious choice. In fact, we\u2019re already well into our 2014 Presidents\u2019 Day campaign preparations and I can tell you, it\u2019s going to be pretty red, white and blue. So what can you do as a small business to stand out?<\/p>\n
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Honesty is the Best Policy, Except When It Isn\u2019t<\/strong><\/span> \u2014 No, we\u2019re not saying you should lie to your customers. That is NEVER a good idea. But maybe there\u2019s a way to play off the \u201chonest Abe\u201d idea to generate some buzz. Why not host a \u201cLies I would tell to win X amount of your product or service\u201d contest. Ask people to submit ideas in writing or online. Maybe it could even be a video contest. Then let other customers vote on the biggest lie, the funniest lie, the most outrageous lie and give awards like the \u201cPants On Fire\u201d trophy or the \u201cLongest Nose\u201d trophy. Keep it fun, quirky and tongue-in-cheek so no one can even vaguely confuse this with you promoting the telling of lies as a casual practice. And be sure to get the contact information of everyone who votes by promising (and delivering) them a discount. This will encourage participation and help build up your database of prospective customers for future mailings.<\/p>\n Throw a Party<\/strong><\/span> \u2014 After all, Presidents\u2019 Day was started in honor of George Washington\u2019s and Abe Lincoln\u2019s birthdays. So host a birthday party! Combine our first idea of offering food and highlighting cherries by arranging to have cherry cupcakes on hand for the celebration. Blow up lots of red, white and blue balloons, hang streamers and birthday banners<\/a> and come up with your own patriotic rendition of Happy Birthday so you don\u2019t have to pay a $150,000 fine to Warner\/Chappell Music. (They\u2019re the folks who claim to own the copyright to the 120-year-old song you might traditionally want to sing.) Go as far or be as conservative as you want, but make sure that whatever you\u2019re going to do, you let customers and the community know you\u2019re going to do it. Mail postcards<\/a>, hand out flyers<\/a>, send birthday invitations<\/a> and let the local paper know what you\u2019re up to. The car dealers shouldn\u2019t be the only ones getting attention for their Presidents\u2019 Day sales events this year!<\/p>\n Be the Presidents\u2019 Day Police<\/strong> <\/span>\u2014 Did you know that the apostrophe in Presidents\u2019 Day should be after the \u201cs\u201d in \u201cPresidents\u201d? It should, because the day is held to honor multiple presidents. Yet millions of people and businesses put the apostrophe after the \u201ct,\u201d as if only one president has this day celebrated in their memory. Certainly not something one might create a marketing campaign around, but that\u2019s just because they don\u2019t think outside the box! Start collecting incorrect uses of the phrase \u201cPresidents\u2019 Day,\u201d and feature them on a store window, bulletin board at your company, on a Facebook or Google Plus page, or on your website. Encourage others to help you stop the misspelling of Presidents\u2019 Day. Maybe get the local schools involved as part of a unique grammar teachable moment. Use a loyalty card<\/a>, and give them a stamp<\/a> for every new error they bring in. Offer a prize to the person who submits the most instances of the apostrophe being in the wrong place. Who knows, this might be just weird enough to really capture peoples\u2019 attention! Free press and people talking about your company can lead to small business success.<\/p>\n And really, that\u2019s the point. You have to capture your customers\u2019 attention. We are all constantly bombarded with marketing messages. The only way to make yours truly stand out is by doing something different. Hopefully these four ideas got you thinking differently so that you can create a unique Presidents\u2019 Day (or any day!) marketing campaign of your own.<\/p>\n Please let us know if it did! And share your crazy ideas with us. It\u2019s the best way to get new ideas going. Comment below, write on our 123Print Facebook<\/a> wall or Google+<\/a> page, or tweet<\/a> us. We love hearing from you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we look through our blog statistics, Facebook shares, 1+s and retweets, we can see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1448,27,1458,8],"tags":[297,732,918,919,1077,1172],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9156,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions\/9156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/The-way-to-a-customers-heart-is-through-their-stomach-cherry-pie-300x225.jpg\")
The Way to a Customer\u2019s Heart is Through Their Stomach<\/strong> <\/span>\u2014 You\u2019ve seen free sample day at Costco, right? It seems everybody and their dog has decided to shop and replace a meal by gorging themselves on free samples. The moral to the story? People like free food. So how can you build this into your Presidents\u2019 Day marketing strategy? Easy. Cherry pie. Even though it\u2019s not true, most people still think George Washington chopped down a cherry tree. Play into the myth by offering cherry pie a la mode at an open house, or offering a sweepstakes that includes cherry pie from the local bakery as part of the prize package. It\u2019s bound to get peoples\u2019 attention and get them coming in your door or onto your site to register.<\/p>\n