Almost Free Advertising From Local Businesses?

Over the past 2 days I have visited about 30 local businesses and offered to increase their profits for free.

The free service that I provide is simple. I create a custom coupon for the business which they then hand out to their customers. At the bottom of each coupon I add 2 lines of text that say something about my own business.

Here is an example coupon with my 2 lines in italics

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!
! Lily's Salon
!Receive 10% a Manicure with this coupon
! Call Today 800-123-4567
!
!
!
!
! Need a reliable house/pet sitter? !
! Call 800-my-house !
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The coupons cost me about $3.00 for 100 of them, but with a little bit more effort I am sure I could get the cost down below $1.50 for 100.

Although I was marketing a house sitting business on the coupons, I presented myself as professional marketer and took a few seconds to let the business owners know what else I could do for them.

Here is a breakdown of the results I saw from calling on small businesses and offering this free promotion.

30 Businesses - Interested in what I had to say and let me finish my pitch

15 Businesses - I was able to speak to an owner/decision maker

10 Business Owners - Took my business card and were interested

5 Businesses Owners - Gave a flat refusal, 2 of these already had something similar in place.

15 Buinessess - Took my information and were willing and even interested in passing it to their boss.


I realize the above numbers might be a bit confusing, but I thought I would give an account of what happened. In addition to the aforementioned results I also had:

1 Business Owner ask me for a quote to build him a website
1 Business Owner ask me about designing a menu for them
1 Business Owner refer me as an online marketer to her sister

1 Business Owner take me up on my free offer and called me the next day with information on what to place on their coupons.

This all took place over the course of 2 days, and maybe 5 hours of calling on businesses and designing/printing coupons to demo.

After the weekend I plan on calling every business that I left my business card with.

As I am promoting a house sitting business I targeted primarily small boutiques and salons in my area. But, depending on what you are promoting you might want to target different businesses.

It would not be a stretch to begin selling the ad space of those 2 or so lines. This is a basic idea that could be grown into any manner of marketing ideas.

I am sure that I don't need to tell you guys the power of having your advertisement placed into the hands of customers. They will look it over, and quite possible keep it and get the discount from the coupon.

By providing this free service you will be building relationships with companies and once they see a few customers walk in the door with your coupons they will be more open to hearing what else you can do for them.


This is a simple idea but I hope it gets your wheels turning as you think about its potential or lack there of. I'm 23 years old and am open to any improvements fellow warriors will surely come up with.

Have a good one.

~Severin