"Retailers: Tips for local marketing?" Topic
4 Posts
All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.
In order to respect possible copyright issues, when quoting from a book or article, please quote no more than three paragraphs.
For more information, see the TMP FAQ.
Back to the Hobby Industry Message Board
Areas of InterestGeneral
Featured Hobby News Article
Featured Link
Featured Showcase ArticleWhen you only need to carry 72 28mm figures (or less)...
Featured Workbench ArticlePat Ripley is after something that has presence, that actually looks like a small stand of tropical bushes, and is cheap, tough and portable.
Featured Profile ArticlePoker chips are back at the dollar store!
Current Poll
|
Please sign in to your membership account, or, if you are not yet a member, please sign up for your free membership account.
TheBeast | 20 Oct 2014 11:23 a.m. PST |
Reports of the demise of the local FLGS may be premature, but it does seem to be on life support in some places. For the small, single store, existence can seem on the knife's edge, waiting for the next water heater repair or game line misjudgement to part you from this month's profits. I'd like to hear some ideas for getting known on-the-cheap. And, while I can think of some humorous answers, I expect any such posts to include serious ones. I'll start with a small one that has had some small results. Most of us have a stock of game magazines, either from distributors or back issues that just don't sell. We've take a few, added a small sticker with store info and logo, and donated to thrift stores with magazine racks, and dropped off in waiting (Dr., garage, etc.) rooms. Tiny to no investment, but as I said, small but real results for us. Doug |
jowady | 20 Oct 2014 11:41 a.m. PST |
Facebook and twitter. Have what events you can, a costume contest for Halloween, you will go out of pocket some but not all that much and you can get the word out with fliers. Get all your customer's email addresses. Whenever you can run an event contact your local media, invite them to come and do a "meet the geeks" kind of thing. See about advertising in school papers, High School and college, they're often cheaper than the regular media and closer to your target demographic. Maybe put announcements on backpage and craigslist. A warning about advertising though, stay away from trade outs with radio. I have been involved in a number of these things and they never work out for the store. |
Privateer4hire | 20 Oct 2014 1:38 p.m. PST |
See if the local community has a forum or yahoo.groups and become an active, positive member of same. In the Phoenix area many gamers are on the same forum that is frequented by players and store owners. The store owners are congenial to one another and even cross advertise on their respective facebook pages. Whenever there's an upcoming event it gets posted on the forum and that helps spur turn out. |
skinkmasterreturns | 20 Oct 2014 1:41 p.m. PST |
The game store where I play at and run games has nothing to do with miniatures,apart from D and D.They do board games and Magic the Gathering.That being said the owner is very, very enthusiastic about miniature games of all sort,from Historicals to Fantasy/Sci Fi and encourages us to run games there all the time.He advertizes them on his facebook page and we typically get a small but diverse group of people to play.We've done Fubar 15mm Sci Fi,Blackpowder American Rev,Kings of War,Maximillian! 15mm Italian Wars and currently have a Sky Galleons of Mars Campaign which has proven very well attended. I really believe that the owners enthusiasm is key. |
TheBeast | 22 Oct 2014 6:32 a.m. PST |
Well, jowady, we've a web site, on FB and Twitter, so that sort of seemed a given. What we don't have is consistency of use. Takes a special kind of fellow for a steady electronic 'campaign', I think. I wasn't aware of 'trade outs'. Don't think we've ever been approached, save by folks running events, and we're usually the ones offering. We've never been good about keeping current email addies and doing mass emails. Again, takes a special fellow. We've donated a few games to a local college game club, with same stickers, and they come back regularly to pick up more, with discount. Have you ever tried a 'charity' event? We did some where the entrance fees went to the local food bank, but never did much to publicize. We should take a page from the local bikers, and their charity poker runs. skm, our store turns your venue on it's head. About 2/3 miniatures- 1/3 boardgames, some RPG, very little card. Fair amount of RPG played instore, though. Lesson I guess for us would be playing more systems we carry only marginally if at all. When we set up 'other' games, it's mainly to try and start a new line for diversification. Home for orphan games happens, but not much. Any other 'real world' examples? Doug |
|