By Dawn Omboy
As we enter into the holiday season there are many avenues of advertising that can be very inexpensive—or even free—for your business to take advantage of, and Creative Styling can play a huge part in that for you. It will require some prep work and a little research on your part.
Many local businesses and associations have holiday events that are free to attend and are covered by local media such as newspaper and local TV stations looking for “feel good” news articles. And, really, who doesn’t love pets, especially if they are really festive and sporting some holiday color or bling?
Color up a dog or two and attend a parade or fall festival, the media loves to show these festive pets on local news and in the paper. It’s really exciting when clients call to say they saw you on TV or bring in the paper clippings to you. I always loved that my mom had these pieces stuck on her fridge at home.
Too busy to go out? Call your newspaper or even contact them on their Facebook page with pictures and some general information. I have done this on a couple of occasions and have gotten from front page to full page articles inside the paper by adding just a bit of fun color on either my own dogs or clients who are excited for their dogs to become color models.
Always let the media know when you have something big happen, too. Like the time I was fortunate enough to have Mike Rowe come to my salon, or when I went to New York to be on the Today Show. Both were featured in the local paper. If you either attend or host a workshop, talk it up and invite the media. Or if you are out of town attending, take plenty of pictures to send to your own local paper.
You don’t have to get extreme with color if you aren’t comfortable with it, just color up some ears and tails and add some bling and a cool pawdicure. Believe me, they love this stuff and it will get your community talking about you. If you are like me and a bit shy, your dog can open many doors for you since you would always be willing to talk about your passion.
Share your pictures on social media, too. People love to see their own pets’ pictures. If you watermark them with the name of your salon before posting them they become advertising every time you share a cute picture. It will amaze you how many times a picture on social media will be seen and shared.
Take advantage of the media opportunities available to you and have fun while doing it. Now let’s all get out the color and get to those Christmas Parades! ✂
Making the World more Colorful, one dog at a time… Queen of Color. Go to www.queenofcolor.com or visit me on Facebook