Advertising Your Small Offline Business in Trinidad & Tobago

A Simple, Proven & Powerful Local Business Advertising Tactic

What’s the most effective advertising for independent small businesses in TnT?   

As a small business owner in Trinbago you must have asked this question, or something similar, over and over.  This is a question that is constantly on the minds of thousands of small business owners in Trinidad and Tobago.  It may come more frequently in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season; it is, however, a perpetual question.  

There are really only a few options available to the low budget, local small business owner.  If you have operated in Trinbago for any time, you already know how you advertise in Trinidad, there are limited options, they are:

·         Flyers: Distributed to the local community.  Typically produces a 1 - 3 percent response rate.  It means that 1000 flyers would produce between 10 and 30 responses, not sales.  

·         Newspapers:  There are the dailies and the weekly that all cater to a national audience.  This has worked to extend the reach of many local businesses.  It is much better for big ticket items, such as; automobiles, large appliances, industrial products and services. Unfortunately, for locally based small businesses, the only affordable option, in the newspaper, is the classified section. 

·         Radio and Television:  Both these mediums are national and rely on frequency to generate conversions.  These mediums are also best suited to big ticket items or in instances where there is a large inventory of a drastically discounted small item.  They both come with an unsustainable high advertising budget. 

That’s it; after that business owners must rely on word of mouth.  It makes no sense for small local clothing stores, shoe stores, appliances, accessory stores or similar small businesses to consistently advertise in the national media. 

 At best, the small business owner who advertises on the radio, TV or newspaper, do so sporadically or seasonally, both very ineffective in establishing top-of-mind awareness.  Ads in these mediums may cause a spike in sales but the real, inevitable risk is the possibility that the investment may not breakeven.   

What results are small business owners seeking? 

In three words you want “more sales revenue”.   You need more of your regular customers buying more frequently, more prospective customers, more sales.  The only way that will possibly happen is to advertise more; not less. Nothing happens when nothing is done. 

As a small business, if you don’t advertise you will eventually die.  Revenue is what keeps you going, if you don’t invest in advertising your revenue will stagnate or worse you will need additional investments.  

What you really need is a systematic inexpensive way to get local top of mind awareness.  “ Local” may be national for most big ticket items and rare services but for small independently owned local businesses; it means the city and area in which the business exists. 

For small business owners, every penny counts.  They need to know that when they spend money on advertising, it works.  Most cannot afford to take out ads in national newspapers, radio and television; many turn to distributing flyers.   That experience is short lived because of the returns on investment in copying and distribution.  

There is another way.  It is a bit of a strange concept to small business owners in Trinidad & Tobago’s independently owned small businesses community.  This type of advertising is dominated by the large business that can afford the cost of designing printing, and distributing coupons.  This is a sure way to get your business in the hands of the most unlikely prospect.  Big business use it because it consistently provides a return on their advertising investment.  

Soon this simple, powerful advertising strategy will be offered to local merchants in Trinidad and Tobago.  It’s presently in prelaunch and promises to change the advertising landscape for a select few independently owned local merchants.  

Find out more about this soon to be released advertising strategy in Trinidad and Tobago.  Clickhere