Leveraging CD Promotions for Your Business

The Power of CD Promotions

Independent musicians often release promotional CDs containing samples of their music as a teaser to encourage customers to purchase the full-length recording. These promotional CDs can be inexpensively produced using writable discs and a CD burner. This promotional method has proven to be beneficial in terms of finance, promotion, and time, and can be customized to suit any business.

Applying CD Promotions to Your Business

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario where you own a hair salon. Despite having a ready-made market, you may face stiff competition from other salons in your area. If your business sales and clients have begun to stagnate or even diminish, you can use CD promotions to maintain and increase your clientele and income.

• Compile all elements of your business, such as weekly specials, salon history, website and email addresses, regular prices, business hours, contact information, and the various products and services you offer. Format them into attractive files and place them on compact discs for distribution. This unique promotional method is sure to pique the interest of your prospects.

• Identify businesses that women might patronize, such as women's shoe stores, clothing stores, jewelry stores, supermarkets, mall stores, and cosmetic stores. These businesses should complement your services and not be in direct competition with you.

• Reach out to the managers or owners of these businesses. Inform them that you are a local business owner and propose a partnership where they distribute your promotional CDs to their customers. You could also offer to distribute their sales information in return.

• Distribute your CDs personally and have them available at your salon for existing and new customers.

• Consider conducting a local or regional mail-out campaign. Contact prospects via telephone and ask if they own a computer. If they do, offer to send them a CD containing information about your salon and its services.

• If your budget allows, consider partnering with a print publication that targets women. You could pay to have your CD attached to one of their issues or included as an insert.

• Ensure that your website contains a form that captures the email and mailing addresses of prospects who visit your site. This information is vital for providing updates about your products, services, prices, or any other changes.

• Consider starting a newsletter to provide updates. Ensure that your CD contains as much vital information as possible for people who don't have online access.

This promotional method could either offset your current advertisement costs or complement them. The overall production costs for the compact disc will probably be between $.30 and $.40 per unit. If you distribute 1000 CDs at a cost of $400 and gain 100 new customers, the $400 will be a wise and worthwhile investment.

This promotional method is applicable to virtually any business. For example, auto dealerships could partner with car parts suppliers, lawn services could work with lawn mower repair shops, photography services could include their CD of info in their yearly school/student packages, and feed stores in an agricultural community could include a CD of their info in farmers' purchases.

You could also consider placing audio files or even video files on the CD. Your audio could include a voiceover giving a welcome to the prospect at the beginning and also serve as a direction to the various business elements on your disc. Your video could integrate animated video for an even more pleasing experience for your prospective client.

In conclusion, virtually everyone in your community has a computer or access to one. The creativity of any part of the promotional CD is only limited by your imagination. So, why not bring the marketing and promotion of your business into the 21st Century? At the very least, your promotion via CD should certainly get you noticed far above your area competition.