I've been harping on the fact that we tend to concentrate on putting trifold stands and posters in places we suspect will be friendly to our advances - gun stores, clubs, etc. But like I say, the number of people that go through a gun store every day is probably a lot lower than the number of eyeballs that pass through a Cumberland Farms. Granted, it's a lot harder to make that "cold call" to a place that's not obviously gun-friendly. But, if we want to reach every American, we need to get our message out to every Americans' eyeballs, and that means trying new kinds of venues.
With that in mind, I've been trying to come up with other venues for our advertising media. I had a small success this week with a target of opportunity. I took the kids out for ice cream to a place in Goshen called Nellie's. They recently expanded to morning coffee offerings and a lunch menu, and since they're the only show in town, they get a lot of traffic. After I bought the ice cream, I whipped out a trifold - I always keep a stack in my truck - and asked the owner if he'd mind putting some out. He seemed curious, asked a lot of questions, got very enthusiastic, and I Seventh Stepped him for about 5 minutes. When I was done he agreed to take a stack, and said, "Gee, too bad you don't have a poster. I'd advertise something like this." I promised to returned with the Mona Lisa and a trifold stand, but I left a stack of 10-15 trifolds and thanked him for the help.
That was Thursday. I didn't get back on Friday like I planned, so I took Patty out Saturday night with the poster and more trifolds. The owner wasn't in the shop, but I explained that I had material he asked me to post, and the employees said I could drop it off. Funny thing was, none of the original stack of trifolds could be found! The pessimist in me says he was snowing me with all his enthusiasm and trashed the trifolds, but he'd have to be a heck of an actor to pull that off. So hopefully there are 10-15 new people in Goshen who know about Appleseed now. I posted the trifold stand (with my AS business card attached) and left the Mona Lisa on the counter. I'm going to stop by during the week to see if he still has it posted.
Hopefully I'm onto something here. Other ideas I have are my tractor dealer in Litchfield, the tire store I do business with, the local seed and feed, etc. I'm also going to be working on the other coaches on Tom's Little League team as the season drags on - one of them is a Scout leader too, and has teenaged sons, so I think I've got a hot prospect there.
Anyone else have any "non-gun-culture" venues they've had success with?
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