Quick question for the business savey
 

When opening a store front what are the must do initial marketing options. Trying to come up with the top ten.

Say the business is a yogurt shop.

1. yellow pages
2. website / submit to SE's
3. press release local and national
4. flyer's, business cards, hand outs,

dpeending on the business

door hangers can be a good option

we did a direct mail (I owned a restaurant) to all the people within 5 miles offering a FREE desert and announcing our opening. It did quite well

discounts / 2 for 1n's

-sampling: hire some teens to hand out free yoghurts infront of the store.
-Affiliate marketing taken to real life: flyers in the local phoneshop carry a unique id. Every flyer that comes in with that code gets the owner of the phoneshop a few cents or a smal % of the purchase that custumor makes.
-Get some other shops (ie nightshop, bakery, butcher) to hand out free samples and/or to sell your branded products.
-Contact other local shops and let them sponsor some stuff to make a goodie bag which also contains some extra promo from all of them. The total package should have some value so you can advertise in the line of "visit our store between 20 and 27 december and get a $25 value gift". The local beautysaloon can give a free tube of handcream and ad a 10%coupon on the next purchase, etc. Get people to fill out a coupon for the goodie bag so you build a build a marketingdatabase.

Learn to spell savvy.

Yellow pages can often be put off for a bit until right before their deadline since they only print every so often, so do not tie up the cash.

Newspaper ads/coupons are always good.
Direct mail campaigns to target areas with coupons.
Press release to local news channels, they often have a local business thing.
Old fashion sandwich board out near the street.
Do an exchange with a very close pizza place. Offer to give out coupons for them in your store, and have them attach your coupons to all their boxes.
Talk to the local car detail people in town and have them tell you what the most common radio station is in the cars they service. Buy ads on that station along with an on site grand opening broadcast. Toss in something fun like bring in the "current" yogurt page from your phone book and get a free yogurt. (assuming your not listed yet)

Also number/track your coupons so that you know which is pulling best.

quite frankly i wouldn't even bother with website/se submission right now unless you're able to service customers on a national level with whatever your product is.

for a yogurt shop i would advertise in the local newspapers, flyers in every local mailbox, etc. maybe get some billboad space depending on the location of the shop and city size you're operating in. also local radio advertisements. also start sponsoring local events.

Flyers, bussiness cards.

depends on location, but if nearby large businesses offer discounts to to them.

I would do piggy back mailing in the local area offering a 2 for 1 deal possibly

Damn some good stuff here

1. yellow pages
2. website / submit to SE's
3. press release local and national
4. flyer's, business cards, hand outs,
5. coupons
6. radio ad
7. billboard
8. discounts to local businesses
9. sandwich board ad
10. direct mail
11. event with a gimmick

Missing anything?