Small Business Marketing Tip: Sign-up for a Parade

16 Jul Small Business Marketing Tip: Sign-up for a Parade

Each summer for the past two dozen years you would have found me one Saturday morning headed out before dawn to reserve a spot for the Politis clan along the route of the Draper Days Parade, an annual event held to celebrate the arrival of Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley some 170 years ago this July.

Yesterday marked another of those early morning pilgrimages for me and my wife as we hit the road around 6:30 a.m. to ensure that we found a suitable location for our popup awnings and folding camp chairs to host close to 20 family members while enjoying the festivities.

Marching band during a parade, via Pixabay.

Unlike some mammoth parades, one unique difference of the Draper Days Parade is the fact that it is open to entries of almost any kind, including local businesses. Depending upon the type of products/services these businesses provide, many use the Draper Days Parade to (obviously) promote their specific wares to parade watchers.

However, many also use the parade to

1. Hand out flyers,
2. Distribute coupons, and/or
3. Share product samples.

And then it hit me … a lot of small businesses should join a parade, perhaps yours.

Your entry doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, your parade entry might be as simple as

• You and some of your employees riding in or walking alongside a fancy sportscar, or
• Perhaps seated in a wakeboarding boat pulled behind a 4×4 truck, or
  • Even riding bicycles, or
  • Skateboarding
• along the parade route.

And cost-wise, the fees for having an entry in the Draper Days Parade were only $50 for an organization handing out materials. A quick online search for entry fees for businesses interested in participating in other “smaller” parades were similarly low-cost, with the highest charging only $400.

So … if you’re a small business owner serving local clients, you might consider adding local parades to your marketing mix.

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What do you think? Am I off-base or on point here? Please share your thoughts / comments below.

A marketing and communications expert, David L. Politis recently published his first book  —  66 RULES for Publicity Success: Boost Your Company’s Value for Pennies on the Dollar. David currently helps clients address their crises, publicity and marketing challenges through The David Politis Company.