Road trippin' promotion may not be for you if you don't want to or can't travel, but it's a concept that can work if you put some good planning and creative thought behind it. This marketing method can be done in many different ways so it all depends on what resources you have to work with and who you have to work with you.
What I'm talking about is taking your promotion on the road to bring it directly to a wider audience. Staying within your own community can severely limit your ability to reach out to customers on a face to face basis. For example, if you're an author, a tour of book signings and speaking engagements can have a lot of impact on your sales numbers. When you manage to get onsite engagements it can be easier to secure radio, television, or other media interview slots. Making your rounds geographically in person gives you some real marketing advantages.
The ideal situation is to have an agent or marketing rep who can set up all of this for you--something that most of us don't have. So how can you do something like this? Travel is an expensive proposition when you factor in transportation, accommodations, food, and anything else you require while on the road. How can the average person do something like this?
With relatively modest means a person can take to the road on their own. Put a tour plan together that entails visiting places that might be open to letting you set up a table, speak to a group, or participate in a special event. It's best to check out possibilities on the internet or other resources and contact people ahead of time. Start with a 100 mile radius from your home to test your abilities and the market. If things go well you can widen your circle. You can set up a schedule for fixed period like a week or two or just experiment with weekends.
Another possible approach is to squeeze some promotional time into travel that you were planning to do anyway. This may not appeal to everyone, but usually there is some down time during a vacation that can easily be used for promotional work. Especially if you're driving and not in too much of a hurry, you can discover small shops that might be an ideal outlet for your product. The hotel where you're staying might work. And don't forget restaurants. See what people are willing to do to help you. You might be surprised.
An author friend of mine tells the story of when he was flying somewhere and he left cheap promotional copies of his book on every seat in the plane. That didn't work so well, but if he had focused on people whom he saw reading and struck up a conversation with them leaving them a book or even a bookmark he might have gained a few new readers. Gumption and opportunity is the key. If you've got 'em then use 'em.
There is so much more that I could say about putting travel and promotion together, but I need to keep this blog post relatively short. I realize that this is a method that might not work or appeal to all of you, but if you like traveling and have something to promote you might want to brainstorm on this concept. It might be easier and more fun than you think. Dreaming about it won't hurt. Putting a road trippin' promotion plan into action might be just the thing you need to kick off sales in a big way and have fun traveling at the same time.
It's bold but it is workable.
Do you like to travel? Can you organize trip details well? Do you mind mixing business with pleasure?
