Walking down the street in Boulder, or, I expect, almost any town in the US these days, you'll see at least some empty store fronts. Unless there is a sign about relocating the business, it always makes me sad when I see these. It may mean a broken dream or a broken bank account, but one young acupuncturist in LA has used these empty storefront windows to his advantage. He took a walk around the busier commercial streets near his clinic---several blocks in every direction writing down the address of five empty storefronts along with the rental contact information.

His idea was to ask the landlord in each case if he could put a tasteful advertising sign in the window until the space was rented. Instead of offering $$ to the landlords, his plan was to offer free treatments in trade for using the space. His argument was that having his sign there increased the number of people who might notice the window, could increase the taxes paid into the community coffers through his clinic which is good for everyone, and that he'd give more than fair value by offering two or three acupuncture treatments for a month of advertising. Here are his results.

•one landlord never returned his call and he could not get past their brokering company
•one landlord was simply "not interested"
•one landlord allowed him to put the sign up for no charge after approving the sign
•one landlord wanted $100 per month to put up the sign, so he passed on this one
•one landlord had a spouse who "loves acupuncture" and liked the idea of the trade

The 24X36 poster-sized signs cost him $103 for three copies at Kinko's. Out of six possible store-fronts, he had two "yes's" and he had one more poster that he got permission to place at a local work-out gym in trade for a 10% discount to the gym owner and members for each month the poster stayed up (also a good trade) and he was a member of the gym so it was a good way to market to other members.

So what did they say, these signs? Really simple. Along with his name and photo in the lower corner, they said "Got pain? Acupuncture could be your answer. Call now for a no-obligation free consult. J. Q. Acupuncturist, Lic.Ac. 310-333-4444, stop by my clinic at 1111 Santa Monica Blvd., or send me your questions from www.acupuncturist.com" (Name and details changed here to protect privacy.)

This is a very simple, inexpensive, and non-threatening local advertising method. Way cheaper than print ads ($100 plus four acupuncture treatments so far), with a much longer visibility duration than any print ad, and in relatively high traffic areas. One poster has stayed up for three months at no charge.

Said acupuncturist scheduled five free consult visits of 20 minutes each over a three month period, answered a few emailed questions from his website (thus growing his mailing list), and booked three new patients from the consults (plus the one landlord's spouse who may become a longer-term patient), for a gross value of just over $700 in services and products sold. Plus he's gotten one referral so far from those patients worth another $140 to date. He had to do quite a lot of calling and some pavement pounding up front, but he had the time and wanted to build local awareness of his clinic and it cost him very little cash with a reasonable return on that cash investment.

Now this method may not work in your town for whatever reasons, but it's an intelligent, minimal risk, and thoughtful idea if you don't want to spend much money, like to talk to people, are willing to hear "no" a few more times than you hear "yes", and your clinic is near high pedestrian traffic store-front areas.

Other thoughts about using posters and flyers:
• how many business owners can you find that would do something like the Gym owner above? Your flyer or poster can go in a window, in the employee break-room, on a bulletin board, or be inserted in a company newsletter
• make your flyers specific to the business you are approaching. In this case, the "pain" poster was perfect for a work-out gym, but for beauty salons and spas perhaps facial acupuncture is more appropriate
• don't be tempted to write the posters by hand unless you were a professional calligrapher in your most recent incarnation
• how much does poster signage on local bus lines cost? Most buses have interior signs. This may be expensive, but it could be worth a phone call to find out if you can do only one bus route for a month as a trial.
• does the local rec center, YMCA, or any other similar public venues allow the posting of flyers? If so, they may be "dated" and only stay up for a limited time, in which case you must repost them regularly to maintain your presence.

Although not the most up to date method of advertising (websites and social media are the "thing" everyone wants to discuss these days), there is still a place for printed flyers and posters and the vacant store fronts in your town may be one of them.

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