Contact Live or Silent Auction committees and donate one product or service to their upcoming silent auctions. This may require you do a little research to find upcoming silent auctions. You may do this in your local community or you can do a national search and offer a product to be shipped or a telephone consultation depending on your target market.
Look for organizations or charities that are likely to attract your market niche. For instance, if you are:
- an estate attorney, look for charitable organizations who are hosting a black tie affair.
- a travel agent, most silent auctions love free airline tickets. I
- a massage therapist, offer a gift basket to an upcoming event hosted by a sporting company.
The key here is to get creative. Get permission to use their logos and contact information along with an expiration date for the special. Our world is much smaller than you think, and anyone in the world can become your customer and tell others about your products and services, so stretch your thinking for this activity.
This is a fabulous no-cost or low-cost way to get your name out to a number of people. Professional organizations and non-profits often use Silent Auctions as a way to raise money. You will generally get your name listed in their program, on their web site and in their promotional materials. In addition, on the night of the auction, if it’s live, everyone there will see and hear about your offering.
Take the time to create a nice certificate for them to use. Even if it's printed on plain paper you can add a border and use interesting fonts and color to promote your service.
TIP: Try Google. For grins, I just went to www.google.com and typed in Silent Auctions. It brought up 164,000 entries. When I typed in silent auctions Austin it narrowed it down to 8,000. Even Bozeman, Montana brought up 482 entries!
Today be charitable!
