A free marketing tip from today's school run

For any business with the bonus of being based on a busy street, school run route or anywhere with high footfall or traffic at peak times - are you taking full advantage of your premium position?

I was thinking about this very subject on the school run today. Whichever way I go to the school I have to take a route past one of the village pubs, a shop, 2 hairdressers and a butchers and not one of them has any relevant or obvious promotion to entice mums' and dads' to stop or come back and buy. And I can't remember any sort of promotion in the years I have been taking the same school run!

The school run typically happens 5 times a week, twice a day - not forgetting the usual commuting traffic on top of this that use the village as a through-route.

To me this is a completely missed opportunity for all local businesses.

So here are my top five tips to using your business position to your best advantage:

1. If you haven't got one (and you have permission to use in the street) buy a chalk board or have a large sign in your window.

2. Develop a promotion for a particular day of the week. Test the message out during times of busy periods (for a least a month) and see whether it brings any extra business to your business. Remember be creative because you need your promotion to stand out from the crowd!

3. Ensure you utilise your new promotional message elsewhere in your marketing for your test month - your website, Facebook, Twitter, local adverts in the village newsletters, flyers for school bags.

4. Team up with another local business where you feel your customers would be the same so you can promote each other's business.

5. Be consistent - make sure that you promote every week during your testing month and don't promote every day or all day because your audience will become blind to your message. Make your copy short and snappy so it's easy to digest.

Kaia Vincent is director of marketing company Brevity Marketing, which offers a range of marketing solutions, including a virtual marketing manager. Check out Brevity Marketing's profile on the Enterprise Nation Marketplace, part of the government's Growth Vouchers programme