Promoting new business / grand opening

We just opened up a business in Oak Park with an unofficial grand opening yesterday. (No not Five guys - but a self serve frozen yogurt and novelty shop at 1000 Lake Street. YoGo Station. ) How do I go about promoting an OFFICIAL grand opening to newspapers, blogs, online communities, etc? Should I go with a press release? Any information is greatly appreciated!

-Mhirra

If you pm me some info, I can post on a couple of Oak Park moms' boards, if you'd like. I'm sure there'll be plenty of people on those boards who would be interested!

mby385 wrote:We just opened up a business in Oak Park with an unofficial grand opening yesterday. (No not Five guys - but a self serve frozen yogurt and novelty shop at 1000 Lake Street. YoGo Station. ) How do I go about promoting an OFFICIAL grand opening to newspapers, blogs, online communities, etc? Should I go with a press release? Any information is greatly appreciated!

-Mhirra

I would think a press release would be the usual way to go, and you're free to post more info here, on the Professional Forum. I'll stop by sometime soon...

I'll stop by sometime soon as well.

I've missed frozen yogurt in the downtown Oak Park area ever since TCBY (or whichever frozen yogurt establishment used to be in either the Ben & Jerry's or Khyber Pass storefront circa 18-20 years ago or so) left. I think the wife wants to catch Bolt at the Lake theater this weekend, so I'll try to swing by before or after the show.

Hmm. Maybe Five Guys before the movie, and YoGo afterward. This is sounding like a plan

hello
i would quickly put together a budget and a marketing budget 2-3 % of sales usually

then i would look into all your oportunities
community
churchs
schools
neighorhood events
on line
demos
cross promotion
in store
print advertisement
any pr you can muster up
barter

in general i would advise you to make the most of your human resources
friends family members business associates anybody and everybody you know
ask for advice opinions and most of all their support and business and to have them network on your behalf i cannot stress the importance of this unless you have very deep pockets

i would also be leary of the timing of your opening
i would think you would try to spend as little as possible during the slow months so you can focus and concentrate on making the most of the busy season
i would stongly encourage you to look closely at your cash position and make sure you can survive in the tough times we have now and will have in the near future
good luck and if i can help you out feel free to email me
i am dave raymond
sweet baby ray
i have opened two bbq places and two catering companies the last three years and am finding out exactly how hard the restrauant business is
but we have a great team and lots of thing going for us
and we am happy to share what we know and are learning
again great luck to you
raymond294@aol.com

Thanks all especially to Baby Ray! I have an official press release that I will be sending out.

http://yogostation.com/resources/yogostationgrandopenpress112208.pdf

So, I did in fact stop in the other night and tried a couple of flavors. I refuse to weigh in with an opinion though until a return visit. I'd had a minor oral surgery procedure that night and was told to eat frozen yogurt or Italian ice that evening, so... I was pleased with my purchase, particularly for it's use in numbing the stitched areas of my gums, but it was a rather less than fair time to be making judgments based on flavor.