Promote your downtown shop, restaurant, or service business through street hawkers. Get 1,000 exposures in just the right location for about .03 each. This is similar to door-to-door selling, except now you're catching people as they're walking past your business rather than going out to their offices or homes.
Here's what you do: Hire a temporary employee (from an employment agency) for a minimum four hours and have him or her pass out a brochure, coupon or sale flyer to al people who pass by. Most people will glance at the paper before tossing it. Position your temporary about 30 feet from a trash can to make it easier to recycle the tossed brochures and pass them out to others. The 30 foot distance will also give your prospects some time to read your message before they toss the paper in the can.
Yes, the majority of your flyers will be chucked, but only after you've gained exposure while they were deciding whether or not to save the sheet. And this is the whole purpose behind street corner marketing ... you want to gain name recognition for your company and services.
Cost for 3,000 flyers is about $50 (they don't need to be large or fancy, and can be half sheets of paper rather than full pages). Temporary personnel cost is about $10 per hour, or $40 for a 4-hour stint. Assuming you hand out all 3,000 brochures in 4 hours, your cost per exposure is about .03 each. If you can't make at least $100 profit from 3,000 exposures to people who are walking past your door, either (a) drastically change your flyers, (b) move to a better location, or (c) consider getting out of business fast.