Advertising Ideas for a Hardware Store

Hardware stores are retail businesses.  As such, they thrive on interaction with their customers.  At the same time, customers rely upon them to have experts who can give them advice on the job that they are trying to accomplish.  In order to attract customers to your hardware store you will need to apply some advertising techniques.

• Offer some demonstrations in your store for free.  Since people come to your hardware store to learn about home repair, you can attract more of them by doing an in-store demonstration.  These can be done occasionally to teach your customers about equipment and new products.  You can also create regular classes on things like home maintenance and repairs.  Make sure to advertise these classes both in your store and in your local newspaper.  Provide your customers with a flier that they can take home to remind them of this class and when they will take place.  This works well because customers will remember that your store is where they got the answers to their questions.


• Invite some well-known guest speakers to visit your store.  Invite a different person in each month.  You would be surprised by how many local home improvement experts there are in your area.  Make sure to tie your products into the topic.  For instance, if you invite a gardening expert to come sign their new book, have a 10% off sale on all of your gardening items.


• Get involved with a local charity that builds or repairs homes for those in need (i.e. Habitat For Humanity).  If you don't have such an organization in your area, start one.  The free media attention you will get will be great for your store.


• Give free advice to your customers.  One way in which to do so is by creating a newsletter that will answer the questions that your customers have written down and placed inside of a drop box in your store.  Consider contacting your local newspaper's editor and offering to write a weekly column about home improvements and other common hardware topics.