As a small business owner, your kids see you put tireless energy, effort, and resources into your company to make it succeed. While seeing you work your business helps your children to understand the value of hard work, most business owners don’t have their kids participate in operations. This is unfortunate, as they would take more away from being involved. Here are some ways that you can involve your kids in your business’s marketing efforts.
Explain to Them What You’re Doing and Why
When you send out postcards as part of a marketing campaign to thank and engage with your past clients, show your children the card and what it says, and take the time to explain the campaign to them. In the most simplistic terms, marketing is extremely basic. Your marketing campaign aims to increase business. Make sure to let kids know that.
Show Kids the Social Side of Marketing
One of the most important things good marketers need is great social skills. When you go out into the community or to a client’s location, you have to be able to connect with them. Show kids that marketing is a social thing based on the power of relationship building. Practice conversational skills you’d use in the course of a marketing conversation, such as asking clients about what problems plague their business. Fortunately, teaching your kids social skills will help you cultivate successful children.
Have Them Participate in Simple Tasks
When broken down into their respective parts, there are plenty of marketing tasks children can help with. For example, consider the steps you take to send out direct mail letters in envelopes. You must print or copy the letter, before folding, stuffing, sealing, labeling, and stamping each one. Have your kids stuff all the letters before sealing them all. Soon they’ll begin to understand how larger marketing tasks are completed.
Take Kids to (Some) Marketing Events
Let’s face it. Kids are adorable. People have a very difficult time saying no to kids. For some events, such as vendor events and conferences, you can bring kids with you. They can hand out marketing materials or simply watch you do your job. Carefully consider your child’s temperament, attention span, and interest level before finding out if it’s okay to bring them along. Not all kids of all ages will be able to do this.
Hire Older Children
When your kid reaches a certain age, hire them. They can start with simple marketing tasks and driving-aged teens can even drop off marketing materials to prospective businesses. This can be a great way to teach your kids how to own and run a business. Just make sure to follow legal guidelines for young workers.
Ask Children for Their Ideas
Very often, kids think more creatively than adults do. They haven’t yet been influenced by pop culture and shared ideas. Ask them for their ideas about marketing your business. When designing a postcard, ask them for ideas on what you can include. Once kids have a better understanding of what marketing is, you can ask them how they’d find new customers. Just be prepared to implement some of their ideas if they end up showing promise.
It’s easy to think of your kids and your business’s marketing efforts as separate entities. There are times when they should be. However, the more you involve your kids in your business, especially its marketing efforts, the more they’ll learn.