Well, I think the smartest way is to have someone pay for your marketing, and at the same time you are making sales on it.:)

Making hand crafted greeting cards is one of my hobbies, so I have several stamps/paper stores that I usually shop in the local. My favorite stamp store is small, locating inside a busy shopping mall closed to a university (location is the key).  It sells stamps, but also sells blank cards, paper, inks, color pens, and some crafting tools, all the hand crafted card accessories. I like everything there, but my favorite part is the classes! The store has different kinds of classes to show people how to use stamps, paper, colors and tools to make cards!  They have hundreds of stamps in the store. I enjoy browsing all the cute little stamps, and the sample cards created by those stamps. However, too many choices are not always good. It is hard for a consumer, like me, who doesn’t really have a target before I get into the store.

So those classes are essential to drive sales. I didn’t interview the owner, I didn’t know how much sales she/he made a month, but I was the one paid $35-50 for one and half hour class. Before or after the class, I usually spend at least another 20 bucks to buy the stuff I will use/used in the class. I also invited friends to join classes with me. I, as a consumer, paid for the marketing and make sales for the store. Think about they can take as many as 10 people per one class, and 1-2 classes a day…

There were 3 local stamp/paper stores I shopped a lot before 2010. During the economy recession, one got shut down. That one was a chain store. It is easy to understand, when people lose jobs, who care about crafting? Those leisure/hobby type of stores are the ones get hit the most when economy goes down. However, that little tiny store has survived, and it has a lot more classes now.:)