This story is a bit more than a year old, but it stands as the best bathroom marketing story I've heard to date. And anyone of you out there who has ever had your toddler stand outside the bathroom door with fingers poked under and wiggling saying "but mommy I really need you right now" will appreciate both the humor and the effectiveness of this tactic.

A while back, I presented a small business seminar post-Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The day after the seminar, I toured most of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Main Street districts in an effort to understand their challenges and their post-storm successes. One of our stops was to visit Margaret Miller, Executive Director of the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce – Main Street – Tourism Bureau. Before our downtown tour, I used the powder room (that's what we call the ladies room here in the Deep South). 

As memory serves me, the powder room itself was impeccably clean, stylish – a single potty literal powder room setup off of a side hall in their remodeled depot. When I returned to my party, Margaret apologized for not sending me in with any "reading material." Blushing, I brushed off the comment.

She said (and I'm quoting from memory, so Margaret, please forgive me if I'm not as precise as I should be here), "No, really. Usually when visitors come in to borrow the bathroom, the girls slide a little reading material under the door. No better time to learn about everything Ocean Springs has to offer."

She went on to shamelessly explain that visitors to the bathroom were a captive audience with time on their hands – and she felt there was no reason not to help them understand how wonderful and rich with experience Ocean Springs really was. I agree totally, it is truly one of the most experience-rich small towns in America, in my humble opinion – and her marketing method was ingenious.

Now, maybe not all of you should slide reading material under your bathroom doors (maybe some of you SHOULD), but it does stand to reason that Margaret makes a valid point. You do have a captive audience. Literally. Make good use of that time to educate them about your business – to answer their questions – or raise new ones. Can you place reading material about your business, its products or services into your bathrooms? Can you post marketing images on the walls? And for heavens sake, do as Ocean Springs did – keep the space clean, fresh and welcoming – so that nothing will distract from your marketing message presented during this ever so opportune moment in your customer relationship.

P.S. Margaret reported that the method was highly effective in getting often transient visitors to spend more time (and money) in downtown Ocean Springs.

If you loved this post, visit my fellow Bathroom Blogfesters:

Susan Abbott at Customer Experience
Crossroads
Katia Adams at Transcultural
Marketing
Shannon Bilby at Floor Talk!

Laurence Borel at Blog
Till You Drop
Jo Brown and the blogging team at Kohler Talk
Lisbeth Calandrino at Lisbeth
Calandrino
Sara Cantor at The
Curious Shopper
Becky Carroll at Customers
Rock!
Katie Clark at Practical
Katie
Iris Shreve Garrott at Circulating

Ann Handley at Annarchy
Elizabeth Hise and C.B. Whittemore at The Carpetology Blog
Maria Palma at Customers
Are Always
Sandra Renshaw at Purple Wren

Kate Rutter at Adaptive
Path
Claudia Schiepers at Life
and its little pleasures
Carolyn Townes at Becoming
a Woman of Purpose
Stephanie Weaver at Experienceology

C.B. Whittemore at Flooring The Consumer

Technorati Tags: small business, marketing main street, HALO Business Advisors, Results Revolution, #ladiesrooms08 Del.icio.us Tags: small business, marketing main street, HALO Business Advisors, Results Revolution, #ladiesrooms08 Furl Tags: small business, marketing main street, HALO Business Advisors, Results Revolution, #ladiesrooms08

Most Commented Posts

• Blog Post Ideas for a Retail Gift Shop
• When to Send E-Mail Marketing
• Michigan: Home of Pure Passion
• Seven Reasons to Keep Using E-Mail Marketing
• What does “good enough” photography mean to your bottom line?