Often when we think of an effective marketing campaign we think of big companies or ad agencies with a lot of marketing firepower.

But, that's not always the case.

Recently, I got to see well designed and implemented marketing campaign that was tiny but extremely effective.

The marketing genius behind this success story is a neighbor of ours. She held a garage sale this weekend and despite the weather being cold and windy (lousy weather even by Minnesota's standards) they had a steady flow of shoppers that would make any retail store owner jump for joy.

The sale was held on Saturday and people lined up before they opened and they were still showing up after they were closed. And most people we saw were leaving with their arms full.

What was the magic behind this residential retail success?

Signs.

Very good signs in good locations. And a lot of them.

Her signs were well done. They were easy to read with the words "Garage Sale" in big black letters on a white background. And the letters were done with a computer, not hand written, so they were clear and easy to read.

They had big red arrows on them that always pointed the right direction.

Our neighborhood is in a secluded, heavily wooded area. So, getting people here is always difficult. But her garage sale signs were so well placed they drew people right in to the neighborhood.

In short, this garage sale guru did a good job in delivering her message ("Garage Sale") to a lot of people and then made it easy for them to get to the sale.

She used a of lot high-quality, professional looking signs that gave people a positive impression so they could assume this was a quality sale. And since all the signs were the same and they were well placed, there was no confusion about how to get to the sale.

She used the principles of Smart Marketing and it worked very well.

Kevin Stirtz has developed a unique concept called