Does advertising work anymore for small businesses to clear excess stock

Help! please! yes, I am serious. I have this question. Does advertising work anymore

Why hasn't my advertising worked?

for small businesses to clear excess stock?  I own a children’s shoe store and have excess stock. While this is an extremely common problem for any retailer, the answer has always been so hard to find and now my brain is drained. I decided to advertise in a local newspaper, local facebook ads and local radio, the call to action should work, or so I thought. “30% off all Vans should do the trick”, it’s a decent discount so all good. I have the most  extensive  kids range in Hamilton, brand awareness is huge, no one else had been specializing in kids Vans.  So why have I had such a poor uptake?

According to facebook, which seems to give the best demographic data, there are 18,500 women in the 25kms surrounding my shop who are over 25 and parents. Whoops I have just found out that I had set my facebook ad to a too small target audience. Only those with children under age 13 (total 800). I have now rectified that, going now for all women over 25 who are parents.

I did get some clicks on my facebook ads, and some of them did end up by liking my store facebook page, so that was a bonus, but I still need to get rid of the stock!

And this still doesn’t help me understand why my radio and newspaper advertising hasn’t meant a rush of mums (moms) and/or grandparents though my shop door looking for a great deal. Is advertising dead?  How do I get the word out there and shift some stock? Have we become desensitised to sales and discounts?

I know some business are turning to daily deal sites, and like the rest of the world we have them here based on geographical locations, but the costs are high. Perhaps I am getting greedy, what I want is to clear the stock, show them my awesome service and selection and  get new customers that  will come back again.

So I have done some searching on the web & found a company call Constant Contact. They are an email marketing provider for your existing data base, and are offering a new low cost coupon service for their customers called SaveLocal. Shortly the service will be extended to non customers and also outside the states. So I am keeping an eye on the website  in the hope that in the future, it might help me clear excess stock & gain new customers.

But in the meantime can someone help… does advertising work anymore for small business to clear excess stock?

p.s. I’ll update you on the facebook ads now that I have extended the range.