Going After The Local Market

[woody]

Many businesses do not have a website. But with the trend towards a web presence being considered necessary today, do you think it's worthwhile to go after local businesses in your promotion efforts? Or is it better to market primarily to a more general base?

 

[DunamisHosting]

I believe the cost of hours trying to advertise to the local market does not outweigh the benefit of return on the advertisement. The amount of local business that would consider a website relies on the size of your local area and how large the local businesses are. I would advertise for a small amount time to get a sample of how effective the advertising method truly is.

 

[handsonhosting]

Cost and Coverage as the previous posting mentions.

There's nothing wrong with targeting local businesses, and in fact, many local companies generally prefer to work with local companies and people they can meet and talk with face to face.

You'll catch more fish with a wider net, but only if you know where to throw it! Small ponds are great for fishing, as long as you know there's fish in there to catch

 

[SolidShellSecur]

We have seen most of our clients come from local based ads and word of mouth then over the internet advertising. I would focus locally.

 

[chrisj]

How exactly could you go about targeting the local market? Approaching companies? Or some sort of offline marketing campaign (which would be quite costly).

I guess word of mouth is the best thing though!

 

[handsonhosting]

How exactly could you go about targeting the local market? Approaching companies? Or some sort of offline marketing campaign (which would be quite costly).

Depends on the approach. You can get mailers designed and printed which are relatively inexpensive. Participating at local events (meetings, business organizations) are always good to do. Sponsorships are great too - think kids baseball and soccer teams that need shirts, equipment etc, or advertising directly at the various parks with a billboard.

Magazines are great. Penny Saver used to work in the California market but I haven't even seen it in Nebraska (maybe they don't print here). Any of your coffee/cafe type news pamphlets, church pamphlets, golf courses, theatre productions, highschool yearbook sponsorships. Heck, put a banner on your car (I have one, and you'd be amazed at how much business is driven from that for my wife's SEO Company).

There's so much that you can do for local advertising. The best one that I've ever done was working with a Golf Course. Keep in mind, golfers have disposable income. Sponsoring the score cards with your logo is a great way to get your image in-front of a captive audience for 4-6 hours. I've sponsored trash cans at the beach, cigar/cigarette cans on golf courses and everything in between.

As for expense, it's not expensive if you get the return on investment. This is why companies spend $3 million on a superbowl ad - they generate much more than that on the return! The same is true of your local community. Don't go cheap, you'll get cheap results.

 

[Ajay-HostIN]

Well not sure about what kind of product and services you provide to the people, but of-course you can judge if they are the people who will approach internet for the same or not. These days Web Hosting services are cheaper than ever, so why don't you do it for a year on experimental basis?

 

[SenseiSteve]

I can tell you that we built from our local community outward and still have reps that network around our metro area. I know here we can get Business Journal leads (new businesses) at about a dime each, but there are other ways to determine who is starting a new venture. Most of these do NOT have websites or existing business hosting accounts.

 

[easyhostmedia]

i sponsored a local football team (logo on shirts) and in the contract i had that i could place 2 banners on the pitch side and that i could have my toy stall at home matches. i did this for 2 years and then the club changed committees and i got a letter to say i could no longer place banners up or have my stall. i then informed them with a copy of the contract, but they said that a new committee then wont honour the contract, so i told them that had 24 hours to return all uniformes etc that had my logo on or i will sue the club for breach of contract.

 

[SenseiSteve]

School districts can be odd at times. I repaired (billable) a typesetter once at an East St. Louis College and their board voted not to pay the bill. Their next call for repair was CIA (cash in advance) for the old bill and the new call - which schools claim they can't do - but they can if they have no other way out.

So Terry, are you still waiting on these uniforms?

Back to local promotions - I'm constantly on the look out for business promotions, either via sponsorship, radio, TV or special events. We even had a building size banner facing the Interstate once.

 

[easyhostmedia]

So Terry, are you still waiting on these uniforms?

no got the uniforms back, then i donated the uniforms to a local special school as they were no good to me (got good publicity doing this). the nerve was the school that messed me around sent me a letter the other week asking if as a business i would like to sponsor the football team (most likely sent to most businesses), but as a member of local nusiness forum their memders are aware of how i was treat so i think it will be hard for them to get a sponsor.

i was told that i could still sue for breach of contract, but the time and costs involved i feel just not worth it as schools here are self funding and any money i would win from action would have to come from school funds which means the kids suffer as the funds would have been used for other activiites