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| | The Minding Your Own Business Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | Views: 1263 | | Jan 04, 2007 4:26 pm | | To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Jeff Dostal | | If you are a business that relys on local customers to come by to purchase items from your store or to call to set up the service you offer, how do you advertiser yourself? What forms of advertising have you done that you feel work well for you? There are so many options, I'd like your thoughts on the best.
Thanks so much.
Jeff Dostal
President
Warner Concept System Private Reply to Jeff Dostal | | Jan 04, 2007 4:54 pm | | re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Katryn Dougherty | | Our biggest ad expense is the yellow pages. They work really well.
We are also a member of BNI.
We just put an ad in a local magazine, our local PBS station publishes a monthly magazine so we figured it was very well targeted to our customers.
Central Penn Magazine is another monthly magazine in our local area, we are looking into that one.
We have done radio interviews on business talk shows.
We have not splurged enough for actual radio ads.
Newspapers...
Coffee News...
I think that is about it :)
Katryn Dougherty
www.InnovativeClosets.net Private Reply to Katryn Dougherty | | Jan 04, 2007 5:26 pm | | re: re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Laura Wheeler | | I am a member of a regional Chamber of Commerce (I offer business to business services), which has helped us develop business contacts that lead to contracts, and a booth at local events has been really helpful. We are getting ready to do some radio advertising, but I don't yet know how successful that might be. We also have some brochure and business card stands in some local businesses.
Laura
Mom to Eight
Owner, Boonie Business
http://www.booniebusiness.com/ Private Reply to Laura Wheeler | | Jan 04, 2007 5:43 pm | | re: re: re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # |
wiltonbiz | | I think it really depends on the type of local business. I used to do local internet marketing for a number of clients, and I can tell you that for some of them, doing some local internet advertising (i.e. basic optimization of website; perhaps some Google Adwords, etc) worked wonders.
I did some internet marketing for a caterer who had to hire extra help as a result of his internet marketing, and for a wood floor manufacturer who also did really well. But, again, it depends on the type of business. Some of my clients found that internet marketing was far better than yellow page advertising for them.
There are some niches where a business can still rise to the top of the search engine results quite quickly (maybe six months) as long as it is for Local search results. It's a very different picture for national search results, of course.
Neil Street
Neil Street
Editor, List Local Business: http://www.ListLocalBusiness.com
Providing Free Online Directory Listings for Local Businesses
Leader for The Network for Local Businesses: http://localbiz-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to wiltonbiz | | Jan 04, 2007 10:19 pm | | re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Fred Keller | | Hello Jeff,
You have a great question!
You also have a very targeted and good-looking Site.
The testimonials are from solid businesses that speak very positively about your company and what you do.
Congratulations! You are ahead of the pack!
I checked the Alexa rating ..... and confirmed what you know already. You are your own best kept secret.
That's OK because the C-T-P-M method will turn this around for you.
It's all about using Content (your knowledge & expertise) to find Targeted Traffic (people who are seeking you as much as you are seeking their companies) that will Presell into this warm market which you can monetize (M).
I'd like to point you into the direction of:
http://drive-traffic-to-your-site,first411.com
Please let me know how it goes for you.
Good Fortune to You.
Keep Smiling!
Fred
PS: Want Monetizing Ideas? http://youtube.first411.comPrivate Reply to Fred Keller | | Jan 05, 2007 2:30 pm | | re: re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
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You Are Looking For... Private Reply to JAYESH DANTARA | | Jan 06, 2007 11:04 pm | | re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Carol Deckert | | How about a postcard mailing to help advertise your products/services locally? If you are unable to afford to rent a mailing list, collect the information yourself. If you post a Google map search, you can find various businesses by categories in your general area. Use that information to build your advertising database.
It would also help to join some local networking organizations. Face-to-face networking promotes word-of-mouth advertising and that is the best advertising you can get!
Talk to other business owners and ask them what you can do to help them - what problem do they have that needs to be solved? Asking what you can do for someone else is the best way to begin a relationship. Build relationships and you build business!
Best of luck to you!
Carol Deckert
Virtual Marketing Assistant/Networking Coach
caroldeckert@comcast.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/caroldeckert
Hire a VA Today - Make all that administrivia go away! Private Reply to Carol Deckert | | Jan 07, 2007 7:25 pm | | re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Barb Desmarais | |
Hi Jeff ~
I've done a tiny bit of print advertising but it has never been effective. The speaking engagements I get are the very best form of advertising. Virtually every single time I get asked to speak it's from someone who heard about me from a talk I did somewhere else. I also teach Sign Language to babies and have never once advertised. I get asked to do classes because someone heard about me from a different venue. So, word-of-mouth and being seen publicly has worked the best for me.
Barb
http://www.theparentingcoach.com
Learn how to boost your child's self-esteem.
http://www.yourchildsselfesteem.com Private Reply to Barb Desmarais | | Jan 10, 2007 2:13 am | | re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Kurt Schweitzer | | Jeff,
I believe it's all about targeting. You want to define who is MOST likely to buy your product, and then figure out what they do (or where they go) that will allow your message to reach them.
You've already identified yourself as "local". In most cases that means that your website won't exist to tell people about you, but rather to reach people who already know something about you and tell them MORE. Because of this, I wouldn't worry about side issues like SEO.
Who is your target market? How are they similar to each other, and how are they different from everybody else?
Don't make the mistake of thinking "my product is something everyone can use, so my target market is EVERYBODY". That thinking is wrong for two reasons: 1) You can't afford to REACH everybody, and 2) you don't need everybody to buy in order to be successful - you just need enough SOMEBODIES.
That's why I said at the beginning that you need to define the people MOST LIKELY to buy your product. They represent the "low hanging fruit" - the customers easiest to reach and persuade. Catch enough of them and you'll be successful.
As an example, I've identified three groups of people as my target markets. One of them is Baby Boomers. Now Boomers are a pretty big group (meaning difficult to target) but I've identified a subset that a friend of mine refers to as "Aging Hippies". The nice thing about Aging Hippies is that they are EASY to reach - for one thing they shop at co-ops and organic grocers. So I've placed my first ad in the newsletter of the largest local co-op.
Another target market of mine is College Students. College students are also easy to reach - I'll be starting ad campaigns in the student newspapers of five local colleges as soon as they get back from Winter Break.
Individually these ads are pretty cheap - roughly $25 each. The overall ad campaign will cost me around $500 a month, and should reach in excess of 25,000 targeted customers. I'll be adding codes to my ads to track the results, but all indications are that I should do pretty well!
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | Jan 10, 2007 5:10 pm | | re: To reach local customers, how do you advertise? | # | 
Andrew Guarino | | The best way I have found to market is first by having a website, then by optimizing it (getting to be on the first page of google, yahoo, etc through key word searches. Also, google ADWORDS and google Analytics are incredibly helpful for managing the website and increasing awareness of your website/business. Private Reply to Andrew Guarino | | |
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