I got a few questions about local advertising. What would i do? Posters at store bulletin boards, classified ads? Any other methods? Thanks!

-Dan

Depends largely upon your local community... its size... how "tech-savvy" is it...

I live in a town of ~900 and my larger "local" community is about 10,000 with a geographic stretch of 45 miles in length.

The local designer's on the brink of going belly-up because nobody can afford their multi-$K sites anymore. (Maybe that's part of why so many places are in trouble, hmmmmm... they paid those rates! :eek2: ) Unfortunately the local designer also caused everyone to think that a website "must" cost that much. :( These are big, thick walls of misconception for me to break down. The message is a hard one to get out.

I would say your local advertising should go to your specific market.

Example: If you have a tourist area, do not advertise in the tourist guide. You want the businesses that cater to the tourists, not the tourists themselves. So skip the guide, but maybe do join the Chamber of Commerce so you can rub shoulders with other business owners. ;)

Here in my community, my advertising strategy includes:
• Display ad in newspaper
• Display ad in local shopper (the "regular" part, not the tourist part)
• Flyers at local restaurants, stores and banks in off-season
• Snail mail with personally-signed letter
->> make sure to address it TO someone, not to "advertising manager" or whatever
• Small links on sites that I design, referring back to me
• And of course my license plates on my car, which now read "WEB HOST"
->> Do not get those if you drive like a maniac

Some people also use radio ads on the local radio stations. Consider also hosting a non-profit site for free, like your local humane society, your church, your youth group, the local Kiwanis branch, whatever. People know people who know people... sometimes you have to give a little to get a little.

:)

:D Bailey

baileysemt123 I must interject and say thank you for those ideas. My partner and I were looking how to make our local advertising more effective and you gave some great ideals.

Thank you!

You can advertise in local media. I always feel word of mouth is the best advertising.

Originally posted by floppy
You can advertise in local media. I always feel word of mouth is the best advertising.

Well its the chicken or the egg theory. I need to have a customer base before I can generate word of mouth. I want word of mouth but I need customers first to make them happy :)

I think radio advertising can be quite effective in some markets especially if you have a catchy name and/or phone #. Some of those commercials get stuck in my head for years. And the next time someone says to that person "i think i might do a website..." the person that heard your advertisment will say "i heard this commecial about that... here's the #..."

"I'M THE WIZ I'M THE WIZ , NOBODY BEATS THE WIZ"

Seinfeld watchers should know what I'm talking about...

Get to local business meetings. Evening sessions, breakfast clubs whatever. That way you get to pitch your service personally, answer questions on the spot and hand over a card. Most of these should be free to participate in.

Originally posted by dbbrock1
I got a few questions about local advertising. What would i do? Posters at store bulletin boards, classified ads? Any other methods? Thanks!

-Dan
Basically :D just get good size rocks and wrap up your brochure around the rock. Then throw those rocks in the windows of local businesses. When they come out, you can stand there :D and give 'em the speel about your services. :laugh:

Impressionable items always work.................................

STuff like bumper stickers, pens with your site on it that you hand out, business cards, flyers, give new business's in the classified section a call or send em a mail, stuff like that seems to work even though people dont use it as much.

Also try using OTHER services to get across your main service this can sometimes be a big help..............
For example, setup a free E-mail service(there are many you can setup under private label for free) and advertise your hosting on it occasionally.

These idea's may seem lame, but small idea's like this that leave a sticky impression sometimes get the customers you would otherwise loose....

This is a good one i know was used before.. I had a friend that had a local computer store that custom built computers etc.. he setup an arrangment with them and they advertised his hosting services by installing a small icon to his website url on the desktop of custom built cpu's........


Stuff like that.....