Local Marketing 2014: Reaching the “unreachable”
I was having a chat the other day with a few friends about how much some us have become “unreachable” by traditional local advertising.
We went through a list:
Phone book? None of us would admit to open a phone book in years.
Radio? We all listen to streaming radio like Pandora or Amazon Prime, public radio or audiobooks. None of us listen to commercial radio stations.
Newspaper? Only one out of five of us subscribe to the local newspaper, and the one that does reads it in a matter minutes, just skimming for the sports scores and reading the comics.
Television? All five have unplugged from cable TV. That doesn’t mean that we are not watching TV; we all use some form streaming TV: Netflix, Hulu and others.
This is a pretty resounding rejection of the main sources of media of our fathers. We all grew up with TV, radio, newspapers and yellow pages, but none of them have any impact on us now.
So, if you’re a looking to sell your services or products to people in your community, how can you reach them?
Here are ten ways that we use in Kona, Hawaii with varying degrees of cost-effectiveness:
- Locally-optimized websites. If you don’t have a website optimized for local search, you’re missing a huge opportunity.
- Lots of positive local reviews. Encourage your satisfied clients to review you on TripAdvisor, Yelp! or Angie’s List. Solve the complaints of your unsatisfied customers. If you get a back review, learn from it!
- Postcard marketing. Everyone still reads their mail!
- Storefront and business front signage. If you have traffic going by your business’ window, you have a marketing opportunity.
- Vehicle advertising. Whether its magnet or cut/printed vinyl, your vehicle will be seen hundreds of times a day; make it work for you.
- Community involvement. Rotary, Lions, paddling clubs, etc. are how people meet and make connections. Get involved and people will notice!
- Farmers markets, Village Stroll, community events. Do what you can to get your name and products in front of buyers. If you sell coffee, your sales will increase if people can taste it!
- Hit the pavement! Get out and drop off flyers or samples to potential customers.
- Local advertising on Google, Facebook and Bing/Yahoo. You can limit your ad displays to your local market. Many businesses overlook the power of local online advertising.
- Hire a blimp. (OK, this is not a serious suggestion; just want to see if you were still reading!)
If you’re business is still stuck in the 1990s for marketing, it’s time to take a look at some new ways of reaching new customers. For certain, the number of people unreachable by traditional marketing tools is going to grow considerably in the future. Savvy business owners know this and have begun to change their marketing mix.
If you need help with your marketing mix, give us a call at 329-6077. We’ve helped hundreds of local businesses get found and grow.
