==== ==== Please check out The Local Marketing Institute for great tips on Local Marketing for Profit. www.bestlocalmarketingpractices.com ==== ====
In today's fast-paced, high-tech world, it is easy to lose track of the fact that marketing is simply communicating the benefits of a business to an audience likely to use its service or buy its product. Instead of focusing on the message, business owners focus on the medium, and often believe the more expensive and sophisticated the advertising medium, like a compelling 30second national or state-wide TV commercial, the better the marketing. Unfortunately, a small company which does not have the budget and resources of a large organization, is likely to achieve a poor return on investment (ROI) if it spends an excessive amount in expensive advertising. By imitating the large corporations, it is, in fact, hindering its business, spending more than it earns and losing touch with the local needs of its customers. Sometimes bigger is not better, and an alternative to an extravagant, high-budget advertising campaign is local business marketing. Here are a dozen ways local marketing can be effective on a small budget. 1. It can advertise in a paper, magazine, billboard, bus, or taxi. It can also use free or paid advertisements on the Internet. 2. It can design business cards, which the owner and employees carry with them everywhere they go. These business cards can also be hung up on community boards at the grocery store, laundromat, community hall, or public library. 3. It can place an ad in the local telephone book. 4. It can create flyers and posters and hand distribute them in a shopping district. 5. It can advertise on giveaway items like pens, key chains and refrigerator magnets, and hand these to their customers every time they make a purchase. 6. It can buy advertising spots in local TV channels, radio stations and movie theaters. 7. It can advertise on the back of ticket stubs, sponsoring school plays and community arts and crafts events. Similarly, it can advertise on travel brochures and maps that describe the town. 8. It can volunteer for local radio station interviews and give talks at local events. 9. It can create an educational class about something that the local community wants to learn. 10. It can network through business groups, like the Chamber of Commerce, and at town
meetings. 11. It can ask customers to help them find leads, offering them discounts for every referral that turns into a buyer. 12. It can print up T-shirts or hats with its logo, giving them away to customers and have employees wear them around town.
Author is a freelance writer. For more information on local business marketing please visit http://www.local-marketing.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Liz_T_Jones
==== ==== Please check out The Local Marketing Institute for great tips on Local Marketing for Profit. www.bestlocalmarketingpractices.com ==== ====