Advertising in Small Community Publications

Posted by David Chism | Tue, Mar 23, 2010

 Advertising in Small Community Publications
A great way to begin or con­tin­ue brand­ing your ser­vice com­pa­ny is to tar­get a cou­ple small com­mu­ni­ties in and around where you want to work. Com­mu­ni­ty adver­tis­ing, in most cas­es, is very rea­son­ably priced. Some neigh­bor­hoods are more orga­nized than oth­ers and very active. You want to be part of the active ones. Ask if you can place an ad in their emails, newslet­ters and com­mu­ni­ty post­ings. Anoth­er thing that works great is to dis­cuss oppor­tu­ni­ties on how your com­pa­ny can help their com­mu­ni­ty with projects. Let me explain, if you own a handy­man busi­ness, you can sug­ges­tion that your com­pa­ny takes care of the com­mu­ni­ty pic­nic tables and park bench repairs or replace­ments. Or if their is a clean up day, your com­pa­ny can pro­vide the water, shov­els, rakes, shirts, gloves and trash bags. You’d be amazed at the response you might get by sug­gest­ing these things to a com­mu­ni­ty events coor­di­na­tor or exec­u­tive direc­tor. One final piece of advice: don’t begin your con­ver­sa­tions about paid adver­tis­ing when you begin a rela­tion­ship with a com­mu­ni­ty. Wait a minute…didn’t you just say to find a com­mu­ni­ty you can place an ad and mar­ket reg­u­lar­ly? Yes I did. Let me be more spe­cif­ic. Typ­i­cal­ly when you con­nect with a com­mu­ni­ty the paid adver­tis­ing is sep­a­rate from the com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teer” projects. In oth­er words, an ad agency, print­er or pub­lish­ing com­pa­ny han­dles emails and newslet­ters. The projects around the com­mu­ni­ty are run by home­own­ers! When you deal direct­ly with home­own­ers, HOA direc­tors and vol­un­teers, always talk about how you can help their com­mu­ni­ty. You want to become their painter! Their handy­man! Their land­scap­er! When they need some­thing, they call you. If you don’t have what they need, you’ll help them find it through your net­work. Devel­op­ing a rela­tion­ship with a com­mu­ni­ty takes time, a lot of time! You have to nur­ture this rela­tion­ship pos­si­bly for years to see a real kick­back of work. I’ve seen good results though in as lit­tle as 8 – 10 months. Don’t expect your phone to ring off the hook the first 6 months.

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

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