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.