Let’s talk about inexpensive ways to get to your buyers:

Are you leveraging community newspapers?

And yes, this does apply if you are in a business to business market. You just have to look at what papers and newsletters (print ones) are going out to your ideal target market.

But, if you are targeting consumers, have a look at these numbers:

Community newspapers reach:

77% of affluent Canadians

75% of women

76% of parents

75% of homeowners*

(Community Media Special Report 2008)

(This is from a study in Canada, but the numbers would be the same anywhere else who uses quality community newsletters).

Who reads them?

The most recent survey showed that 74 percent of Canadian adults read the last issue of their community paper. That figure was even higher in some provinces; in Saskatchewan it was a record 83 percent. The study also revealed that 76 percent of adults with household incomes over $75K are regular readers, as are most adults with a university education. 50 percent of the surveyed readers do not read any daily newspaper at all.

Think about this now.

If you target a higher income family that you cannot reach via email or newspapers, this is a potential goldmine. 74% of your ideal buyers read the community paper regularly. They earn more money, they are better educated, and they are looking for appropriate products and services (see the survey below for more details).

The best part?

The price of community newspapers! To get a quarter page ad – $50. Full page (with color) – $150. That gets you in front of thousands of targeted prospects (you can choose which community you advertise in by the average income in the community, choose communities that have a higher percentage of golfers, have more than average numbers of school aged children, or have a significant number of boomers and seniors.

All it takes is a little research on your part and you can tap into a very powerful source of potential buyers.

To add to that… community newspapers are filled with crappy advertising! Yours done right, using the information you pick up for free through the Total Package, and you can get some exceptional results.

Definitely worthy of some testing.

Right now, with the economy as it is, people are travelling less and spending more time at home, and in their yards. What better way to reach them than through a paper that 74% of them open every chance they get.

Try and get that through email!

One other inexpensive marketing tool at your disposal

The lowly flyer

What amazes me with these little unsung heroes of direct marketing is the sheer impact you can get with minimal dollars invested.

Here in Canada, we can send “unaddressed admail” to as many homes or businesses as we want for $0.11/per piece. So we can go to 1,000 businesses for $111.

Where else can you get that breadth of distribution? For that price?

Especially now that you can do geographic and demographic targeting of those businesses and individuals?

Thompson Rivers University received a 1.43% response rate to its latest flyer campaign! Higher than the industry average for addressed direct mail… at a fraction of the price.

“The sheer volume and ability to geo-target by postal code keeps my cost per inquiry low and, in general, helps to build brand awareness.” Thompson Rivers University

These days, you can also very selectively target who receives your flyers…

Let’s say, for instance, you want to target upper-class households in central Canada with an interest in golf?

Targeting like this is not only possible, but cost-effective because it eliminates unreceptive audiences. Again, for $0.11/home.

There are firms that do this for little charge… and are a goldmine of great information for you.

Imagine the power you hold in your hands when you combine neighborhood community newspapers, combined with flyers.

You could be blanketing an entire community (or city) for very little money out of pocket.

You can select exactly the type of demographic you want reading it.

You can target their interests and hobbies.

And you can dominate your industry using little used techniques like this.

It doesn’t all have to be through email or in-house database work.

This is a VERY effective way to generate sales and build your prospect database…

… using very targeted, very effective tools available at your disposal.

If you have recently used these types of tools, let me know. I would love to hear what you did, how it worked, and if you had used it to it’s fullest ability.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Trying times call for more interaction and help from you!