Fellow Business-Builder,

One of my favorite types of businesses to work with are the local brick-and-mortar ones you see on every corner.

Why?

Because it’s real simple to take the type of marketing techniques we talk about here … and make them work in a local market.  There are a number of ways you can find local buyers below. The key is to find just one to start with right away.

I realize that you may not have a business that can market locally. You may sell to a very specific type of business which isn’t found in your city, or you may target a very particular type of buyer.

But I guarantee you that hidden below are a few ideas that will grow your business.  Make them fit.

The first place you should start?
Your local Chamber of Commerce.

Many cities have a fantastic chamber that understands the needs of small businesses, others aren’t so fortunate.  The city I am in isn’t all that tailored to entrepreneurial-run ventures – but there is a new initiative in 2010 that I am heading up with them that will change that forever.  The chamber is a great place to meet like-minded members, and network your way to success.

Some things you need to do:

• Become a member and attend the functions. Often they will bring in exceptional success stories from the local area that you can learn from. Other times you will meet that new best client.  You won’t know though until you are out there in the midst of other members.
• Give talks on your area of expertise. Often, the chamber will be looking for people to teach classes during lunch-and-learns, or breakfast sessions, sometimes networking nights.  If you can get in, it is a fantastic way to spread your story.
• Advertise in their newsletter. The Chamber in Calgary has a print component, a digital e-zine and a website, all of them being read by thousands of other entrepreneurs in the community.  A fantastic place to be seen and heard.
• Ask them for help. That’s what they are there for!  The chamber’s mandate is to help support the needs of local businesses.  So tell them what you need and see who they can introduce you to.  That’s what your member fees are for.

Flyers Distributed Throughout Your Neighborhood
or Community.

This is a very underutilized marketing tool for small businesses.  In most cities, there are professional companies who will distribute flyers for you to businesses and to homes.

In Canada, you can hire private firms or use Canada Post. The price ranges from 4 cents to 11 cents per flyer.

If you have never tested this … you ARE missing out.

One guy teaches piano lessons: any time he needs new business he drops off 5,000 flyers and is booked up for three-six months. Another local pizza shop delivers handwritten letters with bags of flour attached … and they are thriving with their premium-priced pizzas in a down economy.

Some thoughts on how you can use flyers:

• Target specific areas within your community that have a higher than average number of your perfect clients as residents. Depending on the service available in your city, you may be able to target high income areas, even going as deep as demographic information for only 11 cents per household or business.
• Consider using your flyers as inserts in your local papers … both the major papers and the weeklies or freebies.
• Does your local community have its own newsletter or paper? Usually they are hungry for advertising dollars and offer half and full page spreads for a couple hundred dollars.  Each residential community in Calgary has its own mini-newspaper that you can advertise in for dirt cheap.  Not only that … NONE of the ads in these circulars are written properly … so it doesn’t take much for you to stand out and get a response.

Direct Mail

Obvious but highly neglected.  I watch very carefully how much and what type of mail comes across my physical mailbox … and it has been rapidly decreasing in quality and quantity for the past year.

People are not investing in direct mail like they used to, so the opportunity for you to stand out and be noticed is great.

• Community lists are often available. Sometimes you can get lists of new businesses, new homeowners, new parents, etc.  Depending on who you find as your perfect client, there is almost always a way to find a list of them in your community.
• Existing names in your database. Basic, I know … but are you using it?  Every week I talk to a local entrepreneur who is totally missing the boat on this.  They have hundreds, maybe thousands of past buyers in their database, but have never ONCE mailed them anything. Start there!
• Compile your own lists. One client of mine joined an association whose members were his perfect client.  One of the benefits of membership was access to a database of other members.  Names, addresses, and titles for all of his targeted buyers.  We had great success mailing to this list.  Find out which associations contain your best buyers and become a member yourself.
• Make it fun and make it dimensional. Remember: The types of mailings you know all about … are foreign to those in your community. Dimensional mailings may be a common word in your world, but when a potential buyer receives a mini trash can with a letter inside, he WILL take notice and read your letter.

Joint Ventures

In the Internet marketing community, this is “Marketing 101.”  In your local business community, it will be a foreign concept that they have never heard of, let alone tried before.

• Partner with other businesses in town that sell to the same clients you do. Do reciprocal endorsements of each other to your lists.  It may take some education to get them to understand what a joint venture is and why it is beneficial to their business.  But the payoff is immense so get busy educating them.
• Swap advertising space with others who do newsletter marketing.
• Rent/trade/barter window-space advertising with other local merchants.
• Look for local JV brokers. Thanks to Internet marketing, there are now a lot more brokers out there who understand the power of a solid joint venture.  There may even be a broker in your city that gets it.  If they do, they will do all the work for you, for a percentage of the profit.  You can’t lose.
• Post flyers and coupons in other establishments with a tracking code on them.

Networking clubs

I have mixed feelings about these.  When I first started my business eight years ago, I was a member of a local club and attended every week.  It was definitely good to get out and mingle with others.  The problem was that many networking clubs are run very poorly. Be very careful in your choice.

Some of them tell you that you can’t join another club if you join theirs.  Which is bull-crap.

Look for real entrepreneurs who get it.  And look for clubs that aren’t full of network marketers.  Nothing against network marketing, but my experience in clubs with an overabundance of them is that there is no real business happening. They are all trying to recruit each other and it is a ridiculous environment I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

• Do not stick with lead swap clubs that consider it mandatory you bring X number of leads per meeting. The leads will be of poor quality and rarely are they warm leads.
• Despite my negative experiences with them, I do know many business owners who have done very, very well by attending one or two clubs every week. It is a great chance to network, to find new buyers, and to learn from others who are going through similar challenges as you.
• Test out a few before you commit. You won’t know the real deal until you have been to a couple meetings. If they don’t allow you to try them out … run away … quickly.

Local Search Engine Optimization and Marketing

This is a powerful way to get ranked high in the search engines when someone searches for a local product or service.

One good ranking can bring you in a substantial amount of leads every week.

• Optimized for local search terms.  If someone is looking for a hairdresser, they go to Google and search for “Hairdresser ” and if you are optimized well, you will be near the top.  This is something you need to learn about because people are looking on Google for every type of product and service they can buy locally.
• Get listed on Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/).
• Your Google profile set up (http://www.google.com/profiles).
• Listed on dmoz.org for your local city (www.dmoz.org).
• Listed on every single local business listing or directory you can find.
• Local coupon sites can be a fantastic way to drum up new business.

Social Networking Sites

As you may know, I am not a major fan of this for my own reasons.  Not that I don’t use the tools, just that I don’t believe in spending more than half your day on this which is what many people are doing.

That said, I have had success with Social Networking and do recommend you get a presence out there.  An hour or two a week adding articles and blog posts will keep people coming back to learn more.

• Test advertising on Facebook (I did a small test for an event I was hosting and sold two tickets at $895.  Total advertising cost was less than $10.  You can specifically target Facebook users that live in your city.
• Offer Facebook-only, or Twitter-only special deals.
• Invest some time and learn about the different areas of Social networking that will help. Better yet, ask others who you see on the networking sites how they are doing.  Most importantly … ask them about what is working best for them and giving the greatest return.

Golf Courses are an untapped resource

Being a member of a golf club here, I can speak from experience on the quality of people you can reach through a club.

My golf game sucks … but the people I meet there are golden.

They are typically professionals, white-collar, educated and more affluent than the general public.  They are very good buyers for the right type of business.

• Golf course newsletters often accept advertising.
• You may want to consider getting a membership. The fees can be large, but the payoff can be much larger. Worth looking into.

Advertising

There are some GREAT deals on advertising now.  Get aggressive with them and negotiate the prices … they NEED the ad revenues.

• Offline newspapers and magazines that are distributed in your community.
• Online yellow pages. Almost everyone I know of is bailing from the print versions and sticking to online yellow page ads.  Do what works for you … not what everyone else is doing.
• AdWords. There are numerous exceptional courses on how to use AdWords to grow your business. For local marketing, this will bring you ample quality leads if done right.
• The Google Content Network.  A course in itself is needed here.  But, this gives you a means to advertise on specific sites within your community for a very low per-click price.
• Craig’s list and Kijiji offer free listings – make sure you know the terms and stick with their policies for advertising on their sites.

Trade shows

I used to be a trade show guy … and have sold many different types of products at shows.  If I knew then what I know about proper follow-up and direct mail … Yeesh!  Have you ever actually looked at all the trade shows that happen in your community over the average year?  You will be amazed.

• Perfect for both finding potential JV partners and for displaying your wares.
• Don’t do what every other trade show vendor does … actually follow up with the leads you collect! Sounds simple … but from my experience it is rarely done. Most of those names that go in the draw boxes and information boxes get thrown out without even a single thought to who could be in those leads.
• Make sure you market your booth right to your existing database. Tell them you will be there. Tell them you have a gift for them if they show up at your booth. Make your booth exciting and inviting.  Have skilled people on the floor that actually give a crap about being there (incent them on sales made or warm leads captured).

Association marketing

Have you ever opened up or searched your local Yellow Pages for associations?  There is an association for nearly everything and could be a gold mine of great contacts for you.

Have a look at who they are, what they offer you, and how you can market your business through them.

You know as well as I do that this list is impossible
to tackle in one month, even one year.

The key is to look through it again and find the ones that just seem right to you now.  Get one going and giving you a measurable return, then choose the next while that one runs on autopilot.

A new year is just a few weeks away … and is the perfect time for you to try out some new marketing initiatives.

Set one of your resolutions to implement one or more of the above neighborhood marketing techniques into your business every single month.

Last, if you have had success marketing in your community … please share with all of us!

We would love to hear your success story.

Thanks again.

Troy White

PS: This was originally written for Clayton Makepeace and his incredible blog at http://www.smallbusinessmastery.com