Aashish Sharma January 13, 2021 Advertising is the cornerstone of making yourself known and acquiring new customers. Many methods of prospecting and even marketing exist. It is interesting to look at local advertisements that can be targeted to a given city.
Benefits of Targeted Advertising
It is irrelevant to try to target everyone in a communication campaign. Targeting allows you to focus on the most relevant leads and reduce costs rather than targeting unqualified leads.
1 / Banner and advertising panel (in the street, bus stop, in the metro, etc.)
Billboards are advertisements commonly found in town. This can be useful for communicating locally in commercial areas or on busy roads.
Advertisements placed on bus stops or in the metro are often managed by a large group and do not necessarily correspond to small advertising campaigns.
2 / Door to door
Visiting each potential customer one by one is a simple method to precisely target a geographic area. Depending on your activity, this can result in one of these methods:
- Door-to-door carried out by an itinerant salesperson / VRP
- Distribution of flyers in mailboxes
- Hand-to-hand flyer distribution
3 / Distribution of flyer in the street
A street is a collective place in which people from all walks of life meet. You can take advantage of this diversity to advertise to a large number of people in different ways. Flyer Marketing technique is a traditional marketing strategy that is effective in the local area.
It is possible to print flyers and distribute them hand to hand, or by placing the flyers on the windshields of cars. It takes about a hundred flyers distributed per hour.
Please note, when producing the leaflet, certain mandatory information should be affixed:
- Company name and address
- The company’s SIREN number
- A statement encouraging the collection or recycling of waste, which is often reflected by the statement “Do not throw on the public highway”
- Any foreign terms present in the advertisement must be translated into French
Finally, it is necessary to respect the legislation in force in the municipality in which the leaflets are distributed. It may be necessary to request authorization from the town hall.
4 / Advertising on a vehicle
Companies have specialized in the installation of advertising on vehicles, whether they are cars, trucks, taxis, scooters, or even bicycles!
Vehicles, whether in circulation or even parked in a parking space, will represent advertising media, often in the middle of cities.
5 / Neighborhood Advertising
The constitution of a prospect database is an essential step that B to B companies have surely already implemented at least once. Specialized sites sell business listings.
The Neighborhood Advertising technique is known for this. Let your local customer in your street, know about your business, services, and get their reviews.
Certain neighborhoods in a city, or even streets, have a strong enough identity to be the subject of their marketing positioning, and sometimes even to become destinations in themselves.
6 / Internet Advertising
The Internet can target people present everywhere in the US, UK, and Worldwide. At first glance this is not the best solution to promote a business at a local level, and yet there are solutions to make yourself known on the web to Internet users in a targeted city.
Google AdWords
Google is the most used search engine around the globe, with nearly 90% of the market share. It is possible to appear in sponsored results, by filtering so that the ad is displayed only for the targeted cities. Thus, all Internet users in one or more cities can see the links. Of course, you must have a website for this type of advertising.
Advertising campaigns through the American search giant are carried out using the Google AdWords service, you can start testing the service on a small budget to check the relevance of such ads to your business.
Facebook Advertising
The Facebook advertising system can also be very accurate. Members can enter the city in which they currently reside. Therefore, during an advertising campaign on this social network, it is possible to filter an advertisement so that it is displayed only to users living in a specified city.
Official site of the city
Some town halls create a dedicated area for local businesses within their official website, and more often than not it’s free. This allows you to make yourself known to the inhabitants of the town.
Forum or discussion group targeting a city
Social networks such as Facebook sometimes have a group targeted to a small local area. There are also small communities that come together with a common point: a city or a geographic area. Take an interest in what can be done near you, by searching the internet, then try to get in touch with the leaders of these communities, to find out how to promote your services through their means.
Filter internet users in a city
As a business, you probably have a website to showcase your business. Did you know that from the IP address you can approximately determine the location of Internet users? It is also possible to display a window that asks Internet users the city in which they are located. Check with the company that made your website if you are interested.
From a practical point of view, this could be useful in several ways:
- Display a personalized page for the user’s city.
- Adapt a price or a quote, directly online.
- Automatically display the city on the contact form, to be able to classify prospects obtained from the site according to their cities.
- Redirect all prospects who are not within the scope of the business to a partner.
7 / Local Media
The media cannot be excluded. Even small towns have local newspapers or radio stations. Advertising on these local media, sometimes modest, helps to support them and ensures a positive image of your services.
Better yet, it is even possible to consider being interviewed by these media if there may be an interest in newspaper readership or radio ratings. Presenting a local “success story” or a new activity in a town can interest the inhabitants of a town, and therefore the local media, and thus save advertising costs.
8 / Sponsorship
Sporting, cultural and associative events need money to exist. Check with the town hall, the tourist office or schools, about all annual events. After identifying the events that could be sponsored, all you have to do is find out how your advertising will be displayed and the budget you are willing to spend.
9 / Partnership
Partnerships are complicated to set up and deserve deep thought, but if they are successful, it can be a winning method. Here are some examples of partnerships that can be winners for all parties:
- A maintenance and cleaning company of the premises can join forces with a landscaping company to diversify its offer, and vice versa.
- An interior designer can partner with trusted local artisans.
- A company that installs a surveillance camera can partner with a security company (if the solutions are complementary).
- A company specializing in events can recommend a local florist.
With a good network and a good reflection, it is possible to envisage other partnerships with companies well established locally. It’s up to you to think carefully and try to convince your future partners.
10 / Unusual Support
New advertising media are emerging, in particular concerning local advertising. Did you know that it is possible to broadcast an ad on certain gas pumps, local cinema, or on the screen of a cash register? Yes, it’s possible.
There is strength in unity, so do not hesitate to join forces with other companies and traders to launch local initiatives.
For example, you can organize a “Well-being” fair, bringing together all the companies relating to “well-being” in the municipal premises.
You can also set up local activities between traders with gift points or bundled offers. It is also possible to provide education in schools by promoting your profession.
You can also use national events to promote yourself, such as surfing the World Cup, Roland Garros, the Olympic Games… for example to create a special Olympic restaurant menu, a showcase dedicated to Roland Garros…
A super simple but effective trick to organize your shop or business: put on a small accessory linked to a current event.
Bonus: The Newspaper of Your Municipality
Most town halls publish a small municipal newspaper to inform the inhabitants about the activity of the city, in particular associations. Good news for you, this little newspaper is distributed free of charge in all mailboxes, even those that refuse to advertise. You then have to find a way to sponsor the newspaper via an advertising space or to have a piece of news sufficiently rich to appear in it through an article.
And you, do you know of other solutions to make yourself known locally? Do not hesitate to share your tips and advice in the comments.
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