LOCAL Marketing OR "Selling in Your Own Back Yard" (Where it really Counts!)

LOCAL Marketing OR "Selling in Your Own Back Yard" (Where it really Counts!)
by Daniel Sage

Here's the breakdown. You have a business. You have a business location. You have
a neighborhood where that business is located. You provide a service or product that's
truly valuable to the right people. Great, now how do you find them? Or, maybe the
Question should be - Where? How Will the Customers you Need EVER find You?
Welcome to Business Marketing 101...

FACT "But Most Consumer Purchases are Made Within 12 City Blocks."

Think about it! Most Chains and Franchises (Burger King, Starbucks, Target,
Wal-mart etc...there are now thousands!) can be found wherever there is enough
Market Saturation. Most National Chains, Franchises, Grocery Outlets and Even
Local Banks have figured this Equation out and are using it to reap HUGE sales by
Region Count. (Census Tracts) They know the 12-Block Rule and apply it vigorously
in all of their Sales and Marketing Strategies!

They also know that Market Share is the most Important Term in the Advertising Game.

Let's review a few things about the world of Business Advertising.
There are more than 2 Million new businesses started every year.
(Most are these are home based; this doesn't include MLM's or Affiliate programs)
Over 500,000 of these will fail within 2 years.
The average Successful ad campaign costs about $250,000 dollars.
The average TV commercial is $10,000 for 60 seconds.
The average radio commercial is $100.00 for 60 seconds. ($5000 to Produce!)
To rent a Cab top billboard is about $300 a week.
The average Freeway Billboard is between $2500-$5000 a month.

All of these fall under the category of Blanket Advertising. (Expensive and mostly
ineffective in the short run, especially for small businesses. It works for Chains and
Franchises simply because of the number and convenience of locations.)

Can you even hope to compete with their Advertising Budgets or Reach?

So, now that you know how local buying habits directly affect you - how many of
these people does your advertising strategy currently reach? Do you even know
how many residents there are in the 12 blocks surrounding you? Let's expand our
marketing radius to 2 or 3 miles or a single zip code. Do you know anything about
those residents? More importantly, do THEY know about YOU? These are questions
you will need to answer if you are making your business succeed locally or at all.

The 12 Block Rule is the Secret Ingredient to Franchise and Chain Store Success.

As a small enterpriser will never beat them at this game unless you engage the customer
on a more personal level. They are the big corporations but you have one Serious Ad-
vantage. You don't need 300 customers a day to meet your bottom line. This gives you
the upper hand in targeting your market. You might only need 20 a day or 20 a month
to meet yours and this means you can be a little more accurate in pinpointing your
potential market. Smaller overhead means less mass-marketing is needed. Better to
build than slowly and gradually and treat each customer as the precious commodity
he or she is. You can spend less on "blanket type" advertising and be more direct in
your marketing.

This also requires some degree of "intelligence" on your part to determine who the
best prospects are for your business. Start by determining who is a perfect candidate
for what you sell. Is it something everybody can use - or is it something that everybody
needs? There is a very Big difference when it comes to marketing. Direct marketing
is not just removing the middle-man from the buyer-seller equation. It's also a more
hands on approach to reaching the consumer on his home turf. This means you'll need
a deeper understanding of your customers and why they buy from you. Examine your
business sales to date- who's been buying from you and why? Determine as much as you
can about your current client or customer and you will have the basic profile of who your
next one will be. Where in your own neighborhood do they live? Is there an overall
demographic similarity between most of them and can you reach more of the same kind
of individuals somehow? This is called Clustering and this kind of Market Research
information you'll need to create a plan for of your own business marketing.

Local Marketing makes sense only because CONVENIENCE has changed ALL of our
Buying Habits forever. You Must now play the game by the new rules or lose by the new
Rules!

Daniel Sage is a Marketing Consultant and Entrepreneur living in Las Vegas.
More info on Local/Neighborhood Marketing can be found on his site at
http://www.customores.com Or send an e-mail to sage@customores.com