How to Map Out A Local Marketing Strategy

When you hear the term marketing, do you think of big television and radio ads that cost tons of money? For any company that needs to introduce their products and services to a local market, marketing can be simple and cheap as long as your are willing to do a few easy research activities.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• The ability to conduct simple research activities

1. Pinpoint an operations address. If you have a store, a warehouse, a building or office that people can buy your products or services from, then use that address as a starting point for all of your marketing activities.
2. Choose a working radius. A working radius is the area you decide that potentially has the most or best business opportunities for you. This area covers a certain distance north, south, east and west from your starting point . For example, Your working radius is 5 miles. That means, you will conduct marketing activities 5 miles north, south, east and west from your starting point.
3. Research your working radius. Depending on your customer type, determine how the bulk of your customers can be found: churches, schools, organizations, local businesses, parks, grocery stores, etc. Once you narrow down your locations, use online search engines and mapping software to find out how many of those locations are in your working radius.
4. Learn how to reach your potential customers within your working area. Now that you know where your customers may be, determine how to reach them. Most churches provide a deadline for submitting flyers or business ads for their announcements or printed programs. Many schools will only accept faxed flyers. With permission, some grocery stores or retail shops will allow you to distribute flyers in their parking lots.
5. Develop your marketing materials. Be sure to include only the most important information:
   • The name, address and phone number for your company
   • The purpose of the advertisement (invitation to a grand opening, sale, private showing, etc.)
   • The date, time and location of the event or activity
   • Any fees associated with attending the event
   • Directions on how to get to your site.
6. Develop your marketing team. Organize a group of friends of associates who understand the goal of your marketing strategy and who are willing to help you meet them. Depending on your marketing tactics, your marketing team will consist of people willing to hand out flyers, contact and invite other people to your event, partner with you to promote your event while promoting theirs (tie-in), or set up alternate methods of getting the word out about your event.
7. Measure your marketing strategy’s effectiveness. Now that you have marketed, advertised and promoted your event, determine how effective your strategy was by the number of people that attended your event. If you met or exceeded your attendance expectations, then the marketing strategy you executed was effective. If you did not meet your anticipated attendance numbers, then you need to evaluate your strategy for possible weaknesses, areas of improvement or needs for change.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep in mind, there are a number of ways to reach your potential customers: television, radio, billboards, flyer postings, telephone, email, text messaging, internet and print ads, etc..
• Just remember to be courteous and respectful of other businesses wishes and requests. If they say no, NO MEANS NO!