Marketing Strategies for Small Towns
Marketing encompasses all the activities a business or other organization pursues to attract and retain customers. Gathering information about potential customers, choosing the types of products to offer, setting prices, making products available to consumers and promoting products through advertising are all key aspects of marketing. Marketing strategies are the basic guiding principles organizations follow to achieve their marketing goals. Small towns or businesses operating in small towns may use several strategies to achieve their objectives.
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Marketing for Small Towns
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Large businesses tend to set up operation in large cities, which can attract workers to urban centers and away from small towns. Therefore, the goals of small-town governments and organizations may include increasing or maintaining population, attracting businesses and attracting tourism. A small town's marketing strategy may involve targeting a certain key tourist demographic. For instance, a rural town with good hunting and fishing might have the strategy of targeting marketing efforts toward working-class males. A township interested in attracting population or homeownership could offer low property tax rates as a part of its marketing strategy.
Marketing for Small-town Businesses
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A marketing strategy involves defining the type of customer a company plans to sell its product or service to and the benefit or value a customer gains by using the product or service. Marketing strategies that a business may employ in small towns include directly challenging the products of competitors with similar products, offering products in a niche area that faces little or no competition and offering products or services that complement the offerings of existing businesses in the area.
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Advertising Strategies
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Advertising is a field within the umbrella of marketing that involves communicating with customers to promote products and services. Small towns often distribute local newspapers and sell advertising space in newspapers to local companies. Placing advertisements in a local newspaper can allow business managers to reach members of a specific community at a cost that is much less than the cost of placing ads in periodicals with wider circulation. Placing advertisements in key high-traffic areas, such as a local grocery store, gas station or restaurant, is another way businesses can attract customers in small towns. Door-to-door advertising can also be a viable advertising strategy in small towns.
Other Strategies
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Small-town events such as fairs and sporting events may attract a significant proportion of the total number of consumers in the town. Sponsoring local events or paying to advertise at local events is another advertising strategy that businesses can use to attract customers in small towns. Businesses may even be able to sell products or services directly to consumers at certain events. Setting the prices of products or services at a level just below that of competitors is another strategy that businesses can use to potentially boost sales.
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