Community Marketing for Success
As a small-business owner, one of the most effective ways for you to compete in the marketplace is to utilize your neighbourhood. Focus all your effort into a 2 km radius this is your secret weapon. It’s a way to run your business, a philosophy that focuses on satisfying your customers at a higher level. Community marketing and building an effective strategy is crucial to knowing who needs your services.
Community marketing is a system that concentrates on building your business from the inside out, and never farther than a five to ten minutes from your businesses front door. It takes what you create within the four walls of your business and serves it up as a “concentrate” in high doses to those who can have the greatest impact on your business.
This marketing philosophy is one that keeps you focused on the tools you already have at your fingertips: your employees, your products and services, a database of your customers and internal strategies. By developing these areas to make them the best they can be and leveraging these tools just within your community, you’ll be able to take your company to new heights and grow your sales consistently.
Why concentrate your strategy on customers who live and work no more than a five to ten minutes from your location? That’s where the overwhelming majority of your best customers come from. If you have any doubts, just ask each of your customers’ in the next seven days where about they live. Then plot them on a map. The proof will be right there before your eyes.
Understanding the importance of your marketing area will also help you realize that using mass media to advertise your business shouldn’t even be an option for you. While the allure of TV and radio ads can be intriguing, for businesses, it’s often the fastest path to bankruptcy. Mass media covers an enormous amount of geography, which you’re paying for. So why reach out to those who will never drive the distance to see you?
So where do you start? As obvious as it may seem, you begin by being a good neighbour yourself. Maintain the appearance of your business-keep it clean and professional. Be sure your location is meticulously maintained and looks like a place you’re proud to pull up to each day. A business that is unkempt or untidy gives customers the impression that this is how you’ll conduct your business. First impressions really do count.
Next, look for opportunities to get involved in neighbourhood functions, like sponsoring activities in the community and cross promotions. Think of yourself as running the general store of years past, where the owner knew the names, birthdays, anniversaries, fortunes and misfortunes of each and every customer. These general store owners were involved in their communities, local festivals, fundraising events and business associations.
Focusing on your neighbourhood requires a focus on those that are new to your area-don’t miss an opportunity to welcome new neighbours. Did you know that the average citizen moves every five years? That means that as many as twenty percent of your current customers will move in the next twelve months–and that many new people will be moving in. So buy a list of the new residents that move into your market area each month, and send them a coupon for a free product or service to familiarize them with your company.
Whether you operate a restaurant, flower shop, dental office, dry cleaners or some other neighbourhood business, new neighbours can be an important element of your neighbourhood-marketing plan. New residents will spend more money on products and services during the first sixty days than an established resident will spend in two years. They’re also open to trying new product and service providers during this all-important “habit forming” stage.
The bottom line is, you don’t need to have a huge advertising budget or hire an advertising agency to help you compete with big budget companies and win. Neighbourhood marketing is about competing in the trenches that exist within your own backyard. It’s about relationships, creativity, great merchandising, great employees, and knowing your customers and exceeding their expectations. Effective neighbourhood marketing tactics are at the core of the most successful small businesses in the country-and many of the billion-dollar companies that have made it, too. The successful delivery of this is a lot harder than writing a check to place an ad, but without adopting its principals; it will be harder to strive in business.
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