Cheap Local Advertising

May 11, 2006 8:09 AM

What is the best way to go about advertising locally?

I am working on a local online classifieds website. When I am ready for launch I plan to advertise the site around town. Have you had any experience or success with local advertising.

I am looking for effective and possibly cheap ways of getting local traffic to the site.

How expensive would a Direct Mail campaign be? Flyers on windows? Any ideas?

posted by ndillon to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Flyers on windows just takes cash at Kinko's and willing victims to do the flyer-ing, so I suppose that's cheap. How about radio? You got a tv channel that does a local-interest messages thing?

If it is a smaller community, ofter the local news has a mid-day sort of program that is always looking for people to come on and talk about their interests, perhaps you could find an angle and get on one of those at no cost.

Handing out tons of business cards for my local music website has been the single most effective thing i've done.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:19 AM on May 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

If you can afford it, sponsoring or getting advertisements up at local sports league games works really well.
posted by SpecialK at 8:28 AM on May 11, 2006

Put a flyer on my windshield and I am likely to avoid your site out of spite. thebrokerdown's other advice is quite good. Also, advertise in the local press and include coupons and other incentives to get people to notice your ad, see if you can get a link on the town's website (if they highlight local businesses), and put flyers in local business in exchange for some free advertising on your site. Use discounts and coupons liberally to lure in customers.
posted by caddis at 8:31 AM on May 11, 2006

try the local transit company. If your town has a local bus, advertising rates on the side of it can be surprisingly cheap.
posted by cosmicbandito at 8:38 AM on May 11, 2006

Look for local publications that have inexpensive advertising rates. Think about highschool or grade school newsletters, they are seen by parents - sometimes ads are as low as $3 in things like that. Also - church flyers may give you good exposure. Print 4-up on 8.5" x 11" and leave stacks of little flyers in community centers, or anyplace else that will give you permission. A lot of store owners will let you do that if you just ask. Post on coffee house bulletin boards, the lobbies in large apartment complexes, etc. Think about your target audience & where they go every day.
posted by Alpenglow at 8:41 AM on May 11, 2006

Try local targeting with Google AdWords. You can narrow down your target audience to extremely specific levels, and you'd be able to drive traffic directly to your site at bid prices you set. It can be a pretty inexpensive way to drive highly targeted traffic to your site.

Ask Sponsored Listings and Yahoo Search Marketing (and soon for small businesses, MSN AdCenter) are also good options, though you'll want to bid only on geo-targeted keywords. Their systems don't have the same kind of simple local targeting that Google has.
posted by sellout at 9:38 AM on May 11, 2006

(Note: Just so I don't come across as too much of a shill, no, I don't work for Google, Ask, Yahoo, or MSN. But I am a search advertising professional, and I manage campaigns on these engines.)
posted by sellout at 9:41 AM on May 11, 2006

Interior bus cards and radio are both effective local advertising you can get at good rates. Depending on your city, taxi tops can be really affordable. The exteriors of buses run much higher.

However, don't just trust their rate cards. A rate card (or stated advertising rate) is like the thing on the back of the hotel door. No one except desperate suckers pays that rate. Negotiate. Negotiate for good slots. etc. and get free runs for the same price or much lower prices.

Direct mail is only as good as your mailing list. And mailing lists are expensive.

Fliers are only as effective as their placement. On cars? Trash and invoking ire. Handed out? Usually in the next trash can. On bulletin boards and store fronts, fairly effective if your message is simple, good looking and memorable.

Also, don't get too wacky with your message, but do something creative and *simple* that gets your message across. Bland is death and wacky/amateur is death, too.
posted by Gucky at 11:26 AM on May 11, 2006

If you want to get cheap exposure, try to come up with a newsworthy angle about your site. Write up press releases that introduce your site and *tell your story*. Send them to editors at every newspaper, magazine, and media outlet in your area. An article, tv, or radio story about your business will help personalize it in people's minds. And most of those stories get more space/time and attention than ad.
posted by xulu at 8:46 PM on May 18, 2006