Small Town Marketing

Members of the ISP-Marketing list share a variety of unorthodox tips on getting good word of mouth in a small town.

[December 31, 2001]

On the ISP-Marketing list in December, RF queried,

"I'm looking at providing dialup in a rural community with a population of 10,000 and no broadband. There are two small local papers, and no local radio. What might be an effective way to market to this area?"

A number of respondents recommended heading straight for the local papers:

[KH advised] "Small town marketing is best accomplished through an initial newspaper campaign, then word of mouth in the long term. Also, many small community newspapers do a feature article on new businesses. Check with your local papers and see if they do that."

[BK agreed] "Put credit card size ads in the 'Services' section of the classifieds. And try the local school newspaper, too."

[JG added] "In the second week of your newspaper campaign, do a direct mailing of fancy invitations to try your service to each household in the area. First class stamp, nice envelopes and inside card, script addressing with no mail codes or labels. Your results should skyrocket, if your newspaper ads were attention-getters to start with."

Others warned that newspapers could prove a waste of money:

[BH suggested] "Forget print advertising. Local pizza places would be better than the newspaper. Offer to print the flyer they tape to the box, as long as you get half of the front for your pitch. You could do the same with local video rental places."

[MS added] "I think it's best to just print thousands of plain old flyers and put them on cars in parking lots. Run a special deal. You might get thrown out of the parking lots, but it will work. Guerrilla marketing is a low cost, great way to get customers."

Still others shared some more creative ideas:

[KH offered] "Join your local Chamber of Commerce, and take every opportunity to be involved in events they sponsor. You need to be personally visible to as many people as possible, and talk about your service as much as possible. One great way to do that is to offer free Internet classes to the public. And make sure you have a good referral program in place, because your new customers will be your best advertising."

[MS added] "We had a Jeep drawing. People who signed up were automatically entered, and anyone who referred a customer was entered again. We ran this for a year. We bought a Jeep and drove it around during the year; it had our logos all over it. It worked well. And the winner kept the logos on the Jeep: it's free advertising!"

[BH advised] "Go to the Mayor's office and ask the secretary who the local computer gurus are. Offer those individuals a two-month free trial. If they like and recommend your service, pay them $20 for each person who signs up and uses their name as a referral. We broke into a new market this way very quickly."

—End