Small Cost Campaigns, Big-Time Gains

One of the hardest things for a small business to do is to calculate the best return on local advertising.  Most times, small business owners and managers take out ads in local newspapers and the Yellow Pages because they seem to be the most effective way to reach their audience.  And with the bulk of their sales coming from customers within thirty miles of their physical location, these ARE effective strategies.  But what other tried-and-true methods for increasing name awareness are out there - and how do you make them work without spending a fortune?  By finding a local marketing partner.

Find a Major Partner For Your Next Community Event

Most local communities in our part of central New Jersey sponsor "pride" days, where the town turns itself into a mini-fair.  There are all kinds of activities and good-natured competitions and plenty of booths for homemade foods.  But there are also any number of local and regional businesses who either run a booth or sponsor an activity.  But their cost of doing so can be high.  Not only do they have to 'man' the booth, they typically shut down their business while doing so.  And the cost of missing business opportunity is a real cost.  Solution?  Find a partner to join you - a BIG partner, if you can!

In casual conversations with regional marketing personnel for Verizon and Cingular, both of which provide wireless service in our area, they pointed out an interesting marketing strategy about local community fairs.  It seems that some national and regional providers of technology services look on these events as one of the best opportunities to answer questions about their service (and fewer about its price) because of the fair-like environment.  Potential customers don't feel intimidated in their home town environment and service providers are careful not to use hard sell tactics.  The end result is a more informed public and a kinder, gentler image of the service provider.

But where does your business come in?  Well, it seems that it is too expensive for this kind of service provider to take booths in every community day.  So they are agreeable to sharing booths or costs or even sponsoring small businesses in complimentary areas.  They'll share some of the cost if you display their logo and provide a place in your booth to handout promotional material.  To answer the inevitable question by passersby, simply tell them that you are helping these national providers out and showing them the ropes.  If that doesn't raise a few eyebrows and yield some chuckles, nothing will!  And your business will be piggybacking on some major brand awareness!

TIP 1:  Other community events might also be attractive to larger partners.  Think about participating in such activities as college career days, job festivals and school events.

Finding A Partner

The best place to start looking for a partner is in your hometown.  Contact the people in charge of the event you are targeting and find out which major firms have participated in the past.  Ask who (by name and by title) was the point person and then find out what activities they were involved in.  When you contact a participating firm, ask about their strategy and goal regarding participating in local events.  Then find their competitors and contact them.  TIP 2:  The structure of larger firms may be difficult to navigate, but most of them have marketing, business development or community development and affairs departments.  Those are all good places to start.  TIP 3:  Have your "media kit" ready to go, not only with the basic information about the event and the community demographics, but also include a brief background of your business and the number of customers you "reach" in your community.  Make sure you have a simple statement on what you think the benefits will be for each of your firms from participating in the targeted event.


Having a partner participating with you in local events helps defray expenses and gives you the chance to ride each other's marketing coattails.  Building brand awareness is a long-term goal and as with all marketing efforts, results will come over the long-term.  Remember, you advertise your daily "specials", but you market your brand…and good marketing builds business for your company's future.