Do you want to make more of an impact in your community?
If you’re a local business looking for more referrals, there’s one question you can ask of your marketing—
“Who am I helping?”
Getting your name out in a community is hard work. One way to do this is to sponsor a local sports team like little league baseball and softball. Parents will see your business name on their kids’ t-shirts. Opposing teams sponsors will know your name. Community members will see these efforts as well.
You can also look into donating time or services to those in need through local religious or other charitable organizations.
Combine these efforts with direct mail to the associated 2-3 zip codes relevant to these charities and sports teams.
The problem of referral marketing
To be clear, everything we just mentioned is a good idea some of the time. These efforts can work, but they are not measurable in the way that digital marketing or even direct mail marketing are. Buying outdoor ads means being willing to know that you cannot measure your return on investment. The same goes for sponsoring teams and giving back to charity and the community.
These are great efforts to improve the local sentiment around your brand which, in turn, can lead to getting more new customers.
They are not, however, tested advertising methods that can controllably deliver scalable results.
Your Budget
At the end of the day, you’ve got to make the best choice for your business, for your budget. If you want to grow your business in a measurable way, you’re better off investing in marketing channels you can measure and control. If you’re more concerned with your business’s face in the community, consider some of these old school, offline techniques. Just be clear on your goals and understand that the value they add isn’t an exact science.
