How Local Advertising Can Work for Small Businesses

Yet lots of SMEs, in commercial backwaters like here in Kent UK, still miss the importance of promotion for their company. Word-of-mouth has always been the preferred technique of obtaining new business. But today, 'word-of-mouth' is as much about online social networking & grabbing your share of 'likes' on Facebook, as it is about getting your neighbour to say you run a tight ship. & social networking is even more relevant for the little 'backwaters' business than for a quantity of its multinational cousins.

Whenever they do exhibition shows we are often told by local little businesses that they 'don't need advertising'. My usual reply is 'why are you doing this exhibition, then?' After all, even putting up a few standees & a table with some flyers is a kind of promotion.

Local people are looking for local businesses - & very often the best recommendation is from other local people who have used your services before. That is why having a Facebook or Twitter link on your web-site, a regular weblog & a prepared supply of well written & useful articles up your sleeve pays dividend - even if you are a 'one man & his dog' type outfit. That is all part of promotion in today's go ahead world. & because the channels are changing so quickly, it is worth a little business basically staying in contact with its local advertiser. Not everything is 'chargeable'. They spend lots of our day keeping our clients, & potential clients, appraised of what is happening locally & in the promotion world - at root & branch level. So next time you are tempted to tell an advertiser, you don't need promotion, give it some thought.

Are you positive you don't need the services of a well season copywriter who can discuss your business, your new projects and latest products in a way that gets people thinking, 'oh, I might give that a go.?' Are you positive that your business profile is as sharp as it could be when for less than the cost of a day's PPC campaign you could have a sparkling new brand ID, logo and web presence to match? Have you thought through all the local press options and what local magazines and free papers would work best for your kind of company? Are you putting out regular broadcast emails to promote your latest offers in a way that at least gets them opened and thought about - than dumped straight in the junk folder? There's plenty of ways your local promotion agency can help your business fly. They do it every day. And they make it fun.

Rick Davis is creative director and freelance copywriter at DavisDavis design and promotion. They are a friendly, local advertisement agency with the strapline - Promotion that is all about Kent. We are proud of our local position and heritage and are based on the clifftops here, in Dover.