Small Biz Survival

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Marketing to Small Towns: The Road Less Traveled

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By Dana Wallert

As a virtual assistant and website designer, I’ve been working on a what I’ve found to be a highly underused marketing tactic. I live in Lawrence, KS. We’re a college town which means there are tons of freelance designers in and just out of school. We’re also a stone’s throw from Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri.

When I started to brainstorm different methods of advertising and marketing locally, I sought out all the usual suspects: yellow pages, directories, forums, chamber memberships, etc. I soon discovered that it is very difficult to be, excuse the cliche, a small fish in a huge pond.

How could I reach prospects and stand out in a field of hundreds? I kept going back to all the marketing gurus evangelizing the importance of finding your niche. And then, one day as I was driving out in the country to go visit my horse at a farm near Baldwin City, KS, it hit me.

I wonder if anyone is marketing technology services to small town businesses? I did a little research and found out that the answer is largely no. Of course, these “smaller pond” businesses receive a lot of your typical national direct mail and e-mail offers. But not too many people are prospecting them and reaching out personally to them, much less taking the time to explain their technology offers and how they could benefit the folks in Smalltown, USA.

I’m curious to hear what other online business owners are doing to reach out to their markets? Do you use traditional tactics or have you found your own road less traveled?

I have to add here that a blog to check out for more on marketing in smaller towns is the Small Biz Survival blog. I read it religiously and find it really inspiring. They are “By and for small business people in rural areas and small towns.”

I’m curious to hear what other online business owners are doing to reach out to their markets? Do you use traditional tactics or have you found your own road less traveled?

Thanks, Dana, for that unpaid plug of SBS!

Reprinted with permission from The Road Less Traveled.

Related article: Rural niche marketing.

[Photo of Welcome to Downtown Lawrence by Gratuitous Pawn on Flickr.]

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

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Comments

  1. I love the concept of marketing to small rural and mom/pop businesses that seem to be left out of the normal marketing efforts. Unfortunately, they are one of the hardest populations to market to due to the fact that they are so spread out and not assembled in a fashion that is easy to communicate with. I am always looking for ways to find these businesses.

    Deneen Wilson
    Typing Bug Virtual Assistant Services
    deneen@typingbug.com

  2. It’s so nice to not be alone in the forest!

    I have a heart for our Mom and Pop Shops and have focused 15 years on guiding and developing their marketing needs. However, finding or speaking directly with them is a constant battle!

    The first blockade is, in my opinion, is education. They simply do not know the benefits of working with someone virtually.

    So the quandary is – how do we educate them on the benefits when we can’t seem to find them?

    I use Twitter regularly to promote Shopping Local and supporting Mom and Pops, yet no clients have been gleaned from this effort.

    Traditional marketing, i.e. radio, cable tv, etc. works well, however takes a much larger saturation and consistency due to the need for education on the benefits. This becomes quite financially impossible for most!

    It’s much like having the antidote for Mom and Pop Shop Success and no way to deliver it across the river!

    I’ll keep up with this blog conversation!

Trackbacks

  1. […] The Blue Ocean Strategy takes it further, calling on us to sail far from the bloody competitive world and create a market out in the calm blue open space. If you are the only one, you must be number one! I learned this from one of my readers, Alfred R. Baudisch. If I’m the only one to sail out into the uncharted rural niche, I’ll face almost no competition. Certainly no direct competition. Another reader, Dana Wallert is doing this, calling it the Road Less Traveled. […]

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