How to promote a local city guide site

[ludachris]

Hey guys, I wanted to get your opinions on promoting a region-specific community site. This site would include a local business directory, forums, blogs, area information, articles, etc. All content would be focused on a specific city/area.

How would you go about bringing people in? We've done the basics - SEO, Google Adwords, local newspaper ads, and a couple other offline marketing tests. But we haven't had a whole lot of luck bringing people in and very few are actually registering to participate.

This site is supposed to be a destination for locals to discuss local issues, share their favorite restaurants, ask questions about the area, etc. It's something we were hoping to find when we first moved to the area and thought it would be a great resource used by many. That hasn't been the case so far.

Just wondering if there's something some of you would be doing differently to promote a site like this. Thanks in advance.

[lufc]

I havn't had much experience with this type of site myself, but I would think that sponsoring local events such as faits etc and maybe local villiage/junior sports teams would help.

[ludachris]

I havn't had much experience with this type of site myself, but I would think that sponsoring local events such as faits etc and maybe local villiage/junior sports teams would help.

"faits"?

I like the idea on the local sports teams. Thanks!

[dvduval]

This is something that interests me too. I have a directory for my city that is getting pretty good traffic now, and could work on growing it some now.

[Ravedesigns]

I've been toying with this idea for a long time myself, and now that Article Live 2.0 is now out, I just may give it a shot.

My thinking is that I'd offer local businesses a free webpage listing, and then ask if I can leave a stack of small flyers promoting the site (and their business) by the register.

I'd also consider trading some advertising with some other businesses. Maybe there's a local coupon magazine you can promote on your site in excahange for promoting you in their magazine...or how about partnering with a local radio station? Make them an official site sponsor as long as they mention your site xx times a day on the air?

HTH some,

Steve

[talkalot]

I like the idea of Steve of exchanging advertisements but I don't know if that is easy to do.

Maybe the people in that town have a site that could have gone ahead of you and that's where they visit mostly.

Sponsoring events is really a good idea.

[xoail]

- Sponsor small community events
- Make webpages and put your link under each for local communities.
- Advertise a little on local newspaper (keep it unique: Teen hangout places around you!)
- Spread the word through friends.
- Put flier around.

[rcj662]

Ask local clubs to list events on your site. Maybe even give them thier own page.

[talkalot]

I had this freebie from one of the supermarkets when I buy a specific amount of goods. That freebie is sponsored by one of the local sites in my area. You might want to do that also. Advertising in a grocery is I think a good move because everyone goes shopping.

[Ravedesigns]

I had this freebie from one of the supermarkets when I buy a specific amount of goods. That freebie is sponsored by one of the local sites in my area. You might want to do that also. Advertising in a grocery is I think a good move because everyone goes shopping.

Lots of good ideas so far and I think the grocery store is a great one too.

Maybe you could get URL stickers printed and ask if you could place them on the register displays or even on the plastic dividers people use to separate their orders. You could also give them small flyers to put in each bag or maybe even provide them with free paper or plastic bags printed with the store name and your URL on them.

Of course if the store has a website you could also trade banner ads with them too.

[Eric Engel]

My thinking is that I'd offer local businesses a free webpage listing, and then ask if I can leave a stack of small flyers promoting the site (and their business) by the register.

This would probably be your biggest draw. If it's local traffic you want, then focus on the locals. Lots of flyers, and lots of room for 'business reviews' on your site.

[Rob_D]

Can we have a look at the site? There may be issues there that need addressing...

[2pencil]

If you want local traffic, get the book "The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook" by Jay Levinson & Seth Godin. You'll find dozens of tips in there about how to conduct local marketing with other businesses. I use it to market a local personal trainer, and everything they advised worked like a charm. No - I'm not making any money off this book or advising it for any other reason other than it helped me and it's easy to use.

[talkalot]

Just this morning, I bought my cup of coffee from where I always get my coffee. On the cup there is an advertisement of getting fit. That is also a good way of targeting visitors. Think of the areas of the people you wanted to look at your website and then advertise there.

I think you could advertise in places where tourists go by handing out maps of the place with your company name on the top of the map and the your website below it. Or if you target the local folks then you could give out discount coupons on gas stations for filling up full tanks. Of course, don't forget to place the name of the website in those coupons.

[Ravedesigns]

Just this morning, I bought my cup of coffee from where I always get my coffee. On the cup there is an advertisement of getting fit. That is also a good way of targeting visitors. Think of the areas of the people you wanted to look at your website and then advertise there.

That's a great idea and here's another one or two.

If you have any take out restaurants or pizza places in your area, you can offer to print their menu for free on one side of an 8.5x11 flyer and print an advertisement for your website on the other. You can be fancy if you want, but I think black text on a colored paper would work well and you can probably get copies made for only a few cents each.

Are there any colleges or universities in your area? I know of some businesses who give away note paper to students with advertising messages on it and I've heard of copy shops offering free copies to students that are paid for by the advertisers on the back side of the paper.