Enterprising Moms Network Inc

No matter where you live, big city, small town or somewhere in between, there is one vital link in your community that you share with every community around.  Your local paper.  Community papers usually are a small publication that is published once or twice a week.  They cover everything from major news stories that affect your community to event listings and garage sales that are happening around the corner from you.

There is a lot of value in a local community paper, alot of unrecognized value.  If you are running a business and want to be connected to your community in any way, a vital part of knowing what’s going on and of knowing how to get others to know about yourself and your business is as simple as a weekly news publication. 

Many times local newspapers are dismissed as being “too small” to be of any value to businesses.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  For example, if you were hosting an event such as an open house for your business and you wanted to get the people that live in your neighbourhood there, would you go to a daily paper that has a huge readership that covers the entire province?  You could, but chances are if you did get any coverage, it would be a small blurb that’s easily looked over.  You could pay for a display ad in a big daily paper, but that would likely eat up most of your advertising budget for the month. 

However, small community papers thrive on small community events.  That is their bread and butter.  That gets their readership growing and that gets them advertising revenue.  Send a press release to your local newspaper about that same open house that you sent to the daily news and you are more than likely to get much better coverage.  And you are also reaching your target market for your business.  And while a display ad in a local paper can still be expensive at times, the cost is likely much less than a daily paper and again, think about the target market you are reaching.

Even if your business is booming and you are about to “go national”, don’t forget the place where you live-where you started it all, and the people and businesses that supported you in the beginning.  Your community.

Above all, no matter where you are with marketing your business, when that local paper comes to your door or you see it in the local coffee shop, make sure you take a few minutes and read it cover to cover.  It’s your community, you never know what might catch your eye!