For local businesses like trades, restaurants, and specialty stores, advertising can create awareness, drive traffic, and get sales. Whether you’re just starting or scaling up, creating an effective advertising campaign requires a mix of strategy, creativity, and analytics. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to build and grow a campaign over six months across digital, radio, and print media, while highlighting key KPIs and strategies for maximizing ROI.
Month 1: Laying the Foundation
Define Your Goals: Start by identifying clear objectives. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive more foot traffic, or promote a specific product? Your goals will inform your choice of channels and metrics.
Know Your Audience: Define your target demographic. For example, a specialty coffee shop might target young professionals, while a plumbing business might focus on homeowners. Take the time to create Ideal Customer Profiles – it’s worth it.
Budget Allocation: Allocate your budget across channels. For local campaigns, a 40-40-20 split across digital, traditional media, and contingency is a good starting point. People need to contact your brand several times before they’ll engage in a meaningful way. Encountering your brand across different channels will increase the chances a person will become a customer.
Build Your Assets: Invest in high-quality visuals, copy, and branding. Consistency across platforms is essential to build trust and recognition. Brand integrity is a critical part of building trust. Your assets should reflect your values and your mission. That will carry through to your customer experience, and that will lead to referrals and growth.
Initial Channel Setup:
- Digital: Create Google My Business and social media accounts. Set up Google Ads and Facebook Ads campaigns targeting your local area.
- Radio: Identify local stations that align with your audience and explore introductory packages.
- Print: Design flyers, posters, or mailers for distribution in high-traffic areas.
Months 2-3: Testing and Iteration
Digital:
- Run A/B tests on your ads. Experiment with different headlines, images, and calls to action (CTAs). You can use AI or hire freelancers to help you generate dozens of ad variations that can be tested and improved.
- Focus on location-based targeting. Use geo-fencing to serve ads to people near your store or service area. Be as targeted as possible in order to maximize your ad spend.
- Retarget website visitors with follow-up offers or reminders. Re-targeting helps you focus your spending by targeting people who have already shown interest.
Radio:
- Run ads during peak listening hours for your target audience. Niche down as much as possible and look for budget advertising opportunities that connect to a large audience.
- Include a memorable jingle or slogan to increase recall. The radio ad should tie in with other ad channels. Make sure you are consistent in tone. Imagine that your brand is a person – endeavour to speak like that person across all ad channels.
Print/Outdoor:
- Distribute flyers in neighborhoods where your audience lives.
- Partner with complementary local businesses for cross-promotions.
- Scout high exposure areas where target customers pass through or spend time. This is especially useful if you are actually nearby and offer a service or product people want. For example, an ad for a cafe outside a train station pointing to where customers can get their morning coffee.
KPIs to Track:
- Digital: Click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and cost per lead. Click-through is how many people click on the ad. Conversion is how many do what you want them to do when they visit your site – that could be booking a reservation, asking for a quote, or signing up for an email list.
- Radio: Call volume or web traffic spikes during ad air times. You can offer discounts when listeners use a specific code, which can help determine what channels and stations are driving interest.
- Print: Redemption rates of coupons or unique offers. Direct marketing is great because it’s cheap and measurable.
Months 4-5: Scaling Up
Double Down on What Works: Analyze your data and invest more in the channels and strategies delivering the highest ROI. For example, if Facebook Ads are driving significant traffic, allocate more budget there.
Expand Your Reach:
- Digital: Broaden your targeting slightly to include neighboring areas.
- Radio: Add more time slots or stations.
- Print: Consider placing ads in local newspapers or magazines.
Incorporate Promotions:
- Offer time-sensitive discounts to create urgency.
- Launch a loyalty program and promote it heavily across channels.
Community Engagement:
- Sponsor local events or charity drives to build goodwill and brand visibility.
- Share your involvement on social media and through press releases.
Month 6: Optimizing for Sustainability
Evaluate Campaign Performance: Review your KPIs and calculate ROI for each channel.
Optimize Campaigns:
- Digital: Refine targeting and messaging based on insights.
- Radio: Refresh scripts to keep ads engaging.
- Print: Update materials with fresh offers or seasonal promotions.
Plan for the Future: Create a content calendar for ongoing campaigns. Regularly update your ads to maintain audience interest.
Best ROI by Channel
- Digital: Facebook and Google Ads typically offer the best ROI for local businesses due to precise targeting and measurable results.
- Radio: High ROI when targeting a specific local demographic, especially for services like trades or dining.
- Print: Effective for high-impact awareness campaigns and promotions when combined with digital efforts.
Key Takeaways
- Start small, test rigorously, and scale based on results.
- Track KPIs across channels to understand what drives the most value.
- Balance digital efficiency with traditional media’s local trust factor.
- Engage with your community to build authentic connections.
By following this six-month playbook, local businesses can create advertising campaigns that not only drive awareness but also deliver measurable results and sustainable growth.
