Promoting in the dark: How to find your local market

It’s hot and sticky in Montreal. But it’s July and expected. We live in a city of extreme weather (and consequently fashion) but I wouldn’t trade it for a thing!

I was walking a long St-Catherine street around noon today with a friend, when a women walked past us and quickly handed us some cards. Now normally I ignore these handouts but she piqued my curiosity when she mentioned it was a ‘Sex and The City Girls Night’. I took the card which you can see here (not the greatest shot but it was taken by my old 1st gen iPhone). We quickly analyzed the offer and determined that the establishment was offering women a complimentary table d’hote, in Laval. Upon seeing this my friend quickly tossed the cards since it wasn’t interesting enough to drag her out of the Plateau and trek out to Laval. I on the other hand, kept the cards as it made me wonder how many businesses were using this traditional (read: old school, ineffective) method of promoting and marketing their offers and what they could potentially do differently.
Here is what I concluded by looking at their card:

• They are Laval based
• They are a dinner/lounge/supper club
• They are targeting women with their Sex and The City tie-in
• They want to build a mailing list (the offer is only valid if you provide your email address)

What could they do to differently to get more of the right eyeballs? Their current method is as effective as throwing darts in the dark. Sure, if you have a lot of $$ to throw around go for it, however if you want to embrace new media and take advantage of the social web why not try to :

• Evaluate where your niche hangs out:  A quick search of ‘women social’ on Meetup results in eighteen groups related to women and socializing.Why not approach these groups and invite them to your establishment? Right away you’ve targeted a group that does social activities (and probably looks for places to check out all the time) and they are women! Bingo. That wasn’t so hard!
• Partner with local businesses that target your niche: How about cross promoting with a local business? Women like spas! The ‘Girls Night’ promoter could reach out to neighboring spas and salons and cross-promote with them.  A quick Google search turns up at least 5 spas in the Laval area.
• Be present: A quick glance at their website reveals they are using social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, however in one-way broadcasting/push method. Not to mention their entries are sparse. If you are going to be present, be active and don’t just create an account and let it go stale.  Using Advanced Search, they could probably target local women who are looking for a Girls Night and so on.

Creating cards and handing them out is pretty easy. Being creative isn’t necessarily but will get you further and leave you less frustrated when you wonder where all the guests are at.

Women are viral beings by nature: we like to talk, share and talk some more.  If we like something, be sure that we will tell our friends. Get us to your establishment, rock our world and we’ll be back. It really is that simple. You just have to find us