Grande Prairie is home to one of Alberta's largest Chambers of Commerce, despite only having the 8th largest population. We are a city of entrepreneurs, hard-workers and innovators. Grande Prairie's pride in it's small business community is something to be celebrated. Nevertheless, this community's small businesses still has it's hurdles to overcome! What are they? What services are there to help you to overcome these challenges? And of course, how can I help you!?
Challenge #1 Grande Prairie is a last-minute community
Grande Prairie's long term residents aren't always home but they are always ready and willing to support their fellow community members. It's more last-minute than most places but the support will come, as long as you can take advantage of their timing!
If you have an upcoming sale, event or campaign, you want to make sure you're spending your ad dollars wisely. Promoting minimally throughout the beginning and then doing a big push towards the last week of your campaign is the easiest way to take advantage of Grande Prairie's last minute attitude. Using radio and/or billboards is a good way to lend legitimacy to the campaign early-on, and then use social media to supplement those initial ads.
Every good campaign needs cohesive promotion. As far as graphics go, I can keep your advertisements affordable and professional! Billboards, flyers, social media posts, social media event pages, event programs, and everything in between. I can help you create a detailed graphics plan for each event and then provide you with all the resources you will need throughout the campaign.
Challenge #2
Your website is basically useless
Websites are getting easier and easier to get up and running, but harder and harder to get people to engage with. One of the more simple things you can do is to make sure you are using a paid service. While Wix free sites are appealing, unfortunately, those banners across the top come across unprofessional and clutter the site. Web services like Wix and SquareSpace come with many templates but they can be hard to personalize and navigate if you're unfamiliar with them. That's where a professional designer like yours truly could come in handy! If you're looking for something basic and easily maintainable on your own, GoDaddy has more simplistic templates that are easier to navigate.
Another big hurdle for websites in this day and age is SEO. Search Engine Optimization. Many of these online web-services offer some amount of help with this, but it is something that needs to be worked on consistently. Keeping your website updated frequently helps with this (that's where things like blogs are great!). There are several great marketing companies in town that can help maintain your SEO. Other ways to increase web traffic is to frequently promote it on social media and to make sure to include your website on all your promotional materials.
Challenge #3
Low Foot Traffic
As a graphic designer, I may not be a fantastic authority on how to combat the endless construction and traffic habits of Grande Prairie. However, I may be able to give some tips and tricks on graphic-related improvements you can make!
The biggest and most obvious is to have good signage. If you want a hand-crafted, locally made sign for your business, try checking out Caffeine Plus Chaos. Having a good logo and branding is an essential first step for this though. If your logo has not been created in a way that can translate to a good storefront, then having a big, obvious sign will do more harm than good. Keeping up an appearance of professionalism is vital to having an inviting store. The other major thing you can do is to promote that store! Photos, particularly of real people, are a great way to get people engaged on social media. Take photos of your storefront, inside the store, during open hours, behind the scenes. Take photos of you and your employees, your customers, your events. Post them on social media and include your address and opening hours whenever you can.
Challenge #4
The Bigger Guys Can Afford Better Advertising
Advertising can be expensive. You have a lot more options than you might realize though! Billboards, radio, program sponsorship, flyers, door knockers, postcards, social media ads, YouTube ads, website banner ads, and so much more! A lot of those options can be surprisingly inexpensive, and if you compound them they can have a lot more reach than just one of the more expensive options.
Keep in mind the importance of timing your campaign well to utilize your ad money in the best way possible. While billboards can cost a several hundred dollars to run for a month, you may be able to find a digital billboard that offers shorter campaign times, so maybe you could just run the billboard for the final push of the campaign. If you want to start an advertising campaign, reach out and we can discuss your needs and what will be the most helpful for you.
Keeping your advertisements fresh and cohesive is a good start to making your campaign look expensive and professional. If you have a big important campaign, hiring a marketing company to create a cohesive marketing plan may be a good idea. A wonderful, local option that I recommend checking out is M3M Marketing with their affordable and thorough marketing options!
Happy New Year everyone!
Christine Weighill
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