local website idea ... lookin for advice

LotsOfZeros said:
Something a long these lines got me thinking about mail.
If you develop a list from your 'local bars & nightclubs' site it would behoove you to run some sort of marketing campaign featuring one of your listed bars. You could have them run some special that everyone who shows their email to the bouncer gets in for no cover or something like that. Everyone has iPhone/Palm/Blackberry/Android phones and can access their email. Have them pull the email up and that's their ticket in the door.

It would be a great way to demonstrate to the bar owner the power of marketing through your website.
Do it for nothing for a few times and get them hooked - then sit back while all the local bar owners bid up the price to be your exclusive Saturday evening drinkers alert email.
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I saw something recently where a bar was offering free cover if you entered your phone number in their form and they sent a text message that was your ticket to get in. I don't think they were keeping the numbers to use in the future, but an opt in email for free cover sent via text would be great.
 


LotsOfZeros said:
Something a long these lines got me thinking about mail.
If you develop a list from your 'local bars & nightclubs' site it would behoove you to run some sort of marketing campaign featuring one of your listed bars. You could have them run some special that everyone who shows their email to the bouncer gets in for no cover or something like that. Everyone has iPhone/Palm/Blackberry/Android phones and can access their email. Have them pull the email up and that's their ticket in the door.

It would be a great way to demonstrate to the bar owner the power of marketing through your website.
Do it for nothing for a few times and get them hooked - then sit back while all the local bar owners bid up the price to be your exclusive Saturday evening drinkers alert email.
Click to expand...

I own a blog-style city portal for my town and I incorporate something similar.

The key with these bar and restaurant owners is to offer exclusivity. They want what others cannot. They don't want to be just another drop in the bucket. So to offer this, on top of my regular listings I incorporated a "The Best of *City Name*" which is one of the main attractions of the site.

They ate it up. And if you show them the stats and they see that your site is in the public eye, how could any owner possibly turn down an exclusive listing that declares their business as the best of it's kind?
 
Well when it comes to local advertising, one company sticks out. Contact a company called BlitzLocal, run by one brilliant marketer named Dennis Yu. He's pretty much got local advertising down to a science. Learn all you can, this guy is a genius.
 
LotsOfZeros said:
Something a long these lines got me thinking about mail.
If you develop a list from your 'local bars & nightclubs' site it would behoove you to run some sort of marketing campaign featuring one of your listed bars. You could have them run some special that everyone who shows their email to the bouncer gets in for no cover or something like that. Everyone has iPhone/Palm/Blackberry/Android phones and can access their email. Have them pull the email up and that's their ticket in the door.

It would be a great way to demonstrate to the bar owner the power of marketing through your website.
Do it for nothing for a few times and get them hooked - then sit back while all the local bar owners bid up the price to be your exclusive Saturday evening drinkers alert email.
Click to expand...

this is an excellent idea, that would be like a gimmick to even join the site!

i think this paired with the "best of" site would be awesome, and with limited spots on the site, i could charge more for them to be listed

the challenge is just gettin people on there first so i can start marketing it


 
Hmm. great shit here. I recently bought bkkclubs.com... should apply a lot of this here... kick ass domain, and was hoping to sell ad spots to clubs or just get free bottle service. lol
 
leadsupplier said:
this is an excellent idea, that would be like a gimmick to even join the site!

i think this paired with the "best of" site would be awesome, and with limited spots on the site, i could charge more for them to be listed

the challenge is just gettin people on there first so i can start marketing it
Click to expand...

Do what I did and load a bunch of businesses into your site. You could scrape YP or most municipalities have web access to look up business licenses/fictitious business filings. If your prospect sees his competition listed, he might want in, AND he might want to pay more to show up on top in the 'Best of' category.

All of this has been discussed in the 100k & 200k threads. I suggest you read both of them from start to finish and you'll be on your way.
 
hyperion said:
Hmm. great shit here. I recently bought bkkclubs.com... should apply a lot of this here... kick ass domain, and was hoping to sell ad spots to clubs or just get free bottle service. lol
Click to expand...

lol, fair trade off, youd be a local baller, nice site btw

LotsOfZeros said:
Do what I did and load a bunch of businesses into your site. You could scrape YP or most municipalities have web access to look up business licenses/fictitious business filings. If your prospect sees his competition listed, he might want in, AND he might want to pay more to show up on top in the 'Best of' category.

All of this has been discussed in the 100k & 200k threads. I suggest you read both of them from start to finish and you'll be on your way.
Click to expand...

i read the 100k and 200k a year posts, and thats why i started the thread. i want to launch my site already, but i just dont know what to do about listing bars on there already, i'm probably going to have to just list them for free until i get some steady viewers .. then go to them and say check out my site .. i get xxxx visitors a month, you should be on it bc ur competitor is .. blah blah
 
JarredLv said:
Well when it comes to local advertising, one company sticks out. Contact a company called BlitzLocal, run by one brilliant marketer named Dennis Yu. He's pretty much got local advertising down to a science. Learn all you can, this guy is a genius.
Click to expand...

Truer words have never been spoken... harr harr.
 
Enigmabomb said:
Therein lies the problem. 50 Uniques a day between the two of them. Highly, Highly targetted though.
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Go out to Mill Avenue on a Saturday Night with x,xxx flyers advertising your websites and providing some sort of incentive for folks to visit.. begin drinking and passing out advertisements for your website to similarly minded college students. also stealthily place stacks of advertisements around businesses where they may be picked up. convince the night crew at jack in the box to hand out flyers for you. find millrats and offer them dollars/food/LSD to do similarly.

lather rinse repeat?

(also, blatant shameless advertisements in and around ASU)
 
this whole thread is hot fire. i think the biggest situation is going to be google local search? That almost always arrives at the top of a <city>/<county> search query first.

I read in one other thread (i think it was the 200k/yr one) where as to run a PPC campaign w/ a max daily for that niche...which is a great idea.

Another hurdle to get over is how to explain to the potential client why your site will outweigh local search.

I guess its all about the content on your site, and how much targeted traffic you can drive.
 
...or I guess you can even register a generic niche domain, and really hammer the SERPs for a particular business (.ie - Smiths Toyota Dealership, or Allen's Auto Repair) and then send them a direct mail, call em up, or even let them find out on their own that a media/marketing firm is outweighing them in search results online - which I think could be good in a way, but might drive more tension down the road or possibly even a legal dispute?
 
Here is a good example of how it should be done. hxxp://www.valley24.com/. This is actually owned by the local newspaper. But still... very good example of how to do it right.
 
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