I’m Amber G Williams, a McLean business owner. Like most business owners, I want to reach more customers. As you know, good advertising is usually quite expensive. A marketing agency recently suggested that a business would need to spend $5k for Facebook ads to reach most households in Vienna. That's just too much!
I wanted to reach many neighborhoods in my market area without spending thousands of dollars!
A colleague suggested a local advertising cooperative. He suggested I could reach many households in my market area without wasting money with the help of a local advertising cooperative. That's what I wanted – to reach many households without wasting money.
I searched for an advertising cooperative in McLean and the surrounding areas. Sadly, I found nothing. We had no local advertising co-op. What could I do? I still wanted to reach many households without wasting money.
I did some research and found someone who’s been managing a local advertising cooperative for almost 15 years. I reached out to this advertising cooperative expert. He suggested he could help me start a local advertising co-op. He informed me that it would require a lot of work and if I really wanted to do it then he could take me under his wing and offer me one on one mentoring for a fee – a hefty fee. Ultimately, my goal was to reach many households without wasting money. I felt I must proceed. I decided to establish a local advertising cooperative to serve my market area.
My new mentor suggested a shared large format postcard is one of the most effective forms of cooperative advertising. It works well for consumers because they get a mini catalog of trusted businesses. It works well for other local businesses because they get premium positioning to promote their businesses to local households without wasting money. It works well for me too because I also get premium positioning to promote my businesses to local households without wasting money. Win, win, win!
Thus, the Local Advertising Cooperative was founded to help local business owners and managers promote their businesses to local households without wasting money.
My office is located in McLean, across the street from the Capital One building. In my main business, I'm a Real Estate & Mortgage Advisor. You can check out my websites below. I welcome all feedback.