Orange County Register

Today’s tip comes from Tim Hart, Hart Communications and The Savvy Marketers, which offers affordable, Web-based marketing courses for small businesses.

Tim lives in the Bay Area, and he comments on his blog about a specific ad campaign on BART, but as he points out: You can book transit ads to run in specific, local neighborhoods for a short or long duration. Transit can include busboards (inside or out), bus shelters, train stations, benches, you name it.

Here’s what that campaign did right, Tim says:

1) The organization bought transit ads on a specific train line — affordable and a great way to target very specific geographic zones. In this case I was on the train that ran from Fremont (eastern suburb of San Francisco) to downtown SF.

2) They created a Web address that included BART, which spoke directly to people on the train.

3) There was a specific call to action: Go to their Web site and discuss the topic. You know exactly what to do with the information. Their tagline with their logo supports this: “think. discuss. connect.”

4) They can track results. Based on how many people use the BART address they can compare how their message is penetrating, compared to a specific address they might use for similar ads on the buses or the ferries. By slightly customizing a URL they have a campaign-specific tracking method ready to go. And that information can lead to new, tailored outreach later.

Tim concludes: “For small businesses this is a wonderful idea to think about. Transit ads can be much more affordable than you think and as this campaign shows, you can call people to action in a way that speaks to them directly rather than just being generic.”

If you have a strategy, resource or tip to help small businesses, click here to send it to me. If I use it, I’ll give you credit and link to your Web site.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.