The local community will be your biggest market, which is why it only makes sense to prioritize local promotion as much as possible—especially in the first few months of operation. And while digital marketing is highly effective in helping a business gain traction, don’t forget about the non-digital means.

When promoting a business to the local community, here are some of the most effective ways to do so through non-digital means:

1. Vehicle ads

Your personal and business vehicles can serve as a mobile “billboard” for your business. With business car magnets, you can easily advertise your business name, logo, and services (or tagline) every time you commute to work or run errands. And since decals and car magnets are not common sights on regular vehicles, people are more inclined to look at your ads.

2. Company swag

Your employees are essentially walking billboards. Then there’s the fact that employees love getting free stuff from their job. Hit two birds with one stone by handing out company swag to your employees so that aside from increasing their morale with tokens, you also have them as your walking advertisements.

The most effective kinds of company swag for this purpose include tote bags, jackets, shirts, baseball caps, bumper stickers, backpacks, laptop bags, and anything else they are inclined to use regularly.

3. Punch cards

Flyers are still in use today, but they are not as effective marketing tools as they were before. Most people only spare a glance at the flyer they are handed and immediately forget about it, either keeping it in their bag or throwing it directly into the trash afterward. Hence, handing out flyers may not be a great idea for promotion, especially if you are on a tight budget.

Instead of flyers that contain mere promotional material, why not hand out punch cards instead? Punch cards give an incentive to customers to actually visit your business. Almost everyone feels a tinge of enticement at the word ‘free,’ even if it takes a few purchases before they get that free item, so distributing them to passerby near your business can effectively direct that foot traffic into your establishment.

4. Local events

Sponsoring an event in the local community is one of the best ways to gain recognition from the locals and increase your sales. Find out who organizes the local events in the community and look for sponsorship opportunities from them. Usually, it is another business owner or perhaps an official in the local government. Either way, it is best to contact them in advance as slots for local businesses are quick to run out whenever there is an event around the corner.

A local event is also an opportunity to promote your online presence to potential customers, just as important as non-digital marketing. To do this, you can print a banner with your business links, hand out business cards, or display a QR code that leads to your web page.

5. Free items

Everyone loves free stuff. To leverage this human behavior to your business's advantage, try handing out free samples of your product to people passing by the establishment. Perhaps offer a free item to your customers on their next purchase (which is also effective at getting them back). Or you can also offer a ‘buy one take one’ promo to customers who bring a friend the next time they visit your business.

If your business offers services, you can try offering free trials if applicable or perhaps reward existing customers with free services upon their next visit. Remember: when people hear the word ‘free,’ they are more likely to pay attention.

6. Bumper stickers

Hand out bumper stickers to your friends, family, colleagues, and employees and ask to put them on their vehicles. Like car magnets, bumper stickers are a passive advertising method that is highly effective and inexpensive. Think about how many times you’ve sat in traffic and stared at the car ahead of you—if people see a bumper sticker with your name and logo on it, they are likely to become familiar with your business even if they’ve never heard of you or have done business with you before.

Building a reputation in the local community is one of the biggest challenges for a small business. With these non-digital marketing methods, however, you can start gaining traction in a more traditional, hands-on way compared to digital marketing—and successfully gain the recognition of your biggest market: the locals.