Do you treat all of your customers and prospects the same? If so, you could be wasting thousands of ad dollars and not know it.

One of the core principles of online marketing is to divide your market into niches, smaller segments that you can more closely target your messages to. By focusing on these smaller segments, you can deliver more effective messages than you can by treating everyone the same.

Today, we’re going to look at one way to carve up your local market, and how one business might promote to the different segments.

A Local, a Snowbird and a Tourist Walk Into a Bar…

That might sound like the setup to a joke, but it’s one way to break up the southwest Florida market in a meaningful way. Let’s take a closer look…

Locals, or permanent residents

These are the people who eat, sleep, work and play in your local area. They’re here in January and July — they know where the hurricane shutters are and how to put them up. Odds are, these are the folks that keep your doors open during the off season. They are the bread that sustains business life.

Snowbirds, or seasonal residents

We call them ‘snowbirds’ because when the the snow starts flying up north, they start migrating here looking for warmer weather. Snowbirds are the folks that inspire the letters to the editor complaining about traffic and long lines at the stores. You and I know that seasonal residents have a huge impact on our local economy.

Because they spend several months here every year, you can treat them almost like locals for the winter months, and adjust your message when they return to their home base. In many areas, seasonal residents provide the butter to go with the bread.

Tourists, or visitors

These are the folks that are only here for a short time, whether for business or pleasure. They come, stay a few days to a few weeks, and go home. They can be the jelly that makes your profit sandwich taste sweet.

Everyone knows what a restaurant is, so we’ll take a look at how a fictional restaurant owner might promote his business to the different segments. While the particulars might change for your particular business, The ideas will work for almost anyone. So as you read this, start thinking of ways you could apply these ideas to your own marketing…

Let’s keep things simple. For now, let’s call our restauranteur “Joe the Chef” (I know, really original, right?), and his restaurant Joe’s Grille. Joe is in an area with a strong permanent resident population, a number of seasonal residents during the winter months, and visitors coming for both business and vacation all year long.

Joe’s marketing plan for Locals

Joe’s major objective for Locals is to keep them coming back to Joe’s Grille on a regular basis. His secondary objective is to get them to spend more each time they come, especially on high-margin items.

During the off season, Joe sends out a weekly newsletter consisting of an email-only special offer (BOGO, discount, freebie with meal, etc.) along with a weekly “Chef’s Special” dish. Joe adds some information about the Chef’s Special’s ingredients or history, and tells people the only way to get the special is to ask for it, as it isn’t posted anywhere in the restaurant.

During the busy season, Joe keeps up with the regular newsletter, but adds a touch to make memebers of his Locals list feel special. The truth is, Joe is a great cook and his place is usually packed during the season. Getting a table at Joe’s can be a very long wait, which can be good for bar receipts but frustrating for Locals. So Joe turns his banquet room into a semi-private dining room for members of his Locals list only. In his email newsletter, he’ll include the weekly password. When members come in, they go to the entry to the banquet room, give the password, and get in without waiting.

To really jazz it up, Joe throws in unannounced extras — a free glass of house wine with dinner, a free dessert or maybe a taster tray of appetizers. Mnay people routinely start ordering their favorites on later visits.

Joe’s marketing plan for seasonal residents

Joe’s objectives for seasonal residents are similar to those for permanent residents, but due to the time they are away in the summer, he treats them a little differently.

During the off season, Joe only emails his Snowbird list once a month. He wants to keep Joe’s Grille on their mind without being a pest. He replaces the email offers and Chef’s Specials with cooking tips and recipes. In each issue, he reminds them to stop in when they come back, and holds a “Welcome Back” party every fall.

During the season, Snowbirds get the regular weekly newsletter, minus any mention of the locals-only club or password.

Joe’s marketing plan for visitors

Joe has two objectives for Tourists. First, he wants them eating at Joe’s Grille. Preferably more than once. Second, he wants them telling other people about his restaurant when they go home. Most of the visitors Joe gets are tourists on vacation, so it’s unlikely they’ll respond to a regular newsletter.

To get them in the door, Joe (and his marketing guy) use the full range of promotional tools. They advertise in travel magazines, and are looking at travel shows on cable TV. Joe has a full-blown website, where people can view Joe’s menu and see testimonials from happy diners, recorded right in Joe’s dining room. Site visitors can buy pre-paid meal plans, such as daily breakfasts or box lunches. Joe also offers an affiliate program for the pre-paid meal plans.

To generate word of mouth buzz, Joe has one of his people circulate around the room with a small video camera. She’ll ask for a moment, and permission to video. If she gets it (and she usually does — everyone wants to be a star), she’ll ask what brought them to Joe’s that night and how they found the experience. Then she asks the people to sign a small release form giving permission to use the video she just recorded on Joe’s website. This also gets their names and physical addresses.

Later, Joe mails them a physical card with a commemoratice still taken from the video along with a notetelling where the people can view ‘their’ video. On that page is an invitation to share the video with friends, plus a ‘tell-a-friend’ form to make it really easy to do.

Wrapping up, we’ve just looked at one way to effectively segment your local market. Each segment presents different challenges and opportunities, and should be approached differently. We also looked at how one small business owner might integrate online marketing techniques to market his restaurant more profitably.

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