MBA Member of the Month – April
Interactive Advertising through Neighbor to Neighbor

Neighbor to Neighbor

The next time you think about advertising your business in the local paper or sending out a mass mailing to potential customers, consider instead the following scenario:  Someone pays a home visit to your potential customers and tells them all about you, leaving them with coupons, a map and directions, and in many cases, a personal testimonial about your business.  Sound too good to be true?  Well, that is exactly what Paula Weber has been doing for the past fourteen years.

Since 1993, Paula has worked as an Area Representative for Neighbor to Neighbor, an interactive advertising service based out of Agawam, Massachusetts.  Serving Marlborough, East Hampton, and Colchester, Paula visits newcomers shortly after they move into town, presenting them with a welcome kit made possible by local business sponsors.  For each newcomer, Paula spends time reviewing the kit and its two main components:

Community and Civic Information – Paula’s welcome kit includes a list of phone numbers for administrative offices, schools, houses of worship, fire and police stations, senior centers, and other important offices and organizations.  Tailored to each town in Paula’s area, the kit also contains information about recreation and sites of interest as well as upcoming local events.

Greetings from Local Businesses – The welcome kit provides newcomers with information about many local businesses – all Neighbor to Neighbor sponsors.  Paula’s kits contain flyers from shops, dentists, fitness centers, restaurants, electricians, financial advisors, and many more… all vital services that help new residents feel like part of the community.

Paula works hard to make personal contact with almost 97 percent of new residents in the three towns in her area.  Her busiest time falls during the summer months and in December.  In a typical summer, she meets with well over one hundred new residents.  Her personal record was in August of 2005, when she met with seventy-six newcomers in one month!

Benefits for Sponsors

Paula is proud of the personal advertising that she is able to provide for her sponsors.  She feels she is doing more than just handing out flyers.  “I am very knowledgeable about each sponsor as I personally tell newcomers about the business,” she says.  “I can represent them with personal knowledge and in many cases testimonials.”  This enables Paula to speak confidently about each sponsoring business, providing more detailed information when questioned further by newcomers.  A business that signs on with Neighbor to Neighbor can take advantage of the following benefits:

Neighbor to Neighbor is non-competitive.  Paula will only take on one sponsor for each business category, ensuring that her sponsors have exclusivity.  “No other media can offer that,” enthuses Paula.

Neighbor to Neighbor keeps in regular contact with their sponsors.  Every month a sponsor is provided with a list of newcomers that Paula has visited on his or her behalf.  Each sponsor can use this list to see if the personal advertising is paying off.  In addition, Paula checks in with her sponsors on a regular basis to learn about new things happening in the business.  At any time, sponsors can provide Paula with new flyers or inserts for the welcome kit.  This ongoing relationship with her sponsors ensures that Paula’s information is always fresh and current.  And it gives sponsors the opportunity to fine-tune their advertising efforts along the way.

If you are looking for a fresh new approach to advertising your business in the local community, consider the unique and personal service provided by Neighbor to Neighbor.  To learn more about becoming a sponsor, contact Paula Weber at 860-295-0111.