Growing your brand is important to any business, especially if you’re trying to get a foothold in a new area. To make your Baltimore billboards work effectively, you’ll need a marketing strategy that connects with the city’s audience. Getting that interaction takes some work, but with the right plan in place, your business can build a brand that’s just as much a part of Baltimore as crabcakes and roadhouses!
Digital and Traditional Billboards
One thing that Baltimore has in spades is traffic. Be it pedestrian or vehicular, sidewalks and roadways are generally jam-packed with commuters and shoppers going about their day. Hanging creating and unique Baltimore billboards can help make your brand part of the daily commute. Digital options even let you add a bit of pizzazz to your message with moving images and crisp colors that make your message even more noticeable.
Local Publications
Part of becoming part of a community is being seen every day. While Baltimore billboards may have that somewhat covered, you’ll want to look into local periodicals as well.
Listing your brand in newspapers and magazines can get your business some neighborhood notoriety that much faster. Local publications include:
- Baltimore Sun (daily newspaper)
- Daily Record (daily newspaper)
- Baltimore Afro-American (weekly newspaper)
- JHU News-Letter (student paper)
- Baltimore Magazine (oldest in Baltimore)
- Link (art magazine)
- Main Line Today Magazine
Using these newspapers and magazines will allow you to build your brand right into the media that your prospective customers consume on a regular basis!
Social Media Marketing
Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Twitter are all great applications that let you keep your finger on the pulse of society today. You can leverage these social media services to build your brand locally as well as internationally. By focusing on local figures and events, you can create a real connection with the citizens who work and live in your company’s location. Your pages may become the go-to spot for local info, making your brand even more trusted than before!
Community Engagement
Of course, you can’t post great selfies of community events if your business doesn’t have a presence there. Getting involved in the neighborhood means taking part in local events that celebrate Baltimore and its people. When your company pitches in with community projects or helps to raise money for a common charity, it engenders a good deal of loyalty and respect, something that your brand can use as it becomes an integral part of the neighborhood as a whole.
Partnering with Local Businesses
The best kind of marketing is the kind that’s already done for you. When your company partners with a local business, it is getting all of the benefits of an established neighborhood icon. Look for a business that already has strong ties with the community and shares similar values with your brand. These kinds of partnerships are beneficial to both organizations, creating a positive presence in the neighborhood that residents know they can count on for support.
Learning “Bawlmerese”
Every locality has its own quirks of language. If a company wants to sound like they belong, learning the local lingo is a great way to fit in. There is a wealth of slang particular to Baltimore, such as:
- Bawlmer/Baldamore: The great city of Baltimore
- Crouchy: Overly crowded
- Coddie: Fish cake with cod, onions, and mashed potato
- Hon: The preferred term of endearment
- Lake Trout: Fried Atlantic whitefish (actually not Trout at all)
- Wholetime: Emphasizing a true statement
- Zink: a sink
Adding a few words of the city’s quirky dialect to your Baltimore billboards will definitely help you get some sympathy from the locals.
Branding vs. Conversions
When you’re building a brand, it’s important to remember your primary goal. It’s not to sell your products, it’s to create a stable, recognizable, and trusted name within the community. If your business shows up in Baltimore trying to sell, sell, sell right out of the gate, the community will see your brand as a money-making scheme.
Look to create customer loyalty instead of conversions and your messaging will go that much further.
Building Believable Brands
Creating a name for your business in Baltimore isn’t as easy as throwing up a few signs. Just as with any major metropolitan area, there are a lot of potential customers that will take to your branding in different ways. Focus on building ties within the community will help your business become a trusted part of the neighborhood. When you create a brand around the heart of Baltimore, its citizens know they can turn to your business when they need it most!
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