The 12 Block Rule is Secret Ingredient to Franchise and Chain Store Success.

As a small enterpriser will never beat them at this game unless you engage customer on a more personal level. They are big corporations but you have one Serious Ad- vantage. You don't need 300 customers a day to meet your bottom line. This gives you upper hand in targeting your market. You might only need 20 a day or 20 a month to meet yours and this means you can be a little more accurate in pinpointing your potential market. Smaller overhead means less mass-marketing is needed. Better to build than slowly and gradually and treat each customer as precious commodity he or she is. You can spend less on "blanket type" advertising and be more direct in your marketing.

This also requires some degree of "intelligence" on your part to determine who best prospects are for your business. Start by determining who is a perfect candidate for what you sell. Is it something everybody can use - or is it something that everybody needs? There is a very Big difference when it comes to marketing. Direct marketing is not just removing middle-man from buyer-seller equation. It's also a more hands on approach to reaching consumer on his home turf. This means you'll need a deeper understanding of your customers and why they buy from you. Examine your business sales to date- who's been buying from you and why? Determine as much as you can about your current client or customer and you will have basic profile of who your next one will be. Where in your own neighborhood do they live? Is there an overall demographic similarity between most of them and can you reach more of same kind of individuals somehow? This is called Clustering and this kind of Market Research information you'll need to create a plan for of your own business marketing.

Local Marketing makes sense only because CONVENIENCE has changed ALL of our Buying Habits forever. You Must now play game by new rules or lose by new Rules!

Daniel Sage is a Marketing Consultant and Entrepreneur living in Las Vegas. More info on Local/Neighborhood Marketing can be found on his site at http://www.customores.com Or send an e-mail to sage@customores.com

Any one of these tools, or combinations of, work great for your free ad submissions. Both organization and posting are made easy after initial setup.

Below is lowdown of each, listing strengths and weaknesses, in my opinion. In all honesty I like them all, but read on, use them, and make your own decision. ---

AI RoboForm

AI RoboForm is great for filling in forms. After you teach it how, it will fill them in automatically when your browser finds one. As you go to a newsletter form page, you can name settings for newsletter, then every time you go to that site, AI RoboForm will fill out form. All you have to do is hit submit button.

The free version can be used immediately. The way we are using this tool is hindered very little in free version, although full version does have some great features. There is no way to organize your ezines, but I find it an excellent form filler.

http://pagecrafters.net/programs/AiRoboForm.zip

--- AdWizard

One of AdWizard's better features is that it keeps a database that is easily accessed and modified. It also lets you know when it is time to send your ads again. AdWizard is a slower than AI RoboForm or EzineAnnouncer, but is most configurable of three when filling forms.

AdWizard is usable immediately, but requires that you register it after 60 days of use.

http://hop.clickbank.net/?dsextonj/pbeuger

--- EzineAnnouncer

Although I like all of these tools, most versatile is EzineAnnouncer. Like AdWizard, it will also let you know when to send your ads out.

Between AdWizard and EzineAnnouncer, former is most configurable using forms, but neither AdWizard or AI RoboForm have ability to send email to ezines that require your ad to be sent via email.

The demo version of EzineAnnouncer is usable for 15 days. After that it must be registered for continued use. If you use it, you might get addicted.

http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?354 ---

None of these tools are expensive. The cost is less than $150 if you were to buy them all. Consider cost of advertising and what a premium ad runs. This now becomes a bargain.

The length of time involved is setup of each ezine. It's not too bad unless you have a hundred or so to do. After you've finished doing a bulk load like at Tucats Co-op, onezies and twozies are easy and don't take that long.

Remember, don't blow off those ezines after you've subscribed. You could be missing some good articles and might find an ad or two that you may find useful.

-------------------------------------------------- Dale Sexton owns & operates 'PageCrafters.net', & publishes 'Small Business Tools magazine'. Both focus on tools & tips for small business. mailto:pagecrafters@pagecrafters.net Sign up for 'SBT magazine' at: http://pagecrafters.net/newsletter.html --------------------------------------------------