2001: Home Is Where the $ Is

Since the home theater market is expected to reach growth of as much as 30 percent next year, no doubt many of you are eyeing the marketing and either jumping in, or planning to.

But the consumer market is so very different from the corporate, business and entertainment market. You'll need to set up a separate marketing effort with a wider range of activities. You'll want to lead your local market and FAST. Here are a few tricks to help you nab more than your fair share of market in 2001.

Visibility

One of the best, most lasting ways to get your company a large percentage of the local consumer market is to quickly establish you and your company as experts. Your company should be the first to come to mind when people have questions about home theater.

Publicize

You can send out a news release, also called a press release, announcing that your company has opened a home theater division serving your local community. Be sure to include all of your contact information in the news release.

Call the editor of your local or regional newspaper and offer to write weekly columns about different challenges of installing home theaters. Be sure your photograph appears with the column and at the end, be sure to have a tagline that makes it clear your company is available for business. Sample:

Bob Jones is president of Home A/V, a Smallville company that designs and installs home theaters around the community. For more information about their services, call (800) XXX-XXXX.

You can also write for local gloss magazines. Most metroplitan areas have color magazines they sell on the newsstands, and many areas also have regional real estate magazines that would likely welcome your submission. For any article appearing in a color magazine, be sure to have high resolution color photographs showing off your best work.

Advertise

If you take out an ad in your local newspaper, make sure you're in the right place. A lot of newspapers these days have home sections. If not, check to see where most electronics ads are. Often, ads for computers, for example, are at the end of the sports section.

Get on the Web! Be sure to be listed in your city and county yellow pages.

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