Advertising in Pukekohe and Franklin: reaching local customers

Franklin is the part of New Zealand where Pritty Ghood started, so this guide is more specific than the others. It covers where a small business in Pukekohe, Waiuku, Tuakau, Pokeno, Patumahoe, Bombay, Clarks Beach, Karaka or Kingseat can put an advertisement, what that tends to cost, and which options reach people who actually live here rather than people driving through on the motorway.

Franklin is a local market, and that is the point

Pukekohe is a town of about thirty thousand with a main street that still does the job a main street is meant to do. Waiuku, Tuakau and Pokeno each have their own shops, their own clubs and their own Facebook groups. People who live here buy from businesses here, and they drive to Papakura or Manukau only when they have to.

That is good news for advertising, because the audience is easy to find. It is in the cafes on King Street on a weekday morning, at the rugby and football grounds on a Saturday, in the vet, the pharmacy and the hardware store, and at the school gate. An advertisement in one of those places reaches Franklin people and nobody else, which is exactly what a Franklin business is paying for.

The free things first

If you have not done these, do them before spending anything.

• Google Business Profile. Searches for "plumber Pukekohe" or "cafe Waiuku" show the map panel first. Fill yours in completely, add photos, keep the hours right, ask for reviews.
• The local Facebook groups. Franklin runs on them. Every town has a community group, a buy and sell group and a noticeboard group. Read the rules, contribute properly, and your name becomes known.
• A shop front that says what you do. The number of Pukekohe businesses whose front window does not say what they sell is surprising. Fix that before buying anything.

Paid options in Franklin

The local papers

The community papers are still read in Franklin, especially by older residents and the rural community. A display advertisement costs in the low hundreds per insertion and suits businesses whose customers are over fifty: health, home services, rural supplies, real estate.

Community radio and regional stations

Reach is wider than Franklin, which is the problem: you pay to reach Papakura and Pukekawa alike. Suits a business that draws from the whole south.

Online advertising

Google Ads for a Franklin trade works because searches are local and specific ("electrician Pukekohe"). Facebook advertising targeted to a fifteen kilometre radius around Pukekohe is cheap and puts a picture of your work in front of local people. Both are covered in our guide to advertising for small businesses in New Zealand.

Advertising inside Franklin businesses

This is what we do, and it started here.

Local businesses in Pukekohe and the surrounding towns list the advertising space in their premises on Pritty Ghood: a window on the main street, the counter at a cafe, a screen in a waiting room, the mirror at a gym. You book one for a fortnight or a season, the host approves it, and your advertisement goes up in front of that business's customers.

What makes it work in Franklin is the matching. An electrician's advertisement in a lighting store or a hardware store. A physio in a gym. A mortgage adviser in a real estate office window. A kids' activity on the counter where parents queue for coffee. The person standing in front of the advertisement is already thinking about something you sell.

Prices start from about $55 a week, with all fees included in the price on the listing, and campaigns run from two weeks to a year. We are still signing up hosts across Franklin, so the browse page tells you honestly which listings are real. If the place you want is not listed yet, tell us on the browse page and we will go and ask them.

Sponsoring a Franklin club or event

Pukekohe, Waiuku, Tuakau and Bombay all have rugby, football, netball, cricket, golf and bowls clubs, and most of them sell sponsorship. A junior team season, a hole at a golf day, or a named prize at a tournament costs a few hundred dollars and puts your name in front of the same Franklin families every week. Our guide to sponsoring a local sports club covers what a package should include and what it should cost.

Which suburb, which audience

Franklin is not one place, and where you advertise depends on where your customers are.

A business in Pukekohe that wants Waiuku customers should advertise in Waiuku, not in Pukekohe. It sounds obvious. The number of businesses that advertise where they are rather than where their customers are is not small.

A plan for a Franklin business with $400 a month

• Google Business Profile, complete and reviewed: $0.
• One counter display in a Pukekohe cafe near the customers you want, listed at $55 a week: about $240 a month.
• A junior team at the rugby or football club: about $40 a month over the year.
• A boosted Facebook post to a Franklin radius once a month: about $50.
• The rest held back until one of those earns more.

That reaches Franklin people four ways, three of them measurable, for less than one billboard would cost for a fortnight.