At Step Out Buffalo our mission is to help people love where they live by showcasing local businesses across Buffalo and Western New York.
One of the ways we do this is through our Shop Local Packages. Step Out Buffalo Shop Local Packages are discounted advertising bundles comprising of our most popular promotional items at a discounted price. These advertising bundles are built specifically for brands, retailers, restaurants, salons, spas, fitness studios, and other editorially-fit businesses who want to reach a hyper-local targeted audience in Western New York.
Shop Local Packages: What They Are & How They Work
The goal of Step Out Buffalo Shop Local Packages is to put your brand in front of our readers and followers in creative, engaging ways across multiple touchpoints. All Shop Local packages include constant visibility on the Step Out Buffalo website through a featured business listing in your relevant category as well as bigger, more creative promotions across our other marketing channels, including StepOutBuffalo.com, our email newsletter, our Facebook page, our Instagram, and our TikTok.
Items within the Shop Local packages are delivered over a six month period, and the schedule can be customized to accommodate seasonal businesses or different campaign objectives if needed.
Overall, Shop Local Packages are a great way to increase brand awareness, tell your story, introduce your business to new audiences, stay top of mind, and grow your Instagram following and email subscriber lists.
Shop Local Packages: What’s Included
Shop Local Packages come in three different tiers: Standard, Pro, and Premium. Each tier includes varying amounts of the following items, with the Standard Shop Local Package including the least and the Premium Shop Local Package including the most.
Featured Business Listing
Step Out Buffalo Business Listings represent a specific business and allow you to share information about your business. Business Listings can include relevant information such as address, phone number, website, social media links, categories and tags, features, cuisine (if applicable), etc.
Business listings may be featured in relevant seasonal or niche topic guides as well as across our website pages when applicable. For example, a boutique shop’s business listing may be featured on our Shop Page, in neighborhood-based shopping roundups, in category-based shopping articles, etc.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Listings
Giveaway
A Step Out Buffalo Giveaway is a creative promotion that allows you to promote your business or event and generate positive business-to-consumer relationships with Step Out Buffalo readers and followers.
The goal of Giveaways is to encourage our readers and followers to subscribe to your email and/or follow your Instagram page in exchange for a chance to win a prize from your business.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Giveaways
Instagram Reel + TikTok Video
Step Out Buffalo Instagram Reel + TikTok Videos are highly visual promotions that are a great way to showcase your business or event to our large social media following and beyond. This item involves a SOB team member conducting a site visit to capture video of your business, event, or anything else you’d like to promote and then create a promotional Instagram Reel video and TikTok video that is shared to each respective platform plus Facebook.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Instagram Reel + TikTok Videos
Digital Banner Ad Blast (60k Ads)
Step Out Buffalo Digital Ads are impression-based display ads that appear on StepOutBuffalo.com and link back to your website or preferred landing page. These ads can showcase your business in general, a specific event or deal you’re hosting, or anything else you would like our readers to know about.
For this package, the 60,000 Banner Ads will run over the course of your 6 month campaign. This means that over the span of 6 months your ad will appear 60,000 times on StepOutBuffalo.com.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Digital Ads
Spotlight Article
A Step Out Buffalo Spotlight Article is a 200-300 word article about your business or event. The article is written by one of our writers based on the topic of your choosing. The subject of your article can be about any product, service, or news you would like to promote including new releases, grand openings, product and event roundups, general brand awareness, and more.
Once published, your Spotlight Article will be featured on our website homepage and any relevant category pages based on the categories they fall into, including our Shop page, Lifestyle page, Beauty & Spa page, Fitness page, and Health & Wellness page. Your article is also featured in our email newsletter, on Twitter, and on our Facebook page.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Spotlight Articles
Deal Promo Bundle
Step Out Buffalo Deal Promo Bundles include sharing your Deal Listing on our homepage, email newsletter, and in our Deal of the Week email.
Step Out Buffalo Deals are listings submitted by businesses to provide information for our readers about any special deal the business currently has, including discounts, happy hours, coupons, sales, and specials. These are a great way to drive traffic to your business’s physical location and/or website by offering new customers an exciting event or actionable deal to take advantage of.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Deal Listings
Dedicated Facebook + Instagram Post
Step Out Buffalo Dedicated Facebook + Instagram Posts are multi-image posts about your business or event that are shared to our Facebook and Instagram pages.
Dedicated Facebook + Instagram Posts are a great way to connect with our audience and share information about your business or event in a visual, organic way to our two largest social media followings. These posts are creative and engaging and perfect for generating buzz across the Western New York community.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Dedicated Facebook + Instagram Posts
Instagram Story
A Step Out Buffalo Instagram Story is a series of video clips captured on-site by one of our team members that gets published on our Instagram Stories.
These involve a SOB team member conducting an on-site visit to your establishment to capture content that showcases your business, including videos of outside your location, your space, and any items that you would like to highlight (ex: food, best selling products, atmosphere etc.).
Once captured we will compile the best 7 to 10 video clips, add text overlays, and then publish to our Instagram Stories on a pre-determined day.
*Instagram Stories are only included in Step Out Buffalo Pro and Premium Shop Local Packages.
Learn more about Step Out Buffalo Instagram Stories
Mega Homepage Takeover
A Step Out Buffalo Mega Homepage Takeover is a 1-week advertiser takeover of Step Out Buffalo’s homepage. This includes a sponsored content section with your brand logo and 3 to 5 sentences about your mission statement or brand description placed on the top, middle, and bottom of the homepage.
Mega Homepage Takeovers are exclusive items that involve only one featured advertiser at a time.
*Mega Homepage Takeovers are only included in Step Out Buffalo Premium Shop Local Packages.
Partner Tip Email
Step Out Buffalo Partner Tip Emails are dedicated emails to our subscribers that feature a sponsored article about your business. These are a creative and engaging way to connect with our audience and create “organic buzz” to promote a series of events, your brand, a new menu, and more. You will be able to see a final draft before the email is sent. Partner Tip Emails also include a digital banner ad (700 x 150), one other image of your choice (600 x 375), and a call to action link.
Partner Tip Emails are exclusive items that involve only one featured advertiser at a time.
*Partner Tip Emails are only included in Step Out Buffalo Premium Shop Local Packages.
Shop Local Packages: Fulfillment
Before your campaign begins, your assigned dedicated SOB Advertising Account Consultant will send you a publishing schedule outlining all of the items within your package and when we plan on publishing them.
After that your Advertising Account Consultant will contact you roughly once a month to get items approved and collect information for any upcoming promotions. Typically a “Submission Form” will be sent where you can upload images and any talking points for our creative team to reference when creating your proofs.
Throughout your campaign our Creative Team will meet internally to discuss your business and how to best promote it to our audiences. Your rep will send any and all ideas to you for review before we move forward with the item(s).
A full analytics report is provided at the end of the campaign including total reach, clicks, and cost per click. Campaign results are available at any time by emailing your SOB Advertising Account Consultant.
