How To Advertise In The Vaal Area

Getting more customers to learn and find about the services you render in your local business isn't easy, especially with so many customers finding their information online. Google search has become a popular method for customers to find local service providers, but it becomes less effective due to all distractions online from social media and instant messaging. Business owners need to continually remind customers in the area of their services to remain top of mind and ensure they are the prefered service provider for local consumers.

Once you get those customers through the door, it's up to you provide a high-quality product or service that will keep customers coming back for more and even recommend your business through word of mouth advertising.

How to reach your local Vaal community

Running a business in the Vaal area like any other established metropolitan comes with its fair share of complications as well as competition for attention from other companies. The Vaal triangle consists of Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg and sits about 60km south of Johannesburg and has a considerable population to target when promoting your business.

So how do you attract these local customers without wasting money? How do you ensure your advertising is targetted to your area? Well, here are some tips on how geolocation can be used to reach the right customers.

Two phased approach

If you want to reach as many local customers as possible, you need to make sure your business can be found in all the right places local customers would be looking. This would be a combination of online and offline advertising and allowing them all to feed you with a steady stream of customers for reasonable spending on advertising.

Below are options you can use to reach out to local community members and encourage them to become customers over time.

Targetted digital marketing

1. nichemarket

Allows you to create a custom listing on our site for your business which can act as your site's webpage or as a source of referral traffic to your main website. Once you have an approved listing, you will also be able to run three free ads each month to promote to your local audience. Customers can use nichemarket to find deals in their local area.

2. Facebook

Facebook may seem like a complete mess with so much content being posted each day, and your business posts not getting much traction, but this is not where you should be focusing your energy. Instead, rather look to create custom ad sets that target the Vaal community and surrounding areas and then segment them by interest sets.

You can continue to feed your ads with a budget, so it shows up regularly in local newsfeeds and drives more traffic to your site, Facebook page or business.

3. Google Ads

Google ads have by far one of the best geolocation-based ad services you will find online today. Google ads allow you to create ad campaigns based on popular search terms related to your business and only display your ads to users within the Vaal area, making it highly contextual and effective for driving leads.

4. Gumtree

The popular classified ads website allows you to create free ads or promote your ads which users can find based on their area. The amount of ads being posted each day varies, which also affects your ad visibility but is worth a shot and if done consistently can help you reach new customers in your local area.

Note: For more classified sites check out our post on ten free South African classified sites

5. Local classified sites and directories

• Vaal Web is a business directory that offers local businesses the opportunity to list their business on their site and promote it to local audiences looking for service providers in their area. You can find out more about their site here - http://vaalweb.co.za/
• Ads Africa has set up a subdomain specifically for Vereeniging and allows you to post a free ad on their site which local residents can find online. You can find their site here - https://vereeniging.adsafrica.co.za/

Local newspapers

1. Vaal Weekblad

The Vaal Weekblad is an online newspaper publication with a classified section for businesses to advertise as well as selling ad space on its site.

To contact them for advertising opportunities visit their website - https://vaalweekblad.com/

2. Vereeniging Ster

The Vereeniging Ster is a local tabloid ewspaper distributed in the Vereeniging area weekly with it going out on a Tuesday and Wednesday. The newspaper has a weekly distribution of 23 600 copies and a readership of 70 8000 per week. It reaches the LSM 5 - 9 and has content to ads ratio of 45% ads 55% news.

To contact them for advertising opportunities you can call 013 590 2123 or email bookings@visibleadvertising.co.za

3. Vanderbijlpark Ster

The Vanderbijlpark Ster is a local tabloid newspaper that is distributed weekly on a Tuesday and Wednesday and only reaches the local community of Vanderbijlpark. It currently has a weekly distribution of 26 500 copies.

To contact them for advertising opportunities you can call 010 492 8350 or email vr@sparkmedia.co.za

4. Vaal Observer

The Vaal Observer is a newspaper a new community newspaper that started its run in the Vaal area, homes as of 31 January 2020. The Vaal Observer is a biweekly newspaper a 20 000 print run takes advertisements of your goods and services straight to doorsteps of your target market in the Vaal area.

You can contact the Vaal Observer via email on

• editor@vaalobserver.co.za
• vaalobserver@vaalobserver.co.za
• siba@vaalobserver.co.za

You can call them on:

• Landline 087 5101 084
• Mobile 067 190 3889

Or visit their website is www.vaalobserver.co.za

Contact us

If you would like us to improve the advertising for your site or want to know more about digital marketing for your business, then don’t be shy we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us

Are you looking to promote your business?

South African Business owners can create your free business listing on nichemarket. The more information you provide about your business, the easier it will be for your customers to find you online. Registering with nichemarket is easy; all you will need to do is head over to our sign up form and follow the instructions.

If you require a more detailed guide on how to create your profile or your listing, then we highly recommend you check out the following articles. 

• How to create a nichemarketer profile 
• How to create a nichemarket business listing 

Recommended reading

If you enjoyed this post and have a little extra time to dive deeper down the rabbit hole, why not check out the following posts on local advertising.

• How To Get Local Customers With Online Marketing In South Africa
• 10 Ways To Generate Offline Leads For Your Website
• Why nichemarket is the best place to list your local Business
• Why Your Local Business Cannot Be Found Online
• How To Build Local Links To Your Website
• South African Businesses Need To Consider Collaborations
• Why South African Businesses Should Register On Multiple Directories

Tags: Digital Marketing, Traditional Marketing