And I can attest to the fact that everything people say about Port Elizabeth business being ‘different’ is true.
The late Hilton Shorrock and I started MyPE in 2006 as a ‘bit of fun’ with a serious long term goal to stay relevant and provide effective advertising for local business.
Since that time we certainly proved MyPE’s relevance and attracted loyal and fanatical supporters to MyPE, along the way successfully avoiding the temptation to sell out to a number of offers along with the normal bumps in the road.
There are a few inescapable facts about doing business in Port Elizabeth:
- There IS a click.
- People still do business on a handshake.
- There is STILL a distinct mistrust of anything on the interweb.
- You MUST be able to demonstrate to a potential client that a friend of his/hers DID have wild success with the product you are trying to sell.
- Port Elizabeth people ONLY shop on price – someone from PE will be inordinately proud of buying something ‘cheap cheap’ whereas someone from the larger cities will be boastful about the high price paid for an item.
- To sell anything in PE you must be from PE and, preferably from a known school.
- PE people STILL think that doing business over the phone is ‘so advanced, doll’.
- If your business has not been established in PE for over 10 years then you will have to spend a lot of marketing rands.
- PE people take a long time to trust you.
The balancing act with a site such as MyPE attracting local advertisers is that it needs a high volume of traffic AND it needs to be highly targeted. In terms of ‘pages’ the MyPE web site is pretty massive for a site with a local focus with around 185 000 pages of information on Port Elizabeth and three main sections of interest to advertisers – News, Business Directory and Classifieds.
Since launching our new advertising spots and online purchasing we have had some great support from advertisers and we would like to publically thank our most recent NEW / RENEWED advertisers below:
- NMMU
- Afri-Save
- Mobilities
- At Work
- Democratic Alliance
- Medi Synergy
- Stratlec
- Cable Right
- Cousins DVD
- Mando Hosting
- Fusion Design
- Kingfisher FM
Secure your ad spot here: http://mype.co.za/new/2011/07/more-ad-choices-on-mype/
Another growing area is from Premium Links in the Business Directory. These links take care of the ‘targeted searches’ on MyPE – and are the first ones seen in their categories, making sure that ‘Top of the List’ helps get your business to ‘Top of Mind’. See some MyPE premium links here.
Which spot is the most valuable on MyPE?
There is a ad spot on MyPE that is worth just under R10 000.00 a month. This ad spot appears on every page in the MyPE Business directory only.
Contact Janine Direct to secure this most valuable spot for YOUR business.
I challenge you to to tell me which advertising spot you think it is – start your search here: Advertising Directories in Port Elizabeth.
Alan Straton
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