Marketing a business in Buffalo, NY

The market's people

Its principal cities are Buffalo and Cheektowaga.

The median household in Buffalo, NY earns $72,237 a year, 11 percent below the national figure (the US median is $80,734). Owner-occupied homes carry a median value of $226,100, 32 percent below the national figure; the national comparison point is $332,700. Both figures matter for pricing and for which offers land.

Owner-occupied housing 66.8%, 2 points above the US share, which is the figure home-service advertisers should watch. The median resident is 40.9 years old, 2 years above the national median. The unemployment rate stands at 5.1%, about the same as the US share. 36.2% of adults over 25 hold a bachelor's degree or higher, about the same as the US share.

Relative to New York, household income in Buffalo, NY is 16 percent lower than the New York figure, home values are 47 percent lower than the New York figure, and businesses per 1,000 residents are 15 percent thinner than the New York figure.

Who is already competing here

Start with the count: 26,972 establishments with payroll. Per 1,000 people that is 23.2, 7 percent below the national figure. The table breaks out the categories that spend the most on local advertising; restaurants is the biggest of them at 2,153. Of those, 1,462 are home-services contractors (plumbing and HVAC, electrical, roofing, concrete, specialty trades and landscaping), a 5.4% share of the business base, about the same as the US share.

Reading the index: 1.00 matches the national mix, 1.50 means half again as common here, 0.50 half as common.

The market over-indexes on grocery stores, landscaping services, concrete contractors and general automotive repair. At the top of that list, grocery stores number 508, 1.6 times the US share. On the other side, general freight trucking, self-storage operators and electrical contractors are thin: fewer establishments per resident than the US pattern. With 262 locations, general freight trucking sit at about 69% of the national share. Roughly where the national mix would put them: plumbing and HVAC contractors, roofing contractors and road and paving contractors.

Counted by establishments, the order is restaurants (2,153), physicians' offices (680), personal care services (642). Adjusted for population, restaurants are the thickest on the ground (185.4 per 100,000), with physicians' offices and personal care services next. The group picture: automotive businesses above the national pattern at 1.3 times, trucking, storage, real estate and road construction below it at about the same as.

What this means for advertising here

In the crowded trades (grocery stores, landscaping services and concrete contractors) the map pack decides more calls than the ads do. Business Profile completeness, review volume and review recency become the separating factors, and paid search has to be tight rather than broad. For general freight trucking, self-storage operators and electrical contractors the picture is the opposite. Fewer competing profiles means a complete listing, a fast site and a modest search budget can take a disproportionate share of the searches that exist. An older-than-average market (median age 2 years above the national median) responds to search results, review counts and a phone number that is answered; it is less swayed by feed advertising. Where income runs 11 percent below the national figure, financing and clear pricing belong in the ad itself, not on a later page.