Websites, apps, ads and CRM for Ann Arbor businesses

What is actually hard about marketing here

Every place has its own version of the same problem. These are the ones that come up repeatedly with Ann Arbor businesses, and they are not the same as the ones a few miles away.

• Roughly 43% of the people here are students who arrive in late August and leave in May. A campaign that peaks in June is speaking to a city that is half empty.
• Renters hold about 55% of the housing, so a large share of customers have been in town less than a year and have no default provider yet. Being findable on the first search matters more than being established.
• Search demand here is real on every service term — web design, SEO, marketing agency — which also means the results are crowded with national agencies and directories. Ranking needs genuine Ann Arbor evidence, not a page with the name inserted.

Questions we get from Ann Arbor owners

When should an Ann Arbor business run its biggest campaign?

Two windows: the last two weeks of August, when tens of thousands of students and their parents arrive and choose a dentist, a gym, a barber and a takeout place in the same week; and April, before the leases turn over. Summer is the quiet season for anything student-facing.

Do I market to the whole city or to my district?

Your district. A State Street cafe is competing with the cafes a student can walk to between classes, not with Kerrytown. Reviews, photos and hours should reflect that specific block, and the Google Business Profile category should match how people on that block search.

Is the Art Fair worth planning around?

For downtown retail and food, yes — it brings more than 400,000 visitors across 30 blocks in three July days. The useful move is capturing those visitors as contacts (a QR to an offer, an SMS list) rather than treating it as a one-time sales spike.