At 20% of the U.S. population (and growing), rural consumers are an often overlooked and untapped opportunity for marketers across all categories.
More Americans desire to live in a rural community or small town according to a 2020 Gallup survey. Forty-eight percent of responders indicated living in a rural area or small town would be ideal, an increase of 8% over the previous survey in 2018.
Retailers like Dollar General recognize the value of the rural consumer. Serving markets of 20,000 or fewer consumers with 75% of its stores, Dollar General will open 1,100 new stores this year. Of those, 800 will be a larger format with additional space for health and beauty products and coolers for groceries.
With the decline or elimination of newspaper and total market coverage (TMC) print ads, media options for reaching consumers in rural markets are shrinking.
- 100+ total market coverage (TMC) newspaper advertising solutions were discontinued by Gannett in the first 6 months of 2022.
Marketing to rural consumers is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Consumers in smaller C&D counties consume and respond to media differently than their urban counterparts. If this growing rural audience is important to your business, Mspark can help you reach them. We specialize in driving brand growth and customer engagement strategies for national and local advertisers in these important markets.
Did you know?
Rural consumers respond to print offers when making purchase decisions for a variety of goods and services, including:
- Dining out
- Grocery
- Home Improvement
- Clothing
- Automotive
- Medicine
- Health & Beauty Products
Consumers in rural markets are also 21% more likely to use coupons than their urban counterparts in response to inflation and rising prices.
Read more about how Mspark connects brands with consumers in these important markets in our previous blog post: Rural Marketing: Why C & D Market Residents Shouldn’t Be Overlooked in Your Advertising Strategy. Reach out today to plan your rural consumer marketing strategy.
Sources: Gallup 2020; grocerydive.com; cnbc.com; Prosper Insights & Analytics
