There are fifteen spots on the card. There is one per category. What you are buying is not only reach — it is a position, and positions run out.
How a category gets taken
Nothing dramatic happens. A local business in your category signs up, takes the spot, and starts appearing in the same mailboxes every month. Their name goes onto the neighborhood website too.
You would not notice for a while, which is the problem. The change is invisible from your side of the street.
What twelve months of head start looks like
By the end of a year, the business holding your category has appeared in those homes twelve times. Households that have not needed either of you yet have already learned one name.
That is the whole mechanism. Recognition is not built in the moment somebody needs a roofer. It is built in the months before, when nobody needs one at all, and the card on the refrigerator is doing it quietly every morning. We wrote about why that happens in why your mailer ends up on the refrigerator.
When the water heater finally fails, the homeowner does not run a comparison. They reach for the name they have already seen. Familiar brands feel safer even when they aren't better — not because people are lazy, but because familiarity is the cheapest signal of risk they have.
Why exclusivity is the product
A card with three plumbers on it is a price comparison. A card with one is a recommendation.
That is why we hold one business per category rather than selling the same slot twice. It costs us a sale on every edition. It is also the only reason a spot is worth holding: if we sold your category to two businesses, neither of you would own anything.
It cuts both ways. The spot you hold is closed to your competitor for as long as you keep it — and the spot they hold is closed to you.
What to do about it
Call and ask whether your category is open on the next edition. That is the entire first step, and the answer takes a minute.
If it is open, you can take it. If it is not, you are already in the position this article describes, and the useful thing to know is how long until it frees up.
One spot runs $650 a month — roughly 13¢ per door across 5,000 households in ZIP codes 77469, 77406 and 77407. Every spot carries its own tracking, so you find out what came back rather than guessing. Customers decide in about five seconds, and those five seconds are decided long before they happen.
Questions people ask
What does one business per category actually mean?
Each edition of the card carries up to fifteen local businesses and only one from each trade. One plumber, one dentist, one roofer. No competitor in your category appears beside you on the same card.
What happens if my category is already taken?
You wait for it to open, or you take a different edition covering neighboring areas. We will tell you plainly which categories are held and which are open on the next card rather than selling you a spot that is not there.
How specific is a category?
Specific enough to be useful. A general dentist and an orthodontist are different categories; two general dentists are not. The test is whether a homeowner choosing between you would see you as alternatives.
How long do I hold the spot?
For as long as you keep running it. There is no auction and no bumping — the business in the category keeps it, which is the entire point of holding one per category.
Does the exclusivity cover the neighborhood website too?
Yes. Your spot includes the front-page Local Business Spotlight, a written article about your business, and a place in the weekly newsletter, held on the same one-per-category basis.