A Free Marketing Department for Silver Lake Merchants

Independent merchants in Silver Lake have a marketing problem that is structural, not fixable by better copy or a new Instagram strategy.

Digital advertising — the dominant channel for consumer-facing businesses over the past decade — works on scale. The more budget you deploy, the more reach you buy, and the cheaper the marginal impression becomes. This works well for national brands and e-commerce companies with large repeat-purchase rates. It works poorly for a local dentist, a neighborhood gym, or a coffee shop drawing from a two-mile radius.

You cannot compete on Google or Meta advertising against brands with seven-figure budgets when your addressable market is Silver Lake and your average ticket is $18. The cost-per-acquisition math doesn't close. Most local merchants have already figured this out — they've tried paid advertising, found the returns insufficient, and gone back to relying on word of mouth, Google Maps placement, and the Yelp reviews they have no control over.

The Performance-Based Alternative

nAIghborly offers something structurally different: performance-based neighborhood marketing. You pay only when we can verify a sale. Not per click, not per impression, not a flat monthly subscription — only on revenue we actually generate for you.

The rate is 10% of attributed sales, split four ways:

• 2.5% → nAIghborly platform
• 2.5% → Landlord rebate
• 2.5% → Tenant rent credit
• 2.5% → Your marketing float for campaigns

That last 2.5% accumulates in your account and funds the campaigns we run on your behalf. When the float is sufficient, we launch. If no sale is attributed, nothing is charged. The model only works when it's working.

Three Campaign Types

We run three campaign structures depending on your goals and category:

Collab campaigns are co-created with your business. Our team develops a campaign concept specific to your brand, writes the SMS copy and in-app offer creative, and distributes it to nAIghborly residents in your neighborhood. You approve everything before it goes out. The typical merchant involvement is a 10-minute review call. These generate the sharpest attribution signal because the offer is exclusive to nAIghborly tenants.

Brand campaigns are sustained presence pushes. Your listing gets featured placement in tenant notifications and in-app discovery for a defined period. These are best for merchants in competitive categories — coffee, fitness, restaurants — where being top-of-mind is the primary objective. You're not promoting a specific offer; you're promoting the habit of coming to you.

Experiential campaigns tie a specific incentive to a visit or a milestone. First-visit discounts. Loyalty rewards for a third or fifth purchase. Seasonal promotions tied to neighborhood events. These convert at the highest rate because they give residents a concrete, time-bound reason to try you rather than defaulting to wherever they went last time.

What Enrollment Looks Like

Enrollment takes about five minutes. You connect your POS system — we support Square, Clover, Toast, and Stripe — and we verify the integration. Your listing goes live in the nAIghborly merchant directory immediately. Residents in your area can see your business, hours, active offers, and a direct link to your website or online ordering platform.

The directory listing costs nothing. It's free regardless of whether you run campaigns or generate any attributed sales. We want merchants in the directory because residents use it to find local options, and a richer directory makes the platform more valuable for everyone.

Attribution works through POS data. When a nAIghborly resident makes a purchase at your location, we match that transaction to their account using the merchant ID from your POS integration. No loyalty card required. No app at checkout. No friction for the customer. The attribution is invisible.

The Timing Argument

We're currently in early enrollment for Silver Lake and Culver City. The first merchants in get first placement in every tenant notification — the equivalent of top search result positioning before the category gets competitive. That advantage erodes as more merchants enroll.

For merchants in categories with clear local demand — coffee, food, fitness, personal care, auto service — the window to establish category leadership in the nAIghborly system is now.

Enrollment is free. The first campaign won't run until there are enough attributed sales to fund it from your float. There's no downside to being in early.

Enroll your business →