I am introducing a new service in my community and I am looking for effective ways to communicate my message.

I have studied information about other similar businesses in other states and I have spoken to industry experts and they have indicated that traditional advertising has not been effective for my offering. I have spent several hours knocking on doors and the response has been positve but in seven hours of canvassing I have only spoken to 57 people or which about 30% expressed some interest.

Another factor is that I am focusing just on my community of about 55,000 residences so I would prefer to limit the communication to this geographic area.
The gross profit per customer per year is about $40 to $60 but it is a repeat business so customers can be retained for many years if satisfied with our service.
What are some effectives ways to market my services considering these factors?

Here is some ideas to get you started:

1. Joint promotions with other business that provide services that a customer would use at the same time as your service.
2. Increasing your profile in the community through taking a leadership position in community organizations like Rotary.
3. Sponsor events that tend to be attended by your target market.
4. Have an agressive referral program that reward your customer to send you more.
5. Challenge the assumption that traditional advertising doesn't work-- and do it better.
6. Use non-traditional advertising -- like PPC with a geographic focus.
7. Become the local expert on the subject matter of your service with a collumn in the local newspaper, or "minute" on the local radio station.

And most importantly: Continue door knocking. If you can convert the 15 people who have experience interest that is a gross profit of 15*40=$600. that is not bad for 7 hours of work. And it will get better as you build a buzz and become more experience in qualifying at the door and focusing your message for a close.

I think all of what Joseph suggested is good. In addition, you should start to connect via Twitter. Try to find out if there are any hashtags that may represent your industry and/or community. I do a lot of things in New Orleans and many people use #nola when they are talking about New Orleans. I can do a search like #nola? and twitter will show me anything that has been published with #nola and is a question. You can engage your community this way.