Aligning Your Business with the Community
When you partner with the community, not only are you creating valuable networks but your company will also be receiving double the marketing. Community involvement is a key marketing strategy that can guarantee brand exposure.
Promoting a campaign with a nonprofit is one great way to align with the community. Being able just to say that you are aligned with a charitable cause puts a positive light on the public relations for your company. Second, the campaign could increase traffic to your venue. Not only would the nonprofit's supporters probably come to support the event but the community members who like the idea of the charity, would come to show their support. Third, most nonprofits have a Facebook page or email list where they can promote their campaign, which is then promoting your partnership and your business. Hello. That's free advertising.
A great example of a campaign like this is a food drive. The food drive organization can promote the campaign and your business (as the hosting venue) through their Facebook, twitter, emails, etc. The food drive would also be driving traffic to your venue for those wanting to donate. On your end, you can pitch the story to the media, use graphics to advertise and promote through any marketing mediums you might have. A great tip with a food drive is to promote an incentive which gives patrons a justification for their donation.
Donations are also a great way to spread your brand throughout the community. Contributing to community raffles or community events is a cross promotion that exposes your brand to the multiple patrons attending these events. Plus, whoever receives the donation will be claiming their prize through your venue, thus, driving traffic once again to your business. Show the winner a good time once and then they could keep coming back and bring friends. I don't even need to mention how important word of mouth is on top of that.
Another great marketing strategy to promote community involvement is just getting out there and talking to people. Go to local art fairs or city events. Talk to your community business leaders and make them remember you. Be your own public relations expert. Connections and networking can go a long way. If you need help finding events or statistics on which events are right for your business, Dion Marketing can help.
As a business, it is also a great idea to join your city's Chamber of Commerce. The chamber puts on events for the specific reason of networking. You can even take a leadership role in the chamber and possibly be able to spread the word about your business as a speaker of these meetings.
All in all, aligning with the community helps with brand exposure, creates an opportunity for networking with other professionals, advertises and drives traffic to your business for a price that's not marked with a dollar sign.
Need help reaching out to your community? Dion Marketing is a full service marketing and ad agency that works with clients nationwide! Just give us a call and we'll help get those creative juices flowing: (904)-249-9784.