There is no greater pride than helping your own community succeed.

By joining together with your local customers, businesses, nonprofits and organizations, you’re promoting many different benefits such as economical growth, charity awareness, and the sense of camaraderie, just to name a few.

Supporting your community will always be a win-win situation.

Here are a few ways helping your community can help grow your business:

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Building awareness

Helping your community helps people get to know you! Whatever you end up doing, there is probably going to be some level of exposure. If you serve food at an event, volunteer to clean up a park, or donate a product or service to a nonprofit fundraising auction, there are usually incentives that are given. These incentives could include your name being printed on flyers or posted on online event pages. That’s free exposure.

Also, there is a good chance that many of these community engagements will be covered by local press or even television. You could even get an interview if you are onsite. What a great reward for getting involved.

TIP: Involved in a community event? Spread the word and let your customers know. Use email marketing to share the event information and encourage customers to attend. This will help the organization throwing the event, as well as your business, to see more action.

Interacting with your customers

How often do you get to interact and get to know your customers outside of your business? Probably not too often. But, when getting involved in your community, you have that opportunity to get to know your customers on a different level.

That’s right, in many instances, your local community members are your customers. And if they aren’t already, they will be once they see how you are helping their community succeed.

TIP: Local events can be a great way to grow your email marketing list. Plus, your community involvement will encourage them to join your customer base.

Set up a sign up sheet and let people know what value your business will be providing them in return for their email address. This could be anything from discounts, tips, and special offers to joining a loyalty program.

Establishing partnerships

Becoming involved in the community can open many doors. When people come together for a specific cause, the opportunities to network become abundant.

This is an ideal time to make new quality relationships with fellow community members and business owners. You all have the same sense of pride for serving the same community. Getting together with other local businesses during community events or volunteer opportunities can plant the seeds for beneficial business partnerships.

TIP: Launch a business referral program using email marketing with one of your local business partners. For example, a florist could set up a discount program for customers referred by a gift shop, and vice versa.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

As noble as it is to support your community, local charities, and nonprofits, there are also many ways doing so can benefit your own business. Building awareness, the opportunity to interact with customers, and building new business partnerships are just the tip of the iceberg.

From donating time, goods, services, or money, you will get back what you give in one way or another, so get out there and get involved!

Want to generate customer loyalty? Join us for a free webinar on how to build stronger relationships by sending timely, relevant emails to your subscribers.

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