Community Outreach Ideas for Small Business Owners

Getting involved and known in your local community can be the key to long-term success for a small business.  Even a terrific personal marketing campaign, though fantastic, isn’t a substitute for getting out into your community, meeting people, and making a good impression on potential clients. Personal appearances, participation in community events, and chatting with people you encounter in the course of your daily life adds another dimension to your marketing. Here is a list of effective community outreach ideas that is important for any small business to know. 

• Rent a popular venue in your city for an evening. Invite all your clients to a private party. Sharon Stock and Kim Laforet of Coldwell Banker Hubbell BriarWood, East Lansing, Mich., rented a movie theater and invited past and current customers to a free screening of a children’s movie.

• Volunteer. Volunteering might be the easiest community outreach idea and probably the cheapest. Getting all employees together once a month to do some Saturday morning cleaning in a community park will improve a company’s reputation and the look of the local greenery. Make some company t-shirts for your employees to wear and you're all set.
• Select favorite recipes and photos from your prospects and customers. Assemble the recipes into a cookbook. Give away copies or sell them and donate the profits to a local school or charity.
• Host a speaker who's an expert on a topic that would be of interest to a particular group or niche. If the speaker has written a book or has a product to sell, ask him or her to donate one or two copies. Use them as giveaways during the event.
• Offer a $500 or $1,000 college scholarship to a high school senior in your community. Hold a ceremony to present the check.
• Sponsor or coach a children’s sports team in your community.

• Hold a Facebook contest. Have different local groups and associations compete for a prize and announce the winning team on Facebook. Adding images and details about the competition to the Facebook newsfeed will keep the community interested.
• Buy a block of tickets. Get tickets to a concert or play and hold a drawing in your office. Call your prospects and ask whether they’d like their names to be in the hopper.
• Hand out your personal brochure or business card at every opportunity. 
• Sponsor a home-repair demonstration. Or hold a lecture at a local hardware or home improvement store. Hand out flyers or place an ad in the local newspaper to let everyone know about it.
• Rent an ice cream truck. A sales associate in Grand Blanc, MI gave away free frozen goodies in local targeted neighborhoods. An in-advance postcard mailing informed residents about the promotion.
• Organize a group to go caroling. Who doesn't like carolers? When your group is finished singing, leave behind a Happy Holidays card from your company.

Community outreach is extremely important for all small businesses who want to make a good impression in their community. Putting a friendly face on your business helps personalize your brand and can improve your local visibility and popularity. 

Do you want to interact with other women small business owners? The annual MACsWomen Success Summit takes place each year, on the first Saturday of October, and we would love to have you there! Our summit is a fantastic way to market your brand and network with other women entrepreneurs. Join our Free Facebook Community and get updates on this sought-after event for business women and other real-time updates from the online community to help you grow a profitable business online!