At RevLocal, we pride ourselves on being heavily involved in the community that we serve. Not only is community engagement a great way to create awareness for your local business, but it’s also great for employee morale. Companies see 52% less turnover among new employees who participate in corporate giving programs, like volunteer days.
Are you ready to get serious about your business’s community involvement? We’ll show you some of the ways RevLocal engages with our community and share some tips about how you can get involved too.
Community engagement is the intentional effort to build relationships with the people your business impacts, whether that be your customers or the general public. If someone is impacted by the work you do, they can be a part of your community engagement activities.
Whether you need community engagement to grow your business recognition, boost your company morale or get input on specific aspects of your business, it’s important to build positive relationships with people who are most impacted by your brand.
Why exactly does community involvement matter for a local business?
Well, there are a few reasons we’ve already briefly touched on. If you’re a local business, the people in your community make up a large portion of your target audience. They’ll be the ones frequenting your establishment and booking your services. No matter what type of local business you have, you’ll need the support of those who live closest to you.
Some of the projects you do will require helpful feedback and you can recruit your community to help you with that. Maybe you’re testing a new product or something you offer will need some additional education. As an example, RevLocal will use our community to help us test the usability of our website. We’ll go into local businesses and ask people for a few moments of their time to answer some questions about our web pages before we commit to making major changes. This type of feedback from the exact people who will be using our site is invaluable.
Additionally, volunteering makes your business more appealing to both customers and your employees. Studies show that 77% of consumers prefer buying from companies with CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives. If a customer is between using your services or buying your products and a competitor, your community involvement activities could put you over the edge.
Similarly, volunteer opportunities and community engagement activities impact your employees as well. A survey found that group volunteering helped bond employees and led to more productive workplace relationships.
Ok, now that you have a little more background on community involvement for businesses, it’s time to get to the fun stuff—ideas on how to get involved! Check out these ideas that we know work, because we use them here at RevLocal:
Probably the most obvious and popular form of community involvement is donating to local charities. Writing a check to a cause or two that you care about can make a huge impact and it’s easy to do. At RevLocal, we have a few charities that we’re passionate about and like to donate to like Licking County Food Pantry’s Operation Feed Campaign and Vista Village, a tiny home community for the homeless.
We love getting our employees involved in the donations as well. We offer the option of donating directly from their paycheck each month as well as taking donations for things like used company equipment that has been upgraded.
Another simple but powerful way to make an impact in your community is to offer your employees paid volunteer hours. This can be implemented in a couple of different ways. You can set up volunteer opportunities for all your employees to do as a group during the workday and pay them just as you would a normal workday or offer them so many paid hours a year that they can use to volunteer at an organization of their choice.
RevLocal offers their employees a full workday each year that they can request off like PTO and use to volunteer for a cause that they care about.
Something you probably didn’t think about qualifying as community involvement is putting on free workshops and webinars. These pull double duty for you. Not only do they make the community more aware of your business and what it does, they also give people tools they can use to improve their own skills.
Check out the RevLocal News & Events page to see how some of our employees share their expertise through themed workshops and webinars. Make sure you also announce your workshops and webinars on your website and social media.
If you ever played t-ball or little league when you were young you probably remember sporting a local business on the front of your jersey. Now that you own a business you can return the favor by sponsoring a sports team of your own! What better way to make an impact on your community than investing in the youth?
Similarly, you can give money to sponsor other types of community events like fairs, art shows, 4-H clubs or even putting a float in the town parade. Not only has RevLocal sponsored sports teams, but we’ve also sponsored holes at golf outings played for a cause and galas to raise money for cancer research. Again, these are good ways to get the community familiar with your business while fostering a sense of belonging by investing back into the community.
Another way to invest back into the youth with very little financial spend on your part—starting an internship program. Work with guidance counselors at your area high schools and colleges to create a few either paid or unpaid positions that allow students to experience what it’s like working for your company.
When we do this at RevLocal we know that we’re helping students add some work experience to their college applications and internships while also making an impact at the schools in our community.
No matter where you’re at in your business-owning journey, it’s never too late to start getting involved with your community.
Make those all-important connections with your biggest supporters and target audience with any of these ideas within this list to watch your business grow and increase company morale.
You can trust us, because the very things we recommended are the things we practice as well! And if you’re interested in even more ways to grow your business and enhance your digital marketing, reach out to us today for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Mideya Kinney, Junior Content Writer
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