Are you finding it difficult to get support from your local community? Blogging to let locals know how your business benefits the community can help.
Blogs are a great way for people to learn more about their local community and businesses. Did you know for example, that most consumers today use the internet to find local businesses? When they find you, they use your blog to learn more about the business.
By telling people how you contribute towards the local community, it encourages them to want to help. Here, we’ll look at how blogging to tell locals how your business helps the community can benefit you, and how to do it.
How can businesses help their local communities?
There are a lot of benefits businesses can bring to their local communities. Just some of the common ways brands help in their community include:
- Sponsoring a local sports team
- Donating to local charities
- Creating green spaces
- Making use of local resources
- Joining a non-profit board
- Fundraising for the community
- Address local issues
Anything you can do to help the community can be highlighted in your blog and on your website. Every community has its issues. By choosing to help the community, it doesn’t just benefit the locals, it benefits your business too.
Why should you let locals know about your efforts?
These days, customers are a lot more mindful about the companies they buy from. They want to know the businesses they use care about more than just profits. Creating a blog to let people know how you are helping the community therefore provides a lot of great benefits.
Let’s explore some of these benefits below…
Nurturing your relationship in the community
If you want your local business to thrive, you need to develop a strong relationship with the community. They are, after all, your main source of income.
What better way to nurture a good relationship with locals, than by doing something to help the community? The more you do to make the community a better place, the more positively locals will view you. This in turn will help you to not only attract new customers but retain existing local ones too.
It highlights your values
Did you know that local consumers often choose a business because of its values? The things you do to help in the community clearly highlight your values. It shows customers you care about the local community and the lives of local people.
Just remember not to be overly promotional about your community work. When writing your blog, explain why you help and why the issues you support are important to you.
Encourages more local business
When you show the money spent through your company is put back into the community, it encourages more local business. Locals will be more likely to shop with you than your competitors if it benefits them in the long-term.
These are some of the main benefits that come from letting locals know what you are doing to help the community. By blogging about your efforts, it also gives you the opportunity to let the community know how they can help.
How to get the local community involved
As well as helping you to gain more sales, a blog can help you to encourage locals to get involved in your efforts. Near the end of the blog, you can highlight how locals can help. For example, if you donate to a charity, you could tell locals how much money you donate from each purchase. You could give examples, showing how much money will go to charity when a specific product or service is purchased.
If you are organizing a community event, you can also invite customers to volunteer or give you a donation. Getting them involved with your community efforts will help to further nurture the business/customer relationship.
If you do help your local community, spreading the word will help you to generate more local business. Blogging about your efforts is one of the best ways to raise awareness and show your audience that you care. If you don’t currently help the local community, spend time looking into current issues and charities you could support.