This may sound like a silly, extra time consuming things to do, but it is truly a great way to boost your business! Community involvement is one of the easiest ways to make your business name known and to show that you are not only looking out for yourself and your business, but that you care about those within your community. What are some ways that you can help families make memories and to make a difference in people lives, while you are still building a business? Check out these ten great ideas.
Host a Carnival! If you have the space at your facility, this will get people on the grounds. And if you decide to do this, be sure to have someone working to sign up new customers. This is one really great way to introduce yourself to the community. Whenever they see your name advertised from that moment on, they will no doubt have fond memories of such an occasion. If they have a need for storage in the future, they will think of your facility right off, and they are already familiar with the grounds!
Host a Yard Sale. Give all of your tenants enough notice and host a facility wide yard sale. Bonus if you can get some refreshments to sell as well. As with the previous idea, this gets people on site and walking around. If you want to really push the traffic, invite other local business to set up a booth on site. Offer to let a school provide the refreshments as a fundraiser. The possibilities are truly endless with this one!
Pet Adoption Day. If you have the space, get in touch with your local animal shelter and offer to host a pet-adoption day. Most rescues already have all the necessities to do this, it just finding a business willing to let them use their property that tends to put a cinch on things. If you are willing and able, you not only get people on site, but you are also helping those cute furry friends find their forever homes!
Sponsor Something Local. Does the local school need new bleachers or scoreboard? How about a local fair coming up? Local July 4th festivities? If you can find some way to sponsor something coming up in your community, that sends a message of good will in addition to getting your name out into the public eye.
Host a Community Safety Day. Get a bounce house, provide a few games and some live music, gill up some dogs and patties, and invite the town! Ask your local first responders to come and do a demonstration like how to properly install car seats or how to effectively check smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. You could even hold a raffle for a free month of storage!
Invite Others to Use the Property. We are talking Girl Scout Cookies, a car wash fundraiser, a church craft fair. Many organizations are seriously lacking in the space to do these activities. If you have the space, offer it up!
Use Space for meetings or Educational Events. If you are a larger facility with a conference room, offer the use of it to local organizations and schools. The attendees will be exposed to you well maintained facility and you will be setting a good example of being accommodating.
Loan Out a Branded Truck. If a local charity or organization are in need of a moving truck for a short time, let them borrow yours. You will find that most are kind enough to refuel it and will sometimes even give it a run through the carwash! That free advertising as it drives around town!
Host a Contest. Tie it to a holiday, like pumpkin carving. Or encourage your tenants to sign up for paperless billing by entering everyone who does into a raffle. There is no cost to you other than a prize, which could be something as simple as a $25 gift card.
Training Space. Let your local fire department and police department use the property for training! If you have a fence and they need to train the K-9 unit, let the use your space after hours! This is a double benefit to you. 1) You are doing something nice 2) No one is going to want to mess with a facility that is used for such purposes!
No matter which community involved activity you decide to do, it will be extremely important that you market it like crazy! It would be a shame to put so much work into something and then have no one show up.
