It’s more important than ever to support local businesses and jobs. Central Geelong Marketing has a range of simple ways – many of them free – to keep supporting businesses while they adapt to changed trading conditions. Shop, spend and support businesses like they depend on it – because they do!
Get social
Like and follow your favourite businesses to show you care about them and are interested in what they are offering.
It’s easy for businesses to post on their own social media pages about their products and services and engage with an audience that’s already interested in their offer. But now’s the chance for you to spread the message for them to a whole new audience. Follow ten businesses that you want to see survive and thrive over the coming weeks and use the #followyourfavouritesgeelong on social media to challenge colleagues, friends and family to do the same.
Like their posts
If you see a great offer, fantastic picture or an important message from a business that you follow, hit the ‘like’ or ‘love’ button. It’s so simple to do and helps the business expand its reach and spreads the support local message.
Comment on their posts
If you ‘like’ or ‘love’ what they are doing, tell them! Comment on the post, tell them what you love about their business or offer, ask questions, and be an at-home cheerleader for them.
Share their posts
Support businesses who are putting great content out there. The act of sharing what a business is posting on social media helps expose the business to more people than it would otherwise reach. It’s simple and it’s free.
Tell and tag your friends
Tag friends when you know they would like what a business is offering or if it is something you would love to do, eat or experience with them. It might be as simple as a shout-out to a friend who you normally meet for coffee, a Zoom dinner date with family over delicious delivered takeaway or a save the date for when restrictions ease.
Give a review of your favourite businesses
Taking the time to give a review of local businesses that you support can be a huge help to them. It can influence others to follow your lead, gives a boost to the website traffic and google ranking of the business and it can give other customers reliable information about their products and services. Reviewing a business makes it more likely the review will appear on the news feeds of your friends and help spread support for businesses you love.
Sign up to their newsletters or mailing lists
This helps businesses build relationships with their customers and lets them tell you direct about their products and services. Being on their mailing lists lets you find out first about specials, new products, important business updates and, especially now, how the business is adapting to the COVID-19 restrictions.
Subscribe on YouTube or podcast app
Lots of businesses are providing some of their services online, using YouTube channels, live feeds or new podcasts.
Subscribers can help the business gain momentum – the more an online product shows up in searches, the more reach and potential customers it attracts.
Sharing great video content from businesses you love helps a lot.
Feeling lucky? Enter a competition
When you see a business you follow online offering a chance to win a product or service, they are asking followers to help support
them and share with family and friends to build their customer base. Enter the competition – you might just get lucky – but even if you don’t win you have helped promote and share the local business and what they offer.
All these simple ways of supporting the businesses you love won’t cost you a cent but can make a huge difference to local businesses in uncertain times.
When you are making choices about where to spend your hard-earned money, consider the following options to help support local more.
Shop local, support local
When you spend at a local business, it keeps money in the community, creates jobs, reduces your carbon footprint, you get great customer service and it promotes a unique and thriving business community.
Supporting and buying from local businesses as much as you can now will help more businesses survive the impact of the pandemic.
Support businesses doing things differently
While some Central Geelong businesses have been able to continue trading within social distancing requirements, many others have found new and innovative ways to keep operating over recent weeks.
Cafes and restaurants are offering new takeaway or delivery options to eat or cook at home.
Professional services have online consultations and health and wellbeing businesses are live streaming yoga or meditation sessions or providing products and tutorials for at-home classes or treatments.
Some of Central Geelong’s finest entertainment and cultural venues are also offering amazing content for you to enjoy while you are safe at home.
Download the Love Central Geelong App or visit the online business directory at www.centralgeelong.com.au/find to find Central Geelong businesses that are doing things differently.
