Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies have a lot to gain by engaging with their local communities. After all, there’s no place like home—whether you’re a one-man show or part of larger corporation. There are many benefits to a strong community relationship, including improved visibility, loyalty and employee morale.
Eighty-five percent of adults are more likely to support a business that engages with the local community.
Promotional products can help foster connections, especially when it comes to community events. Let’s examine a variety of B2C company goals and ways creative promotional items can help reach them.
Boost visibility
Most B2C companies want more eyes on their brand, and getting involved in local events can do just that. Explore opportunities to participate in festivals, fairs and other popular community gatherings. Parades are another great way to promote your business. Enter a float in the Independence Day parade and hand out red, white and blue lei necklaces or toss beach balls imprinted with your brand and a celebratory message.
High school and college athletics are hugely important to many communities. Sixty-six percent of consumers say they would buy from companies sponsoring a favored sport or sports organization.
Support a local program, such as a high school basketball league or college track and field team, to lift up athletes and raise your company profile. Sponsorship deals often include venue signage, program ads and prime placement on merchandise. Provide basketball schedule magnets as a gift for fans at season tip-off, or basketball yard signs for families to show team pride.
Attract and retain talent
Involvement in local events puts your organization’s values on display. What’s more, 86% of employees say it’s important to work for a company with values that align with their own.
Partner with a nonprofit to host an event beneficial to both parties. Team up with an animal rescue for a day devoted to dogs. Hire a photographer to take portraits, and allow customers to mingle with adoptable pets. For every purchase made on that day, attendees get entered in a drawing to win discounted products or services and cool promotional swag, like pet bag dispensers and Pet Accessory Bags.
Company donations are another way to show community support. Sponsor a local natural beautification initiative. Or commit to regular support for an area food pantry. A grocer, for example, could run a promotion where shoppers purchase a prepared bag of food to be donated and earn their own tote bag as a thank-you.
Contribute to the greater good
Many companies choose to quietly make an impact because leaders feel it’s the right thing to do. Sixty-six percent of people say they feel it’s important for companies to be philanthropic and support varying causes.
Flex your charitable muscles by launching a scholarship program for high school or college students. Perhaps it targets students planning to study a related field or from a specific demographic. Promote the opportunity by distributing graduate cap pens imprinted with a web address to learn about the details.
If a business features a customer loyalty program, offer the option for accumulated points to benefit a charity. Instead of earning discounts or products, the value can be donated to a partner organization. If that partner supports an environmental cause, for example, give seed packets as a gift to show donor appreciation.
Expand your network
Community involvement can advance networking among leaders, employees and customers. An organization taking part in a festival or exhibition may connect with other like-minded businesses or potential community partners. Instead of competing movements, a collaboration might offer learning opportunities and, in the end, better results. You might even team up on future fundraising or awareness events.
Wondering how those networking connections might work for you? A tech company participating in a community event might meet an educator interested in a partnership. Together they could launch an after-school coding workshop. Make an impression on participants by handing out goodie bags stuffed with creative promotional items, like a fun screen cleaner phone stand and smiling buddy charging cable.
Improve loyalty
Customer loyalty is critical for many businesses. And when an organization is involved in its community, it can drive loyalty. Returning customers spend 67% more than new customers.
An organization sponsoring a community run or bike event can promote togetherness and add something special. Create a branded on-course experience by adding a DJ or asking employees to volunteer to mist runners or riders. Sponsor a cool promotional swag bag, or contribute a workout towel or sunglasses for participants. Really make an impression and donate outdoor coolers as a prize for winners or thank-you gift to longtime volunteers.
For a B2C business, there’s no place like home
A B2C business may have one—or several—goals for 2025. If boosting visibility, attracting and retaining talent, aiding the greater good, networking and improving customer loyalty are among them, the combination of creative promotional items and community events could be a gamechanger.