The Estevan Chamber of Commerce is always on the lookout for ways to promote the Energy City’s business community.
These efforts have led to a new campaign specifically meant to garner interest in local businesses this coming spring.
The Chamber is planning to hold a local campaign to increase foot traffic into local businesses, by regularly focusing on a business every week through social media, highway signs and other means of advertising.
Jackie Wall, director of the chamber, said that when a business is featured, the chamber will promote it, and the business itself will hold a unique promotion to bring in customers.
“We want this campaign to show Estevan and area residents that the businesses here are networking and working to promote one another. They’re also working to promote the products and services they have available,” said Wall.
Wall said, “It might be something like free coffee and doughnuts; it might be a sale, like buy one get one half-off. It could be a general sale.”
There will be a number of different kinds of promotions that will vary from business to business, so they are most accessible to the public. Participating businesses are encouraged to be creative with promotional ideas when their time to shine arrives.
Since there are many different kinds of business that will be involved in the campaign, there will be different kinds of promotions going on.
“We have a wide range of businesses in Estevan, so it’s really going to depend. We’ve got retail businesses and real estate businesses signing up,” said Wall. “Obviously, the real estate companies aren’t going to make offers like ‘buy one get one half-off,’ but they could do something else; maybe something for the kids.”
In addition to leading the charge with promotions throughout the city, the chamber will be awarding Pure Energy Bucks during the campaign, to further encourage local shopping. Pure Energy Bucks are gift certificates that can be spent at select businesses within Estevan. People can enter to win Pure Energy Bucks by responding to a general question posted by the chamber once per week.
“We’ll be putting up questions like, ‘Where did you receive exceptional customer service in Estevan, this week?’ As people comment, they’ll be entered to win Pure Energy Bucks,” said Wall.
How long the campaign runs depends on how many businesses sign up. Wall noted the chamber is looking to run the promotions through April, May and June, and then see how things go, before making any more decisions.
Initially, six businesses agreed to get onboard, at a meeting focused on the campaign the Chamber hosted on Feb. 25. Wall said any businesses looking to get onboard should do so before March 4, which is the deadline for finalizing plans for the campaign.
Wall said the business community in Estevan is “a huge supporter of any activity that goes on, whether it’s a curling bonspiel … or a school that comes to them and needs something.” She added that the campaign would encourage a celebration of the many contributions of the local business community.
“We want to get the business community supporting one another and communicating with the public, that these service and products are available in Estevan,” said Wall. “We want people to shop local.”
