How would you spend $1,000 with a local business?
You might donate it to Habitat for Humanity to help local families move into safe and affordable homes. Maybe you’d get your kitchen renovated by Kawartha Lakes Construction, or pamper yourself at Salon Sorella. Or you could spend it all on pizza at Pizza Alloro (you could afford 88 medium pepperoni pizzas, for the record.)
The Kawartha Chamber of Commerce and Tourism launched a new website in June of 2016 and now they are giving away $1,000 to spend with any of their members to promote it. To enter, go to kawarthachamber.ca/contest/ and complete a short scavenger hunt style questionnaire about the new site.
For an extra contest entry, you can post a photo of yourself surfing the new website on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the hashtag #WealthofChoice.
With over 350 members to choose from, the winner will have a lot of options when picking how to spend their prize. The Kawartha Chamber of Commerce and Tourism represents a broad range of businesses, primarily in the East and North Kawarthas. Since the municipalities of Douro-Dummer, North Kawartha, Selwyn and Trent Lakes are all members of the Kawartha Chamber, you could even use the winnings to pay your tax bill.
Stacey Sullivan, Engagement Coordinator at the Kawartha Chamber, says that the new website will be of interest to everyone in the area, not just chamber members.
“We wanted the website to be more appealing to the customers and clients of our members, so that if somebody’s looking for a restaurant in the area or a plumber in the area or an electrician they could go to the site and find it.”
The website, created by Peterborough Web Design, accomplishes this in a number of ways.
It has a directory where people can search for local businesses, but it also has an events calendar and a blog featuring business resources and tourism information. There is also a social feature, which highlights the social media channels of the chamber.
The Services section of the website highlights businesses that cater to locals, it’s a great place to find a plumber or a business consultant.
The Discover section highlights businesses and attractions of interest to people planning a vacation or day trip, including the Warsaw Caves and the Curve Lake First Nation Pow Wow.
Because the Kawarthas are home to many businesses that cater to tourism, tourism is a major focus for the chamber. They rebranded from the East Kawartha Chamber of Commerce to become the Kawartha Chamber of Commerce and Tourism in 2014. Stacey says that chamber staff act as tourism ambassadors in the area.
“Our business office doubles as a tourism office, so we get a lot of walk in visitors in the summer who are up at their cottage or up for a day trip and looking for something to do.”
Because of this focus Stacey says that it was important for the website to be a great place to plan a day trip or a vacation in the region.
“Tourism is a really big part of our organization and a really big part of our area so we wanted a chamber website that would be useful to chamber members, locals and to tourists.”
Tonya Kraan, owner of STREXER and head of the chamber’s marketing committee, says that it is unusual to see a chamber website appealing to the public at large.
“What makes this website unique is it’s appealing to anyone that is looking to come to this area, whether they’re coming for business or tourism purposes. Most chamber websites cater more to their membership and how to make the most of your membership.”
Tonya has already noticed that this fresh approach is paying off for her business.
“As a chamber member I just checked my web stats for the month of August and Kawartha Chamber is in my top 10 referral sources. But what’s really exciting for me is that I can also see it has one of the very lowest bounce rates, so when someone finds me on the Kawartha Chamber website and clicks through to my website, they spend a lot of time on my site.”
Since the site launched in late June they have had over 3,000 new visitors. 75% of the visitors to the site this summer have been new visitors, with the highest number coming from Peterborough, Toronto, and then Lakefield.
You can visit the Kawartha Chamber’s member directory and start to plan how to spend your winnings.
You can also connect with the Kawartha Chamber on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
