ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — Gail Quezada, new executive director for the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce said the Chamber plans to increase opportunities to promote small businesses over the coming months.
“We are focused on all of our members, but we want to place particular emphasis on our small businesses,” Quezada said, “and we want to do whatever we can to help them promote their business.”
With that in mind, the Chamber has partnered with Save Local Now to provide its members with free digital marketing tools, which was launched over the coming week.
“This is something that we are offering to all of our businesses, but it’s something that most of the larger businesses probably already have,” she said. “By offering this program to all of our businesses, free of charge, we can offer services that many small businesses can’t afford to maintain on their own.”
Under the Save Local Now program, businesses receive:
• Free digital marketing tools, such as a Webpage.
• Free search engine optimization.
• Free content publishing.
• Social media sharing across all platforms.
Businesses can also download the SLN app free through the Apple store or the Google store on their phones.
The Chamber is also offering a “Shop Small” Central Baldwin Community Days promotion available at local businesses Dec. 4-5.
“We participate in the Small Business Saturday promotion every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but we have found that many of our businesses don’t see a lot of benefit from that promotion,” she said. “We are hoping that this additional promotion will get more people out to support our local small businesses.”
On Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4 and 5, residents are invited to shop at participating local businesses and spend a minimum of $20 to be entered into a drawing for one of several gift cards.
There will also be a grand prize drawing for an electric grill (a $225 value). To enter the drawing, take a picture of yourself with a staff member at the business you are shopping, post the business on your Facebook page, then tag the business to the Central Baldwin Chamber’s Facebook page, using the hashtag, #shopsmallcentralbaldwin.
Participating businesses include: A Fairhope Find; Baldwin Tractor & Equipment; Burris Farm Market; Café Acadiana; Cain’s Piggly Wiggly; Campbell Hardware & Sporting Goods; CashSaver; Celebrations; Derailed Diner; Furniture City; Frenchie’s Cajun Café; Goo Roo’s Grill; High Pressure Dive Shop; Ivey’s Fine Dining; LA BBQ; Lee Drug Store; Loxley Discount Drugs; Mama Lou’s; Middleton Auto Parts; Oasis Travel Center Retail Store; R.K. Ick; Racine Feed, Garden and Supply; Robertsdale Power Equipment; Silverhill Furniture; Southern Grace Boutique & Gifts; Sweat Tire; The communications Store; The Nail Place; Vitolli’s Pizzeria & Italian Eatery; and Willy T’s.
The Chamber has also launched a “Like and Share” campaign through its Facebook page. When you like then share the promotion on the Chamber’s Facebook page, you are registered to win a K2 Summit Series 50-Duck Boat Green cooler.
Quezada, who has served as the executive assistant at the chamber since 2011, was recently promoted to the position of executive director.
A native of Saraland, she is a graduate of Satsuma High School and worked in the retail industry before starting as a teller at AmSouth Bank, in 1985. She spent 21 years at the downtown branch at AmSouth, which would later become Regions Bank, the last 10 in the human resources department before joining the chamber.
“I love it,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Quesada and her husband Rick have lived in the Rosinton area for 22 years. They have two children, Gabby, 19, a graduate of Robertsdale High School and currently a student at Faulkner State Community College; and Carson, 17, a senior at RHS.
Quesada said she was welcomed with open arms when she joined the Chamber staff four years ago.
“We’ve lived here for a number of years and I thought I knew the area,” she said, “but when I came to work here and got to be friends with all the people at the local businesses, I discovered that some of the best people live right here in Central Baldwin County. So many people welcomed me like they’ve known me my whole life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
November 18, 2015
