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Back to Business
As the Greater Mankato business community adjusts day-to-day operations in response to COVID-19, we must balance the need to maintain our region’s economy with the protection of our community’s health. The following toolkit provides our business community with the information they need to re-open workplaces, while ensuring the safety of our workforce, stakeholders, customers and community.
Click the links below to find comprehensive resources regarding these critical "back to business" resources:
Get guidelines, templates, and suggestions for how your business can adopt a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan that protects your employees and customers and complies with the Governor’s Executive Order.
Financial Resources for Businesses
All levels of government and other organizations have made a number of financial resources for businesses available. Greater Mankato Growth has compiled a comprehensive list of loans/grants available to businesses.
Get What You Need for Safe Operation
As you get back to work, your business will need access to resources like PPE, sanitizer, touchless technology, signage, and workplace safety consultants. Greater Mankato Growth has compiled a list of where to businesses can access these critical resources. See also "QUICK LINKS" below.
Promote Your Business: Now more than ever customers need to know about your business. Greater Mankato Growth has negotiated favorable advertising rates with our media partners exclusive to Greater Mankato Growth members. Greater Mankato Growth also has free opportunities available for member businesses to communicate that you’re open for businesses.
Consumer Confidence Initiative & Support for Reopening Business
Greater Mankato Growth and Visit Mankato are collaborating on a consumer confidence marketing campaign to entice more customers into our local businesses. There are two ways to get involved:
- Post your updates for reopening on our Facebook Group and include the hashtag #KatoComeback in your post
- Submit your business status updates on this form. Visitors are generally interested in busines hours, services and what you are doing to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. As things evolve, please revisit the form and update your listing and one of our staff members will update your information on the published business listing.
Promote Your Business (Member-2-Member Advertising Discounts)
As our community looks to get back into business, it will be critical for businesses to advertise and share with the public their status and what they’re doing to make sure their customers are safe. We also know that often when you need to advertise the most is when cash may be tight – especially now. Recognizing that, Greater Mankato Growth worked with local media partners to arrange for discounted advertising packages exclusively available to our members. We’d like to thank The Free Press and KEYC News Now for stepping up in the true spirit of community to lend a helping hand to get our businesses back on their feet by offering these special rates for Greater Mankato Growth members. Below are the discounts being offered by each media company. To take advantage of the offer, you can simply contact the identified individual and let them know you’re a Greater Mankato Growth member. They will verify your status based on a list of members provided to them.
KEYC NEWS NOW
- 25% off ad production and advertising schedules for Greater Mankato Growth members new to KEYC News Now.
- All businesses (Greater Mankato Growth member and non-member) can post their status for free on KEYC’s online business directory here: https://www.graytvlocal.com/market/mankato-mn
- Contact: Ed Woloszyn | ed.woloszyn@keyc.com or 507-514-6171
THE FREE PRESS
- Buy One-Get One on ad packages (i.e. if you purchase an ad package that usually includes two ads, you’ll get four ads, etc.)
- New advertisers can advertise in any of the magazines published by the Free Press (Mankato Magazine, MN Valley Business, Home Magazine) at their annual contract rate (the 9-12 time commitment rate) without having to commit to multiple months of advertising.
- You can run online ads on their website for $5 Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM) with a minimum impressions of 10,000.
- All businesses (Greater Mankato Growth member and non-member) can post their status for free on the Free Press’s “What’s Open” widget here: https://mankato.whatsopen.news/
- Contact: Steve Jameson | sjameson@mankatofreepress.com or 507.344.6310.
Take Advantage of Your Member Benefits
Take advantage of your Greater Mankato Growth member benefits that will help promote your business during this time of reopening and ramping up business again:
- Post a coupon for the public or Member-2-Member Deals
- Blog posts - send your 500-800 word story and one photo (not an ad) to media@greatermankato.com
- Ribbon Cutting, Ambassdor Visits - send request to Jaci Sprague
- Virtual Visits
- Request in-person visit, 2 people max
- Shoot your own video
- We can work with you to determine what works the best for your situation
- Have an official news release to share? Submit it here. Once published, it will appear here. (no ads please, just official business & employee news)
- Share an ad via Tuesday eNews. Specs/cost can be found here.
Quick Links to Member Services Related to PPE
Reminder: If you are planning and rescheduling events that were postponed due to delays caused by COVID-19, please check out greatermankatoevents.com first to make sure your date doens't overlap any other large events or community-wide fundraisers. Then once your date is locked in, go back and add that event to the site for further promotion!
