Grow Nebraska helps small businesses adapt to digital world

Grow Nebraska, a nonprofit group, is helping small businesses in the state adapt to the digital world of commerce.

The services and education Grow Nebraska provides were particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tiffany Stoiber, Grow Nebraska’s marketing and business development director, said.

“During the pandemic, in-person shopping kind of came to a halt,” Stoiber told The Center Square. “Businesses who weren’t already online saw a pretty big hit from that. What we try to with all the businesses we work with is help them establish that web presence.”

Grow Nebraska has sponsored webinars specifically about how COVID-19 has changed business and all the ways businesses have had to adapt.

“We want to help businesses change their strategy,” Stoiber said. “That’s why we want to talk about e-commerce, cybersecurity [and] digital marketing. Anything in that realm.”

When a business joins Grow Nebraska, the organization sets them up with a web page that includes keywords that will help it show up on search engines such as Google.

“We also help them with their Google MyBusiness page, making sure their presence there is really good,” Stoiber said. “Especially in tourism, that Google MyBusiness Page, Google Maps, is going to get a lot of eyes for the business. If they have an optimized presence there, they are more likely to get new visitors.”

Grow Nebraska has received a grant from Google to provide $10,000 a month in free Google ads to members.

“That’s been a really big benefit to our members recently,” she said. “We’re spending around $9,500 every month on ads. So we’re just about using up that grant every month.”

Grow Nebraska also has a physical store in Kearney, where members who pay for an enhanced membership can sell products.

“A lot of our members may only have a few products,” Stoiber said. “That might not justify having their own storefront. Maybe they can’t staff it full time. So we stock their products here and we also list them on our e-commerce site.”

This article was originally posted on Grow Nebraska helps small businesses adapt to digital world

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