This is a post from the Bloomfield Center Alliance. Community posts are blogs or announcements from people or organizations serving the Bloomfield community and are not paid advertisements.

The Bloomfield Center Alliance (BCA) is pleased to announce its new small business initiative – Accelerate Your Success! – a program focused on providing training and technical assistance in marketing and branding to its small business community. 

Accelerate Your Success! – a free new program available to Bloomfield businesses – is designed to expand the business owners’ marketing knowledge and outreach by helping them to adapt to the new environment and grow their businesses.

In the summer of 2020, the BCA took a survey to determine what businesses needed most in terms of support through COVID-19. Responses indicated that businesses needed help establishing online stores, social media, marketing and e-commerce. The BCA researched funding opportunities and the State of New Jersey announced a COVID-19 relief package last fall that specifically targeted Main Street businesses and downtown organizations like the BCA. The BCA pursued and received a grant to develop and execute the program. 

“Our BCA team is very excited to introduce this new small business initiative,” said BCA Executive Director Ollyn Lettman. “We are so pleased to have been granted the New Jersey COVID-19 relief package, helping our team design a program specifically benefitting our business owners.”

Accelerate Your Success! is a two-part program including an eight-week training series (open to all Bloomfield businesses), followed by the delivery of individualized technical assistance in the areas of website design, e-commerce, and social media, available only to businesses located in the downtown district. The BCA has partnered with Suasion Communications Group, a woman-owned, award-winning, full-service New Jersey based marketing and public relations agency to deliver its upcoming training series and deliver technical assistance.

“We are proud to launch this initiative and assist our small business community to make the pivot through the pandemic and beyond,” explained Lettman.

The BCA’s Accelerate Your Success! training series consists of the following seminars and will be presented by Suasion Communications Group President Susan Adelizzi-Schmidt, MBA.

Module One

Seminar 1: KICK OFF: Integrated Marketing Communications Overview 

Business Introductions, Communications and Marketing Overview

Seminar 2: BUZZWORTHY: Brand Management & Public Relations 

Creating the Right Brand Image and Public Relations 

Seminar 3: AMPLIFY: Ad Campaign Management & Public Relations 

Establishing Campaign Objectives, Tactics, Measurement and Campaign Duration

Seminar 4: CATAPULT: Traditional, Digital & Guerilla Marketing

Traditional, Social, Digital and Stealth Marketing Strategies 

Module Two

Seminar 5: ENGAGE: Social Media 

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest Posting and Advertising 

Seminar 6: POWER UP 1: Digital Marketing 101

Websites, SEO and Website Re-targeting 

Seminar 7: POWER UP 2: Digital Marketing 102

Google AdWords, Re-targeting and Behavioral Targeting 

Seminar 8: PIVOT POINT: E-commerce/Online Shopping/Wrap Up 

E-commerce Basics and Online Stores

The Accelerate Your Success! eight-week training series and technical assistance is set to begin the week of February 15. For more information or to register, contact Randy Blackmon at [email protected] or visit bloomfieldcenter.com.