50,000 Instagram Impressions Per Week Supporting Carlsbad Village

The landscape for small businesses in Carlsbad Village changes day-to-day. As a small business, the Carlsbad Village Association knows this all too well. To fulfill our decades-long mission to support the businesses downtown and help make Carlsbad Village a premier destination in North San Diego County, CVA has not slowed down at all due to the pandemic. In fact, we have never worked so hard or have had to pivot in such a dramatic fashion. Just running the State Street Farmers’ Market after a seven-week shutdown, amidst the new health guidelines, has tested our abilities. 

While we have not been able to host our second and third quarter events, due to county health mandate, that are designed to increase foot traffic in the Village for the benefit of the retail shops and restaurants, we have instead rededicated our focus and energy to our social media engine to provide support services. All combined, we have over 25,000 followers between Instagram and Facebook. Since the stay at home order went into effect, hundreds of Instagram Stories and posts have gone out supporting every type of business in the Village. During our Taco Tuesday giveaway contests alone, we generated nearly 30,000 impressions for just nine Mexican food eateries in the Village. During recent promotions, we’ve spent $500 on gift cards in support of the businesses we’ve profiled through these contests. With an average of 50,000 impressions every week, on Instagram alone, CVA is continuing to spread the word about Village businesses even during these difficult times. 

Our weekly newsletter has been issued 16 times since the shutdown began providing 80 articles, most highlighting the amazing downtown businesses. An additional 38 business-to-business emails have gone out keeping the retailers, restaurants, and service industry downtown informed of everything from EIDL and PPP loans, county grants, reopening guidelines, protest information, and more.

And we’ve had the pleasure of working with city staff to help design the city’s $5 million Economic Revitalization Program that included a $4.4 million loan program for Carlsbad businesses. We lobbied hard for a zero percent microloan program to help the smallest of our downtown businesses.

As a nonprofit with a staff of only 1.5, that does not qualify for federally funded dollars such as the forgivable Payroll Protection Program (PPP), we are happy to continue to have our doors open in support of Carlsbad Village. We appreciate our resident and business members who have provided us with their support and will continue to do our level best at keeping your downtown front of mind for every local and out of town visitor! To learn more about CVA's new membership program and how you can be involved, visit our membership page. Thank you for your support!