Grow Eau Claire: A Local Video Platform Built to Help Eau Claire Businesses Be Seen
Updated: Sep 23
Originally published October 2025. Updated September 2026 to reflect the expanded Grow Eau Claire platform, new website and current program.
When Grow Eau Claire launched, the idea was fairly simple: create a better way for Eau Claire businesses to tell their stories through video while giving the community a central place to discover the people, companies and organizations helping our area grow.
Since then, the program has grown too.
Today, Grow Eau Claire is becoming much more than a collection of local business videos. It's a locally produced, searchable community platform designed to connect businesses, residents, prospective employees, relocating families and people considering Eau Claire as a place to live, work, visit or invest.
What Is Grow Eau Claire?
Grow Eau Claire is a locally developed video and business visibility initiative created in collaboration with the City of Eau Claire Economic Development Division, The Post House, Four Peas Consulting and JB Systems.
At the center of the program is the Grow Eau Claire video portal at video.groweauclaire.com.
The portal combines professionally produced video with individual business profiles and community content, creating a resource that can continue growing as more Eau Claire businesses and organizations participate.
Three cornerstone videos introduce visitors to Eau Claire, its business community and quality of life. From there, visitors can explore participating businesses and organizations throughout the community.
More Than a Video Directory
One of the biggest improvements to Grow Eau Claire is that it isn't simply a page containing a collection of videos.
Participating businesses receive their own profile within the platform, with information such as their logo, business description, website, contact information and social links. Businesses can be organized and discovered through categories and filters, while selected videos can also receive additional visibility through Featured Video areas.
The goal is simple: make it easier for someone who is interested in Eau Claire to discover the businesses and organizations that are already here.
And because each participating business has its own profile and links back to its existing online presence, Grow Eau Claire becomes another way for people to find and connect with that company.
Local Businesses. Local Stories. Local Investment.
Grow Eau Claire was intentionally developed here in Eau Claire.
The videos are locally produced. The participating businesses are local. The organizations helping build and market the program are local. And the program was developed in cooperation with the City of Eau Claire Economic Development Division.
That matters.
Rather than purchasing a short advertising campaign that disappears when the media buy ends, participating businesses become part of a community resource designed to remain active throughout the program period.
The objective isn't to replace a company's website, social media or existing advertising.
It's to give those efforts another place to work.
A business video can live on Grow Eau Claire while also being used on the company's own website, social channels, sales presentations, recruiting efforts and other marketing.
One story can work in a lot of places.
A Better Business Profile
Every participating business has the opportunity to create a presence that goes beyond simply displaying a logo.
Depending on the participation level, businesses can incorporate professionally produced video, descriptions, direct website links, social media connections and other information that helps visitors understand who they are and what they offer.
The portal is also designed to evolve.
Featured Videos provide opportunities to highlight participating organizations, while the We Care component recognizes businesses supporting participating nonprofit and community organizations.
Additional content and periodic updates can help keep participating profiles from becoming static listings.
Built for More than Just Local Customers
Grow Eau Claire certainly helps businesses reach people who already live here, but that's only part of the audience.
The City and its economic-development partners are also working to attract employees, entrepreneurs, businesses and investment to Eau Claire.
Someone researching a move to the Chippewa Valley may want to know much more than population statistics and available buildings.
They want to know:
What businesses are here?
What is the community like?
Where could I work?
Where would my family shop?
What services are available?
What makes Eau Claire different?
Video is particularly good at answering those questions because people can actually see the community and hear directly from the people who live and work here.
Three Ways for Businesses to Participate
Grow Eau Claire offers three levels of participation based not on the size of your business, but on how much visibility and storytelling support you need.
Local Presence — $1,995
Give customers a credible place to discover your business, learn what you do and connect with you.
Local Presence includes a dedicated Business Profile with your logo, business description, contact information and links, plus logo placement on the Grow Eau Claire home page and one additional page. Monthly reporting tracks profile views and clicks.
Business Spotlight — $3,995
Go beyond the basic profile with a more complete story about your business.
Business Spotlight includes everything in Local Presence, plus an editorial Business Spotlight, placement of an existing video of up to 90 seconds, additional logo exposure throughout the site, and participation in the We Care program — allowing your business to invite a local nonprofit onto the platform at no cost to the nonprofit.
Business Showcase — $5,995
For businesses that want Grow Eau Claire to professionally capture and promote what makes them different.
Business Showcase includes everything in Business Spotlight, plus production of a custom 45–90 second video, featured placement in the main video player, expanded logo placement, versions of the video prepared for your own website and YouTube channel, four optimized social media posts for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and design and copy for one email campaign.
More Than a Short-Term Ad
Each level is designed to create an ongoing presence rather than a single advertisement or social post. Your Grow Eau Claire profile, stories and video become part of a growing collection of local businesses and organizations people can continue to discover as the platform expands.
Additional services — including video production, social content, email design, website development, digital advertising and analytics — can also be added as needed.
What About SEO?
Grow Eau Claire can also contribute to a business's overall online visibility.
Each participating profile creates another relevant online reference to the business and provides additional pathways for visitors to reach the company's website and social channels.
But Grow Eau Claire isn't based on a promise that one listing will suddenly move a business to the top of Google.
The larger strategy is much more practical:
Create useful local content, make businesses easier to discover, provide credible links to their existing digital presence and give that content multiple opportunities to be seen.
Search visibility is part of that strategy—not the entire strategy.
The Bigger Idea Behind Grow Eau Claire
Perhaps the biggest change since Grow Eau Claire was first introduced is the way we think about the platform itself.
It's not simply a place where businesses buy a video.
The long-term vision is to build a growing visual library of Eau Claire: its businesses, people, organizations, opportunities and stories.
As more businesses participate, the resource becomes more useful.
More businesses create more stories.
More stories create more reasons to visit.
And more useful content creates more opportunities for Eau Claire businesses to be discovered.
That's the idea behind Grow Eau Claire.
Tell the stories of the businesses already helping Eau Claire grow—and make those stories easier for the rest of the world to find.
Learn more about the program and explore participating businesses at GrowEauClaire.com.
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