Ginger Caldwell moved back to the Tri-Cities after spending more than a decade working in advertising in Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago.

While she spent her time creating websites and working in print advertising, it was her passion for helping the community that encouraged her to return to Eastern Washington.

“I really just felt like I was staying stagnant and I had so many ideas of things I wanted to do to help the community as well as the local businesses owners,” Caldwell said. “I couldn’t do that in Chicago.”

Caldwell moved back to the area in fall 2011 and launched City Intros Charity Deals, City Intros Network-Email Marketing and City Intros News. Her goal was to create an inexpensive way for local small businesses to advertise.

“The problem was it’s expensive to advertise in today’s market,” Caldwell said.

City Intros Charity Deals at www.cideals.com, offers online marketing to local business with proceeds going to a local charity every three months.

“I wanted to launch businesses that market for the smaller businesses and I wanted to create a business that helped the full circle,” Caldwell said. “So the small business owner, the community as well as charities.”

With City Intros News, Caldwell noted that companies were having a difficult time getting their companies’ story out to the masses.

With this website she interviews and reviews the local business owner and businesses for the City Intro News website at www.cityintrosnews.com.

City Intros Network-Email Marketing is the latest creation for Caldwell. The company is still in its infancy, however, Caldwell already has 10 companies signed on to participate. It works by sending an e-mail blast to customers with coupons and deals from local businesses.

“Once a month I send out a newsletter to all their clients and everyone else’s clients with one coupon from each place so it’s really target marketing,” Caldwell said.

Each company has its deal sent out each month, but multiple e-mail blasts will be sent throughout the month. It also includes only one type of company per newsletter.

“That way there isn’t two massage places in Kennewick advertising to the same people,” Caldwell said.

Before launching the companies, Caldwell was already busy working with Gwen and Derrick Bauer on Print Me Coupon a company out of Chicago. Print Me Coupon is website that offers coupons to businesses across the country, including the Tri-Cities. The website can be found at www.printmecoupon.com and receives 30,000 hits a month. Caldwell charges $200 a year to be on the website and allows business owners the ability to login anytime of day and make changes to their deals.

“Not to say that people shouldn’t do advertising in the print and radio because it’s worthwhile, but you have to do everything,” Caldwell said. “The Internet is exploding. It’s about getting your product to people sitting on the Internet 10 hours a day.”

The last company in Caldwell’s portfolio is Sow Social out of Walla Walla.

Sow Social, which is similar to City Intro Deals, was started by a friend of Caldwell in 2010. It donates to a different charity every four months. Caldwell took over the website at www.sowsocial.com in July 2011. She is currently looking to hire someone to help run the business out of Walla Walla. The website currently has 600 online followers.

Caldwell gets help in the Tri-Cities from a part-time employee who works with businesses using the City Intros News website.

Caldwell said she believes that all companies should pick a form of advertising whether it’s print, radio or broadcast.

“I do think everyone needs an online presence. I do believe that they need a website and I do believe that they need to pick a form of advertising,” Caldwell said.