marketing your community for economic development
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Marke&ng Your Community to Drive Economic Development
Southeast Community Development Institute April 25, 2013
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What We’ll Cover Today
1. Defining Your Community’s Brand
2. Defining Your Audiences and Touchpoints
3. Do the Basics Well: Tools that Reach ALL Audiences
4. Adjust Marke&ng for Each Audience
What We’ll Cover Today
1. Defining Your Community’s Brand
2. Defining Your Audiences and Touchpoints
3. Do the Basics Well: Tools that Reach ALL Audiences
4. Adjust Marke&ng for Each Audience
We’re Different!
Branding Your Community
Your community brand captures both tangible and intangible qualities that create a community personality and make your community truly unique
Your brand is your reputation and your promise of distinct value
What We’ll Cover Today
1. Defining Your Community’s Brand
2. Defining Your Audiences and Touchpoints
3. Do the Basics Well: Tools that Reach ALL Audiences
4. Adjust Marke&ng for Each Audience
Your Primary Target Audiences
- Site Selectors - Industry Reps - Niche Industries
- Retailers - Developers
Stakeholders & Partners: City, County, Utility, Tourism, Chamber, etc.
Existing Industries
Related secondary audiences include residents and tourists
Examples of brand touchpoints inside your community
Community websites Local press Social Media Wayfinding Signage Quality of life features for residents (parks,
road quality, education quality, etc. etc. The scope and quality of a visitor’s
experience of a community
Examples of brand touchpoints outside your community
Website Word of Mouth Press Social Media Travel/Meetings Outside paid marketing Marketing by local companies
The Importance of Partnerships
Stakeholders & Partners: City, County, Utility, Tourism, Chamber, etc.
You do not operate in a vacuum! Your Community is your PRODUCT. You develop parts of it, and others develop other parts of it. Collaboration will take your community farther!
Related secondary markets include residents and tourists
What We’ll Cover Today
1. Defining Your Community’s Brand
2. Defining Your Audiences and Touchpoints
3. Do the Basics Well: Tools that Reach ALL Audiences
4. Adjust Marke&ng for Each Audience
The Two Tools to Get Right (because they span all audiences)
Your Website Social Media
? Why is having a strong online presence for your
community important?
The vast majority of research to narrow down a list of potential sites is done online.
Showcasing your community with your economic development
website
www.???.org BaldwinEDA.com DorchesterForBusiness.com OzarkAlabama.us PlatteCountyEDC.com ChesapeakeVA.biz BuildWebsterCity.com
At a minimum, spell out your
County name for Search Engine
Optimization and usability
Information you should include on your website:
Maps Demographics Available Property
listings Quality of life Staff and contact Existing Industries Workforce Information
Taxes & Incentives Transportation Utilities Business Assistance News Social Media links and
feeds
Develop Your Site Map Plan the pages of your site Establish a structure that is logical Keep all content within three clicks This also establishes your main navigation
button choices – keep consistent! Look at how other groups have set their
sites up – look at IEDC winning sites or www.communityresults.com
Site Map Example 1
Home Business Climate
Cost of Doing Business
Tax Incen6ves
Exis6ng Industries
Transporta6on
U6li6es
Workforce
Demographics
Workforce Stats
Workforce Training
Technology Center
Job Seeker Resources
Available Sites and Buildings
Available Sites
Available Buildings
Maps Quality of Life
K-‐12 Educa6on
Post-‐Secondary Educa6on
Healthcare
Recrea6on and ANrac6ons
About Us
Staff
Board
Contact Us
Site Map Example 2 Home Doing
Business
Incen6ves
Taxes
Licenses & Permits
Transporta6on
U6li6es
Area Industries
Exis6ng Industry Resources
Workforce
Workforce Stats
Workforce Training
Retail
Retail Demographics
Exis6ng Retail
Available Sites and Buildings
Available Sites
Available Buildings
Industrial Parks
Community Profile
Demographics
Maps
Educa6on
Healthcare
Recrea6on and
ANrac6ons
About Us
News
Contact
Site Map Example 3 Home About Us
Staff
Board
Contact Us
News Local Business Services
Workforce Development
Incen6ves & Financing
Professional Development &
Training
Small Business & Entrepreneurs
Job Search Resources
Site Selec6on Services
Available Proper6es
Incen6ves & Financing
Workforce Development
Industry Concentra6ons
Cost of Doing Business
Leading Employers
Data & Demographics
Demographics & Trends
Transporta6on
Regulatory & Environmental
Workforce
Taxa6on
Government
U6li6es
Living Here
Housing
Educa6on
Cost of Living
Recrea6on
Climate
Healthcare
Designing an Effective Home Page
Your brand Your location – with a map Unique selling points Recent news Contact information Graphics heavy but no flash
How to Write and Program Content
Economic Development Sites are VERY data heavy
People don’t read – avoid paragraphs and use bullet lists, tables or charts whenever possible
Break pages up visually with sub-heads, sections or graphics
What to include in News New industry announcements Local industry news New Hires Awards Job creation announcements Report releases Either write your own or link to local coverage Ability to share articles on social media
Provide a wide range of maps
GIS Powered Sites
More robust searching More extensive property data fields Radius-based demographics Exportable reports Still pricey for small communities but more
options available
Make your site Mobile friendly Building a site with Responsive Design is now an option - or build a separate mobile website that can detect access by mobile phones
Social Media for Economic Developers
WOW! DID YOU HEAR?
AWESOME!
COOL! It is about engagement
and Top of mind awareness
What are your top options?
What can you talk about? Industry announcements New business startups/entrepreneurship Workforce programs and education Company profiles Local business news Unemployment updates and related reports Share blogs, videos, photos Learn from organizations featured in this
presentation
If nothing else, participate here Broad reach beyond local market This is your top business networking
tool, without having to travel to a conference or other networking event at a distance
Participate daily - or weekly at a minimum
Make sure all key employees have profiles and actively build connections
Search for and actively participate in industry groups locally, nationally,
internationally
LinkedIn groups are a great way to monitor buzz and trends
Communicate and engage with site selectors online
Make status updates of your own to show up in feeds
Rapidly growing in importance Young professionals Tech Savvy participants Broad reach beyond local market Participate daily or multiple times
per day
Continue your branding
Share videos, local news and communicate with others
Promote your organization’s tweets with your individual tweets, and vice versa
Using # and @ Use @ to mention an organization or individual
by name – this shows up in their feed (and is very desirable) @RedSageAL
Use # to highlight topics to show up in searches such as #EconDev #SiteSelection #Branding
Create your own #hashtag for an event or campaign such as #SEDC2013 or #SageAdvice – use to create buzz at an event
Search for topics to monitor trends (#hashtags)
Engagement and relationship building with your local market primarily
More personal, informal and friendly
Know your goals for using this:
Top of mind in local market Sharing local business news, or building
support for a local issue Cross sharing/SEO opportunity
Promote action on community issue
Share local economic development news
Terrific opportunity to give your take on local news and trends – plus this is the best way to: create new personalized content to
share across web and all channels
Drive traffic to your website Increase the odds you will show up in
search engines – awesome SEO tool
Blogging
Personal thoughts about current news or situation
Keep short – 1 paragraph is fine
Best is at least once a week, but even a well maintained once a month blog is better than most communities
Blogging
New business announcements Career tech education locally Expansions – and why Entrepreneurship Local business resources New regulations Top jobs locally Etc.
Blog Topics
Highly recommend starting to incorporate video into your efforts, if you are not already doing this
YouTube
Greenville, SC http://www.youtube.com/gogadc
About GADC video Industry profiles Testimonial videos from young
professionals
Jacksonville-Onslow, NC
Follow industry leaders on social media and on their blogs
Promote those already championing for you Be an active follower by retweeting, sharing,
and commenting Actively participate in LinkedIn Groups Continuously find and add LinkedIn
connections
Growing your audience: Follow to be followed
Choosing How to Participate
Choose how and where to participate: What do you have time to be consistent with? (Don’t start a blog if you aren’t committed to keeping it going)
Give it time: You won’t see results overnight, be patient and be consistent
Devote a realistic amount of time for social media each week – half hour a day? One hour a week?
Make it a priority and be committed to it Scale back and focus on one thing if time
is an issue Don’t forget to take the time to plan in
advance
Carve out time:
Add an agenda item to a weekly or monthly meeting: what should we blog about this week? What is going on that we want to talk about in social media?
Decide what topics you’ll cover: use an editorial calendar to keep things organized but make sure you build in flexibility too
Build a process
Schedule ahead: use Hootsuite.com to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
Monitor all your feeds in one place
Know what is being said Whether you use social media or not,
people will still be talking about your organization and your community online
Monitor all social media platforms for comments and respond to comments as quickly as you can
Offered by Constant Contact Monitors mentions and activity:
• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Foursquare
Reports are emailed to you FREE!
Easy monitoring: NutshellMail.com
Set up alerts for your company name, products, and other identifying keywords
Set up alerts associated with your competitors
Set up alerts for terms associated with your industry
www.Google.com/Alerts
What We’ll Cover Today
1. Defining Your Community’s Brand
2. Defining Your Audiences and Touchpoints
3. Do the Basics Well: Tools that Reach ALL Audiences
4. Adjust Marke&ng for Each Audience
The Basic Marketing Equation
DEFINED TARGET
AUDIENCE
TARGETED MESSAGE
EFFECTIVENESS & FREQUENCY OF DELIVERY
RESULTS
Identify & prioritize your target markets
They can look very different and need different marketing approaches and messages to reach effectively. Good marketing is not one size fits all.
Adjust your message for each market – AND how
you deliver the message
Your Primary Target Audiences
- Site Selectors - Industry Reps - Niche Industries
- Retailers - Developers
Stakeholders & Partners: City, County, Utility, Tourism, Chamber, etc.
Existing Industries
Related secondary audiences include residents and tourists
TARGETED MESSAGES Why your location is the best choice
• Located in the middle of a regional industry cluster of manufacturers and suppliers (aerospace, automotive, etc.)
• Available high skilled labor • Building or site ready for them immediately • History of existing business expansions
and new industry announcements in your community
• And any other unique selling propositions
Letters or quotes of support from key leaders (Mayor, Governor, head of key industry, etc.
- Site Selectors - Industry Reps - Niche Industries
QUALITY AND FREQUENCY OF MESSAGE DELIVERY Tradeshows, ‘Meet the Consultant’ & other
networking events LinkedIn Groups & other social media
participation Direct mail, emails, or sales calls to
suppliers or customers of your existing industries
YouTube videos of buildings or land Direct mail – spec buildings, nearby related
industries, etc. Press releases of industry location or
expansion announcements to related print or online sources
- Site Selectors - Industry Reps - Niche Industries
And make sure your process is smooth and materials are
ready!!
TARGETED MESSAGES We are here to help you succeed and
grow We want to tell you about programs
and resources available for your business from us, the state, and other sources
We want to be your main contact and advocate for any issue you are facing that is holding you back from success and either help you resolve it or point you to resources that can help
Existing Industries
QUALITY AND FREQUENCY OF MESSAGE DELIVERY Regular personal meetings, calls or
emails Host one or more annual recognition
or social events to build relationships E-newsletters to share news and
resources Annual survey and report – their
perception of community, your assistance, local resources such as education, workforce readiness, etc.
Responsiveness!!
Existing Industries
TARGETED MESSAGES Population demographics that meet their
targets Recent boom of development means they
should look at your community Retail Opportunity Gap data Outshopping information Steady or significant increase in incomes
or population over past 5-10 years Factors that don’t show up in
demographics such as nearby college populations, tourism traffic/spending etc.
Retailers Developers
QUALITY AND FREQUENCY OF MESSAGE DELIVERY Materials that convey key selling points Networking at ICSC and other retail
events Work through your developers Direct mail, LinkedIn groups, social media Ensure your process of responding to
inquiries and supporting all phases of retail development is responsive and smooth – this encourages developers to keep choosing your community for development because you are easy to work with (assuming their other developments are successful).
Retailers Developers
TARGETED MESSAGES What’s new, what are we working on, what
are some recent successes We are bringing jobs, money, and new
residents to our community which helps us all
We want to work with you to support your initiatives however we can within our mission
We need your help and expertise on a specific issue to ensure this project’s success
We appreciate your partnership with us
Stakeholders & Partners: City, County, Utility, Tourism, Chamber, Legislators etc.
QUALITY AND FREQUENCY OF MESSAGE DELIVERY Networking E-newsletters Annual reports Show up in support of their key initiatives Recognize partnerships and assistance
publicly whenever possible Be trustworthy, responsive, and
appreciative Regular meetings to update on your
activities and learn about other’s activities Host one or more annual recognition or
social events to build relationships
Stakeholders & Partners: City, County, Utility, Tourism, Chamber, Legislators etc.
Other Marketing Initiatives and support materials:
Site or Building Marketing: brochures, binders, microsites, direct mail, online listings, etc.
Industry Recruitment materials – flyers, rack cards,
Community Print Ads – Business Alabama, SKY Magazine, Site Selection Magazine
Consider building a separate microsite for key sites or programs
Smaller website focused on a single topic with more in-depth data and information
Typically associated with other marketing materials that promote the site
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