1. Marke&ng
Your
Community
to
Drive
Economic
Development
Southeast Community Development Institute
April 25, 2013
Download this presentation at
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2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5.
6.
7.
8. 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. Examples of brand touchpoints
outside your community
Website
Word of Mouth
Press
Social Media
Travel/Meetings
Outside paid marketing
Marketing by local companies
12. 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
13. 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
14. The Two Tools to Get Right
(because they span all audiences)
Your Website Social Media
15. ?
Why is having a strong
online presence for your
community important?
16. The vast majority of
research to narrow
down a list of potential
sites is done online.
19. 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
20. 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
21. 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
22. 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
23. 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
24. Designing an
Effective Home Page
Your brand
Your location – with a map
Unique selling points
Recent news
Contact information
Graphics heavy but no flash
25.
26.
27.
28.
29. 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
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35. 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
37. 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
38. 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
39. Social Media for Economic Developers
WOW!
DID
YOU
HEAR?
AWESOME!
COOL!
It is about
engagement
and
Top of mind
awareness
41. 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
42. 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
LinkedIn
43. Make sure all key employees have
profiles and actively build connections
44. Search for and actively participate in
industry groups locally, nationally,
internationally
49. Rapidly growing in importance
Young professionals
Tech Savvy participants
Broad reach beyond local market
Participate daily or multiple times
per day
Twitter
53. 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
58. 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
Facebook
61. 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
62. 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
63. New business announcements
Career tech education locally
Expansions – and why
Entrepreneurship
Local business resources
New regulations
Top jobs locally
Etc.
Blog Topics
64.
65.
66.
67. Highly recommend starting to
incorporate video into your
efforts, if you are not already
doing this
YouTube
71. 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
72. 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
73. 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:
74. 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
75. Schedule ahead: use Hootsuite.com to post
to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
77. 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
78. Offered by Constant Contact
Monitors mentions and activity:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Foursquare
Reports are emailed to you
FREE!
Easy monitoring:
NutshellMail.com
79.
80. 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
81.
82. 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
83. The Basic Marketing Equation
DEFINED
TARGET
AUDIENCE
TARGETED
MESSAGE
EFFECTIVENESS
& FREQUENCY
OF DELIVERY
RESULTS
84. 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.
86. 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
87. 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
88. 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!!
89. 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
90. 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
91. 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
92. 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
93. 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.
94. 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.
95. 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
96. 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
97.
98.
99. Download this presentation at
www.slideshare.net/ellendid4
Please connect with me!
www.RedSageOnline.com
twitter.com/ellendidier
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ellendidier