Learn some fresh approaches to place marketing for your economic development organization. Alissa Sklar, Ph.D., GIS Planning's director of marketing, outlines five effective ways to effectively communicate the advantages of expanding or relocating to your region. Tips include social media strategies, successful messaging ideas and creative use of industry and work force data. For more information, visit http://www.gisplanning.com/

3. Let’s talk about…
• Producing great content
• Engagement
• Using analytics
• Telling stories
• Streamlining the process for efficiency

4. 1- Focus on great content
EDOs often place too much
emphasis on "branding" and not
enough on high quality content.

5. make it interesting & useful
Created by Sonia Simone

6. What makes great content in
#econdev?
• Unique perspective
• Strong opinions and/or emotions
• Humor
• Telling stories
• Compelling visuals/video
• Unexpected connections
• Data that resonates

10. General goals
• Goal#1: Attract people to your website
• Goal#2: Offer the content they need
• Goal#3: Give them a reason to return

11. What makes great content in
#econdev?
• Unique perspective
• Strong opinions and/or emotions
• Humor
• Telling stories
• Compelling visuals/video
• Unexpected connections
• Data that resonates

12. Investment attraction
• Goal#1: Attract investors to your website
• Goal#2: Offer the content they need
Demographics
Labor force
Consumer Spending
Business & Industry information
Infrastructure
Housing
Incentive zones
Property database
Mapping resources
• Goal#3: Give them the reason to return

19. Business retention & nurturing
• Goal#1: Attract existing businesses to your
website
• Goal#2: Offer the content they need
Benchmark market intelligence data
Demographics
Labor force
Map suppliers & competitors
Best places to advertise
• Goal#3: Give them a reason to return

24. 2- Engage, Engage, Engage
Prospects, site selectors & existing businesses are online already – go find them!
True engagement implies dialogue, not just broadcasting one-way messages for
an audience to receive.
How to engage:
• Regularly post content on selected social
feeds and invite feedback.
• Ask questions.
• Try polls.
• Participate in selected groups.
• Reply or comment on the posts of others.

31. 3- Analytics Are the New Black
Identify and monitor the numbers that help you
track effectiveness:
• Web traffic
• Email opens & clicks
• LinkedIn followers & connections
• Twitter followers
• YouTube views
• Impressions, likes, comments, etc.

32. Use Google Analytics to keep tabs on
the following metrics:
• Where visitors (potential leads) are coming from (country & city);
• What language visitors speak;
• Whether they are using desktop or mobile;
• What days are busiest for website traffic;
• How long visitors are spending on site;
• Which pages they tend to use to enter the site;
• On which pages they are most likely to exit;
• What sources send traffic your way;
• What search terms (organic) lead people to your site;
• Which social media networks and campaigns are effective in
delivering website traffic;
• Which email blasts are effective in boosting traffic.
Learn how to use analytics strategically!
http://www.slideshare.net/gisplanning/ga-webinar-slide-
share-38033266

34. Use ZoomProspector Analytics to
follow these metrics:
A wide variety of searches related to the kinds of
property and community searches your website
visitors will be doing.
Offers the specific site selection data your
website visitors seek – details that aren’t
available through Google Analytics alone.

38. 4- Tell Stories
The human brain is hard-wired to appreciate
stories. We use narrative as a basic way to
organize our memories, and research shows
recall is significantly higher when information is
presented in narrative forms
Click here to view our recent presentation on using storytelling
techniques for place marketing:
http://www.slideshare.net/gisplanning/harness-power-of-
storytelling-for-economic-development-marketing

46. 5- Streamline and Seek Efficiency
1- Produce content with "legs"
*human interest angle
*high-quality images
*seek stories
2- Leverage it across as many platforms as possible.
3- Make use of dashboards (such as Hootsuite) that
let you manage multiple accounts at a glance.
4- Create an editorial calendar to help you plan out
posts.

47. BONUS! 6- Try Something New

48. • Use more images to grab attention.
• Profile a local business or entrepreneur.
• Seek inspiration from your data.
• Turn a presentation into a SlideShare.
• Produce short videos interviewing local residents
in a commercial center or downtown area.
• Try out a new social media network, such as
Instagram or Pinterest to boost traffic to your
website.

50. Let’s summarize:
• Offer quality content
• Engagement
• Use analytics
• Tell stories
• Streamline for efficiency
• Try something new

51. For more practical marketing ideas, visit
our webinars archive and our blog.