What are the top ED website trends heading into 2018? Will your organization be up to date, or will you fall behind? Join Golden Shovel CEO Aaron Brossoit and GIS Planning VP of Marketing, Alissa Sklar for a look at the 10 most important trends in economic development marketing online for the coming year, with live examples and practical tips related to the following factors - and more! * Design trends * Strategies for engagement * Microsites * Interactive and dynamic features * Visualizing data * Video *Tracking website visitors

1. Alissa Sklar, Ph.D.
VP of Marketing
GIS Planning Inc.
asklar@gisplanning.com
GISPlanning.com
@gisplanning
10 Key Trends for
Economic Development Websites in 2017-18
Tuesday, September 12th, 2017.
Aaron Brossoit
Chief Executive Officer
Golden Shovel Agency
abrossoit@goldenshovel.com
GoldenShovel.com
@goldshovel

2. What’s next in economic
development marketing?
Workforce attraction
Business attraction
Business retention
Business expansion

3. 10
STORYTELLING

4. COMPREHENSION
RECALL
RESONANCE

5. WHO IS THE STORY FOR?
WORKFORCE/TALENT
SITE SELECTORS
BUSINESS OWNERS
EXISTING BUSINESSES
ENTREPRENEURS
TARGET INDUSTRIES
STAKEHOLDERS

6. WHAT MAKES A GOOD STORY?
Clear Purpose
Personal Connection
Common Reference Points
Detailed Characters We Identify With
Conflict We Can Relate To
Pacing

7. A LINKEDIN SUCCESS STORY

12. STORYTELLING
IS VISUAL

17. Using data for storytelling
http://www.santarosaedo.com/demographic.html

18. http://www.ga-sites.com/industries/aerospace.html

20. 9
DATA

21. Businesses and site selectors are researching
locations online.
Site selection research may be performed after
business hours & weekends by potential
investors all over the world.

24. What kinds of data do you offer site selectors?
● Demographic
● Available sites & properties
● Labor force
● Business
● Industry
● GIS
● Local data
● Talent
● Housing
● Transportation
● Energy

25. ChooseAmarillo.com

26. Profile Talent Pool Data

27. How Two Communities Put Data to Work
Greater Gallup EDC GallupEDC.com

28. How Two Communities Put Data to Work
Expand Greater Springfield ExpandGreaterSpringfield.com

31. 8
INFOGRAPHICS
& VISUALIZING DATA

33. The power of images
● 90% of the information that comes to our brain is visual
● The human brain can absorb visual information in 1/10th of a second.
● The average person is exposed to 174 newspapers full of information every
day.
● Only 1% of that information actually makes it through to our brains.
● We remember new and different things more easily when they are presented
in a visual format.

34. Infographics are illustrations of data or ideas that can communicate
complex information in a way that can be quickly absorbed,
easily understood and remembered.
Websites with infographics realize an increase in
traffic of 12% over those that don’t.

35. https://www.zoomprospector.com/edos/northern-kentucky-tried/278

36. http://www.gemstateprospector.com/communities.html

38. 7
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

39. Search buildings, sites,
communities and
businesses
ZoomProspector location analysis tool

40. User-defined search
for sites and
buildings based on
location & size

41. Property list is also displayed
on interactive map

42. 6 Intelligence Components for website pages
1- Mapping

43. 2- Business Data

44. 3- Demographics

45. 4- Compare Communities

46. 5- Infographics

47. 6- NEW! Talent Pool

48. 6
REGIONAL NETWORK

64. State or regional application sync with local applications

66. 5
MICROSITES

67. TYPES OF MICROSITES
WORKFORCE ATTRACTION
INDUSTRIAL PARKS
HOUSING
START UPS
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
TARGET INDUSTRIES
DISASTER RECOVERY
SITE SELECTION & DATA

70. Microsite for Housing

73. Microsite for Site Selection

74. Microsite Portals for Data Resources

76. 4
MOBILE

79. Our analytics show that up to 30% of web traffic on our clients’
site selection pages are coming from mobile devices.
If your website isn’t optimized for mobile,
you are losing leads without knowing it.

80. Responsive: Desktop

81. Responsive: Tablet

82. Responsive: Mobile

83. Responsive Design
Irvine Chamber Economic Development

84. 3
VIDEO & VR

85. Video attracts engaged visitors
Content marketing with video is increasing
Video marketing is cost effective
Video drives SEO
Videos are impressionable

89. Familiarisation Tours
Site Tours
Workforce Attraction
Tourism

95. 2
ADVANCED MARKETING

96. Who is using what tool?

107. Workforce Attraction Ad Campaigns
● Targeted Workforce Marketing
● Promote Jobs
● Generate Likes to Social Media Pages
● Drive Website Traffic

108. 4,556
LIKES

110. Fully embedded social sharing

112. Mine your data tools for a consistent source of social
content:
● Properties of the week
● Businesses of the week
● Interesting heat maps

114. 1
TRACKING & LEAD GENERATION

115. A)Lead generation:
How will your website be found?

116. Connecting businesses with communities.

117. The U.S. national site selection website
Be found.
Free searches of 1000+ data points for EVERY
community in the U.S.

118. B) Do you know who’s visiting your website?
ZoomProspector does.

121. Top 10 Trends in Economic
Development Websites for 2017
10) Storytelling
9) Data
8) Infographics & Visualizing Data
7) Audience Engagement
6) Regional Network
5) Microsites
4) Mobile
3) Video & VR
2) Advanced Marketing
1) Tracking & Lead Generation

122. Alissa Sklar, Ph.D.
VP of Marketing
GIS Planning Inc.
asklar@gisplanning.com
@gisplanning
Thank You!
Any Questions?
Aaron Brossoit
Chief Executive Officer
Golden Shovel Agency
abrossoit@goldenshovel.com
@goldshovel