This document discusses marketing a community to drive economic development. It covers defining a community's brand and target audiences, tools to reach all audiences like websites and social media, and tailoring marketing for specific audiences. The key points are defining the community brand, identifying target audiences like site selectors and industries, using the website and social media as primary marketing tools, and customizing outreach for each audience.

1. Marke&ng
Your
Community
to
Drive
Economic
Development
Southeast Community Development Institute
April 25, 2013
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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

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.

17. Showcasing your
community with
your economic
development
website

18. 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

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

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

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

36. Provide a wide range of maps

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

40. What are your top options?

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

46. LinkedIn groups are a great way to
monitor buzz and trends

47. Communicate and engage with site
selectors online

48. Make status updates of your own to
show up in feeds

49.  Rapidly growing in importance
 Young professionals
 Tech Savvy participants
 Broad reach beyond local market
 Participate daily or multiple times
per day
Twitter

50. Continue your branding

51. Share videos, local news and
communicate with others

52. Promote your organization’s tweets with
your individual tweets, and vice versa

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

54. Search for topics to monitor trends
(#hashtags)

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

59. Promote action on community issue

60. Share local economic
development news

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

67.  Highly recommend starting to
incorporate video into your
efforts, if you are not already
doing this
YouTube

68. Greenville, SC
http://www.youtube.com/gogadc
 About GADC video
 Industry profiles
 Testimonial videos from young
professionals

70. Jacksonville-Onslow, NC

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.

76. Monitor all your feeds in one place

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

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

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.

85. Adjust your message
for each market – AND how
you deliver the message

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

99. Download this presentation at
www.slideshare.net/ellendid4
Please connect with me!
www.RedSageOnline.com
twitter.com/ellendidier
twitter.com/RedSageAL
facebook.com/redsage linkedin.com/in/
ellendidier