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Northland Connection

Website Review and Agency Capabilities

Building a Best-in-Class Economic

Development Website

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About Atlas Advertising

• We help economic developers reach national and international prospect and site selection audiences

• We deliver branding, website development, GIS mapping, research, social media, and creative services

• Our agency is led by a former economic development practitioner and has worked with 50+ different economic development clients in 30 states

• Our campaigns generate an average of three to ten times the response of other campaigns

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Featured Clients

• State of Ohio

• Indy Partnership

• City of San Francisco

• Greater Phoenix Economic Council

• Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership

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Outline

1. Overview

2. Website development – project approach and process

3. Eight components of a world class Economic Development website

4. Site Selectors & social media usage

5. Conversation / your questions

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Overview

Taking on a website redevelopment project is a huge commitment – today you’ll take away the knowledge to:

• Understand and avoid the potential pitfalls of a web development project

• Understand the importance of “good” design and how it can effect the performance of your website

• Know what tools, content and features are key to a successful site

• Keep your site updated and engaged, giving it a successful, long lifespan

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Your platform

• A platform for publishing, communicating, organizing, and serving your customers and prospects

• Today, there is very little in economic development that can’t be facilitated or made more efficient by treating your website as a platform for most of your media delivery

• Think of it as the starting point for your new, online community: It’s about connections--connecting people to each other, to ideas, to communities and to possibilities.

So, how do you do it?

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Web development processPhases:• Discovery• Design and Content Development• Technical Development• Launch• Maintenance

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Discovery Phase

Your website starts with a purpose and a design, but it is powered by the content you create.

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Discovery

Goal: Setting the tone for a successful, on-time, on-budget delivery

• Audience identification and hierarchy– Only one audience at the top of the hierarchy – don’t muddle

• Positioning– Positioning statements help establish and differentiate your product and

service in the eyes of your customers. What is the service/product? Who is it for? How is it different from the competition? What makes it unique?

• Project Purpose – creating a common guideline for everyone to follow– A reference point for all design and IA decisions as we move forward

• Effective Information Architecture– What are the needs and wants of your main audiences? How are their needs

translated into a hierarchy of information?

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Information architecture• Information architecture (IA) is the design of the

structure, hierarchy, and navigation of a website (sitemap)

• Effective IA bridges the gap between research and the visual design, and the process helps an organization understand itself better

• We’re concerned with creating an architecture and hierarchy that gets users to their content more efficiently – ideally within 3 clicks

• Intuitive navigation doesn't happen by chance and it must reflect the way people think in order for it to be effective

• Good IA can lead to smarter development processes, lowered maintenance costs, less internal documentation, and scalability

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Information architecture

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Design Phase

People don’t just visit your website; they experience and interact with it.

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Design

Goal: design an original, intuitive website that attracts and retains users until they find the information they need. Create a resource to entice return visits.

• 10 second rule – “Am I in the right place?”– “Do they have what I am looking for?”– And sometimes, “Does better content exist elsewhere?”

• How to engage? – Emotion, Differentiation and Authenticity

• Help users make decisions – guide them– Eye tracking studies– Calls to action (purpose of the site)– Clarity of navigation in design

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A well-designed homepageDesign is mostly about structure and hierarchy

• People process visual information 60,000 times faster than narrative information

• Design is not necessarily just about the visual aesthetics – it is about the facilitation of an information gathering process

• The visual representation and online brand is very important, but our first priority is getting users to the information they need – all other experiences are secondary

• Your online brand is more than your logo, images and color palette, it’s also:• the speed at which your pages load• the ease of navigation• the tone of your content• how quickly you respond to queries from your prospects

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A well-designed homepageLexington, KY• Uses local imagery

and representational palette

• Connects the region with useful business messaging

• Backs up the positioning with fact-based information

• Provides map for quick locational reference

• Appeals to both the left and right brain

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A well-designed homepageThe Right Place• Bold imagery, vibrant

campaign language

• Marketing speak backed up with facts and figures on home page

• Balanced design pushes below the fold elegantly

• Provides map for quick locational reference

• Homepage caters to existing businesses as well

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Design Tips and Takeaways• OK to design below the fold

• Limit your use of Flash

• Understand typical eye-tracking patterns

• Contact information on the top of every page

• Present maps on the homepage

• Understand that your brand is more than your design

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Writing Effective Content for Your Website

"If your target audience isn't listening, it's not their fault, it's yours.”Seth Godin, Small is the New Big

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Online content

Once you have your sitemap and your agency is beginning the design phase, it’s time for your biggest task in the process.

Most users scan instead of read• Your content writers need to be trained in online content

writing

Write in “usable content formats”• Scannable, written and designed in chunks

Update often to keep it relevant• If you write it well, your users will return to the resource

you’ve created

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Online content – pre-launchIn order for this phase to be successful, you can

count on:

• Spending up to 2 months full time getting the copy written, edited and uploaded to your new website (approx 3 hours/page)

• Creating an effective editorial calendar, because when you launch, you’ll be:– Reviewing and updating various portions of your site weekly– Posting to social media outlets daily

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Online Content – Post Launch• Periodically review your content

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Do you believe the hype?Here’s a look at Google search returns for “content

strategy":

• 2006: 5,930,000

• 2007: 8,340,000

• 2008: 137,000,000

• 2009: 337,000,000

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Eight components of a world-class ED website

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Eight components of a world-class ED website• Authenticity of place branding and messaging

• Clarity of navigation

• Depth and quality of content

• Use of search marketing approaches

• Use of email marketing and news sections

• Frequent performance tracking

• Use of maps and GIS technology

• Use of social media

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Authenticity in place branding• Communicating

a true positioning of the region

• Utilizing recognizable national elements

• Capturing users’ attention--inspiring them to use the site

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Outstanding branding

Strategies Do: Don’t:Communicating a true positioning of the region

Stick to the facts – how is your community really better?

Use overly puffy language, or stretch the truth

Utilizing recognizable national elements

Pick the thing that the nation thinks of you, often not the sexy thing

Try to steal someone else’s brand (Silicon what?)

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Clarity of navigation

•A prospect-specific section placed prominently

•Utilizing IEDC data standards

•Providing the top ten most requested pages

•Keeping all valuable content three clicks or less from the homepage

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Top 10 pages requested nationally on ED websites1. About Us (about the organization)

2. Programs (that the organization offers)

3. Data Center

4. News

5. Relocate and Expand

6. Find Property

7. Site Selection Services

8. Workforce Data and Information

9. Database of Companies or Largest Employers

10.Maps of the Area

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Great content strategy• Scannable - bullets

and chunks

• Using a content management system that enables publishing of pages, downloadable documents, and data

• Weekly updates

• Devoting half of your budget to content

• Offering prominent contact info

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Great content strategy

Strategies Do: Don’t:Update weekly Spend 50 percent

of an FTE staff person’s time

Let updates slip to less than weekly

Use a content management system that enables publishing of pages, downloadable documents, and data

Use one that allows for easy editing (open source and Microsoft [both offered by Atlas] are best)

Use a home-grown, overly basic system

Create scannable & relevant content

Use a mix of links, bullet points and downloads to limit scrolling

Pretend your pages are 8.5 x 11 word documents

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Effective search marketing• Ranking #1

organically for “your city/region economic development”

• Ranking #1 organically for “your organization name”

• Utilizing paid search (PPC) to drive additional traffic

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Top 10 search terms that drive traffic to ED websites1. Your organization name

2. Your city/region name “economic development”

3. Incentive type offered in your region (depends on community)

4. Resident company name (i.e., Boeing)

5. Region name (if different from city)

6. Organizational url (without .com/.net/.org)

7. Campaign name (initiative or fundraising)

8. City/region name “maps”

9. City/region name “counties”

10. City/region name “industries”

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Effective search marketing

Strategies Do: Don’t:#1 organically for “your geography economic development”

Use these terms between 7 and 11 times on your home page

Vary the usage or ordering

#1 organically for “your organizational name”

Leverage your name if it includes your region’s name

Use coined organizational names that don’t tie to geography

Utilizing paid search (PPC) to drive additional traffic

Spend at least $500 per month this way

Dismiss this as too expensive and still use traditional advertising or PR

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Best search engine marketingLocation Georgia• Optimize their website

around top terms

• Use PPC to broaden search terms “Georgia Demographics”

• Over half of their traffic comes from search engines

• 500% traffic increase by using effective search marketing

www.locationgeorgia.com

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Effective use of an email newsletter• Monthly email

newsletter to investors, prospects

• Tracking performance of those newsletters

• Posting newsletters and news items to your website weekly or monthly

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Outstanding email marketing

Strategies Do: Don’t:

Monthly email newsletter to investors, prospects

Send email consistently, with a year long calendar

Rush to send email “just to stay in front of folks”

Track performance of newsletters

Track open rates, click-through rates, and who opens email

Keep sending email if your open rate is below 5 percent

Post newsletters and news items to your website

Post items relevant to your key audiences

Post news just because you feel you have to

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Effective performance tracking• Review report

once per month

• Track unique visits, referrers and downloads

• Benchmark your performance against other EDs

• Integrate tracking of advertising, web and PR effectiveness

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Effective performance tracking

Strategies Do: Don’t:

Review report once per month

Review just the basic metrics – visits, referrers, pages, contacts

Ignore your statistics for a quarter or more

Track unique visits, referrers, and downloads

Track a funnel of activity

Use “hits”

Benchmark your web statistics versus your peers in ED

Look quarterly at how your performance stacks up against national averages

Simply think that because your stats are “up” that they are good

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Effective use of maps and GIS technology

•Use maps with various layers (transportation, education, etc.)

•Use integrated real estate searches/GIS mapping software

•Generate dynamic demographic and business reports

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Strategies Do: Don’t:

Use maps with various layers (transportation, education, etc.)

Place a simple map on your home page that places your city inside your region

Forget that a national audience does not know your area the way you do

Use integrated real estate searches/GIS mapping software

Integrate these features fully into your website and content management system

Require users or staff to visit or log into a separate system

Generate dynamic demographic and business reports

Make reports available in as few clicks as possible

Use interfaces that are too complicated or clunky

Effective use of Maps and GIS technology

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Best use of Maps and GIS technology

Indy Partnership• Use maps to place

their region in the global geography

• Fully integrated property and business GIS search

• Geospatial reporting

• 1 property search and 1 business search per web visit, on average

www.indypartnership.com

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Effective use of social media• Link your website

and your LinkedIn profile

• Keep an active Twitter account

• Create a blog and update it four times per week

• Incorporate “Share It” features on your site

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Do you believe the hype?Here’s a look at Google search returns for “social media” over the past few years: 

• 2005: 9,150,000

• 2006: 41,600,000

• 2007: 165,000,000

• 2008: 359,000,000

• 2009: 1,230,000,000 

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Effective social media strategies

Strategies Do: Don’t:

Link your website and your LinkedIn profile

Set up a Linked In profile for each customer and prospect-facing member of the team, link to your organization’s profile and individual profiles.

Think that LinkedIn is a fad. The research does not support that conclusion.

Create a blog and update it four times per week

Post small (even paragraphs) that show your perspective 4 times a week

“Over process” your posts

Keep an active Twitter account

Encourage your investors, stakeholders, workforce, and others to follow you

Dismiss Twitter as something “the kids do”

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Best use of social media

Metro Denver EDC• Outstanding blog,

mostly written by their Executive VP

• “Insider” tone

• Outstanding use of Twitter – 2,700 followers

• Tweeting 4-6 times a day

www.metrodenver.org/blog

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What you can learn from Metro Denver

• You can grow your sphere of influence by using social media

• Your executive should be involved

• Your blog should be open and honest

• Use a tone that is personal and connects you to your stakeholders

• Take a leadership role in getting information out about your community

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7 things you should be doing with social media today1. Start blogging to drive traffic and increase conversation

2. Develop a dialogue with your workforce and residents with Facebook

3. Use Twitter to engage your investors and community stakeholders, and to share information about your community

4. Integrate Social Media and sharing into your websites

5. Use a variety of tools to recruit Site Selectors and prospects to online meetings

6. Develop a dedicated approach to using LinkedIn for prospecting

7. Keep and eye on new platforms, such as foursquare

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The Atlas Report: Social Media Use by Site Selectors

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Who we interviewed

• Estate Inc., New Mexico• Mike Barnes Group, Inc.,

Texas• Colliers Location Agency &

Incentives Practice, Indiana• McCallum Sweeney

Consulting, South Carolina• Koll Development Company,

Texas• CB Richard Ellis,

Washington• Studley Inc., Pennsylvania• Greenfield Development

Company, North Carolina• CB Richard Ellis, Arizona• The RSH Group, California

• Moran, Stahl & Boyer LLC, Florida

• Sherwin-Williams Co., Georgia• Trione & Gordon/ONCOR Intl.,

Texas• Colliers International,  Toronto

CANADA• Little & Associates Architects,

North Carolina• Palm Inc – Sunnyvale,

California• Visa – San Francisco,

California• Foote Consulting Group –

Glendale, Arizona

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What social networks or tools, if any, do you use?

• 71 % use LinkedIn

• Just over 50% use facebook

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How frequently do you use each?

• 72 % use some form of Social Media at least weekly.

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What is the applicability of Twitter to your profession?

• 63.6% say Twitter has no/very little applicability to the site selection profession.

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What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession?

• 52.6% say LinkedIn has good application to the site selection profession.

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Today’s opportunities

• Content is king: the more of it you have, and the better it’s displayed, the better your organization will do online

• You should have control of your page, data, file, and photographic content

• Integrated GIS makes the experience seamless for your users and delivers 300% more property searches than other tools in many markets

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Today’s opportunities

• Never forget your brand or how far it extends on your website• It will deliver more than 10x the experiences of any

other marketing you do

• Search engine marketing is the most cost effective, targeted way to harvest new leads• It can increase traffic by as much as 1000% within

targeted groups

• Social media is a vast, untapped opportunity• Direct users to your LinkedIn profiles, blog, Twitter

account, and let users share pages and content

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Parting thoughts…

• Your website is an outreach of your community—think of how you extend in-person greetings to your prospects, and try, as hard as you can, to deliver that message and tone online

• Your site is not static, it’s living and breathing—it takes incredible attention and detail, but it will deliver incredible results

• Your site is your platform—for first impressions, for storytelling, for capturing attention and most importantly for starting a conversation

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Thank you! Questions?

Peter BrownDirector of Creative Services

peterb@atlas-advertising.com

Download this presentation: http://blog.atlas-advertising.com

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AtlasAd

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Contact Atlas

Contact information:

2601 Blake Street, Suite 301Denver, CO 80205

Contact: Ben Wrightt: 303.292.3300 x 210

benw@Atlas-Advertising.comwww.Atlas-Advertising.com