How to promote your city, county and region using location advantages marketing

How to promote your city, county and region using location advantages marketing

Leading economic development organizations are turning to location advantages marketing to promote their community’s strengths and stand out from the competition.

We all know the internet is where corporate decision makers and site selection consultants start their journey when investigating market opportunities and assessing expansion locations. In fact a recent survey undertaken by Development Counsellors International identifies 3 essential findings every economic developer should be aware of:

  1. An economic development organization’s website is the first introduction that most corporate executives and site selectors will have to a location being considered for investment.
  2. Corporate executives and site selectors consider the internet and websites were the most effective way for economic developers to market their location.
  3. 42% of corporate executives and site selectors will contact economic developers following the development of the shortlist of communities.

At the same time, competition between locations to attract new investment and jobs is intensifying. In response to these trends, leading economic developers are spending more than ever on improving their website and driving traffic to it. While this approach is considered best practice, it's important to realize that getting people to your website is not enough.

So, you’ve got people to your website. What’s next?

Your next priority is keeping them there. The longer they stay on your website, the more engaged they will be and the more they will learn about your community's advantages, assets and opportunities. This in turn will increase the chances of your location making a site selector's short list.

However, here's the challenge you must overcome - research has found that the internet is giving us shorter attention spans and you typically only have about 8 seconds to engage a person and keep them from leaving your website.

How do you keep corporate execs and site selectors engaged on your economic development website?

You need to engage them immediately with a compelling story about your specific advantages and why your community is the best place for their business to locate, expand and prosper. There are 2 complimentary ways your website can do this — qualitative marketing and location advantages marketing.

Qualitative marketing

The traditional approach to promoting a city, county or region is to use compelling branding, slogans, copy and imagery. This is a “qualitative approach” and can be very effective at getting people’s attention.

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Location Advantages Marketing

Once you’ve got people’s attention, integrating interactive visualizations into your website that use data to promote your location's advantages will help keep their attention. This quantitive approach is called "Location Advantages Marketing" and has been proven to keep people engaged on a website for longer.

A great example of this is media outlets who are increasingly using visualizations to increase engagement on their websites, which in turn helps them increase advertising revenue. So ask yourself this, are you more likely to read a 800-word article or engage with an interactive and informative visualization?

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Location Advantages Marketing Model

Localintel’s “Location Advantages Marketing Model” shows how qualitative and Location Advantages Marketing work together. The starting point is ensuring your economic development website has a compelling marketing narrative that sets your location apart. When done well qualitative marketing can tap into an emotion to elicit the attention you want from corporate decision makers and site selection consultants.

Localintel's Location Advantages Marketing Model

The next step is to take advantage of the fact that corporate decision makers and site selection consultants are data orientated people. You can create greater levels of engagement with them by integrating data-driven interactive visualizations into your website that are specifically designed to promote why your location is the best place for their business to locate, expand and prosper.

Localintel’s “Location Advantages Marketing Model” also shows that as engagement levels with corporate decision makers and site selection consultants increase, it becomes less about marketing your state and more about selling it. The focus shifts to presenting the facts and providing detailed data about incentives, demographics, workforce, available sites and so on.

What’s the difference between location advantages marketing tools and traditional economic development data products?

There are 3 distinct difference between location advantages marketing tools and traditional economic development data products:

  1. Marketing first: The primary purpose of location advantages marketing tools is to increase engagement and help you generate leads (i.e. they are marketing tools, not data tools). In contrast, the primary purpose of traditional online economic development data tools is to provide a large amount of detailed data about your community (i.e. they are data tools, not marketing tools).
  2. Focus on the positive: If you are trying to engage a site selector and stand out from the competition, it’s best to start with the strongest sales pitch you have. Location advantage marketing tools are specifically designed to focus on the positive aspects of your community (i.e. the strengths, assets and opportunities that make your location special). Traditional online economic development data tools tend to present a broad range information that include both positive and less appealing aspects of your community.
  3. Deeply integrated: Location advantage marketing tools are designed to work side by side with your existing website marketing content to ensure you're telling the community's story more effectively. For example, you might consider integrating them into the “Why Us” or “Our Advantages” section of your website. Traditional online economic development data products tend to be most valuable after folks are successfully engaged and have started asking more detailed questions about available sites, supply chains and so on. As a result, traditional data tools are typically positioned in less prominent parts of a website.

Examples of Location Advantages Marketing in Action

Here's a range of examples of how economic developers are using location advantages marketing.

Logistics and Accessibility Advantages 

Promote your infrastructure networks that make it easier for businesses to access major domestic and international markets by land, sea, air and online. 

Economic Advantages

Promote key strengths of your economy using a dynamic dashboard addressing income, population, employment sectors and more.

Target Sector Advantages

Showcase your target business sectors and where companies can find a highly motivated and skilled workforce.

Workforce Advantages

Promote the size, strength and diversity of your workforce using a dynamic dashboard addressing unemployment rate, wages, workforce size and growth and more.

Talent Pipeline Advantages

Promote the network of universities and colleges that drive workforce supply and innovation in your economy.

Largest Industries

Promote the largest industries that are driving employment in your community.

Fast Growing Industries

Promote the fast growing industries creating new opportunities in you location.

Case Study: How Texas promotes its regions and cities to the world

Texas Economic Development Corporation (TxEDC) recognized that its outdated website required a next-generation approach to marketing­ Texas ­as a premier business destination to domestic and global audiences.

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To address this, TxEDC integrated Localintel’s new Location Advantages tools throughout their website to help promote key advantages about infrastructure, workforce, target sectors and other areas of importance in economic development. A comprehensive case study on TxEDC’s data driven approach to marketing can be accessed by clicking here.

“Implementing Localintel’s Location Advantages tools allowed us to more effectively market what is unique about each of Texas’ regions with the data to back it up.”
Robert Allen
President & CEO, Texas Economic Development Corporation

How can your city, county or region implement location advantages marketing and better promote your community to the world?

Localintel is the world leader in location advantages marketing. We have developed a catalog of plug-n-play economic development tools specifically designed to promote your location advantages, including:

  • Logistics and Accessibility Advantages
  • Workforce Advantages
  • Talent Pipeline Advantages
  • Economic Advantages
  • Target Sector Advantages
  • Fastest Growing Industries
  • Largest Industries
  • Specialist Industries

Regardless of whether your economic development organization is working within the constraints of an existing website, or creating a new one, integrating Localintel’s Location Advantages tools into your website is the easiest way to tell the world why your location is the best place for businesses to locate, expand and prosper.

To learn more, Localintel’s Location Advantages tools click here or go to www.ecdev.org and please contact me directly if you would like to discuss any aspects of this article.

Localintel makes online economic development tools that hundreds of organizations have added to their website to promote their community’s advantages. Our clients include Texas Economic Development Corporation, Enterprise Florida, Washington DC Economic Partnership, Denver South Economic Development Partnership, New Orleans Business Alliance, Indianapolis Chamber and the cities of Cleveland, Seattle and Tulsa.

Sandy Allison

Executive Director at MSDC

3y

Wow! Wonderful Marketing!

Summer Rietsma

Hi, I'm Summer! Office Coordinator with 12 years of admin experience. Married 22yrs, mom of 3, proud pet parent of 2 dachshunds and a hedgehog. Passionate about church and ministry work. 🙏📊🐾 #AdminPro #FaithMatters

3y

Interesting

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