Economic Development Project of the Week: Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce, BC
Each week we present how economic developers are promoting their community's advantages to site selectors, businesses and workforce by adding Localintel’s Location Advantages marketing tools to their website.
This week we’ll take a look at the steps the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce in British Columbia is taking to drive talent attraction to support the community’s new growth sectors.
About Nelson
Nelson is a small city of approximately 10,000 residents located in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia’s Southern Interior.
The Chamber is focused on creating a positive business environment to enable economic growth and improving the quality of life in Nelson and surrounding area. Traditionally a resource and tourism driven economy, Nelson is now seeing investment from manufacturing, health and wellness, technology and digital media emerging in the region.
The Challenge
Talent attraction is one of the biggest challenges facing regional communities such as Nelson. With more workers looking to relocate, those locations that promote their quality of life have a competitive advantage.
Being ranked as the 4th most livable city in BC, Nelson certainly has a lot to talk about when it comes to promoting their enviable quality of life. The key is to leverage their quality of life advantage to help attract talent and support the growing tech and media sectors in the region.
Why is this important?
With restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been forced to look closer at their home and its surroundings. This has led many people to the decision that it’s time for something new. At the same time, businesses have learnt to embrace and encourage work from home policies.
Remote work has therefore enabled greater housing choice with many employees no longer tied to traditional offices. This is a welcome trend for communities like Nelson as talent attraction is one of the biggest challenges they face.
Promoting Nelson’s Quality of Life Advantages
By adding Localintel’s innovative new Quality of Life marketing tool to a dedicated page on their website titled “Live & Work in Nelson, BC”, Nelson Chamber now has an easy, effective, and affordable way to promote their community’s advantages to attract talent, including remote workers.
Use Case
Quality of Life means different things to different people. When considering a relocation, what matters most for a family with young children will be significantly different than a newly retired couple.
That’s why Localintel’s new Quality of Life marketing tool includes multiple “user personas”. Visitors using the tool can select the persona that best matches them, and the tool will then adjust its marketing message to promote what makes Nelson a special place to live based on their specific needs.
For example, those who fall into the ‘Raising a family’ persona, can quickly find out that Nelson has a strong network of supportive schools. They can explore all the activities available to keep kids busy and that their family’s everyday needs are conveniently just around the corner.
The user can then explore the map view to get a more detailed picture of the locations and names of all the shops, services and amenities that are relevant to them as they go about their daily lives.
More importantly parents can learn where they can go on a date night, socialize with friends, escape for a round of golf at one of the 7 golf courses, take a day’s skiing at one of 7 world class resorts, or learn what outdoor activities are available (with or without the kids!)
When relocating, understanding the proximity of the community to other commercial centres and the broader accessibility to the world is an important consideration for all personas when evaluating a community.
The Quality of Life marketing tool allows the user to learn a wealth of information about the community and spark their curiosity in an easy, fun, engaging and interactive way.
By making an emotional connection with the user through the use of personas, the tool enables them to picture themselves moving, living and thriving in the community, no matter what stage they are at in life both personally and professionally.
In addition to those raising young families, Nelson is now able to showcase the enviable quality of life their community has to offer to the following personas using Localintel’s Quality of Life Advantages tool:
- People considering relocating – The post-pandemic economy is providing communities like Nelson who enjoy quality of life advantages with opportunities to attract talented new residents.
- Remote workers – Big-tech’s shift to remote work presents Nelson with an opportunity to attract remote workers who want a better quality of life.
- Local businesses who are recruiting – Businesses are often good at selling the merits of a job and their company, but sometimes they need help selling the location to candidates who currently live elsewhere.
- Site Selectors and Investors – By adding Localintel’s Quality of Life marketing tool to the Nelson Chamber website, the organization can promote what makes Nelson an attractive place to locate and grow a business.
Learn more
Here’s some places you can learn more about Localintel’s Quality of Life marketing tool:
- Schedule a call with one of the Localintel team by clicking here
- Check out our Quality-of-Life Advantages information page by clicking here
Get answers to frequently asked questions about the Quality of Life tool by clicking here
About Localintel Economic Development
Localintel provides location marketing tools that hundreds of economic developers have added to their website to promote their community's advantages and assist businesses. The tools are accurate, automated and affordable.
Our clients:
Our clients range from small rural villages through to Texas Economic Development Corporation, Enterprise Florida, Washington DC Economic Partnership, Indy Chamber, New Orleans Business Alliance, Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and the cities of Seattle, Cleveland, Fort Lauderdale and Tulsa. In Canada, our clients span the Village of Hazelton to the Government of British Columbia, Invest Alberta, Invest Ottawa, Invest Hamilton and the economic development corporations of Calgary, Winnipeg, London and Kingston.