Is Your Economic Development

Website

Presented by:

Dying….

Your Hosts

Guillermo Mazier – Director, Strategic Accounts

–  Former economic developer and tourism marketer for the Costa Rican Investment and Trade Development Board

–  Managed economic development and tourism campaign for Tortugero, CR

–  Industry speaker, content strategy and digital marketing specialist–  Favorite Website This Year: Spotify.com

@ A t l a s A d @ G u i l l e r m o M a z i e r # A s k A t l a s

About Atlas A purpose driven agency that specializes in economic development marketing, brands and websites. Our purpose: To create vital communities.

“We do marketing and technology for communities that help create jobs in the U.S.”

1.  Led more economic development marketing assignments than any other firm in the country in the last 10 years.

2.  The ONLY full service agency that specializes in economic development marketing, brands and websites.

3.  Has developed High Performance Economic Development Marketing, national marketing metrics that can prove ROI for marketing, branding and website efforts within economic development space.

•  Continue the Conversation: –  Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AtlasAd–  Tweet questions using hashtag #ASKATLAS –  Join High Performance Economic Development LinkedIn Group

•  Download Website redesign checklist: http://offers.atlas-advertising.com/10-step-checklist

•  View and share the slides with your colleagues (available now): www.slideshare.com/wright0405

View the slides, continue the dialogue

1.  A story: when websites “disrupted” travel agents

2.  Understanding the technology adoption curve for economic development

-  Where does your economic development organization sit?

3.  How do you know if your economic development website is dying?

4.  Resources to use if you are in trouble

5.  Summary

Table of Contents

When Websites Replaced Travel Agents

When Websites Replaced Travel Agents

NAICS: 561510 - Travel agencies

Technology is the most consistent factor in rendering a job useless. Planning a trip today is a do-it-yourself endeavor: you can book accommodations, transportation, discover restaurants and entertainment, and navigate your route all online. Thus, the traditional travel agent is no longer necessary.

*CareerCast listed travel agents among “useless jobs” that are becoming obsolete. The list also included data entry clerks, sign spinners and shoe repairers.

When Websites Replaced Travel Agents

NAICS: 561510 - Travel agencies

•  More than 200 million reviews and opinions from travelers around the world.

•  More than 4.5 million businesses and properties in 147,000+ destinations, including:

•   915,000+ hotels, B&Bs, and specialty lodging•  650,000+ vacation rentals•  2.4 million restaurants•   500,000+ attractions

•  More than 29 million candid traveler photos.•  More than 125 new contributions are posted every minute.•  More than 70 million emailable members worldwide.•  On average, nearly 2,600 new topics are posted every day to the

TripAdvisor forums.

9

Understanding the Technology Curve for Economic Development

How Do You Know If Your Economic Development

Website is Dying?

Check In #1 – Did You Develop a Strong Plan and Architecture?

YES or NO

Discovery Goal: develop a strong plan and architecture

•  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?

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

Information Architecture

Check In #2 – Is your Design Intuitive and Does it Help Users Find

What They Need?

YES or NO

Design People don’t just visit your website; they experience and interact with it. 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 (Now 3 second rule)–  “Am I in the right place?”–  “Do they have what I am looking for?”–  And sometimes, “Does better content exist elsewhere?”

•  Your website represents who you are and what you offer. When people see it for the first time they’re thinking:

–  Is this site credible? –  Is it trustworthy? –  Is this a professional company? –  Is this company stable? –  Does this site make me feel welcome? –  Am I in the right place?

•  How to engage? –  Emotion, Differentiation and Authenticity

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

A Well-Designed Homepage Design 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

A Well-Designed Homepage

East Central Indiana •  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

A Well-Designed Homepage

CFDC •  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

Design 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

Check In #3 – Does your Content Meet the Needs of your Top

Audiences and Prospects?

YES or NO

Top 10 Pages Requested Nationally on ED Websites!

1.  About Us (about the organization) 2.  Programs (that the organization offers) 3.  Data Center4.  News 5.  Relocate and Expand6.  Find Property 7.  Site Selection Services 8.  Workforce Data and Information 9.  Database of Companies or Largest Employers 10. Maps of the Area

Top 10 pages requested nationally on ED websites

Check In #4 – Are you Giving Users Easily Digestible Content?

YES or NO

Online Content

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

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

Online Content Pre-Launch

In order for this phase to be successful, you can count on:!

•  Spending up to two months full time getting the copy written, edited and uploaded to your new website (approx 1 hour/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

Online Content Post-Launch

•  Periodically review your content!

Frequency Action

Daily Update blogs and social media

Weekly Review and update news and events

Weekly Update or confirm updates on property/company data

Monthly Update or add case studies, testimonials or success stories

Bi-Annually Review and update overall site content (add new Census Data, change demographics, workforce data, education data or map overlays as needed)

Do’s & Don’ts of Outstanding Content

Item Do: Don’t: Weekly updates Spend 50 percent of an

FTE staff person’s timeLet updates slip to less than weekly

Using 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

Scanable & relevant content

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

Pretend your pages are 8.5 x 11 word documents

Check In #5 – Is your Website Reflective of your Community’s Brand?

YES or NO

Authenticity in Place Branding is!

•  The impression your residents, prospects, visitors, and other stakeholders have of you and of the community you represent

•  A tool or promise that generates interest and excitement, drives prospect activity and inspires more involvement and commitment from your local stakeholders

•  Your website is one of the most important branding weapons you’ve got in your armory. It’s got unlimited potential and you’ll see that quite a number of brands have a branding strategy that revolves around their website alone. It is the pivot of their marketing and sales efforts.

Do’s & Don’ts of Outstanding Branding

Item 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?)

Check In #6 – Are you Using GIS and Maps to Leverage

Community Assets?

YES or NO

Effective Use of Maps and GIS Technology Is…

•  Using maps with various layers (transportation, education, etc.)•  Using integrated real estate searches/GIS mapping software•  Generating dynamic demographic and business reports

Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Maps and GIS Technology

Item Do: Don’t:

Using 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

Using integrated real estate searches/GIS mapping software

Integrate these features fully into your website and content management

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

Generating dynamic demographic and business reports

Make reports available in as few clicks as possible

Use interfaces that are too complicated or clunky

Check In #7 – Are you Tracking the Performance of your Website?

YES or NO

Effective Performance Tracking Is…

•  Receiving a report once per month

•  Tracking unique visits, referrers and downloads

•  Benchmarking your performance against other EDs

•  Integrated tracking of advertising, web and PR effectiveness

Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Performance Tracking

Item Do: Don’t:

Receiving a report once per month

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

Ignore your statistics for a quarter or more

Tracking unique visits, referrers, and downloads

Track a funnel of activity Use “hits”

Benchmarking 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

10 STEP CHECKLIST FOR YOUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WEBSITE

REDESIGN

1.  Benchmark your current metrics2.  Determine your goals3.  Inventory your current assets4.  Analyze the competition5.  Identify you “Unique Value Proposition”6.  Design your website around personas7.  Optimize your site for search8.  Identify calls to action9.  Create an ongoing content marketing

strategy10.  Integrated industry specific tools

Download checklist here!

Benchmarking Your Performance Measuring performance against national averages. How?�

Atlas’ High Performance Economic Development Benchmarking Survey •  10 question survey to gauge the value of your economic development organization, your

community brand, and where your organization ranks in terms of economic development performance across the country

•  Upon completion, receive a customized benchmarking reporthttp://www.atlas-advertising.com/Economic-Development/HPED-Consulting/HPED-

Consulting.aspx

Thank You!

Contact information: Guillermo Maziert: 303.292.3300 x 232guillermom@atlas-advertising.com

929 BroadwayDenver, CO 80203

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