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1 Best Practices in ED Websites

Atlas Best Practices in ED Websites

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In this presentation, Atlas Advertising CEO Ben Wright gives detailed information about the eight components of world class websites, including online brands, website navigation, search engine marketing, gis systems, and more. This webinar can help you enhance your website in very specific and valuable ways.

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Best Practices in ED Websites

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Your Hosts

Ben WrightCEO, Atlas Advertising

[email protected]/atlasad

Guillermo MazierBusiness Development, Atlas Advertising

[email protected]

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About Atlas

Atlas Advertising helps economic developers reach national and international prospect and site selection audiences. We deliver branding, website development, GIS mapping, research, social media, and creative services professionally and with a staff experienced in economic development. Unlike firms with little or no economic development experience, Atlas Advertising uses a proven mix of economic development marketing tactics that generate interest from site selection audiences.

Atlas Advertising is led by a former economic development practitioner and has worked with 50+ different economic development clients in 30 states. Our approach and experience means that our campaigns generate an average of three to ten times the response of other campaigns.

Featured clients:– State of Ohio– Indy Partnership– City of San Francisco– Greater Phoenix Economic Council – Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership

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Atlas Agency Services• Website Design

Services• GIS Websites• Brand Development• Search Engine

Marketing• Social Media

Marketing• Website Hosting

• Marketing, Media and Lead Generation

• Content Services• Research Services • Training Services

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Atlas Technology and Data Products• Content

Management Software – Robust Media Center – Calendar– Data Cart/Brochure

Generator – Mobile friendly websites– Blog or Microsite

Software

• Project Tracking Software

• Email Marketing Software

• Data Products– Demographic Data– Business Lists– Enhanced Prospect Lists

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) ― Commercial Property

databases― Business databases― Data Search (Data Tab)― Other Data

Management (Map Overlays)

― Community Data Management

― GIS System Analytics― GIS Data Reporting― Data Widgets

• Website Analytics

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Cool stuff to do/download

• Download our “Compete Smarter” webinars at our Slidespace, http://www.slideshare.net/wright0405

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

• Read more at our Blog, “Latitude”: http://blog.atlas-advertising.com

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Outline

1. Trends in ED Websites

2. The Atlas Approach

3. Eight components of a world class Economic Development website

4. Best practices in each component

5. Today’s opportunities online

6. What one Atlas client said last week

7. Wrap up

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Trends in ED websites

1. Content is becoming ever more important

2. Content is also diversifying, including:– Pages– Property data– Demographic data– Business data– Downloads– Video

3. Social media is making all of what we do more transparent

4. The conversation is moving from back rooms and private meetings to be online

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What new media advancements have you seen that you think are valuable to your profession?

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The future, according to one site selector “Young companies are all about social media. Their whole concept is open source everything. They rely on an online community. They’re building enthusiasts for their product online. I have a current client in the auto manufacturing space that loves social media. These guys are choosing their locations based on what their online community says they want.

“If you can find companies on social media, you can reach them. Big corporations not using it this way, but small guys are for sure.

“As people who live in the community find these great companies, they could connect ED with companies. Blog with your citizens about what they like and what they know about. Tips are good. Fear is how do you know you have the good information in these channels? I am just learning myself.”

-A Site Selector, early October 2009

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How to sum this up?

Think of your website as a platform. A platform you use to publish, communicate, organize, and serve your many varied customers. Today, there is very little in economic development that can’t be facilitated or made more efficient by treating your website as a platform.

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About the Atlas approach• The first economic development website we worked on

was in 1995. • Since then, the usage of the web has grown

astronomically, new tools such as blogs and social media have come on the scene, and Google has risen to dominance.

• Atlas created the seven components of a successful website in 2004, and since then, it has undergone two major revisions.

• To develop the components and scoring, we conduct annual research with site selectors and prospects, and study actual usage data collected from ED websites in 37 states by Development Results.

• This thinking goes into every website Atlas works on in collaboration with our clients.

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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 new media

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Authenticity in place branding is…

• Communicating a true positioning of the region

• Utilizing recognizable national elements

• Capturing users’ attention to inspire them to use the site

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Do’s and 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?)

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Best online branding is…

Tucson, AZ• Uses desert

imagery and color palette

• Connects the region with useful business messaging

• Backs up the positioning with fact based information

• Invites users to click on a variety of useful links

www.treoaz.org

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Honorable metion:

Des Moines, IA• Augments ED

messaging with young professionals campaign: “Do More.”

• Connects life in Des Moines to business

• Addresses a real community need

www.desmoinesmetro.com

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Clarity of navigation in websites is. . .

• 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 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

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Do’s and Don’ts of Outstanding Navigation

Item Do: Don’t:A prospect-specific section placed prominently

Make it abundantly clear where your data, sites/buildings,

and contact information are

Try to serve too many audiences with the same

navigation

Utilizing IEDC data standards

Get as close as you can to these

standards

Abandon them completely

because they are onerous

Providing the top ten most requested pages

Use the list in this presentation and

make sure all pages are within 1

click

Turn your navigation into

something that is other than utility

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Best navigation is…

Indianapolis, IN• Site selector

specific section• Tremendous

amounts of data in downloadable and GIS formats

• All of the top ten pages within one click

www.indypartnership.com

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Great content is…

• Making content scannable

• 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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Do’s and Don’ts of Outstanding Content

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

of an FTE staff person’s time

Let 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

Scan-able & 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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Best content is…

Kansas City Area EDCOutstanding data center Downloadable documents First class community/ regional profilesUpdated multiple times weeklywww.thinkkc.com

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Effective use of search marketing is…

• Ranking #1 organically for “your geography 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 websites

1. Your organization name2. 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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Do’s and Don’ts of Outstanding Search Engine Marketing

Item 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 but

still use advertising or PR

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Best search engine marketing is…

Location 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 Search

www.locationgeorgia.com

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Effective use of email and news is…• 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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Do’s and don’ts of Outstanding Email Marketing

Item Do: Don’t:

Monthly email newsletter to

investors, prospects

Send email consistently, with a yearlong 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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Best email marketing is…

Los Angeles EDC e-Edge• Send weekly e-

newsletters highlighting economic trends in the area

• They use their economist as a “Rock Star.”

• It is their most effective marketing tool

• All newsletters are posted back to the website

www.laedc.org

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Effective performance tracking is…• Receiving a

report once per month

• Tracking unique visits, referrers and downloads

• Benchmarking your performance against other ED’s

• Integrated tracking of advertising, web and PR effectiveness

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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

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Best performance tracking is…

Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership• Look at Google Analytics Monthly• Track visits, not hits• Benchmark their data against like

organizations using Development Resultswww.chooseneindiana.com

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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

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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 sytem

Generating dynamic demographic and business reports

Make reports available in as few clicks as possible

Use interfaces that are too

complicated or clunky

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Best use of Maps and GIS technology is…

Indy Partnership• Use maps to place

their region in the global geography

• Fully integrated property and business GIS Searching

• Geospatial reporting

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

www.indypartnership.com

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Effective use of new media is…

• Linking between your website and your LinkedIn profile

• Keeping an active Twitter account

• Having a blog and updating it four times per week

• Incorporating Share It features on your site

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Do’s and Don’ts of effective maps and social media

Item Do: Don’t:

Linking between 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 oganizations profile and indiv profiles.

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

conclusion.

Having a blog and updating it four times per week

Post small (even paragraphs) that

show your perspective 4 times

a week

“Over process” your posts

Keeping 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 is…

Metro Denver EDC• Outstanding blog,

mostly written by their Executive VP

• “Insider” tone• Outstanding use

of Twitter – 2,700 followers

http://www.metrodenver.org/blog

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Today’s opportunities online

• Content is king. The more of it you have, and the better it is displayed, the better your organization will do online.

• Clients who have control of their page, data, file, and photographic content do better in the long run. Make sure the content management system you choose gives you that ability.

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

• Never forget your brand on your website. Your site will likely deliver more than 10x the experiences of any other marketing you do, almost always to those outside the region.

• Search engine marketing is the most cost effective, targeted way to deliver new leads to your organization. Remember to optimize, and pay per click is a must. In all, solid search engine marketing can increase traffic to your website by as much as 1000% within targeted audiences.

• Social media is a vast, untapped opportunity. Make sure that you direct users to your LinkedIn profiles, blog, Twitter account, and lets users share pages and content with others.

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What a recent Atlas client has said

“I truly feel that we now have a website, and more importantly, a platform, that is one of the best in the country.

- Tim Mroz, VP of Marketing and Communications, The Right Place (Western Michigan)

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To view this presentation:

We look forward to having you!

Visit our slideshare site: www.slideshare.net/wright0405 :

And, join our LinkedIn Group: Next Gen Economic Development

Marketers(Once you sign up, you will need to be approved)

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Contact Atlas

Contact information:

2601 Blake Street, Suite 301Denver, CO 80205

Contact: Ben Wrightt: 303.292.3300 x 210

[email protected]

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