digital marketing for economic development … · agencies or tourism boards atilus.com government...

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES OR TOURISM BOARDS

ATILUS.COM GOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN RESOURCE KIT

Atilus, LLC 28440 Old 41 Rd #9 Bonita Springs, FL 34135 [email protected] 239.362.1271

INTERNET MARKETING

WEB DESIGN

WEB HOSTING

DIGITAL MARKETING FOR

EVERYTHING A CEO OR DIRECTOR OF MARKETING NEEDS TO CRAFT A GREAT

ONLINE PRESENCE


Atilus helps economic development groups, government organizations and tourism agencies develop effective online marketing campaigns that deliver measurable results.

Our results-oriented approach is different from most branding campaigns. That’s because we don’t implement any strategy that hasn’t been completely vetted and tested by our team of digital experts. You expect results and we deliver with objective data you can report to your community stakeholders.

The digital marketplace has become more complex with the advent of social media. Confused? Relax, you’re not alone.

Think of Atilus as your guide to the galaxy of digital media, helping you navigate the constellation of the internet opportunities that will boost your global presence. You may have heard that we’ve been named the top marketing company in Florida, but there are no boundaries on the internet so we’re always near you.

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GROW YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE.

ABOUT ATILUS

WEBSITE

PAY PER CLICK

SEO

CONTENT

SOCIAL MEDIA

REMARKETING

A Website at the Center of Your UniverseThink of your organization’s website as the sun at the center of your universe.

Revolving around your website are a constellation of digital-media planets: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, YouTube and others. All of these planets draw people from around the world back to your website.

When prospective customers are looking at the galaxy of choices, you want your website to be the brightest star in the constellation. That means you want to be listed among the top choices from search engines such as Google and Bing.

There’s a common refrain in marketing: If you’re not on the first page of search results on Google, you may as well be invisible.

Remaining at the top of a search engine like Google doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a disciplined, focused effort to create useful and relevant information for your customers.

What makes a great government website?• Data that’s easy to access• Branding your region• Marketing your area• Web tools that produce results




HERE ARE SOME GOALS AN ATILUS-DESIGNED WEBSITE CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE:

• Boost area visitors• Help businesses get financing• Recruit new companies to your

community• Streamline bureaucratic processes• Win grant funding• Identify and develop business

clusters• Increase real estate sales and leasing• Bring together job seekers and

employers• Create a network of entrepreneurs

Atilus has worked with economic development organizations, government agencies and tourism boards to identify what makes them unique.

First, we’ll help you identify solid goals your organization wants to accomplish. Then, we’ll identify your strengths and highlight what makes your region truly exceptional.

Atilus’ expert website designers will use that information to create a personality for your website. No cookie-cutter websites here: Your website will have a distinct message that will help you stand out among regional, national and global competitors.

Regional Branding

ATILUS CAN HELP IDENTIFY WHAT MAKES YOUR COMMUNITY EXCEPTIONAL AND DESIRABLE FOR BUSINESSES AND VISITORS. FOR EXAMPLE:

• Show off your best corporate citizens• Highlight the special landscapes of your destination• Identify unique activities for visitors• Present your skilled labor force• Demonstrate your pro-business climate• Detail your transportation infrastructure• Pinpoint your unique geography

RESPONSIVEYour website should adapt to any device.

FOCUSES ON ORGANIZATIONAL GOALSWhether it’s helping existing businesses or attracting more visitors, the website’s architecture must be developed to serve your goals.

EASY ACCESS TO CONTACT INFORMATIONDon’t make visitors to your website hunt for your contact information because you risk losing them.

VISUALLY COMMUNICATES COMPLEX IDEASUse icons and other visual graphics to simplify complicated concepts.

EASY TO NAVIGATEBe sure that the information people are looking for is easy to find.

EASY TO READThis is especially important now that people use mobile phones to connect to websites.

WEBSITE MUST-HAVES

WELL-WRITTEN CONTENT (WITH AN SEO FOCUS) Poorly written content with grammar mistakes can hurt your reputation. Provide brief descriptions of your services and follow up with a call to action.

ADA COMPLIANT Government agencies must make their websites accessible to people with disabilities.

COOL TOOLS


ATILUS.COM GOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN RESOURCE KITATILUS.COM GOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN RESOURCE KIT


Help visitors to your website with a tool that can schedule their next appointment with you.

It helps to show people how to get to locations you are highlighting, whether it’s an office park or a waterfront hotel.

Give your website visitors the option to manipulate data in a graph to fit their needs.

If visitors to your website need help right away, they can chat with someone live using this handy tool.

Scheduling Assistant

Interactive Map

Interactive Graphs

Live Chat Box

Connect your visitors with commercial real estate listings such as those from LoopNet.

Sophisticated corporate consultants are keen to drill into mapping tools that use geographic information science (GIS) to perform detailed analyses of the demographics of a region.

Schedule your marketing messages automatically to stay in front of existing and prospective visitors.

Track and stay in contact your visitors individually with management tools that are popular in the corporate world.

Commercial Real Estate Listings

Mapping Tools

Marketing Automation

Customer Relationship Management

ATILUS.COM GOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN RESOURCE KITATILUS.COM GOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN RESOURCE KIT


Government agencies are in the business of gathering and disseminating data that companies and individuals rely on to make important decisions. Unfortunately, many government organizations don’t present this information in an easily accessible manner and it takes hours to dig it out.

You can make your data stand out on your website and save your staff valuable time because they won’t be flooded with requests for information that’s easily found. Plus, you can track your website’s traffic to see what data is most popular.

When you receive kudos for your website’s superior data presentation, use that as a case study to highlight your community’s can-do attitude. In the competition for jobs and tourists, that’s the kind of publicity that will generate even more new business.

HERE ARE 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COMMUNITY WITH DATA:

EASILY ACCESSIBLE DATA

Commercial Real Estate. Proactive economic development organizations provide commercial real estate information from

sources such as LoopNet, the listing service for brokers. For example, a relocating company will want to know the locations of warehouses for rent and what they might cost.

Hotels And Attractions. Tourists always seek out the best deals on hotels and attractions. Assist them in organizing their next

fabulous vacation to your area.

Salaries And Cost Of Living. Employers and prospective employees want to know what the pay scale is in your area. Help them find

that by occupation and experience.

Universities. Universities are hubs of entrepreneurial activity and a source of future talent. Link these centers of learning with

employers and job seekers.

Safety. Law enforcement now use software to identify areas that need extra patrols.

Funding Resources. Economic development organizations can link commercial lenders, venture capitalists and angel investors with

entrepreneurs looking for capital.

Fun Things To Do. Whether it’s a CEO or a tourist, everyone wants to have some fun.

Spousal Job Resources. When couples relocate to an area, they often have a trailing spouse that hasn’t yet found a job.

Transportation. A smaller world means people and goods travel more than ever. Identify the traffic patterns in your region, and

highlight your airport’s passenger and cargo operations.

Target Industries. Many communities have identified industries they would like to attract, such as technology and financial

services. Identify incentive packages and have applications directly on your website to make it easy.




WEBSITE MAINTENANCE.STAY ON TOP OF ITYou can’t build a website and forget it. That’s because everyone knows when a website is stale: The information is dated, blogs haven’t been posted in months, and key contacts aren’t the same as they are today.

Like a house or a car, websites lose value over time if they’re not maintained. That’s why it’s a good idea to develop a plan to keep your website fresh with new content added regularly. That’s the fuel for your web-marketing engine.

For example, you might consider designating staff whose responsibility it is to keep tabs on the website.

At Atilus, we’ll give you as much or as little support as you need to make your website a best-in-class online marketing tool for your government organization. www.atilus.com

Additional Helpful ResourcesAtilus has significant expertise assisting economic development organizations launch their digital-marketing campaigns. Here are additional resources we think you will find helpful in your economic development organization:

The International Economic Development Council is the largest organization

of its kind serving economic development executives. The group helps

economic development organizations promote economic well-being in their

communities with the tools they need. The organization offers resources

and insights into how their members use digital media creatively to facilitate

job growth in their communities. In addition, the organization provides a

database of professional consultants your organization can engage. For

more information, visit http://www.iedconline.org/.

LoopNet is the top online commercial real estate listing service with more

than 800,000 listings. The website receives more than 5 million monthly

unique visitors. It’s likely that LoopNet lists many commercial real estate

listings in your area, so consider using them as a resource in your economic

development work. For more information visit http://www.loopnet.com/.

ESRI Geographic Information System. ESRI is a software company that

builds ArcGIS, a powerful mapping program. It combines mapping with other

data to provide sophisticated market analysis for commercial businesses,

government, manufacturing and utilities. Today, more than 75% of Fortune

500 companies use ESRI software to meet their business goals. For more

information, visit https://www.esri.com.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition brings together community

reinvestment organizations to increase private capital into traditionally

underserved communities. With more than 600 community organizations as

members, the coalition promotes job development in partnership with local

governments and business associations. For more information, visit http://

www.ncrc.org/.

internationaleconomic developmentcouncil





MOBILE FIRST DESIGNThe majority of information seekers now begin their online search using a mobile phone or tablet.

That means it’s essential for your website to be mobile-friendly. We’ve all seen websites designed for desktop computers look terrible on our phones, frustrating our search for information.

Today, savvy website developers such as Atilus use a technique called responsive design. That means we develop a website that can adapt itself to any device, whether it’s a mobile phone, a tablet or a desktop computer. No need to design separate websites because it’s all responsive.

Who says a government or tourism website design can’t be engaging and effective? When crafted with the user experience in mind, coupled with proper planning, an EDC website can not only be effective at driving business and buyers/sellers to take action – it can downright be the MOST effective tool in your business’ marketing arsenal.

Developing a new website is, in some ways, similar to an open house. The project needs to be planned out, identifies and takes into account all the stakeholders, defines what will make the project a success and most importantly define and set expectations.

A PRIMER ON THE MOBILE WEB

EXPECTATIONS AROUND GOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN

DIFFERENT BUILDINGS (AND WEBSITES) FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES

Just like different EDC’s themselves, every website is different. As you know, a commercial

space or office building is not constructed in the same way as a house – there are different rules,

codes, and people involved.

Similarly, a website for an economic development council should not look like a website for a magazine or a mom and

pop store.

ATILUS.COM ATILUS.COMGOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN RESOURCE KIT GOVERNMENT WEB DESIGN RESOURCE KIT



DIGITAL MARKETINGSEARCH ENGINES ARE YOUR FRIENDS

PART OF YOUR MARKETING PLAN

Search engines grow in power every day, so play according to their rules.

You’ve probably heard of the term “SEO,” which stands for Search Engine Optimization. At its core, SEO is a strategy that makes sure that your website appears at the top of the results for search engines such as Google or Bing.

At Atilus, we make sure your website shows up on the first page of search engines. That’s because research has shown that people rarely look for results on subsequent pages.

Search engines constantly tweak their search functions and many of them are secret. However, Atilus digital experts stay on top of changes to make sure our clients continue to feature prominently in search results.

DID YOU KNOW?GOOGLE PARENT ALPHABET AND FACEBOOK ARE CAPTURING 77 CENTS OF EACH NEW DIGITAL-AD DOLLAR SPENT.SOURCE: WALL STREET JOURNAL, AUG. 24, 2017

70% OF YOUR MARKETING BUDGET SHOULD BE ONLINE

Your website is all part of a larger marketing plan that encompasses a universe of digital-marketing social media. Like planets revolving around the sun, social media should revolve around and direct traffic to your website.

Once you’ve identified the goals for your organization, consider using social media to boost your site’s visibility. Link back to your website where your social-media followers can learn more about the great services you provide.

Don’t forget traditional print marketing that mentions your online presence. Be sure your online materials are consistent with any printed materials such as brochures, reports and stationery.

THESE ARE SOME OF THE MEDIA YOU CAN USE TO BOOST YOUR ORGANIZATION’S ONLINE PRESENCE:

Facebook

LinkedIn

Create a Facebook page and groups that foster your organization’s mission. For example, you might create a group that brings together your region’s technology companies. Advertising on Facebook has proven to be successful because you can target a specific audience and measure the results in real time.

LinkedIn is the business social-media network, providing connections to savvy entrepreneurs. LinkedIn lets you create groups that help members stay informed with relevant news. For example, economic development organizations can create groups that keep track of corporate announcement in their region.





Blogging

Video Content

Case Studies & Testimonials

Events

Monhtly Newsletter

Posting articles on your website and social media is called blogging and it’s important because search engines give greater weight to websites with original content. Plus, it establishes your organization as the go-to expert in your region, it generates traffic to your website and it helps you promote important events.

Video content is a fast and effective way to promote your community. You can embed video into your website or launch a YouTube channel. Plus, you can use video links on social-media platforms such as Facebook to grab attention.

Testimonials and case studies show off what your organization can do. Show the concrete steps your agency took to help a business and others will want the same.

Your community’s vibrant business and tourism climate can really shine when you post events happening throughout your region. It shows people are committed to your region’s success through networking, education and entertainment.

The monthly newsletter is a source of content that will get your website the attention it deserves from search engines, stakeholders in your organization and your community. Your newsletter is a useful tool to generate buzz on Facebook and LinkedIn too.





LAUNCH AN EFFECTIVE DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN FOR YOUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION, GOVERNMENT AGENCY OR TOURISM BOARD

As a government organization, you are accountable to the community you serve. That’s why a digital marketing strategy is the key to measuring your success, whether it’s attracting more industry to your region’s business hubs or enticing more tourists to visit your lodging and attractions. But where do you start? Atilus has worked with numerous government organizations, helping them build smart digital marketing strategies that generate measurable results. It’s no longer enough to build a simple website and hope that prospects will find it by chance. You need sophisticated digital tools that will help you beat the global competition so your community can win more than its share of business.

With Atilus as your digital-strategy partner, we can help you accomplish the lofty goals you’ve established for your organization. Among them:

But there are a few important areas to concentrate when planning out your own website and digital marketing. This document highlights that important high-level items. For an even deeper dive into the process, we encourage you to schedule an appointment with us.

• Help existing companies grow in your community• Attract new industries to the region• Entice more tourists from around the world to your destination• Automate routine tasks so your staff can focus on important

business• Reach a global audience• Measure results so you can justify your agency’s funding• Build broad political and community support for your

organization’s mission• Connect community leaders for effective governance



239.362.1271

Ready to take your EDC to the next level? Give us a call today!

[email protected] | www.atilus.com

digital marketing for economic development … · agencies or tourism boards atilus.com government...

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