
Engage More Businesses in 2018
We talk with economic development groups each day, and a theme that has emerged strongly over the last few months is the sense that engaging prospective businesses before they call you up is increasingly important to be competitive.
This makes intuitive sense as you look at the trends in the ways in which organizations engage, purchase and make decisions overall. Providing the right content on your website, and helping a prospective business self-educate is really inbound marketing – now the standard in businesses everywhere.
This might seem like a daunting project – turning your website into a business attraction lead engine ‐ and we would tend to to agree. Fortunately, new technology exists to help you tell a data-rich narrative about your community online. And without adding to your team's workload.
Attracting businesses with stories told through data
Here's a few pointers on how to think about providing the right content and storyline to help turn your website into a tool for educating prospects.
- Put the region in the best light. The right data in an easy-to-consume format will speak for itself. Help a prospective business see what it needs to know about your region with quick access information on trade area, workforce and more.
- Let your audience "choose their own adventure" Interativity in your data visualizations within the page will let viewers explore what they want to. Some people need workforce and quality of life information, while others want data on potential consumers. You can tailor these to the types of businesses you seek to attract.
- Make the report page awesome on mobile. More than 2/3 of Americans are getting their news on mobile devices. Your community profile report should be no different. Busy executives should be able to click and look on their iPhone, and have as good or better experience than in a browser. It's 2017, folks.
- Leverage data automation.
You don't want stale content on your site, and these days it is possible to have live connections to data sources within your report that let you "set it and forget it".
Here is a great example
At eImpact, we help economic development groups get sophisticated with their online business engagement, fast. Our solution provides everything you need, from data collection, to a beautiful online interface, which is mobile-ready.
Interested in learning more? We'd love to hear from you. Click the button below to set up a live demo: