HOW TO ATTRACT MORE PROSPECTS TO YOUR COMMUNITY

Transcription

1 HOW TO ATTRACT MORE PROSPECTS TO YOUR COMMUNITY A Free Guide for Ecoomic Developmet Orgaizatios

2 WHAT S THE KEY TO ATTRACTING MORE PROSPECTS TO YOUR COMMUNITY? Perhaps you re placig ads i regioal magazies, but you have o idea if they re actually geeratig ay results. You might be attedig trade shows, be a part of orgaizatios that are supposed to sed you qualified leads, or sedig out the occasioal e-ewsletter. The you wait for the phoe to rig. Ad you wish the phoe were rigig a lot more. Maybe you woder if placig a ad i a site selectio magazie is a little old school, but your team is WAY too swamped to try to figure out aother solutio. Here s the thig: Nowadays, before people commit to buyig aythig, they do their research olie. Ad this is true whether they re buyig a ew car or lookig for a commuity to brig their busiess. They ll read all of the reviews ad iformatio olie about it, ad oly the, if it matches up with all their criteria, they ll pick up the phoe to fid out more. So what does this mea for you? Your orgaizatio eeds to have a strog olie presece. Now, I kow that your orgaizatio may be swamped as it is, so i this guide, I m goig to break dow high-leverage tips so your olie presece ca start workig for YOU hours a day. WHO AM I AND WHY CAN I HELP YOU? As the fouder ad presidet of Platium PR, I ve helped Ecoomic Developmet Orgaizatios get more prospects for over 20 years through olie ad offlie methods. I brig my expertise i commuicatios, social media, marketig, ecoomic developmet, ad tourism to help cliets create & implemet customized commuicatios plas right for them. Ad i this free guide, I am goig to share the strategies I use to help my cliets geerate more leads.

3 HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE TO CREATE A BETTER PERCEPTION OF YOUR COMMUNITY Oe of the biggest mistakes I see ecoomic developmet orgaizatios make is ot fully utilizig their olie hub their website. Ufortuately, I regularly see websites that are t up to date, or are hidde o the commuity s website. This makes it appear as though ecoomic developmet is t a priority. Ad if it is t a priority, the why would they wat to live there? Istead of tryig to do a major site overhaul every 4-5 years, cosider aual ehacemets ad tweaks to your site. If you take care of your ivestmet, it will cotiue workig for you. If you eglect your site the it will quickly become outdated ad be very expesive to update (or completely redo). The good ews is: YOU have a lot of cotrol over a prospect s perceptio of you. You get to choose what kid of impressio you leave with a potetial prospect visitig your site. Let s start with what to do about oe of your biggest cocers: How to Shift A Less-Tha-Ideal Perceptio of Your Commuity What are the objectios people may have to brigig their busiess to your commuity? For example, are people cocered that your commuity is too much of the followig? Rural Cogested Expesive Iexpesive Far from the airport Close to the airport The first key is to kow this: You ca t please everyoe who is lookig for a place to locate their busiess. Ad you should t wat to. There are goig to be people who your commuity is ot right for. O your website, forget about them, ad focus o the people who your commuity IS the best for. The, sell the beefits of your commuity to THOSE people. For example, if people are cocered that your commuity is too rural, you ca share the beefits of your locatio, like a available workforce that is curretly commutig to a earby metropolita area. I a metropolita area that might be perceived as expesive or cogested, you should be highlightig a highly traiig demographic ad readily available workforce. Or, i a more rural settig, you could be highlightig the low cost of lad that is easily accessible from the iterstate. It ca also help to kow your target market s challeges ad eeds i great detail, ad to make ote of that i your messagig. Whe potetial prospects feel like you see, hear, ad uderstad them, they are likely to form a emotioal coectio ad curiosity about what you have to offer. Use these ideas i the messagig o your website. Share success stories that highlight the beefits of your commuity for busiesses. Have your target market s greatest eeds ad wats i mid, ad write specifically to that perso. Here are some other ways to upgrade the perceptio of your commuity, through the experiece you give someoe o your website.

4 Website Upgrade Checklist Here s a checklist of ways you ca upgrade their experiece the momet they lad o your website. Is your website stad aloe, or is it a extra page o your local govermet website? If your website is lost withi a larger couty (or city) govermet site ad people ca t fid your Ecoomic Developmet page, they ll assume Ecoomic Developmet is t a priority i your commuity. Additioally, havig your website as a drop-dow meu optio o your couty govermet website also says ot a priority. Ad that s the last impressio you wat to leave with them! Is your website mobile-friedly? We all kow how frustrated we ca get whe we wat to fid a phoe umber ad the site is t mobile-friedly! It s the same thig here. May people are visitig websites via their smart phoes. Make it easy for your prospects to look you up (ad cotact you) by makig your site mobile-resposive. That may require some help from a web developer, who ca esure that your site is displayed properly o mobile phoes. Ca a visitor fid your cotact iformatio i a short amout of time? If it s hard for a visitor to fid your address or phoe umber whe they lad o your website, guess what -- they re likely to give up ad move o. Have a clear Cotact Us page which lists the phoe umber as well as a cotact address. Ca a visitor fid available property details quickly ad easily? You do t eed to have a expesive GIS system with real-time commercial or idustrial real estate data (although that s great). If you have to maitai this iformatio i-house you should, at miimum, have a page o your site that highlights 2-3 properties with picture(s), details of the site, etc. Do the techical aspects of your website work properly? Is your site easy to avigate? Do you have ay broke liks? Are liks opeig i a ew browser? Oe way to fid out what pages o your website might ot be capturig a visitor s attetio is through usig Google aalytics. Through this tool, you ca see where people are droppig off the site, ad ca the ivestigate what chages eed to be made. Does your website tell egagig stories? Your website eeds to be a balace betwee providig importat data ad storytellig. Provide curret data, available sites, AND examples ad stories from existig busiess. Through givig a behid-the-scees look at key members of your commuity, you ca create a powerful emotioal coectio with your prospect. Is the ews ad cotet timely ad relevat? If your last blog post was oe year ago, a prospect may woder how up to date your orgaizatio really is. It s importat to keep a active, updated site so prospects kow what you re really up to, ad get a good first impressio of your commuity. I recommed havig regular website check-i s, ad havig a trusted member of your staff check o the followig: Was your last blog post 2 moths ago or last week? (Maybe it s time for a ew oe!) If you have a feed o your page from social media, is it still workig ad have you posted recetly? Is your cesus data curret? What data is updated every year? What data is updated every three years? For example: populatio ad commutig treds. Be kowledgeable about whe your iformatio should be updated ad stay o top of it! Does your uemploymet rate show from last year or the curret year? Is it time to update this? By keepig the iformatio up to date, prospects will be able to make a truly iformed decisio about reachig out to you. Otherwise, you could be missig out o key opportuities. Ad fially, you wat to fid out: Does a visit to the website create the user experiece you wat them to have? Do you have origial photography? Do you have pictures of people, ad iterestig buildigs i your commuity? What kid of first impressio will someoe get from your site? Your website should give a visitor the safe warm ad welcomig feel they would receive whe visitig i perso. That s how you ca start a great relatioship with your prospect olie.

5 Get a Outside Eye If you are t sure about ay of these items, get a outside eye! You ca either ask the opiios of 1-2 people who make up your ideal customer base or target market, or hire a marketig professioal. Give them specific ways to evaluate your website, ad walk them through this checklist. This ca be very difficult ad show some vulerability, but it will be so worth it i the log ru! How To Capture Leads for Your List If someoe visits your site ad is iterested, but does t cotact you they re lost forever. Istead of losig possible warm leads, you wat to capture the address of every potetial prospect who visits your website. For someoe to give you their address, you eed to give them somethig i retur, i the form of a free gift. This free gift should give them a way to experiece your commuity. Oe great way to do that is through a commuity-cetric giveaway, such as: Overight Stay i a Hotel: They could be etered ito a drawig for a overight stay at a hotel i your commuity that has parted with your orgaizatio. Every moth, you could do a drawig for a overight stay i the hotel. Hotel ad Restaurat Gift Packet: Give them the chace to experiece the local cuisie ad sped the ight i a iterestig part of tow. Aual Drawig For a Helicopter Ride: You could parter with a local trasportatio compay, ad do a aual drawig for a helicopter ride so they ca experiece the etire city. Now that s a way to WOW a prospect! Remember You Ca Save Time by Maitaiig Your Website Aually! As you evolve your website, cosider workig with a web developmet cosultat or marketig cosultat ad create a website maiteace pla. You do t eed to do a complete overhaul every 2 years, but you should have a pla for mior tweaks every year so you do t get caught behid dow the road. Remember, your website is like your olie store -- ad it should be sellig your orgaizatio 24/7! HOW TO ATTRACT PROSPECTS WITH VALUABLE CONTENT ONLINE Whether your prospects are goig directly to your website, googlig you, or hagig out o social media, a key way to get their attetio is through creatig valuable cotet. Create shareable cotet specifically for your target market. Keep your target market i mid as you create your cotet, ad tailor it all to them! With cotet, remember: it s ot about the iformatio you wat to put out there -- it s about what your prospects wat to read! This wo t always be what s the easiest thig for you to write about. What are the key questios that your prospects may have regardig fidig a ew place to locate their busiess? What are some miscoceptios or perceptios that you wat to clarify? What type of like-mided busiesses would you like to attract to your commuity? Hadle these topics i creative ways to capture their attetio. Here are some ways you ca do that: Iterview busiesses that have recetly located or expaded i your commuity. A Q&A with a ew CEO ca be beeficial i may ways. The CEO feels importat ad valued ad it serves as a solid testimoial for your commuity. Do idustry profiles. For example, you could do a oe-pager (or more formal white paper type doc) that highlights the biotechology idustry i your commuity -- sharig statistics, demographics, workforce data, the type of work that s beig doe, ad what busiesses are curretly there. Highlight your workforce. You ca do this by profilig a professor at the local commuity college, highlightig a recet graduate, or showcasig a ew itership or appreticeship program i your area.

6 Repurpose Your Cotet Oce you ve created valuable cotet for your audiece, repurpose it! By puttig some thought ito repurposig your cotet, you ca sped less time creatig more cotet, ad more time gettig your best cotet ito the hads of more prospects. Here are five ways to do that: 1. Your Blog Start by postig your article o your blog, so that prospects ca read your cotet whe they visit your website. Make sure your blogs are search egie-optimized so that you ca target viewers that are lookig to read the iformatio you ve worked so hard to preset. Taggig appropriate keywords ca add a extra puch to your efforts. 2. Sed a Newsletter Sedig out a ewsletter is a opportuity to highlight the iterestig thigs happeig i your commuity, as well as sharig some of your cotet with them. For example, you could fid out what upcomig courses the Small Busiess Developmet Ceter or local commuity college are hostig that would be relevat for your target audiece (ewsletter readers). You ca also guide your audiece to the ew olie cotet you ve created, like a Q&A with a CEO of a local busiess, your latest blog post, etc. How ofte should you sed a ewsletter? Start with sedig a ewsletter oce a moth ad build from there. If you ca sed a ewsletter as much as oce a week, that s great -- as log as you are providig valuable cotet. 3. Post Your Blog i Idustry Groups o LikedI. Do t just post your blogs o your website share them o social media etworks ow ad agai i the future. For example, o LikedI, you ca post o your page ad i idustry groups. Thik of idustry groups as tradeshows that are really costeffective to atted. These groups are a opportuity to share iformatio with others who share a commo iterest. The group size ca rage from 10 people to thousads of people. Start by idetifyig 4-6 groups where your ideal customer is ivolved. Start participatig i discussios OR simply readig ad learig more about their perspective. Have the goal of always addig value -- that meas beig educatioal ad sharig cotet that will help others. (This is NOT the place to post sales-orieted cotet. I fact, may groups have group rules baig that type of iteractio, as it ca quickly make a group feel spammy. ) 4. Share Your Cotet o Facebook ad Twitter. After you ve posted your blog o your website, you should also post o Facebook ad Twitter. Remember to add hashtags so that more people ca reach you. Taggig other orgaizatios to ecourage retweets is good too. You ca also make multiple social media posts by key phrases or ideas from a recet blog. For example, break dow a few key thoughts ad create fu visuals i graphic desig websites like Cava. You could also tur your cotet ito a ifographic for social media. Presetig iformatio visually ad i bite-sized doses ca reach a whole ew audiece that might ot read a etire ewsletter. Ifographics drill dow the iformatio ito clear, digestible chuks. Istagram ad Piterest are a have for this type of presetatio of your cotet. 5. Share Your Cotet i a Video Whether you do a livestream video usig Facebook Live, or simply record a quick video from your webcam, this ca be a persoal way to share additioal iformatio. Take the blog or press release that wet out ad address oe mai idea from it i a quick video. Some people are more likely to watch a quick video tha read a full blog, so this ca be a great way to reach a broader audiece. People wo t always see your post the very first time, or have the time to read it. After spedig your time craftig a blog post you wat your prospects to read, be persistet i puttig it i frot of them through repurposig your cotet!

7 HOW TO FOLLOW UP WITH PROSPECTS (THE RIGHT WAY) With every sales-orieted job, it s importat to close the deal, but this ofte does t happe with oe sigle cotact. It takes time to cultivate a relatioship ad ultimately close the sale. I that datig period, you eed to have frequet cotact to let your customer kow that you re still iterested i their busiess. But what I ofte see orgaizatios doig is to sed oe follow-up after meetig or receivig a request for proposals. Or, they make oe phoe call. Ad that s it. The prospect ever hears from you agai. May people thik the prospect will just call you if they eed more iformatio, but you actually eed to be more aggressive tha that. You eed to cotiue followig up util you close the sale OR the prospect says that they ve decided to locate i a differet commuity. If you DON T follow up ad cultivate the relatioship, they ll move o to the ext commuity who does wat them. Here are three ways to follow up i a way that feels atural ad adds value: 1. Remid them about uique programs your commuity has. Need a atural way to get i touch with your prospect? Remid them about special offers goig o i your commuity that they might be iterested i. For example, the offer could be: A ew, customized traiig program at the local commuity college A ew office buildig that just came o the market A ew traiig program they might qualify for A ew busiess park that just had their first ew teat i place High-speed Iteret or other ifrastructure has just bee exteded to the busiess park Your commuity got recogized as beig the greatest vacatio destiatio o the East Coast (You re livig somewhere other people pay to go o vacatio!) A local chef or bed ad breakfast has bee recogized i a atioal travel magazie Whe you have iterestig ews to share about your commuity, pick up the phoe ad tell them! Do t assume they are followig you. Make them wat to care, ad make it easy for them to lear ad stay iformed. 2. Ivite them to local evets i the commuity. A great way for them to feel a part of the commuity ad meet other busiess owers or maagers is to atted a local evet i the commuity. Ad a great way for you to follow up is to ivite them to oe! Here are some great examples of evets you could ivite them to: A Ecoomic Outlook Coferece A Chamber of Commerce busiess evet A itimate dier with a group of people they might like to meet A aual baquet like a busiess awards program Evets ca be a great way to form a more meaigful coectio beyod a exchage, while givig them a opportuity to experiece the commuity firsthad! This ca obviously be sesitive (or ot possible) if the prospect requires cofidetiality ad is t ready to etwork with other busiess owers. Make sure to keep ay eeds for cofidetiality i mid before ivitig prospects to local evets.

8 3. Add a thoughtful, persoal touch. Behid every address is a perso Get to kow who that perso is, ad the fid ways to relate to them. You could look them up o LikedI or Google them ad see if you have ay commo groud. You could sed them a hadwritte persoal ote ad a gift from the commuity, like a jar of homemade jelly from your local farmer s market. This will help you to stad out to them ad create a more meaigful coectio! Also, make sure that your whole team is o board with a follow-up pla! Without a pla, everyoe o your team (i your office) might be doig differet thigs. You wat to make sure every prospect is treated equally ad you re maximizig staff time ad geeratig a solid retur o your ivestmet (staff time ad resources). Right ow, you could be missig may prospects every day who could icrease your commuity s tax base, brig well-payig jobs to your residets, ad prove that your orgaizatio is makig a impact. By beig more proactive ad creatig a pla for gettig more prospects, you ll be o the road to gettig better results for your commuity. TIME TO GET MOVING! You may thik (or kow) you have the BEST commuity i the coutry. That s fie, but you eed to prove it i may differet ways, ad creatively share your stories. The beauty of techology is that we ca reach hudreds, thousads, or eve millios more people tha ever before. Just remember that at the ed of the day, decisios are made by people. You eed to remai huma ad provide persoal touches. Uderstad your audiece ad work to cultivate those relatioships. Your time ad fiacial resources are valuable ad you wat to to be usig them i the most efficiet way possible. Whether you ve implemeted a tip oted above or you ve gotte a fresh spark from this guide, I wish you success i the future. Please stay i touch I wat to hear great thigs from you ad your commuity! Get i touch at Sady@PlatiumPR.com.