Leveraging the Internet for Economic Development

www.gisplanning.com

Madison, Wisconsin
September 25, 2012
DAY 1

Anatalio Ubalde, CEO & Co-Founder
GIS Planning Inc., ZoomProspector.com & SizeUp
October 25 & 26, 2012

2

Janet Ady, President
Ady Voltedge
jady@adyvoltedge.com
608.663.9218
October 25 & 26, 2012

3

“In the 1980s the barrier to
economic development was access
to capital. Today, it’s access to
information.”

Denise Fairchild
President/CEO
Community Development Technologies Center
& Special Advisor for South LA Investments to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Office

© GIS Planning Inc.

What happened?
• Disruptive tech changes how
info is accessed
• Change to all industries
• Business-as-usual = ruin
• Adopt tech early = advantage
• ED that doesn’t provide info
gets bypassed


Do you get value for what you pay
these people? Are they worth it? (page
74)

• Car salesmen • Advertising agencies
• Insurance brokers • Travel agents
• Head hunters • Real estate agents


According to Jeff Jarvis:
• Real estate agents are more distrusted than
tabloid writers
• “Eliminate advertising. Or at least fire your ad
agency.”
• “…travel agents (oh, sorry, they’re already
nearly extinct.”


Disintermediation
• Old = information middleman
• Present = disintermediation + transparency
• New = add value + prosper


The way of the dinosaur
• “I don’t publicly give out
information about my
community because
businesses need to call me
so I can explain it to them.”


Reality
Because they don’t
give the
information out,
they aren’t going to
get called at all.


Hi.
I’m an economic developer.
I’m here to help.


Choices
• Stay the course
= irrelevance

• Reinvent
= give it away so
they come to you


Role Old New

Information Gatekeeper Distributor

Relationship Broker Connector

Technical Assistance Bureaucrat Enabler

Process Convoluted Transparent Efficiency

Marketing Say it Be it

Economic Developer Middleman Leader

© GIS Planning Inc. © GIS Planning Inc.

What do you want to know?
• What to do?
• Why do it? Why you should care.

• The best thing we can do for this training is
get ourselves to think about this.


What do you want to know?
• Technology is changing so fast (with
marketing implications) that telling you
what to do only lasts so long.

• I use data to support the concepts. This is
another key trend.


Managing Expectations
• No - drinking beer does
not make you good
looking and create lots of
friends. (It gave me a
beer belly).
• Economic developers
have tried this approach
too. And it leads to a lot
worse than a hangover
for the business.


Revealing your real advantages
• Don’t try to trick people with
promises you can’t consistently
deliver. They will discover your
lies.
• Do reveal the opportunities of
your community that help the
business succeed in the long-
term. Allow your marketing to be
communication that educates.
• The Internet makes it difficult to
trick people because they all
have access to so much
information. Instead, the
Internet is great for teaching and
learning.

Future organization
• High Touch and High Tech (I can give copy)

• Will research DRIVE our organizations?
• Is it the end of intuition?


"The great part
about the Internet
of all the existing
mediums from
before is that it's
the first one that is
truly global, and its
impact is massive."
- Terry Semel
Yahoo's
former CEO


"With the growth of the Internet as a site
selection tool, today’s prospects often conduct
the early stages of a search without contacting
the communities they are considering. While that
makes the process more efficient for both site
seekers and economic development organizations,
it also means that communities with lower-
quality web offerings may be missing
opportunities without even realizing it."

Steve Stackhouse
Area Development


Who: Julie Roehm, Director of Marketing Communications, Chrysler
Advertising Budget in 2005: $2 billion
Advertising Age ranking: #6 in the United States

“Roehm rarely misses a chance to talk about how delighted she is with
online advertising.”

How delighted is she?
- In 2004 she spent 10% of the advertising budget online;
- In 2005 she is allotting closer to 18%;
- In 2006 she plans to allocate more than 20%.

In 2006 roughly $400 million of Chrysler's money that used to go into TV,
newspaper, and magazine ads will be spent on the Internet.

"I hate to sound like such a marketing geek, but we like to fish where the
fish are."

- Julie Roehm, Director of Marketing
Communications, Chrysler

The online advertising
advantage & challenge
• Advantage: Google, Yahoo! & MSN can
provide an ad the moment they are looking
to buy or research that item.
• Disadvantage with large corporations:
Creating and fostering an emotional
attachment to the brand.

Source: Forbes Magazine, August 8, 2005 © GIS Planning Inc.

The online advertising
disadvantage & advantage
• Why the disadvantage has changed and big
companies are embracing it: Broadband.
• Now they can create messages more like TV
commercials
• Broadband has caused the avg. time spent online
to grow 50% since 2001
• 15 – 30% of all media time is
spent on the Internet

Source: Knowledge Networks (Aug. 2005) & Forrester Research © GIS Planning Inc.

Consumer Technology Adoption

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0712/

Web Connection Speed Trends
Work Users (US)

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0906/

The Internet is
not TV

At least not yet.
But maybe soon.

What could happen to
economic developers that
don’t leverage the Internet


Topics
• Statistics • Domain Names
• Exercise Survey • Website Design
• Marketing Tools & – Design
Comparative Advantage – Basic Content
• Marketing Concepts & the – Dynamic Websites
Internet • Getting people to your
• 5 Basic Website website
recommendations • Measuring Results
• Targeting means knowing • Budgets
the audience • E-mail Marketing
• Search Engines

Statistics
How do the numbers add up?


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Historical Words from the Skeptics
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be
seriously considered as a means of communication. The
device is inherently of no value to us."
- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial
value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in
particular?"
-David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the
radio in the 1920s.

"There is no reason for any individual to have a
computer in his home. "
- Ken Olsen, President, Digital Equipment, 1977
US computer engineer & industrialist (1926 - )

Historical Words from the Skeptics
“I think there is a world market for
maybe five computers."
- IBM Chairman, Thomas Watson, 1943.

“It would appear that we have reached the limits of
what is possible to achieve with computer
technology, although one should be careful with such
statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in five
years"
- John Von Neuman, 1949

“The Internet will catastrophically
collapse in 1996. "
- Robert Metcalfe, co-creator of Ethernet, founder of 3Com and inventor of
Metcalfe’s law (value of networks), 1995

The Past


Past Econ. Dev. Online Characteristics
Static

Slow

Peripheral strategy

My first website

www.wpnet.org


www.cityofracine.org


www.phila.gov


Vallejo


Past > Present > Future


We don’t all live in the present

Past Present Future


Marketing & Communications (Old Way)
Advertising
Brochures
Site selection information
Meeting Businesses
Direct Mail
Familiarization Tours
Special Events
Newsletters
E-mail
Media & Public Relations
Telemarketing
Website
Videos (VHS or DVD)
Press Releases
Trade Shows

Econ. Dev. Moves from Offline to Online
Offline Online
Website
E-mail
Blog
Social Media
Site selection GIS assistance
Videos
News Releases
Newsletters
Media & Public Relations
Advertising
Meeting Businesses
Special Events
Telemarketing
Familiarization Tours
Trade Shows
Brochures
Direct Mail © GIS Planning Inc.

Pass out Exercise
Envelopes
Located on Table


Exercise Questions

1. How has the use of Internet technology
affected your life and the way you do
business?
2. How has the Internet affected the field
and practice of Economic Development?
3. How will it?


Workshop Survey


Ask yourself:
• “How is the Internet (and IT) changing our
work, the work of our competition, and the
expectations of our customers?”
• “How can the Internet and information
technology help us?”


Building on Earlier
• Marketing is positioning & differentiation
• Develop effective message to communicate
attributes/advantages
• Persuade the customer to “buy”


A Few Marketing Basics

Concepts, Explanations
& the Internet


ED Marketing
• Marketing must have objectives and results that can be
quantified. Why invest if you can’t measure value?
• Touchy-Feely marketing is best for people who have
huge budgets and want feel-good results that can’t be
quantified
• Changing people’s minds about your community isn’t
enough if it doesn’t get them to invest
• Awareness is not the point. Investment is.
• Am I marketing in ways that facilitate investment in my
community?
• Am I providing the information and analysis tools
businesses need to consider my location?


Warm & Fuzzy vs. Business Case

Qualitative Quantifiable
• “Will I feel good about • “Can I make money there?”
having my business here?”
• It won’t feel good if I can’t • “Does it have the right
make money. combination of qualities
such as location, workforce
and cost?”
• Not everything is about • This is how successful
money. So I’m willing to businesses are making
trade quality of life for $ decisions today

Reaching your Audience

• Mass Marketing vs.
Direct Marketing
• Mass marketing is dying because it doesn’t
work well and EDs don’t have the money to
make it work
• Direct Marketing is about communicating
with the right people using the right
message


Getting Noticed: Reach & Frequency
• Reach – Number of people exposed to
your ad
• Frequency – How often you send the
message
• > 90% of TV ads the morning after are
not remembered ($9 out of every $10
wasted). So many of these sell the
brand and not the product
• Muhammad Ali used frequency
because it works
• With TV or Print, Reach & Frequency
cost. Boy does it cost.


Getting them to your website
• Target those that have an interest
• Reach & Frequency still matter
• “Interruption” marketing is the start, not the
end
• You’re used to using incentives, use them here
– give me a selfish reason to go to your website
• Move them from high cost marketing that is
forced on them to low cost marketing they
request


6 reasons the Internet is great for
targeted marketing
1. Stamps are free
2. Printing is free
3. Frequency is free
4. Testing is 100 times faster
5. Response Rates are 15 X higher
6. You can teach over the web

Source: Seth Godin – Permission Marketing © GIS Planning Inc.

Why the Internet is great for
word-of-mouth
1. Easy to spread ideas because
of the Network
2. When someone likes or
doesn’t like something it is
easy for them to tell the
people they know.
3. Forward. Like. Retweet. Share.


The Marketing Director Becomes a Marketing Coach

• Your Marketing Director isn’t the only voice for online
communication
• They are a Marketing Coach who helps direct the various
channels of information flows about your organization.
The Moment of Relevance
• The unique point when a customer/business has a problem
and is looking for a solution.
• Today, the Internet is often the first resource people
choose when at the moment of relevance.


Permission Marketing

• The old way to market involved interruption marketing (15
second television ads)
• The new way to market to your customers is Permission
Marketing. You give your customers control, respect, and
the choice to listen to you. You ask them for Permission.
• Using Permission Marking helps build relationships with
those who do decide to listen to your message, creating
more loyal customers.

Source: Permission marketing: turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1999


The Now of E.D. Marketing

Some marketing
strategies simply
aren’t as effective as
they used to be or
are not effective at all


Now: Most Effective Marketing
Most Effective Economic Development Marketing
Website
Out-of-Town Meetings with Businesses
Site Selection Consultants and Familiarization Tours
Public Relations
Special Events
E-Mail
Social Media
Targeted Lead Development Databases
Trade Shows and Conferences
Slogans, Logo and Graphic Identity
Online Videos (YouTube, etc.)
Online Advertising
Company Blog
Brochures
Direct Mail
Print Advertising
TV/Radio Advertising
Videos (VHS, DVD, etc)
Telemarketing

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Source: National Survey of Economic Developers, GIS Planning Inc. 2012 © GIS Planning Inc.

Economic Development Online
Most Effective Economic Development Marketing
Website
Out-of-Town Meetings with Businesses
Site Selection Consultants and Familiarization Tours
Public Relations
Special Events
E-Mail
Social Media
Targeted Lead Development Databases
Trade Shows and Conferences
Slogans, Logo and Graphic Identity
Online Videos (YouTube, etc.)
Online Advertising
Company Blog
Brochures
Direct Mail
Print Advertising
TV/Radio Advertising
Videos (VHS, DVD, etc)
Telemarketing

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%


Why? Comparative
Advantage
The Internet compares favorably as a strategy
for results


Any questions?
• If you wanted to know or research anything, where
would you go to find the answer?
• What do you do when you go to a website and
don’t find the information you want?


The Internet is a very different
type of marketing tool
• Marketing strategies try to get people to
you so you can sell
• The Internet is both. It can get people to
you and it sells. That makes it different.
• Convergence.


Multipurpose Internet
• When used properly the Internet is a good
tool for
– Marketing AND ALSO
– Communication
– Education
– Sales
• The Internet is an exceptional tool for
targeted, one-to-one, marketing.


If you website could do
anything, what would it do?
• Why do you want people to go to your
website?
• What do you want them to do when they
get there?
• Is it easy (obvious) for them to get to their
goal and yours?


Encouraging the Audience

• Who are you targeting?
• What is your message?
• Why would they want to talk
to you?


Domain Names
• Government Standard
– City – www.ci.indianapolis.in.us
– County – www.co.solano.ca.us
– State – www.state.md.us
• Non-standard
– www.newlondonwi.org
– www.burlesontx.com
– www.peachtreecitygeorgia.com
• Marketing-driven
– www.chooseEasterCentralIowa.org
– www.BusinessReadyWI.com

More on Domains

"Web addresses that are descriptive
(northbrook.il.com) are much more valuable
than acronyms of organizations (LEDC.com) or
solely names of cities, e.g. Springfield. (Which
Springfield? Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, or
Oregon?) Think geography, not organization.
Site selectors have a geographic focus. You run
the risk of getting lost in the generic lists."


Domain Names & Branding
• When you launch a new branding
campaign, be sure you secure the Internet
domains before you make a public
announcement.
Edinburgh, Scotland, launched a new
advertising slogan, "Inspiring Capital".
• A disgruntled citizen acted fast and got the
domain, www.inspiringcapital.com.


www.inspiringcapital.com


What to put on your
website


Today’s Goals
Share with you what we’ve learned in evaluating
over 100 economic development websites
• The “Economic Development” angle
• Cut through the clutter

c Ady Voltedge


The E.D. Marketing Spectrum

c Ady Voltedge

89

Your Brand
“If you don’t have a brand, you don’t know who
you are. And if you don’t know who you
are, then I don’t either, and I’m going to move
on.”

Dennis Donovan
WDG Group

c Ady Voltedge

90

“Recently, I received an email from a group
claiming to have 18 target industries. That’s
ridiculous, and impossible. I told them to take
me off their mailing list.”

Jay Garner
Garner Economics

c Ady Voltedge

91

Your Brand
Who (audience)
What (positioning)
Why (data support of positioning)

Important notes:
• More than a Logo!
• Differentiation
• Your Story
• Consistency & Repetition
• Integration

c Ady Voltedge

92

Your Website Content

• What are the three most popular
features/content on your website?


What Your Colleagues Have
Have
Staff directory and contact information (phone, fax, email, address)
Will implement in 2-5 years
93% 3%
Hyperlinks to other organizations 89% 6%
Demographic reports 84% 10%
Maps 79% 13%
Quality of life (climate, schools, housing, culture, healthcare, etc.) 83% 7%
Infrastructure (utilities and transportation) 77% 13%
Major employers 79% 10%
Land/sites and buildings inventory 76% 12%
News about community (past or present) 79% 9%
Labor force (availability and wages) 73% 15%
Incentives 77% 10%
Major industries or business/industry clusters 69% 16%
Social media integration 56% 28%
Business assistance services/how to start a business 64% 18%
Employment training programs 67% 15%
Business list 65% 14%
Testimonials and success stories 50% 28%
GIS mapping tools for site selection analysis assistance 44% 32%
Videos 50% 23%
Formatting option for mobile devices/mobile apps 18% 49%
Comparisons to other areas 36% 27%
Transactions (business licenses, permit applications, etc.) 38% 19%
User-generated content (blogs, forums) 22% 27%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%


Most important features on an ED website?
Land/sites and buildings inventory 91%
Labor force (availability and wages) 91%
Demographic reports 90%
Infrastructure (utilities and transportation) 86%
Maps 85%
Major industries or business/industry clusters 83%
Staff directory and contact information… 83%
Incentives 81%
Major employers 80%
GIS mapping tools for site selection analysis assistance 77%
Business assistance services/how to start a business 74%
Quality of life… 73%
Employment training programs 70%
Testimonials and success stories 67%
Hyperlinks to other organizations 67%
News about community (past or present) 60%
Social media integration 60%
Comparisons to other areas 55%
Business list 53%
Formatting option for mobile devices/mobile apps 51%
Transactions (business licenses, permit applications, etc.) 48%
Videos 33%
User-generated content (blogs, forums) 24%


Website Content


Web Developer Options
• ED Website Consultant
– likely better quality, focused solution, ED-specific tools
• Professional Web Developers
– possibly local, design oriented, less/no ED experience
• Do-it-yourself / in-house
– control your own destiny
• Qualified Lay Person
– lower cost, often lower quality
• How to choose a website developer for your E.D. Website


Web Page Essentials
The Business Card of Web Pages

• Names and Titles (or what the staff person is
responsible for)
• Mailing/Street Address
• Phone Numbers
• Fax Number
• E-mail


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Data versus Information

“Data, data everywhere,
And no one stops to think.”
Anonymous

c Ady Voltedge

111

From Data to Information
• The Raw Ingredients:
• Market Characteristics
• Operating Costs
• Operating Conditions
• Quality of Place
The Finished Products:
• Your Positioning and Story
• The Business Case for your Place TM

c Ady Voltedge
c

112

Web Page Basics

Community Profile

• Major Employers • Quality of Life
• Utilities – Climate
• Transportation – Education
• Taxes – Culture and Art
• Union/Non-Union – Healthcare
• General – Housing
– Cost of Living


Target Industry Profiles
• Major employers
• Wages by occupation
• Unique locational assets
• Testimonials
• Key location criteria for sector


Web Page Basics

Business Assistance
“What can you do to help me?”
• Assistance
• Services
• Programs
• Incentives


Web Page Basics

Starting a Business
• Road map through the process
• Checklist
• Contact Information


Web Page Basics

Employee Training

• List of Employee Training
Organizations
– Agencies
– Educational Institutions
• Employee Training Incentives


Web Page Basics

New Business Development
• What’s new in your community?
• Prospective business – “what am I joining?”
• Existing business – continuing success?
• Write your own press release


Web Page Basics

Planned Economic Development
• Where is your community going?
• Community Vision
• New projects in the pipeline
• Painting your picture of the future


Web Page Basics

Maps
• Local
• Regional
• State/National


Web Page Basics

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Save Time
• Answer Typical Questions


Web Page Basics

Links
Link to your Economic Development Partners
• Chamber of Commerce
• ED Office
• Regional ED organizations
• Small Business Assistance Agency
• Employment/Workforce Organization
Don’t list everyone you know; group the links
into logical categories.


Database &
Application
Driven
Websites


Dynamic Web Sites
• Database Derived Websites
– Access, DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, etc.
• Application Driven Results
– Microsoft IIS, Sun Solaris, Apache
– ASP, .NET, CGI, PHP, JSP, etc.


Reasons for Dynamic Pages
• User Controlled Experience
– Faster Information Retrieval
• Easier to Maintain
• Reduction in Errors
– Single Data Source
• Decrease your long term costs


Online Demonstration

Choose Maryland


Getting people to
your website
It’s called marketing.


Interruption Marketing

Getting people to your website through
advertising


Good: Saying it all in one
graphic. “Are you exhausted
and abused from the site
selection process? We have
your solution”

Good: Clear that this ad is
encouraging the reader to go
to the PPL website for
efficient site selection

Pennsylvania Power & Light © GIS Planning Inc.

Good: Graphic communicates
“pushpin” which, today, also has
associations with maps.

Good: Highlights the website
address in the first words of the
main text.

Pittsburgh Regional Alliance © GIS Planning Inc.

Good: Very, very clear

Georgia EMC © GIS Planning Inc.

Have you ever seen
this advertisement
before?

What do you think
about this
advertisement?

What does it make
you think?

What does it
communicate?

State of Illinois © GIS Planning Inc.

Getting the Word Out

• Web Listing
– Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, AOL, others
• Web Links
– Link from related web sites
• Advertising
– Web Page Banners and Ads
– Traditional Media
• Media
– Do something newsworthy with your site


Search Engines


Yahoo Site Selection


Search Engine Users
• 85% of Internet users get to a website for the 1st time
by using a Search Engine
• They knew what they wanted and used Search
Engines to find the best vendor
• 33% of users believe that the 1st spot in search
results is the best vendor (searchengineguide.com)
• 57% of Internet users use search engines every day

Source: Mind In Motion 2006

The Role of Programming in SEO
• Higher search engine rankings
• Lower hosting/bandwidth costs
• Faster page loading
• Platform mobility

How to Optimize your website


Top 5 Search Engines 2012
Search Engine Market Share

Google 66.2%

Microsoft 15.2%

Yahoo! 14.1%

Ask 3.0%

AOL 1.6%

Source: comScore.com January 2012 © GIS Planning Inc.

Google has become the remote control for the world; it’s
the first stop, not TV.

Will Margiloff, CEO of Innovation Interactive (Denstu)


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Online Advertising Revenue Growth

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers/Interactive Advertising Bureau

Internet Advertising

Source: PriceWaterhouseCoopers/IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report (www.iab.net)

Pay Per Click
• Used in “sponsored listing” in a bidding process
• If you bid and you are among the top bidders your entry is
displayed and you pay the bid amount when it’s clicked.
• Targeted advertising
• Top players are Google (Adwords), Yahoo (Overture) and MSN


Many PPC & Online Ad Options
• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN
• Ask
• AOL
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Many others


A/B Testing
• Experiment
• Try different works
• See what works


Search Engine Optimization
• The art of optimizing your website to get good
positioning on the search results
• Search engines keep getting “smarter” to find
relevant websites
• 2007: $41 Billion Industry (Source: Business 2.0)


SEO General Guidelines
• Keep the design simple
• Use mostly text titles/tags/links rather than images
• Write for the users, not the search engines
• Write valuable content, peppered with your key
phrases
• Have simple navigation so the spider can get
everywhere easily


Hurt you in SEO
• Using Flash (thought not as much of a
problem now unless you are using Apple
products)
• Exclusive use of drop down menus
• Using Frames (but hardly anyone does this
anymore)
• Exclusive use of graphics for headers and
buttons
• Poor navigation

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E-mail Marketing
Communication & getting them to
your website


5 Things to Avoid

Image source: http://60secondmarketer.com

5 Things to Avoid
1. Complaints
 Reported spam /abuse

2. Spam trap addresses
 Purchased / rented mailing lists

3. High unknown user rates
 Bad addresses / high bounce rates
4. Blacklists
 Complaints

5. Spam Triggers
 ALL CAPS
 Overusing punctuation!!!!!
 Words like “Free loans just for you!” or “open this right now!”


12 Things to Do
1. Send email only to people who have given you permission
2. Build Your Email List
3. Clean Up Your Email List
4. Make it Easy to Unsubscribe
5. Optimize with social media
6. Provide relevant content
7. Killer Subject Line
8. From Label
9. Good mix of text/images
10. Ask!.. and Respond
11. Segment Your Readers
12. Test and Iterate


12 Email Marketing Best Practices
for Economic Development
1. Send email only to people who have given you permission

2. Build Your Email List
 Link to opt-in forms on
website/blog/social media
channels to sign up.
 Email Service Providers
provide free email opt-in
forms
 Collect emails at local events
/ partner emails / websites
(Chambers, City)
 Provide incentives to sign up


12 Email Marketing Best Practices
for Economic Development

6. Provide relevant content


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Designing E-mail
• From Line
– Organization Name or Similar – not a person’s name
because they could change.
• Subject Line
– Keep it short. 40 characters or less.
– Don’t repeat “from line”, space is too valuable
– Don’t use excessive punctuation!!!!!
– Don’t use CAPITALIZATION (it’s considered screaming)
• Content: keep best stuff above the fold
• Images: Don’t use as sole content
Source: Vertical Response, Webinar 2007 © GIS Planning Inc.

Actual Email Subject Lines
• PIDC May 2012 Newsletter
• 640,000 square foot building available in Roanoke, VA
• QUESTION: Where can you find the “Maxxinista” capital of the
world?
• GNO Inc. Newsflash – LA Most Improved in USA
• 49th Angel Fund Forum
• The Square-Wyoming Site Selection Newsletter
• Upcoming North Texas International Business Events
• DCEDC Business Roundtable Event - Make Your Reservation Today
• Excellent R & D/Manufacturing facility available in the Rockford
Region
• PIDC May 2012 Newsletter – TEST
• Invitation to Play Golf with the Pros! c Ady Voltedge


Metrics
• Unlike Advertising, Direct Mail and Articles you
know if people are reading your website and who
they are!
• Higher Cost Services
– Nielsen//Netratings <www.netratings.com>
– WebTrends <www.webtrends.com>
• Outsourced Services
– WebTrends Live <www.webtrends.com>
– Development Results (focus on ED)
<www.developmentresults.com>
• Low Cost to Free
– Web Counters such as <www.chami.com>
– Google Analytics – <www.google.com>


How EDs track their websites
2007 2011

66%
A standard website analytics service

82%

5%
A website analytics service designed for the economic development
industry
15%

29%
Do not track

2%

Source: National Survey of Economic Developers 2011. GIS Planning, Ubalde & Simundza

Why are Metrics Important
• See what works
• See what is not working
• Fine tune your web site performance
• Customize Content for Unique Visitors
• Allows you to redevelop/repurpose your web
sites.
• “Smart Web Sites”


Website Analytics
• Google Analytics
• VisiStat
• AuriQ Systems


Measuring Use by Design
• Identify what people are clicking on and
where


How often ED Websites Updated
2007 2011

5%
Annually
3.8%

4%
Bi-annually
4.6%

12%
Quarterly
12.3%

24%
Monthly
24.6%

10%
Bi-weekly
12.5%

30%
Weekly
30.3%

16%
Daily
11.8%

Source: National Survey of Economic Developers 2012 by GIS Planning: Ubalde & Simundza

Freshening Up Your Web site
• If you have the most
dynamic, responsive, flexible and
customizable marketing medium take
advantage of it
• Modify it as information changes
• Bring in new/relevant
information, articles, multimedia, news, etc.


Checking out good websites
• http://www.BuffaloNiagara.org
• http://www.maricopamatters.com
• http://www.alleghenyconference.org/pra/
• http://www.progressivebynature.com (special
focus)
• http://www.100reasonsindiana.com
(microsite)


Anatalio Ubalde
CEO & Co-Founder
ubalde@gisplanning.com
Linkedin.com/in/anatalioubalde
@ZoomProspector
Facebook.com/ZoomProspector
YouTube.com/GISplanning

GISplanning.com

ZoomProspector.com

SizeUp.com

Janet Ady
President
jady@adyvoltedge.com
608.663.9218


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Editor's Notes