Economic Development, Investment Attraction

4 Affordable Marketing Solutions for City Websites

The Internet has become a major tool for economic developers. It has allowed us to connect with each other and market our communities to a wider audience. This has become a great opportunity, but there are so many different tools out there. It’s hard to determine which tools are most effective to market community websites. From our experience with economic development websites, here are some cost effective tools that we have found to help you market your community online.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool that allows economic developers to market their city websites across multiple domains from one platform. We all know the importance of a social media presence in Economic Development today. This tool has the ability to help you manage multiple social media pages and profiles from one service at a low price point. It’s rare for prospects to be using all social media services. Through Hootsuite, you are able to reach your stakeholders wherever they are.

Google Adwords

Google is one of the most popular search engines in the world. This means that they are able to engage with over 2 billion users with targeted marketing to attract investors to your community. The best way to use this marketing opportunity is through Google Adwords. Users are able to see your community in the search results when they are related to keywords that clients are looking for. For example, if somebody searches ‘Economic Development in Canada’, you can pay Google to insert an ad for your community in the search results.

MailChimp

MailChimp is an amazing tool to help communities market upcoming events in their community. Once you have a strong email list of stakeholders, MailChimp allows you to send out mass email campaigns to all your stakeholders to get them excited for an event in the community. People think emails are a thing of the past, but they are still one of the most engaging ways to communicate with stakeholders. In addition, tools like mailchimp offer free campaigns for the first 2,000 contacts in your list. So start campaigning.

Townfolio

The single best economic development tool for advertising your community is Townfolio. The embed services allow you to communicate the benefits of investing in your community through data. This gives investors confidence to contact you and helps stakeholders understand the current state of the community.

The Internet is a growing space for people to engage with different ideas. Don’t get lost in the crowd. It’s important to stick out by using marketing tools. Do you have any tools that you use to garner attention?