New Marketing Idea for Economic Development By Gaye Stockman, CEcD Laramie Economic Development Corporation

Current Websites WHO Our existing websites are designed to reach a variety of users: Potential Clients/Prospects Existing Businesses Investors Board of Directors Elected Officials Etc.

Current Websites WHAT The information we provide on our websites are also designed to reach a variety of users: Our contact information Local demographics Economic data Available sites and buildings, etc. Information about our organizations What we do Who we represent

Current Websites TOO MUCH? ALL that information is important to our organization. It is also imperative that we keep the information clean, current and concise… in additional to being easy to find. But are we meeting the needs of a special targeted prospect with all of that information?

Old Standard We’ve always been told to “brand” all of our marketing efforts to become instantaneously recognizable and show consistency. We can brand our marketing efforts with something as simple as our logo. Everything has to be the same color and style. We should consider the target audience and lean toward their vision if we want to speak their language… without losing our image.

So what happens when we need to address a specific targeted audience? Brainstorm What do they want to know - specifics? Are they willing to dig through all of our data to find that information? What do we want to say to that target audience? What impression to do we want to leave with them about our organization? Sometimes its good to think outside the box…

New Thought! Develop a “mini-website” Claim an unique and identifiable domain name that fits the targeted audience’s attention, i.e., ClimateCooled.com Create a new look and feel that makes it easy to find exactly the right information the target wants and needs to know. Create links between both websites

What the did the target audience think of the “mini-website”? We have been told repeated they like: The idea that we put them first The clean design The easy to find information they need to make decisions We continue to update the data as we learn more

Utilize Local Expertise & Learn New Tools Bryce Tugwell, FuseStudios Media (307) Concrete 5