People working together at a table in a strategy session.

In the dynamic realm of economic development, where communities strive to attract investments and/or talents, foster job growth, and enhance their overall prosperity, effective marketing planning plays a pivotal role. A well-thought-out marketing plan can be the driving force behind successfully promoting a region's potential and advantages to businesses, investors, and the workforce.

But place marketing strategy is far from a straight-forward process and measurement always presents a challenge. In this article, we attempt to bring clarity to the process, focusing on six key areas when building out your annual plans.

Strategic Marketing Considerations

Whether it is FDI media planning or an upcoming talent campaign, before diving into the specifics of your marketing plans, performance will be dictated by the fundamental strategic considerations – target markets and sector concentrations.

Take the time to sit down with your key stakeholders, internal teams and various agencies to consider the opportunities. This includes historical source markets, the origin of existing employers and industry alignment. Doing so will narrow the field for targeting and ensure marketing and sales alignment on your goals.

Then consider the drivers of investment or international talent relocation required in various industries and how they align with your location to strengthen your proposition. Not all sectors in your region may be applicable for international recruitment.

Finally, identify how much budget you have to support your plans and what outcomes are even realistic to measure to attribute success. More on measurement at the end of this article.

A Strong Place Marketing Message

Your location's value propositions are at the heart of your marketing strategy.  However, we are all guilty of falling into the trap of telling our audiences how great we are, but is that what they really want to know?

It is important to consider a bigger challenge, that is one of general unawareness of where exactly your location is and what you have to offer. The use of maps, reputable third-party data & facts, and success stories of peer companies or already-relocated talents can build place marketing credibility and elevate your global profile.

Often the initial pitch is best by focusing on simple factors – market access, business costs or cost of living, and quality of life. Ultimately tailor your messaging to resonate with each group's unique needs and interests.

When targeting international audiences you should consider adapting your messaging to your local audience, allowing for tone and cultural nuances. Also be mindful of how your message translates. Creative taglines or complex concepts likely won’t be received the same way as audiences in your own country.

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Get a copy of our FDI Marketing Toolkit here, providing a streamlined step-by-step of planning your FDI marketing activities.

A Website that Works

Give due attention to a critical element: your location's online face. Done correctly, your website can be both an information source that attracts visitors and a valuable lead generation tool.

If you’re targeting markets that use another language, website translation and localisation is a must. This can be expensive, but there are cost-efficient options based on campaign needs that can meet audience expectations.

Another challenge when marketing internationally is data privacy in other countries. This can be addressed by selecting a consent management tool that keeps your organisation compliant in all jurisdictions.

Lastly, do you have international phone numbers and points of contact listed on your website? If not, it might reduce the chance that interested investors or talents contact you.

The customer experience often begins (and can end quickly, if not done correctly) on your website. Are the markets you are targeting and the message you are promoting going to be supported by your website? If not, a change of course could be required.  

Which Channels for Which Outcomes

International target audience behaviours are much different than domestic audiences. This can impact factors like volume from organic or paid channels because of fewer keywords, lower intent due to lack of awareness, and in-market privacy standards that reduce the total audience size.

That’s not to say it’s not worth pursuing. Instead, it’s all about knowing which channels work best for which outcomes, how to extract value from low volume activity and adapting to market conditions.

Research, testing and optimisation are key. So is having an open mind about which channels and content formats (video v. image) are used most in your target markets.

Also, can you scale your domestic programme content and channels (combining U.S. and U.K., for example) to maximize resources, or is a separate approach truly required?

What is the Marketing Lead Protocol?

One of the leading outcomes economic development agencies seek is capturing more leads, be that CVs of talent or contact details of potential investors.

However, follow-up protocols are often lacking (or non-existent). Before starting down the path to collecting more leads, settle on a strong follow-up mechanism (including for different languages) to improve their conversion into meetings.

These are not usually the same type of leads as those secured by an outsourced business development firm. They require nurture, persistence and patience.

Speaking of pursuing them, we’ve seen too many organisations give up after an email or two of follow-up. Consider the fact that people you know sometimes take 4-5 emails to get them to respond; someone you don’t know is going to need some work also. Without a commitment to persistence, the performance will suffer, so be diligent about the process.

But in digitising the lead generation process, the sales pipeline becomes more robust. It’s an excellent way to connect marketing success with business development outcomes.

Place Marketing Measurement Reality

There are two factors that impact what type of KPIs can be collected more than any other – budget and time in market.

Be sure that the scale and length of your campaign is commensurate with the outcomes you're hoping to achieve. Our measurement framework can help shed some light on realistic KPIs and metrics to put in place.

As previously mentioned, international programmes can be more difficult to show impact given lower volumes. But with an efficient, well-targeted programme, it can lead to increases in engagement and action from target markets.

Consider what resources are needed to move the needle and try for an “always on” approach over short campaign sprints. The longevity will do wonders.