Abbotsford, Canada: How to launch an economic development website

We've seen some very clever place marketing strategies from our clients over the years, and we continue to learn from them all the time. We wanted to share this excellent tutorial video  posted by our newest Canadian client, the economic development of the City of Abbotsford, British Columbia. They launched their new ZoomProspector Enterprise (Canada) GIS site selection tool, AbbotsfordSiteFinder.ca back in November (in a creative film-style premiere).

The video is short (5 minutes and 40 seconds), clear and descriptive. It shows how to find the GIS site selection tool, how to use the search, analysis and exporting functions. Even though ZoomProspector Enterprise applications are intuitive and user-friendly, there is plenty of data and functionality that may not be obvious to the average user. How much do people in a specific area spend on bakery products? How do you email a property report? How can you share something directly from the site to social media? How can you save or bookmark information to a report so you can return to it later?

Video is a great way to get people's attention, showcase online data tools, give people a feel for your location and generate interest. Don't forget to include plenty of surrounding text (title, description, promotional blog posts) in order to make sure your video is found, as search engines can't index video content. 

Some other excellent tutorial and promotional videos have been produced by The Village of Elk Grove (IL), The City of Santa Cruz (CA), Greater Halifax Partnership (NS), Michigan Economic Development Corporation and South Central Kentucky. 

Does your community use video in creative ways for promotion, tutorials or success stories? Email me to share the links, and I'll share them on our social feeds.