Case study: See how Rowan EDC (NC) promotes their ZoomBusiness tool

With nearly 40 communities across North America launching their ZoomBusiness online mapping directory of businesses open during COVID-19 since the product debuted two weeks ago, we're seeing some very creative promotion strategies, as well as excellent press coverage from regional media. 

Rod Crider, director of the Rowan EDC (NC), explains that the COVID-19 shutdowns got his team thinking about what they can do to facilitate the recovery period for their region. "Our small business community is important to our economy and while not usually a target of our efforts, we know that assisting them will be more crucial going forward," he explains. "

No other organization had either a plan or capability to offer this technology so we decided to make [ZoomBusiness] available.  We believe it will help our small businesses to remain viable and it demonstrates how valuable we believe our small business community is to our economy and our concern for their welfare."

The North Carolina organization had their ZoomBusiness tool up and running within a day of signing their contract, and earned great coverage from both their area newspaper, the Salisbury Post, and WBTV news. They have also been very proactive with their promotion on social media, as you can see in the two images below.

Other communities have attracted the attention of area media with their ZoomBusiness tools. We offer a helpful press release sample to make this kind of outreach simple. The Chamber of Greater Springfield (OH) had excellent coverage in their local paper, Springfield News-Sun. Racine County (WI) earned some nice coverage of their ZoomBusiness tool with this article, as has the Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority (NNRDA) (see here) and Katy Area EDC (TX) (see here). It's the kind of coverage that helps get more businesses listed and drives more area residents to visit the website to shop local and support them with their dollars. 

"The reaction has been very positive," explains Rowan EDC's Crider.  "Our partners at the chamber, in tourism and our downtown development group are sharing and supporting ZoomBusiness. Our newspaper did an article on the offering and our social media posts on ZoomBusiness are performing extremely well.  It is increasing our reach and visibility in the community and helping it to have a better understanding of the value and leadership we bring to our growth efforts."

Getting ZoomBusiness up quickly was a priority for Rowan County so Rod and his team could begin their outreach to businesses and consumers as quickly as possible.

"Setup was simple and painless.  The GIS Planning team provided us an overview of the product and its capabilities and we recognized immediately how helpful this could be to our small business community.  Once we gave them the go-ahead, it was up and running in less than 24 hours."

You can check out the Rowan EDC ZoomBusiness tool here: https://covid-19.zoomprospector.com/rowancountync

Want to know more about how ZoomBusiness can help you support your local businesses? Click the button below to set up a short online demo and learn pricing information.