Daviess County Economic Development Corp. has begun a much more aggressive marketing campaign designed to expand the outreach to potential businesses to locate in the area.
The DCEDC is taking a multi-phase approach in hopes of getting the business world to pay attention to the opportunities available in Daviess County. The campaign will be both online and in print starting with a three-page gatefold in a special Indiana section appearing with the July 2017 Site Selection magazine.
"We have decided to take a much more aggressive stance as far as marketing," said Executive Director for the DCEDC Ron Arnold. "We took an opportunity to partner with the IEDC, Radius and the Southwestern Indiana Development Council to promote what we have. Our position in Washington is very strong. We have the rail siding and the shell building available. All we really need is for I-69 to get completed to really solidify our position."
Arnold says between the growth of the county and its positioning, along the new interstate, the DCEDC felt it was time to reach out to businesses and site selectors around the country.
"Since the late 1990s Daviess County has experienced some major growth in key sectors," said Arnold. "When we learned that the Indiana Economic Development Corp. was planning a cooperative special section with Site Selection magazine, we felt it was time to tell our success story as a county."
The IEDC publication is called Indiana-A State That Works.
"The publication – which includes ads from the Daviess County Economic Development Corp. – can be a great resource for communities to promote Indiana’s world-class business environment and we’ll use the magazine as a piece of our overall promotional collateral," said Holly Gilham with the IEDC. "There’s certainly a lot of exciting things happening in Daviess County today, from historic investments with I-69 (connecting local businesses with customers and suppliers across North America) to Japan-based M&C Tech deciding to locate in Washington."
Arnold says that the ad also sends some additional messages around the state.
"This will help us reach people that we normally would never get in touch with," he said. "This aggressive stance also lets the IEDC and some of its newer people brought in under the Eric Holcomb administration that we are a player in economic development. Working with them in this way helps build a good relationship with them."
With interest rising about development opportunities along I-69 Daviess County officials feel they need to elevate awareness among decision makers.
"We know just because the road has been built that it is not guaranteed that the whole world knows about it," said Arnold. "We are reaching out. Securing expansion opportunities is a highly competitive business. It's up to us to tell our story in an appropriate way."
The Site Selection ad profiles how Daviess County has become a leader in a number of critical categories.
"Daviess County is one of the few rural counties in Indiana that is actually growing by double digits in population," Arnold said. "While we don't have the highest per capita income in the state, the county does lead the state in percentage of per capita growth, In fact, the current state is that our median per capita growth has increased 114 percent since 1994."
Officials say that the ad will put that information into the hands of thousands of professionals nationally and internationally.
"In addition to being sent out to 42,000 corporate expansion professionals, this specialty publication will be used as a major marketing piece by IEDC in its national and international outreach," said Arnold. "With the gatefold positioning, there's no way any one reading the IEDC publication can easily miss Daviess County."
Online component
The IEDC publication also has an online link and component.
The DCEDC has followed the same suit with a link to an updated site. The print publication points to dcedc.net website, which was updated and revamped in preparation for publication and distribution of the marketing effort. The revamped website now has online available property listings, videos that profile the county and updated information that site selectors typically look for when considering a county or a place for expansion.
"When an expansion professional starts developing a short list for possible sites, the internet serves as a primary resource," said Arnold. "We needed to refresh our website and get the necessary information out there and available."
The published ad is going to have another use. The DCEDC was able to redesign the gatefold ad into a new brochure that will be used extensively to market the community.
The aggressive marketing is just beginning but already is getting noticed.
"We are getting some positive feedback already," said Arnold. "We are going to have to wait awhile and see what the ultimate results are. Our goal is to get someone to find a good tenant for the shell building and to get more businesses to look more closely and consider the opportunities here along the I-69 corridor. And even get some of them to become part of our community."