7.3. HRSR 01-02-2018
Request for Action
To Item Number
Housing and Redevelopment Authority 7.3
Agenda Section Meeting Date Prepared by
General Business January 2, 2018 Colleen Eddy, Economic Development Specialist
Item Description Reviewed by
Marketing Update Amanda Othoudt, EDD
Reviewed by
Cal Portner, City Administrator
Action Requested
Item presented for information.
Background/Discussion
Informational Marketing Meetings:
A direct mailing was sent to homeowners in the new expanded targeted area and staff coordinated a
spring and fall informational meetings with Central Minnesota Housing Partnership (CMHP). The
meetings were held at city hall and were attended by a total of four people.
EDA/HRA Website:
Staff continues to work with Golden Shovel Agency on content that populates the news feed on the
HRA website. We have been receiving quarterly analytic reports which show the number of hits/page
views each of the page receives. Staff attended training with Golden Shovel to learn more about the Lead
Generation program which will be available starting January 1, 2018.
Advertising:
In 2017, the HRA advertised the Rehabilitation Loan Program in seven full color quarter-page ads. In
addition, the informational meetings were advertised in four editions of the Elk River Star News.
Projected for 2018:
Staff will continue to promote the rehabilitation loan program through informational meetings and full
color ads in the Elk River Star News. Staff proposes to work with CMHP on Facebook ads and other
social media outlets.
Financial Impact
Funding for marketing and advertising are included in the 2017 budget.
Attachments
rd
3 Quarter Google Analytics Report
The Elk River Vision
A welcoming community with revolutionary and spirited resourcefulness, exceptional
service, and community engagement that encourages and inspires prosperity
Prepared for
City of Elk River Economic
Development
Quarterly Analytics Report
Q3 2017
Golden Shovel Agency
43 East Broadway Street
Little Falls, MN 56345
Phone: (320) 639-0110
Toll Free: (888) 266-4778
www.GoldenShovelAgency.com
Confidential: This report is intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential information. Any dissemination,
distribution, copying, or other use of this document is strictly prohibited.
Website: City of Elk River Economic Development I htto://econdev.elkrivermn.gov
Economic Gateway Developments for your Website
Golden Shovel Agency's third quarter was busy and exciting! Our team has been working hard to stay on
top of the most current economic development strategies and trends. As usual every quarter, we strive to
bring you cutting edge updates and new tools for your website. We have again focused on many different
areas and would like to introduce them to you. All of these developments and upgrades are available to you
at no extra charge, if you are interested in adding any of them to your website, please get in touch with us
and let us know. This quarter's list of notable developments includes:
Community Snapshot Responsive Template
This template offers a purely visual presentation of key stats. Unlike the traditional Report template (which
presents full data in an extractable format), the Snapshot is intended to give the user the most commonly
referenced datapoints in an easy -to -remember factoid. Content areas above and below the infographic
interface give space to contextualize the factoids and present a custom picture of the community.
Blog Responsive Template
This news module template is a good fit for those who want a more informal blog-style news feed. The
template takes the user directly to the newest article (rather than a landing page where they pick from all
available articles). The navigation focuses on impulse selection on the part of the user, with previous/next
buttons (including a hover tip showing the name of the previous/next article to generate more interest) and
visual -based sections promoting recent and recommended articles below the initial article.
Resource Video Library Expansion
The recently -released video library template has been expanded to have the option of defaulting users to a
grid view where the entire library of videos is displayed for the user to make a selection.
Resource Manager Responsive Template
The Resource Manager template is a robust solution which can display results as a grid or a list, and which
offers a category view (also displayed as either a grid or list). Categories can be custom color coded or
have images associated with them in the category grid view (your GateKeeper rep will need to work with
you to customize this). As with the traditional resource library template, this template offers search and
sorting functionalities, as well as supporting category pre -filtering and prefiltering by any one of the five
resource types. Although sorting by date with the most recent postings shown first remains the default
setting, this template also incorporates the popular request to be able to sort resources by name.
This template has a strong visual/iconic aspect to the design, but the category -based customizability and
use of illustrative resource type icons (showing whether the resource is a document, link, video, photo, or
audio file) means that even sites which don't have unique logos for their resource listings can offer users a
visual -rich interface.
Please note that responsive templates are only compatible with responsive site designs. If you are unsure if
your site uses a responsive design or are interested in upgrading, please contact your GateKeeper
®Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications Page 1
representative.
Conferences
Our executive team was busy traveling to attend interesting events to stay on top of the best practices and
new trends in the economic development industry.Some of these include:
• Southern Economic Development Council (SEDC) Annual Conference - Charlotte, NC
• International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Annual Conference - Toronto, CAN.
• Kentucky Association for Economic Development (KAED) Best Practices Summit - Shelbyville, KY
• Professional Developers of Iowa (PDI) Fall Conference - Cedar Rapids, IA.
Last quarter we hosted some great webinars including the following:
• Business Retention & Expansion, The Foundation to All Economic Development Work -
Presented by Joe Raso, President of Blane. Canada Ltd. In a 21 -year career serving as the chief
executive of a Main Street program, rural county economic development organization, and two
metropolitan economic development organizations and chambers of commerce, Joe Raso used his
Business Retention & Expansion program as the foundation for all his work. In that time, he
discovered the four essential challenges all economic development staff and organizations face in
their work. In this session Raso explained each of these challenges and offered solutions you can
implement immediately.
• Attracting Business Using Video - Presented by Brian Aiken, Founder of Neon Cloud
Productions. This was a session where Brian talked about why it's not just about having the
content but when video artistry is designed by an expert, working alongside a team of
passionate individuals who see creativity as a means to production, storytelling can be exciting,
compelling and innovative and it will guide your intended audience through the sales process
and call them to action.
• Immersion Video for Economic Development - Presented by Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden
Shovel Aaencv. How do you capture the imagination and attention of a site developer sitting at their
mahogany desk, sifting through a mile -high stack of proposals? Elite communities have discovered
the answer - virtual reality. Prior to the unveiling of PlaceVR at IEDC, we presented this webinar to
talk about how Golden Shovel will showcase current communities who are using virtual technology
immersion videos and how your community can benefit from a 360 VR Tour.
If you couldn't attend any of the above listed, please contact us to request a copy of the slides and access to
the recording.
Save you seat for our upcoming Free Expert Webinars!
Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications Page 2
PlaceVR: 360 VR Immersion Video
At the IEDC 2017 Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada, Golden Shovel ^ lac 9 Y t
Agency unveiled the newest innovation in business and workforce '.J
attraction for economic developers: 360 Virtual Reality Immersion Videos.
In front of an intrigued group of economic development professionals, �r
Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden Shovel Agency, unveiled the PlaceVR
immersive video technology. Viewed through a headset, or on a computer or through a smartphone these
videos allow people to experience communities. And, in the competitive world of economic development,
this technology brings the community to site selectors and business owners --eliminating the time and
space barrier. Why worry about site visits when you can bring your community directly to the site selection
committee?
By creating new ways to communicate and share experiences, virtual reality is allowing consumers to
connect with brands, buyers to view real estate and tourists to visit new attractions, without actually being
there. It is so effective that Volvo is using virtual reality which allows people to test drive their vehicles in a
fully immersive virtual world.
Are you ready to be an elite economic developer? Join our upcoming webinar to learn how
360 VR technology is being used by economic developers as a business and workforce attraction
tool. Register here!
It has been a busy quarter for Golden Shovel and that is a great thing for the company, but we are now
looking forward to an exciting fourth quarter, and are highly committed to continue providing the tools and
solutions that will help our customers to grow and accomplish their goals. Have a great Fall season with
plenty of success!
The Golden Shovel Team.
Metrics
®Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications Page 3
o # Total Visitors : 736
o # of New visitors: 541
o # Returning visitors: 195
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o # of Followers: 798
o # of Tweets sent: 14
Rank by Keywords
o # of Likes: 812
o Elk river economic development: 42 of
®
o # of Wall posts: 14
279,000 competing pages
o Elk river economic growth: #3 of
192,000 competing pages
o # of Followers: 227
®
o # of Updates: 13
®Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications Page 3
Google Analytics - Page 4-7
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®Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications
[,,AGO TO REPORT
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Page 4
Top Pages
1. Elk River Economic Development- Imap
2. Elk River Economic Development
3. Elk River Housing and Redevelopment Authority
4. Elk River Economic Development Available Sltes and Properties
5. Elk River Economic Development Rehabilitation Program
6. Elk River Economic Development Staff
7. Elk River Economic Development Community Profile
8. Elk River Economic Development Business Directory
9. City of Elk River Economic Development Featured Protects
10. Contact Elk River Economic Development
1
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®Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications
Page 5
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®Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications
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Page 6
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Golden Shovel Agency
Groundbreaking Economic Development Communications Page 7