investment promotion websites and social …...search engines connect those who are already looking...

INVESTMENT PROMOTION

Websites and social media

Workshop on Promotion and Facilitation of Foreign Direct Investment for Sustainable Development in the Islamic Republic of Iran,

Tehran, 9-11 October 2018

Investment promotion tools: websites and social media

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

WHERE INVESTORS (CLIENTS) MEET GOVERNMENTS (IPAS): INVESTMENT PROMOTION


• Information & Sales Packs

• Investment plans

• Policies and incentives

• Procedures and requirements

• Progress and achievements

• Create awareness

Image Building

•Advertizing and PR

• Information & Marketing

•Missions & Events

• Company targeting

• Company visits

• Follow-up

Lead Generation and Targeting • Information provision

•Assistance with contacts

•One-stop-shop services

•Assessment of manpower,, Infrastructure service needs

• Follow-up

Investor Servicing

• Continued “account executive attention”

• “Ombudsman” role and trouble-shooting function

• Follow-up on manpower, infrastructure, service needs

Aftercare and Policy Advocacy

Phase 1

Implementation

Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5

Strategic Assessment Location Screening, modeling & benchmarking

Cost comparison Site Evaluations

Site visitsJournalsNewspapersBrochuresTrade shows

City

City

City

City

City

City

City


1990 LOCATION SELECTION PROCESS

SIX MONTHS

City

City


2018 LOCATION SELECTION PROCESS – ARE YOU BEING FOUND?

85% of initial search = InternetEIGHT WEEKS

Detailed info

Services

▪ The main purpose of a website is to: – Educate and inform – providing key information that

investors need

– Market – promote your location and the services you offer to potential investors

– Support function - deal with investor requests via email, phone and feedback

– Support business - providing support information for an Investor application or business process

– Community - building a forum or community that Investors use to share ideas, experiences, issues, etc


WEBSITE USE AND PURPOSE

▪ In general, IPAs have found that excessively elaborate materials are less effective than updated and accurate information

▪ It is more important for investors to have good information than good graphics

▪ Given the very attractive cost element, most IPAs are now focusing attention much more on multimedia CD ROMs and websites

▪ One element that is often overlooked in promotion materials, and one that is critical for investors, is operating cost comparisons. Accurate information on cost comparisons must be included in all promotional materials


EFFECTIVE PROMOTION MATERIALS

1. Authenticity of place branding and messaging

2. Clarity of navigation

3. User friendly

4. Depth and quality of content

5. User segmentation

6. Use of search marketing approaches

7. Use of email marketing and news sections

8. Frequent performance tracking

9. Use of new media


NINE COMPONENTS OF A WORLD-CLASS IPA WEBSITE

▪ Communicating a true and unique positioning of the region (USP)

▪ Utilizing recognizable national elements

▪ Capturing users’ attention to inspire them to use the site


AUTHENTICITY IN PLACE BRANDING IS…

SUMMARIZING 10 REASONS TO INVEST IN CHILE

1. Dynamic economy, with good performance and great capacity for growth

2. Highly competitive. Chile is ranked 33 among 137 countries for 2017-2018

3. Global integration. 20 economic agreements with 57 countries in the world

4. Institutional and financial strength and the lowest risk country in Latin America

5. Friendly tax economy, one of the lowest in the world

6. High levels of transparency; ranks first in Latin America

7. Good business environment and economic freedom; first place in Latin America

8. Excellent quality of life

9. Highly trained and competitive human resources

10. Transport infrastructure and modern connectivity integrated into the world


▪ Use a simple top bar and/or side menus

▪ A prospect-specific section placed prominently

▪ Straightforward Navigation – from users perspective

▪ Providing the top ten most requested pages

▪ Keeping all valuable content three clicks or less from the homepage


CLARITY OF NAVIGATION IN WEBSITES IS. . .

▪ Using a content management system that enables publishing of pages, downloadable documents, and data

▪ Weekly updates on news items and events

▪ Offering video content

▪ Direct – one click –access to Investment Guides


GREAT CONTENT IS…

▪ Information that is relevant for investors (e.g. operating costs, site and location advantages, incentives, business environment: taxes and regulations etc.)

▪ Sector specific information (manufacturing, services)

▪ Information that can be used for benchmarking and site selection

▪ Factsheets

▪ Include investment opportunities

▪ Categorize information

▪ Use multiple metrics and currencies for international investors

▪ If aimed at foreign investors it must be in English and language of other major investor home countries

PROVIDE ONLY RELEVANT INFORMATION


KEY TO RELEVANT WEBSITE CONTENT

1. Understand your users. This is the key to developing meaningful and comprehensive content.

2. Segment your audience and prioritize your users (investors, site selection advisors, media, researchers, etc.).

3. Focus on helping each user type achieve its goals when visiting your website

4. Start with the content you have and evaluate it for relevance, quality, and comprehensiveness

5. Use reliable sources of content

6. Then, fill in the gaps



IPA WEBSITES – WHAT CORPORATE INVESTORS AND SITE SELECTORS NEED

What they (really) need:

▪ Contact information

▪ Incentive programmes

▪ Tax rates and cost info

▪ Recent announcements

▪ Testimonials

▪ Industry-targeted info

▪ Relevant maps

▪ Largest employers, sectors, suppliers

▪ Area colleges and universities

What they don’t (really) need:

▪ General labour statistics

▪ Secondary source wage information

▪ General rankings

▪ Distance to other major cities

▪ General climate and weather conditions

WEBSITE EXAMPLES


Invest in Spain is considered a good practice example

- Headlines- Regions- Key Sectors- Business indicators- Success story- News items

▪ Use easy to read fonts, medium-sized (e.g. Verdana, Arial)

▪ Use graphics appropriately

▪ Easy of downloads of PDF documents

USER FRIENDLY


USER SEGMENTATION


▪ Search engines connect those who are already looking for you

▪ Search engine marketing is a way to create and edit a website so that search engines rank it higher than other pages.

▪ Keyword selection

▪ Goal = end up high / first page


SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

▪ Monthly email newsletter to investors, prospects

▪ Tracking performance of those newsletters

▪ Posting newsletters and news items to your website weekly or monthly


EFFECTIVE USE OF EMAIL AND NEWS IS…

Invest Cayman Islands

STAY UP TO DATE – IF NOT IT WILL BECOME COUNTERPRODUCTIVE


▪ Receiving a performance report (of the region and of the IPA) once per month

▪ Not using “hits” (i.e. no. of searches by search engine for the website) – bad indicator

▪ Tracking unique investor visits (resulting in follow-up), web references (by search engine) and no. of downloads

▪ Integrated tracking of advertising, web and PR effectiveness


EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE TRACKING IS…

▪ Contain a rich experience of your geography

▪ Can be static images, dynamic flash maps, or database driven

▪ Can use commercially available photography from sources like Google


VIRTUAL FAMILIARIZATION TOURS

▪ Providing links between your website and your LinkedIn profile

▪ Keeping an active Twitter account

▪ Having a blog and updating it

▪ Incorporating “share” features on your site


EFFECTIVE USE OF NEW MEDIA IS…

Key web 2.0 tactics

for investment promotion:

Social media and other modalities



MOST RELEVANT SOCIAL MEDIA SOURCES

New media that are valuable for site selection and investment promotion

Which one is the best? Depends on your profile, target group, country, sector, etc.

MOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR MARKETERS WORLDWIDE AS OF JANUARY 2018


EXAMPLES OF TWITTER AND YOUTUBE –INVEST IN INDIA


BLOGS

▪ Advantages:– In-depth content

– Authority

– Search Engine Optimization

▪ Disadvantages– Time consuming

– Requires continuous blogging, otherwise limited public


SUMMARY: PAST & PRESENT OF INVESTMENT PROMOTION STRATEGIES


Without web 2.0 tactics With web 2.0 tactics

▪ Branding and Image building

▪ Cold calling

▪ Phone book

▪ Surveys, data requests

▪ Face to face meetings

▪ Site visits

▪ Blogs, LinkedIn, You Tube and websites

▪ Google search engine

▪ GIS and websites

▪ Online webinars

▪ Virtual familiarization tours

▪ Online tracking of performance

RECOMMENDATIONS: INVESTMENT PROMOTION 2.0

▪ The rules of the game of location selection and investment promotion have changed

▪ Key Web 2.0 tactics for today’s investment promotion can facilitate your work

▪ Your website is considered your “shop window”: if it looks appealing and offers up to date information you significantly increase the chance of attracting more investment

▪ Various web 2.0 tools can support all your IPA activities

▪ However, the implementation and maintenance of all tools require discipline, continuous updating, hard work, dedicated research and an innovative mindset


▪ How do you generally consider the quality of your IPA or investment promotion website? Is there more than one website?

▪ Could the contents and lay-out of the website be improved? Does the website of the national level IPA differ from those of local IPAs?

▪ Have you undertaken any evaluation of the use of the website and other investment promotion tools? What do investors think of your website and quality of other used tools?

▪ Does your IPA engage in reactive or pro-active investment promotion? Considering all your investment promotion efforts, are they focused and cost-effective?

▪ Do you make active use of social media? What is your experience with this?

DISCUSSION ISSUES


▪ ESCAP – Handbook on Policies, Promotion and Facilitation of FDI for Sustainable Development (2017)

▪ UNCTAD iGuides and eRegulations:– http://www.theiguides.org/public-

docs/guides/bhutan

– https://bhutan.eregulations.org/

Some resources


http://www.theiguides.org/public-docs/guides/bhutan

https://bhutan.eregulations.org/

UNITED NATIONS BUILDING

RAJDAMNERN NOK

BANGKOK 10200, THAILAND

TEL: +662-2881234

FAX: +662-2881000

http://www.unescap.org

HANDBOOK ON POLICIES, PROMOTION

AND FACILITATION OF FDI FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:

http://www.unescap.org/resources/handbook-policies-

promotion-and-facilitation-foreign-direct-investment-sustainable-0


CONTACT DETAILS UNESCAP

http://www.unescap.org/resources/handbook-policies-

Presentation available at:https://www.unescap.org/events/training-workshop-promotion-and-

facilitation-foreign-direct-investment-islamic-republic-iran

Your questions please?


https://www.unescap.org/events/training-workshop-promotion-and-facilitation-foreign-direct-investment-islamic-republic-iran

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