“We’re with the government, and we’re here to help.”
If you’ve heard Commissioner Boyd give a speech at any event that has taken place the past few months, more than likely you’ve heard that line. While those nine words might conjure some laughter from the audience, Commissioner Boyd continues to include them in his speeches because it’s true. The nearly 100-member team at TNECD works hard every day to make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs, but in order to reach that goal, we first need to ensure that all of Tennessee’s 95 counties can compete when it comes to business recruitment and expansions.
There are certainly a number of tools needed in a community’s toolbox to help make it more competitive and having unique, customized marketing deliverables is arguably one of the most important tools on the list. Corporate executives and decision makers often say the internet is the most effective resource in their site selection process because of the ease with which it allows you to visit communities all over the world without ever leaving your desk. A website is essentially the first impression your community makes when meeting potential companies, so you want to make sure that impression yields positive results. By having a website tailored to your county and its advantages, business leaders and site selectors can view the inventory of available sites, thriving industries, workforce and education, quality of life and more with a few simple clicks. But what if your community doesn’t have an attractive, marketable website?
That’s where TNECD’s Marketing Assistance Program comes in. Launched in 2015 and offered at no cost to qualifying communities, the program helped give 12 distressed counties the resources and deliverables needed to gain additional economic development opportunities. Each county received an up-to-date website complete with content, video and photography specific to each community. The program also included a training session that showed each county how to operate, manage and update their website.
