New EDC Website Hopes To Retain, Attract New Commercial Development

The Newtown Economic Development Commission’s revamped website, www.newtown.org, is “live.” The website is a key feature in a yearlong marketing and branding project that focuses on business attraction and retention.

The redesigned site www.newtown.org is designed to be a “dynamic resource tool that company decisionmakers and relocation professionals” may turn to when researching potential sites for business investment, according to a release from Newtown Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker.

The site has links to demographic data for determining whether Newtown has the labor force, housing, consumer spending, and other desirable criteria to help make the community a top contender for large and small business relocation.

The site is also designed as a tool for existing businesses who seek information about business services. The commission is hopeful that existing businesses will use it as a resource and that home-based businesses will find that it contains data that they may utilize for their business plans.

The commission expects this effort will result in better exposure and increased commercial growth for Newtown.

From a marketing perspective, the site has been designed to maximize exposure for search engine optimization, and will be regularly monitored as an ongoing project under the supervision of Ms Stocker, who, along with other town staff, recently completed Adobe Contribute training on how to best update the website on a regular basis.

The goal is to ensure www.newtown.org continues to be a dynamic, evolving, effective marketing tool providing new and up-to-the-minute information.

The EDC’s marketing subcommittee, comprising Martha LaMarche, Mitch Bolinski, Wes Thompson, and former commissioner Catherine Adsitt, worked on this project with Ms Stocker and SandorMax, an integrated marketing firm located in Newtown.

Company principals Julia Nable and Zoltan Csillag developed the tag line “Live. Work. Grow.”

Don Sharpe of the EDC provided copy editing and members of Flagpole Photographers supplied the majority of the photos used on the site. Six Newtown businesses also participated in the project by providing first-hand testimony of why their businesses chose to locate to Newtown, and the resulting benefits. Don Brooks, a co-president of the Flagpole Photographers, conducted the onsite photo sessions for the profiles.

Since 2009 the marketing subcommittee has worked to develop a consistent message and image. Ms LaMarche designed the logo for the website, and worked with Ms Stocker in branding the commission’s advertising campaign that promotes economic development opportunities in Newtown and on the Fairfield Hills campus.

“The director’s professional portraits were updated, and the resulting look is unified, sharp, versatile, and effective,” Ms Stocker said.

Visitors may sign up for e-bulletins from the commission, and Newtown businesses may send in their contact information for an online business directory that will provide links to their website. The only requirement for the directory is that the business must be located in Newtown and is registered with the town clerk’s office.

The directory is still in development, and will be launched soon after businesses have signed up, Ms Stocker said. “The email tool is up and running and the commission invites business persons and residents to sign up now so that they will not miss upcoming business news,” she added.

SandorMax and the marketing subcommittee are in the process of finalizing the email news template, which will be used by the EDC’s various subcommittees to facilitate their missions.