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The Challenge
An investor-based organization that supports the economic growth of 10 counties, the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership (NEIRP) is a great multi-tasker: It works with a number of local development organizations, seamlessly coordinating their efforts to discover and nurture opportunities for new-business investment from across the country and around the world.
The NEIRP hired Cirrus ABS to develop its website after conducting a nationwide search for the best provider. At the time, it was a relatively new organization in need of partners to help with its initial fundraising efforts. Our role as Web developer also entailed business consultation. This involved working in tandem with another marketing firm and other consultants to help the NEIRP define its brand and how to promote it effectively on the Web. We were consulted specifically for our NetCentered business expertise.
The challenge, then, was to assist in the birth of a new business-related entity and send it off with a world-class website. In the economic development industry, 90% of new business opportunities are Web researched. A site was needed that would powerfully market northeast Indiana to the world as a great place for businesses to call home. The site needed to evolve, too, as the NEIRP and the region evolved.
The Cirrus ABS Solution
We built the initial NEIRP site to promote the fundraising brand identity needed to get things moving. Our eBusiness Suite gave the client powerful tools that to this day let the NEIRP's non-technical staff manage site content easily. This has become particularly important as the organization has moved beyond fundraising to address its larger marketing objectives.
We have since been contracted to take the site through several iterations. Cirrus ABS has worked with the NEIRP's internal staff and various outside agencies to implement their creative web design and branding changes, search engine optimization, and social networking strategies. Our eBusiness Suite platform has enabled the NEIRP to rebrand the site, update it, give it a fresh design, refocus its content, and provide new capabilities and functionality very cost-effectively, without affecting the site applications or content architecture.
More recently, the powerful Cirrus eBusiness Suite tool set has empowered the NEIRP to integrate with social media sites - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and the like.
The site also has been integrated with the NEIRP's customer relationship management software. Now, as new opportunities are generated from the site, the NEIRP can process those leads directly through its CRM system.
The Result
Today the NEIRP has the world-class Web presence it desired. Its website, which continues to meet and exceed its objectives, is recognized by industry consultants as one of the top economic development websites in the nation. Many local, regional, and national econmic development organizations uses it as an authoritative information resource on the region. And it gets great search engine placement, drawing worldwide attention. We continue to partner with the NEIRP, helping it take advantage of new online opportunities as it and the Web continue to evolve.
What kind of results do you want from the Web? Talk with us.
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