Small towns and rural communities face particular challenges when it comes to promoting themselves to potential visitors, new businesses and residents. Nobody can tell your community’s story better than you and your neighbors, but tight budgets, tech questions and the lack of a turn-by-turn roadmap can make it daunting to get started and difficult for your voice to be heard. Whether you’re building a new website or fine-tuning an existing site, this course will give you the knowledge, free and low-cost tools, one-on-one coaching, and confidence you need to engage your community and put it on the map. Your community will learn about itself, and so will visitors.

In this course, you will:

• Outline your geographic area and a basic brand for your community or region.
• Identify your target audiences and learn how to do basic market research.
• Learn how to incorporate free- or low-cost mapping, directory and event calendar tools into your existing website or build a new website around them.
• Make a plan for engaging your community to contribute to the site.
• Identify key objectives and how to track progress.
• Learn how other communities support these initiatives over time.

See the Geotourism and Letchworth Gateway Villages stories on the “Keep Your Place Real” page and the Scenic Wild Delaware River and Genesee Valley profiles on the “Tell Your Story” pages of our website to learn more about the underlying approach for this course.

Six weekly classes - April 14-May 19, 2020 (sessions available for replay) • Includes two one-on-one consultation calls and other personal support • $495 discounted early registration, $825 regular course fee • Optional website template available

Who is this for? Chambers of Commerce & business alliances • Community & economic development staff • Place-based & conservation organizations • Extension & community development professionals • High school and college students • Downtown & Main Street groups • Business owners & other community leaders