Right out of the box, this presents you with several significant challenges.

First, it seems that nearly every community in America (and beyond) is trying to do the same thing, so you have the problem of being heard. Plus, there is a fairly standard set of data that your prospects use to compare their potential location sites. How do you make your data set stand out? And how do you make your case sufficiently compelling to get you on the short list and perhaps even get a request for more information?

We believe the use of interactive infographics can help you.

The use of this packaging approach will certainly make your content stand out from the crowd. It also will make your information engaging and very easy to use and understand. In short, it will help you make your story far more compelling to the people you’re trying to reach.

Here are several examples that show you what we mean.

In our work with the Kansas City Area Development Council and its partner organization Kansas City SmartPort, we have used a variety of infographics and interactivity to make the work of location advisors a little easier.

KCADC Community Profiles

On the ThinkKC.com website, the KC metro area is presented as a map showing its 18 counties and 50 communities. Clicking on a city or county automatically brings up an demographic snapshot of that location, with the option to click into a more detailed description.

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KC SmartPort Trade Corridor Network

On the KCSmartPort.com website, KC’s robust distribution and logistics infrastructure is presented as an interactive system of maps that allow the user to interactively turn on and turn off different elements of the regional transportation and logistics infrastructure so they can not only see each element, but also see how the various elements relate to one another.

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Custom Report Generator

KCADC’s ThinkKC.com website uses extensive text, graphic and numeric data to present in-depth demographic, tax and incentive profiles of the KC metro area. It’s a lot of information for a site consultant to sort through, so site visitors are able to specify the topics they wish to see, and a custom report is generated automatically, which can then be downloaded as a PDF file.

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Demographic Map System

Imagine collecting data related to your region’s industries, transportation infrastructure, demographics from both a local and national perspective. That’s what we’ve done on KCADC’s ThinkKC.com Map Center. The site visitor is able to select any of these general topics and then click through a variety of data presentations within each section.

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KC SmartPort Real Estate

Having a strong portfolio of available real estate opportunities is critical to attract new businesses to your community. For the KCSmartPort.com website, we created a an interactive real estate feature that uses graphic icons to distinguish different types of properties (intermodal, logistics, buildings). Each graphic icon provides a rollover data snapshot and a link to a more detailed property profile.

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In the words of the site itself, “KCCareerNet.com is a one-stop source for information related to finding employment and advancing your career in the Kansas City metropolitan area.”

This new website provides access to many traditional job sites, as well as online resources to help job seekers compete more effectively in a tight job market. It lists resources that will help strengthen resumes, hone interviewing skills, and make the right choices when an offer comes through.

Now that it has officially launched, this workforce development site joins KCADC’s flagship website ThinkKC.com and its collection of satellite sites that serve a number of unique economic development roles.