Effective Strategies for Investment Promotion and Outreach
Investment promotion and outreach activities play a crucial role in attracting investments to a location. Examples include attending events, organizing conferences, and conducting investor outreach campaigns. Investor outreach involves targeting specific sectors and markets, engaging with potential investors, and converting interest into investments through strategic interactions. By understanding the objectives and methods involved in these activities, economic developers can maximize their outcomes and drive investment growth effectively.
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2. Planning for Outreach? Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt December 6, 2018
Outreach and investment promotion Attracting or promoting investment encompasses various activities and each must be tailored to the selected medium or method. The most commonly known promotional activity is that of attending events. These can be effective if well prepared in advance. However, the key to making the most of each activity is to also have a good (and realistic) understanding of what can be achieved through each one. All promotional activities are meant to generate investment leads, but each activity will imply attaining other intermediate goals which assist the agency / economic developer / investment promotion officer to the ultimate goal of generating leads and of course, investment.
Outreach and investment promotion Examples of investment promotion activities: - Attending events; i.e. trade fairs, investor conferences, b2b events - Organizing events; i.e. investor conference, investment related seminars, sector meetings - Aftercare - Advertising - Direct mail - Outreach campaigns - Website and social media All these activities have the potential to generate leads, but they are not all equal in terms of potential. Investor outreach is probably the most complex and time- consuming investment promotion activity but also the one which tends to generate the best quality leads!
What is an Investor Outreach campaign? An Investor Outreach Campaign can be defined as an official mission to a selectedtarget market (country, region, municipality ) to present a location's investment opportunities to high-ranking private and public officials and representatives. The key consecutive objectives of outreach are: Securing a meeting to present face to face to company executives an attractive investment proposition for the location; Convincing potential investors to visit the marketed location; and Ultimately convert the inve stor interest and site visits into new investments.
What is investor outreach? Investor Outreach refers to: 1. Targeting a specific strategic sector you want to promote proactively 2. Targeting a specific market or markets for the selected sector based on criteria which support the not just the attractiveness of the target market but also having established clear evidence of demand or proactive outward investment trends. 3. Careful selection of potential companies within the target sector and market which would be likely interested in your offer. 4. Contacting those companies with clear and tailor-made value propositions asking for a meeting. 5. Preparing and executing a visit to those investors who have agreed to meet with you. 6. Follow-up all visited companies with the objective of getting them to visit your location.
Most Effective Marketing Techniques Source: DCI Winning Strategies, in Economic Development Marketing 2017 6
Campaign Planning & Execution I. Campaign Planning II. Promoting the Campaign III. Lead Generation IV. Lead Qualification V. Campaign Execution Set sectoral and geographic focus, goals, activities, timeline, budget Promoting the campaign in country and in target market Develop a long list of target investors Research companies - deepen your market intelligence and arrive at a short list of high- potential target investors Get the appointmen ts, meet with target investors, raise their interest, develop relationship s, and close a next step, such as a site visit 7
3 Elements of Campaign PLANNING Sector/subsector Geography Marketing theme Scope Objectives Build interest in your location Build relationships Get commitments to site visits Collect intelligence & Targets Send mail and do telemarketing Meet corporate decision-makers Participate in industry events Advertise in relevant media Activities & Timeline Approved Campaign plan with team members and budget
Promoting the Campaign It is critical to have a good understanding of the recognition of your brand in the target market. If you are an up and coming player, it means most probably that you are still building a brand. Before the mission, have your embassy, representative office in the target market, or through a local consultant in the target market, start reaching out to private sector associations; consider advertising on the key target sector publications in target market; and reach out to potential partners both in your country and in the target market to make some noise . Promoting before the outreach campaign execution will greatly increase your possibilities of obtaining visits. It is important to raise awareness so that you may be recognized as a potential player. For many locations, building a brand is critical! Even best practice countries took their time to build their brand! 9
Lead Generation Lead generation refers to compiling and researching companies that would be suitable candidates for targeting. There are two type of candidates: those who have at some point already expressed interest in your location and those you will identify through corporate databases and the rosters of the most important target sector events internationally. It is critical to meet with all possible stakeholders from the target country in your location, and other investment promotion stakeholders which come into contact with potential investors to i.d. investors which have already expressed interest in your location. Make sure you select good corporate databases! Do not forget to use the sector event rosters such companies are already seeking international business. 10
Lead Generation Build a database to store and track all these companies which you identify and aside from developing the basic necessary contact fields; remember to create your own prioritization system. Investors which have already shown interest in your location for example, would be higher in the prioritization system as their interest is confirmed. Make sure to also record the source of each company you enter so you can more easily establish research priorities. You may create your own database or use excel. The point is to be able to sift and filter companies so that you can then better qualify the leads. 11
Lead Qualification Lead generation is the first step, but ultimately what you are doing is dumping all the leads you find into the database. The next step: filter through them as they are not all appropriate leads. Define lead qualification criteria to further refine lead results and deliver manageable number of leads. Examples of criteria are: Company size (revenue, branches, employees, etc.) Company location Company growth (revenues, investment, employees, etc.) Primary end markets Cost of goods or services sold compared to industry average Location of overseas facilities (pattern of overseas investing, once invested overseas more likely to do so again) Apply lead qualification criteria using various rounds of screening 12
Now you have the short list target The final list of candidates must depend on (How many in the short list?): Relevance of the investor list. (ie sector, activity ) The quality of the leads: main criteria have been verified; Logistically feasible (i.e. grouping in areas which make optimal use of travel budget as well as timing) How many investors you could actually visit within an agreed time period for the outreach mission/s. (remember all variables: 10% to 20% return is a very successful campaign; will you be combining visits with events such as trade shows or presentation at a chamber or sectoral organization ). How many resources, both financial and human. The final short list must be researched in full in order to be as informed as possible so you can identify opportunities as well potential pitfalls be prepared to adequately answer questions throughout the whole outreach execution from contacting the company to preparing the investor s site visit if you manage to convince the visited investor to visit you.
3 Phases of Campaign EXECUTION Pre-Mission: Getting the appointments On the Ground: Building interest and relationships Post-Mission: Continuing to close the next step
Pre-Mission: Getting the Appointments Letters Develop marketing text, collect supporting material and send via mail, courier, hand delivery or e-mail Produce first draft, review with Communications/PR Officer, send for editorial review by native speakers and adjust accordingly Coordinate when outsiders are supporting: letterhead, signature, sending, etc. Calls Refine Telemarketing Script & Objection Databank to meet needs of short-listed companies and campaign's theme Within 1 week of receipt of letter, use telemarketing to follow-up. Calling key companies first. Keep record of calls, appointments and feedback 15
Tips on Conducting an Investor Meeting Timing is Everything Take Your A-Team Maximize Intelligence Prepare to Follow Up Important to arrive early Small is beautiful Take plant tour Assign next steps Take notes of company, sector, market & project info Give investors every incentive and piece of information to say yes to a site visit Allow for getting lost, security, impromptu plant tours, and debriefings Clear, unique roles: 1 presenter, 1 sector specialist, 1 note-taker Debrief right after 16
On the Ground: Building interest & relationships Recommended Logistics & Resources Arrive the night before Rented Car (with driver?) GPS device Mobile phone Laptop computer Portable projector (or indicate the need for projector) USB drive with all presentations Camera 17
Post-Mission: Continuing to Close (ABC) Communicate with the facilitation team Send thank-you e-mails & promised information Reconfirm site visits (and follow-up meetings) Make Follow-up call when agreed upon Send follow-up letters, news and support materials Monitor success: CRM, M&E Table 18
Outreach managing expectations Investor outreach does not ensure investment immediately! The success of investor outreach depends very much on the real competitiveness of the location vis- -vis the competition and other competitive sectors of your economy; So choose wisely and make sure that you select the sector / product / service for which there is a clear demand in the market; Remember that investment promotion is a competitive sector or activity it sometimes takes additional marketing and promotion to get investors to know you and feel comfortable with your offer; It takes time to build a reputation/image the best IPAs in the world took a long time to build it today it can happen faster but remember: you get back what you invest in!
Defining Scope Recent Example Electronics: Semi- conductors Design Houses US: Silicon Valley, CA Austin, TX December 2010 Source: World Bank Group 20
DEFINING SCOPE RECENT EXAMPLE Sample metrics & Conversion rates 200 200 Qualified Leads Letters sent 7% 273 160 Calls made Calls completed 13 12 Meetings confirmed Meetings held 25% Follow-up requested Site visits 8 3 Source: World Bank Group 21
