Why Your City Needs a ‘Buy Now’ Button

We’ve all done this. We go shopping online for something: a microwave, perhaps. Later, when we head to our favorite social media site, we see the same microwave. Then again in the sidebar of a pop culture site. And in a promoted Tweet on our Twitter feed. That microwave we are shopping for? It’s. Every. Where. This is called retargeting, and it’s not a new concept. 

E-retailers have figured out that an effective way to get consumers to complete a purchase is to dangle the microwave in front of shoppers’ faces until they’re ready to click that “buy” button. According to statista.com, nearly 90% of online shoppers abandon their cart without purchasing. Online stores are retargeting shoppers for this exact reason: the more you get in front of them and give them a chance to click, “Buy now,” the more likely they are to do it.

And when a shopper goes back to the shopping site to look at that microwave again? They’re not just wanting to read about its cubic feet, or energy consumption, or sleek design, they’re looking to buy. And marketers give them a place to click so they can complete that purchase then and there.

Well, think about talent attraction through the same lens. Potential new residents — or city seekers — are checking out your website, but the vast majority are leaving without doing anything. They’re reading your blogs. They’re watching your videos. They’re getting excited about the idea of living in your city (or region or state). But they’re leaving your site without clicking “Buy now” on your city. It’s not because they don’t want to, but because there’s no “Buy now” button to click.

“Whatever your goal is, make it actionable.”

As economic developers, we can learn a lot from the way online retailers interact with their customers. We can retarget people that are considering moving to our city. We can grab the cookies that they leave on our site, and keep reminding them about what they’re missing: great jobs, award-winning schools, an affordable lifestyle, a chic brewery. It takes time for someone to decide to move to a new place: keeping their attention as they move through the process is a must. 

This all seems pretty intuitive, right?

If you want to inspire someone to take action, give them an action to take. 

And yet… 

For years, talent attraction has been treated completely differently than every other form of marketing. Cities and states spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on gorgeous websites, A+ content, slick videos, and PR firms all with the same goal: convince people to relocate. But once the city seeker has read your awesome article and decided they’re interested in relocating, they’re on their own to figure out how to get there. And talent attraction marketers have no way to track those decisions and those success stories. 

There’s no “Buy now” button for a city. But why not? 

Why don’t we treat talent attraction the way e-retailers successfully sell microwaves? What if we applied proven and effective digital marketing techniques to talent attraction? What if we gave city seekers the opportunity to “complete a purchase” on our talent pages? Ask them to fill out a form. Grab their info. Set a meeting. Connect them with a local. Put them on a list for job opportunities. Whatever your goal is, make it actionable. Then follow through relentlessly.

People want to feel wanted. They can get information on your city anywhere, and they definitely already are. When they’re interacting with your talent attraction content and campaigns, give them the chance to do something more. Build some social capital and build some trust. Engage them, track them, retarget them, and give them a place to click “Buy now” on a new life in their dream city. 

This is how you convert website visitors into residents. Even better, for those lucky city seekers, it doesn’t cost them a thing.