Global Direct Investment Solutions

Corporate Development for a Networked World

OnTheShortList.com     SurgeUSA.org

ShortListNews.com

Advertising and Sponsorship of Our Research and Referral Work

Bruce Donnelly   bruce@gdi-solutions.com    (Biography)

Suggestions are welcome, as are relevant reciprocal links.

We do, however, gladly highlight sponsors and other supporters of our work through images, buttons and relevant content designed to help the executives and advisors we serve to quickly find what they are seeking to support their investment project plans, and to easily explore locations and services which may be relevant but unfamiliar to them.

An overwhelming amount of information is now available in this niche.  We want to make it easy for executives to quickly find what is most relevant to their interests, even if they might never have found such information on their own despite investing weeks or months on research work of their own, or with costly professional support.

We already invested many years of research and professional experience and developed thousands of contacts in this niche as we created this service, pulling local knowledge together into a globally consistent framework, so that users may now find what they need in just a minute or two.  They no longer have to rely on old database screening methodologies for business location selection from the 1960's to 1980's to find what they are seeking.  We are rapidly empowering executives and their advisors to search and find what they are seeking in far more flexible and powerful ways, using the latest search technologies.

Our "on the shelf" research work and search tools now give them the time to browse through more relevant content and discover potentially valuable solutions to their needs, and find good help to grow faster and better.  We aren't trying to expand the overwhelming volume of published content which is already out there.  We organize, synthesize, highlight and openly share useful local market knowledge globally to make it easier for executives to use.

We publish such things as logo images, button links, banners, and linked thumbnail images of current display advertising, promotional materials, or relevant photos or graphics as in the case of commercial real estate listings or other content of likely interest to our contacts.  Examples of this work are demonstrated below, along with the costs for sponsors or advertisers.

We use graphics on the specific pages where they add real value to the presentation by making it even easier for executives to find potentially relevant resources at a glance.

For example, our "GUIDE" content services on this website (Globally Uniform Investment Data & Experience) are designed to present information in a globally consistent way about specific business locations and services of potential interest to our contacts. 

This makes it easy for executives to search for relevant capabilities, recognize them at a glance, and reach the appropriate contacts quickly for follow-up action.  Their professional advisors can actually focus on helping executives to reach better decisions for their investment projects, rather than waste so much time simply trying to find and organize the basic information they need.

The GUIDE content details vary, but the basic organization of the information is designed to be consistent and easy for users to find what they are seeking through many relevant navigational links and the power of the Google site search feature on every page.  The available services will continue to improve with sponsor support.  We hope you will choose to support our work.

•  Refer also to The Professional Site Selection Tour and Meeting Point at www.ontheshortlist.com as two new services for 2006
•  You may also find our analysis about the costs of "lead generation" work on a per job basis to be of interest, including market reach through advertising.

We get to know their business and their expected future growth needs and critical issues for success.  Then we help them through objective and professional research and referrals based on many years of experience in this specialty and thousands of contacts.

In this manner, we develop ongoing working relationships over time as trusted and objective independent advisors for their business plans.  Instead of performing consulting work directly for them, we introduce relevant professionals according to their interests, including economic development professionals and local business contacts.

We have done years of market research work to develop and maintain the extensive networks of contacts needed for this purpose.  This unique base of knowledge is very valuable to the executives and advisors we serve, and keeps growing and improving.

By openly sharing relevant information about the capabilities of our sponsors to support investment projects, we make it easier for executives and their advisors to find these resources, with or without our direct intervention to offer relevant referrals to them.

Ideally, visitors to this site should be able to find what they are seeking within less than a minute.  Within a matter of minutes, they can easily explore many useful resources which may have been unfamiliar, and see at a glance why they may be of interest.

When we talk to executives on the phone, we can easily direct them to relevant content as we speak because of the many navigational options and search feature on all pages.  This is like having an executive hotline to direct them to exactly what they are seeking, and to help them in other ways, particularly if they need any help with their choices.

By making it so fast and easy, they can also easily explore more content of potential relevance.  As in a retail analogy, we want to be their favorite and most convenient "superstore" in this specialty by working closely with all participants to provide very useful content "on the shelf", with knowledgeable staff ready to assist the buyers.

Over time, we want to earn their loyalty for "repeat business" by consistently offering a very professional and helpful service - on every visit - which continually improves to address their specific interests better than any alternative service in this market.

We welcome relevant links to our site, such as the ones which you will find through www.DevelopmentAlliance.com, IEDC, CoreNet Global, and others.  If we already link to your site, you're obviously relevant.  If not, contact us.

See further comments below about how we promote this business.

Note that we also offer capabilities to support marketing interests in Europe.

Try looking for a highway such as I-80, or a railway such as BNSF, or the name of a company or service provider or community, or a type of service or industry, or anything else which might identify a potentially relevant business location or service.

This website was launched in October 2002.  Usage is growing steadily.  There were roughly 200,000 visitors to our website during 2004, and the early trend in 2005 is much higher (up more than 60% over 2004, so we expect over 300,000 visitors in 2005).  For those who like meaningless big numbers, there were over 4 million "hits" last year.

Our focus is on well-qualified and successful project referrals, not website statistics.

The Biographic Profiles we offer with Area and Service Profiles can include photos to help personalize the presentation.  This can be helpful for introductory meetings.

October 10-11, 2005

Magdeburg, Germany

We can highlight relevant events.

 

We can do thumbnail images of relevant sponsor photos when appropriate.

We are less inclined to include photos such as sponsors at a cricket match, but we try to be flexible with our friends.

Partners4Technology

The International Business Introduction Service

Sponsors in County Durham, England at a cricket match at Lumley Castle Hotel

Thumbnail images of photos can usefully link to such things as property listings.

Thumbnail photos (such as this CoreNet award presentation) are used selectively because of the typically large file sizes and slow download times when the full resolution images are opened.  We can use .jpg thumbnails to link to relevant images on a sponsor website, however.

Small images, in this case a 103x33 .gif, can also be useful because we can add them to directory lists, as shown in our list of location consultants.  This makes it easy to stand out from many others.

Here's a larger example (211x55 .gif).  If you follow the link to their Service Profile, you can see how we can adapt to the color scheme of a logo or website.

This 150x58 .gif image is a good example of a normal button link.

This 135x58 .gif image generally shows up better against a darker background.

We can be flexible, however, in the use of background colors because of the way this site has been designed.

See our Bookshelf

Any suggestions?

Example of a logo link from our support of their 2003 and 2004 award program.

This is a 213x93 .gif image - not our preferred size, but we can be more flexible than publishers with fixed design sizes.

Example of a smaller logo link.

(They can help EDO's to raise money for marketing work and other initiatives!)

Once again, the 142x78 .gif size is not standard, but we are able to work with it.

This is a 250x66 .gif image.  If your logo, message, or image doesn't easily fit into the width of a small button or the height of a traditional banner ad, talk to us about what you want to do.  Unless it is clearly very disruptive of a page design, we can probably find a way to work with it.

We can also adapt to "skyscraper" ads when appropriate, although these are not generally our preference unless they accompany a lengthy section of text about that specific organization, as in the case of a GUIDE Area Profile or Service Profile or other detailed content.

In the interest of maintaining consistency with current brand campaigns, however, we try to be quite flexible.  Please contact us directly to discuss specific interests.

Some images are wider than typical 468x60 banners, as in this 618x51 .gif example from a Service Profile.  We can be flexible.

International Economic

Development Council

Example : 468x60 banner link - as a non-rotating banner ad

We can also handle wider and taller banner images as appropriate.

We don't place banner ads in the header or footer of our website.

We place them directly with the relevant content about that sponsor.

Thumbnail images used to highlight available promotional materials

Example of an old 1/2 pg market test ad

This shows how our Ad Recall service can be used to help visitors find useful ads they may not have seen, or recognize an advertiser at a glance and respond.  This can leverage existing ad campaigns, somewhat like point-of-sale displays.

Tell us what you want to do, and send a .gif or .jpg image attachment as appropriate, with instructions on where it should be placed and linked.

Assuming the request is reasonable and relevant to the pages involved, we can just confirm the order by a simple invoice in reply, payable net (no agency commissions).

These would be linked directly to your website (home or other page), and your directory listing would be highlighted (different color) with a specific contact name, phone and optional e-mail link so that users can easily contact you directly without even needing to follow the link to your website to seek such basic contact information there.

Ask us if something different is preferred.  Once again, we try to be flexible.

$500 for 6 months, or $600 for a 12 month commitment (which is just $50 / month).

This includes three relevant directory pages (such as regional and state directories and "Highlights" for area representatives, or the appropriate service and regional directories and "Highlights" for professional service providers).

Our site attracted 25,000+ visitors per month in 2005, so this works out to less than $0.001 per visitor.  Not all visitors will choose to visit the specific pages where the ads appear, obviously, but anyone can reach these pages within seconds by our navigation and site search options from any page.  This is important, because visitors frequently do not arrive on our home page first.  They often reach our site through search engine results which take them directly to a relevant page according to their specific interests at the time.  No matter how they arrive, they can quickly reach any other page of potential interest.

$250 for 6 months, or $300 for 12 months.  This works out to just $25 / month.

This includes three relevant directory pages, as above.

These are not rotating images.  They are fixed in prominent locations on relevant pages.

We can also potentially fit "skyscraper" ads into some pages, particularly in the case of a directory listing for a regional EDO for which the ad could stretch across the rows of the related local organizations which it supports, which usefully highlights at a glance the specific areas served by the advertiser.  Normally, however, such ads would not apply to directory pages, and would only be used with more detailed local content such as Area or Service Profiles, Surveys, Project Profiles

$750 for 6 months, or $900 for 12 months.  This works out to just $75 / month.

This includes three relevant directory pages, as above.

The purpose of this report is to make it easier for executives and advisors to browse through timely, consistently structured information which may arouse greater interest in contacting the participating areas or service providers directly.  This one-page executive summary report links out to more detailed presentations on our site and elsewhere.

The cost to include any button or thumbnail images as above on such a page, with relevant content provided (not just the image) would be $400 for 6 months.

A banner with such content would be $600 for 6 months.  A banner at the top of this report and on directory pages as above, as the lead sponsor of the report research work, would be $2000 for 6 months.

A simple example is this page of real estate property images linked to detailed site plans and the property description.  This assumes that we are not actually researching and writing a detailed article about the area or service, but rather are presenting special images and content (as provided to us) through customized pages on our website. This makes it easy to find this content through our site search and many relevant navigational links.

The cost to do this would generally be around $2000 per custom page per year, or more if we have to do significant research or write the content (rather than merely edit and present it appropriately), but contact us to discuss your specific interests and pricing.

We usually prefer to just link to such images and content wherever they are published on your own website, for which there is no extra charge for such links to participants in any of our GUIDE content services, assuming we agree that the information seems likely to be of potential interest to our contacts (i.e., worth linking to it).

We expect custom materials presented for publication through this channel to be of a high professional standard of integrity - timely, verifiable, and not misleading.  Otherwise, it is harmful to the credibility of both our services and all other participants in our work.

If complex graphic design work is required, the cost per page may be higher.  This work is priced according to the specific situation, rather than as a standard product offering.

We still charge separately, however, if you want us to set up custom pages (rather than just link to your relevant website pages, including such things as .PDF files to download).

There is no such charge on pages such as an Area Profile or Service Profile, since these pages are already about the sponsor company, so that the image is just reinforcing the presentation and brand recall after the visitor has already been attracted to information about that company.

The standard fee is $1000 initially plus $500 per month thereafter, including images.  This also includes a Biographic Profile for the primary contact ($200 / year separately).

The standard fee is $2000 initially plus $500 per month thereafter, including images.  This also includes a Biographic Profile for the primary contact ($200 / year separately).

This is an economical way for small areas or services to be highlighted and found very quickly and easily through our site search process and navigational options from any page.

We are not site selection consultants or other advisors selling our own professional services to them.  Instead, we independently help them to find what they need, quickly and easily.

We complement this primary focus of our daily work with the usual mix of marketing activities to help raise our visibility and attract interest among the executives and advisors we serve.

This includes direct mail, e-mail and fax communications with specific groups of executives according to their responsibilities and expected interests on the basis of our market research, including prior contact at the companies and referrals from other executives.

We publish useful content and advertising through this site because that helps them.

It is not terribly difficult or time-consuming, however, to publish such content, so the cost to participate is relatively low, with GUIDE services ranging from a few hundred dollars per year to a few thousand per month, depending on the volume of work involved.

The other side of our business, known as SICR, involves the work of a professional team to proactively develop business relationships among many companies according to the priorities of the participants who sponsor this work.

We can do this on either an exclusive basis (such as checking with specific companies about their potential interest in a given business location or service), or as a shared service (sponsored by multiple organizations with a common interest in developing relationships among such companies and raising their visibility among them if there is any identifiable investment project potential which might be relevant to them).

We invest in finding and referring real projects, not finding free magazine subscribers.  Magazines have their purpose, but we simply are not in the same business even though we may both reach some of the same executives to offer our very different services.

Our focus is ongoing relationship development work among key executives at major companies, and the support of major investment project plans (particularly those over 50 jobs) at any companies.  Our work is to directly support their project interests by getting to know their business and plans well enough to offer valuable referrals for their needs.

This also involves travel and other expenses, so we aren't just publishers of website content and links.  We need to personally meet many of the executives and professional advisors we serve, get to know their business needs and capabilities well, and maintain good working relationships over time through very effective response to their interests.

We also participate in industry and professional events for general networking and market research purposes.  This enhances our relationship development work.

We also do very selective advertising, both in specialized business media and Internet channels relevant to our work, including the use of Google ads and other online tools so that it becomes much easier for executives to find us when they are searching for help.

The support of our sponsors makes all this valuable work possible, so we are glad to highlight what they have to offer through ads and content relevant to the executives and advisors we reach, and to help them to more easily meet and do business together.

Anyone can publish website content or make telemarketing calls to a "target list" of executives, but few have the credibility and depth of experience to arouse the interest and earn the confidence of senior executives as they face critical decisions.

We need to be able to develop good working relationships over time among "C-level" and other senior executives at major companies, and understand those businesses and their investment interests well.

Our typical focus is on the support of project plans involving commitments of many millions of dollars for changes of strategic importance to the future growth of these companies.  We aren't just providing a directory of useful website links.

The cost of such professional work to develop very well-qualified referrals is therefore not cheap, either.  We aren't simply hiring inexperienced staff to work the phones and call hundreds or thousands of executives like telemarketers following a script.  When we contact executives about their interests, we have the advantage of being genuinely able to help them almost anywhere, across many professional specialties related to this niche market, as an independent professional service with many years of experience and an enormous network of valuable contacts.  We aren't just following a script.  We are actually in a good position to help them because of the large investment behind our work.

Contact us directly to discuss how our SICR or custom marketing services can help you to reach more executives who would value the capabilities you can offer to them.

See our "advertising recall" service which highlights recently published ads, or our "event recall" service, with website links and contacts.