LSCP Releases 2018 Vision Magazine

Posted by on October 8, 2018

Each year, the LSCP releases Vision Magazine, which showcases some of the many businesses and organizations that make Marquette County what it is today. We have a great partnership with the Mining Journal who handles the advertising and works with LSCP staff on content. We are thankful to all the advertisers, and those who allowed us to showcase them, for helping us create an outstanding marketing piece that provides just a “sneak peek” of all our region has to offer.

Our main focus with the magazine is to showcase why Marquette County and the Upper Peninsula are great places to do business. Our target audience is site selectors, developers and others considering this area as a location for their company to relocate, expand or start up. This is a “snapshot” that hopefully leaves them wanting more. Just a few highlights of this year’s magazine are Superior Eye Health & Vision Therapy, Integrated Designs, Inc., Bennett Media Group, U.P. General Contracting, Lake Superior Life Care & Hospice and much more! We like to feature a mix of new business, businesses who continue to thrive and grow here and exciting updates around our quality of place.

I know I have written about our work in business attraction in the past. While it is a very important part of our economic development portfolio, it is also very expensive and competitive. We typically spend 5-10% of our resources on attraction which is appropriate for our region. However, business retention, expansion and start up efforts have a greater return on investment where we spend a majority of our time and resources. Think of your customer base, isn’t it more productive and cost effective to retain and grow the customers you have as they are already familiar with your product and service, than to attract another? You need both to be successful but should be strategic in the use of your resources. Below are a few of the strategies we deploy in business attraction.

  1. E-Newsletter to Site Selectors – throughout the year we send email updates to approximately 1,000 site selectors and developers around the country. Information is typically on recent investments made in the area, new business opportunities, awards and recognition given to the county and anything that showcases the wonderful place that we live!
  2. Reply to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) – we review RFPs from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) that they receive from site selectors. We promptly reply whenever our region meets the RFP criteria.
  3. Zoom Prospector – Zoom is the database that we use to organize commercial properties available for sale or lease. Properties from the MLS are automatically uploaded. Others are loaded by our staff as we become aware of them. Keeping this database up to date is important to us so we can quickly reply to RFPs, businesses looking for space and help businesses fill vacant properties. Contact us at 906.226.6591 if you’d like to get a property listed. It is free of charge!
  4. International Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) – I am honored to serve on the board of the IEDC and as an active member participating in conferences and committees that get the LSCP and Marquette County in front of many site selectors throughout the year. When our team travels, we are always prepared with information on our area and often give them Vision magazines. Once we are back in the office, we stay in touch with the site selectors we meet.

To view this year’s Vision Magazine, visit marquette.org and click on Vision Magazine under Live & Work. If you’d like to have hard copies to give out in your office or have an idea for next year’s magazine, contact Kennan at 906.226.6591 or kmarana@marquette.org.

Amy Clickner, CEO, writes a bi-weekly column for the Mining Journal.

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