When companies are looking to expand or relocate their operations, the Greater Chattanooga Economic Partnership wants them to know the Chattanooga area’s story. The new website was meant to communicate that story and help the area stand out in the southeastern U.S.

Through the website, business owners and executives can find potential real estate, dig into regional data, and compile a well-designed report with the key takeaways from their research. It’s a full-service destination that makes it easy for businesses to get everything they need to make the case for the Chattanooga area as the perfect location.

The site won an Award for Communications Excellence, which celebrates exceptional work in advertising and marketing, from the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.

Challenges

Finding Properties

With the help of the Greater Chattanooga REALTORS and TVA, we incorporated a searchable database of industrial buildings, office buildings, and greenfield sites in the region.

Stats & Demographics

GCEP tracks economic indicators for the region. To make site selectors’ jobs easier and the region more accessible, the Partnership wanted to share a boatload of statistics on their site. This includes data on the area’s real estate market, building permits, unemployment rates, announced business investment, and higher education. Dynamic generation of charts and graphics allows GCEP to display all the year-over-year numbers in an easily digestible way.

My Report Functionality

GCEP staff wanted site users to be able to download information about the region in a nicely formatted report. This report could be used to pitch the area, so it had to look sharp. To accomplish this, we built a sticky function that allows any page on the site to be turned into a PDF and compiled into a single report with cover page. The report design matches the site design, keeping the Partnership’s brand cohesive. The feature is cookie-driven, keeping up with every page a user wants to add to their report and gives users a familiar shopping-cart-like experience. The compiled report is available to download, email, or print on the My Report section of the site.

Maps

Visually identifying the greater Chattanooga region that encompasses northeast Alabama, northwest Georgia, and southeast Tennessee when site visitors first land on the homepage was a high priority. The Greater Chattanooga Economic Partnership knew their audience would often be international, so we needed to quickly and clearly communicate the Chattanooga area’s location within the U.S. To this end, we featured a large, brightly colored regional map as one of the highest impact visuals on the homepage.