ST. LOUIS – Geo Domainers think about how-to-market the minute they establish their city, place or territorial dot com. The site is up, but what are the best elements to promote on the site? These vital decisions determine both viability for the geo domain site and the assurance of visitor (place and site) interest.

Several tips from the web give good advice on specific marketing trends. With clues from Bizsum.com and GlobalSpec.com, the following are sure to give content for marketing though to any geo domain operator.

Marketing Places

Bizsum.com summarizes the book “Marketing Places ­ Attracting Investment, Industry and Tourism to Cities, States and Nations” by Philip Kotler, Donald H. Haider and Irving Rein. The main premise being “The challenge of place marketing is to strengthen the capacity of communities and regions to adapt to the changing marketplace, seize opportunities, and sustain their vitality.”

Among the vital tips...

- Do the Homework: Identify who the target markets are; improve the products and services that it can offer to these target markets; and determine how it can communicate its message to them.

- Image enhancement: The authors mention five factors that are critical to the development of an appropriate and useful image – One, it must be valid. Two, it must be believable. Three, it must be simple. Four, it must have appeal. Five, it must be distinctive.

- Getting Help: Among the ten outlined responses to marketing challenges, people power is mentioned prominently.

Here are some of those responses: Places must develop and nurture individual entrepreneurial characteristics. Places must rely more on private sector leaders to accomplish their tasks. Each place needs to develop its own unique change process as a result of differences in the place's culture, politics and leadership processes. Places must develop procedural processes for city principals to sustain place development and maintain momentum once the plan has begun.

Using Branding

GlobalSpec.com sums up the highlights of “Tourism Marketing for Cities and Towns: Using Branding and Events to Attract Tourists” by Bonita M. Kolb

- The distinct difference between marketing a business and marketing a place is a business can adapt/change based on research and market forces. In contrast, a place has what it has and marketers must find a way to generate interest in existing features and benefits.

- The market is the entire group of potential site visitors, while the process of grouping them on shared characteristics is segmentation. Targeting is deciding which of the segments would be most likely to be motivated to visit.

- The city/place marketer can also use public relations, sales incentives, personal selling, and direct marketing. Each of the five methods has a specific role to play in motivating consumers to purchase. Each has advantages and disadvantages of which the marketer needs to be aware.

The idea with all of marketing goes back to the advice above: Do the Homework! Research and targeting go a long way to effectively increase the market.