New London tries online marketing
By Robert Cloud
The city of New London posted a short video on Facebook about the joys of fishing.
On the video, a local man named “Ted’ talks about his love of fishing and his lifelong experience enjoying the Wolf River.
Ted says fishing helps feed his family by providing about two to three meals a week.
The video features aerial shots of ice shanties on the Wolf River, as well as the interview with Ted.
Casey Zempel, who is in charge of New London’s Cable Access Channel, and City Administrator Chad Hoerth spoke to the Economic Development Committee on Feb. 23 about how the city is exploring ways to promote itself on social media.
Zempel noted that by the time of the committee meeting, the Facebook video had generated 266 likes, 76 shares and 43 comments.
About 520 people clicked the Facebook link to the city’s website to learn more about New London.
He said paying to boost the post had nearly doubled the number of engagements.
By initially using what Facebook calls “organic reach,” the city was able to determine what audience to target with its paid reach.
“Ads done organically give us feedback on setting targets for the paid campaign,” Zempel said.
The goals of the social media campaign are to attract non-residents to visit New London and promote the area’s natural resource opportunities.
“Things that cover not only tourism, but the local quality of life,” Zempel said, noting that highlighting the local quality of life not only encourages people to relocate to New London, but promotes positive lifestyles and reminds residents of the experiences that New London offers.
The city hopes the social media campaign helps promote New London as a place to relocate larger employers.
Few vacant storefronts
New London Chamber of Commerce Executive Director April Kopitzke reported that North Water Street has only two open commercial vacancies.
In response to a query from the committee, she later emailed information about Pearl Street vacancies.
“N. Pearl St. currently houses 15 commercial buildings on the west side with 13 businesses open for business.
“The two vacancies on this side are 511 S. Pearl St., which is Patti Kapernick’s business, Hair Connection. She just retired in December 2020 after 40 years of business. We are hoping to bring in another salon from Aveda to this location.
“The second is 315 S Pearl St. formerly the Country Roots Bistro. The owner did some major renovations to the interior portion of this space in 2018 and it’s set up for a small restaurant. Part of the reason the business left this space is because he had no room to grow.
“The east side of N. Pearl St. houses 10 commercial buildings that are currently filled with nine businesses and the library/museum (that are) all open for business.”