How to Market Your Opportunity Zone

Opportunity Zone legislation creates a unique opportunity to attract outside investment into Wyoming. Communities who successfully leverage investor excitement will be poised to experience economic gains as a result of new development and job creation. The question then becomes how to attract these investors. 

Knowing how to successfully market an Opportunity Zone is critical for economic developers and community leaders. Investors must be exposed to a community’s Opportunity Zone and then shown why they should invest in it. This is typically done through a detailed prospectus that highlights the benefits of a particular Zone, while providing the data to back up why someone should invest there.  

Take the following steps when creating your own Opportunity Zone prospectus. 

Research First

Investors will want to review demographic and market information prior to making an investment decision. Conduct thorough research and gather data so that you can use the prospectus to preemptively answer investor questions. Consider everything an investor may wish to know, such as:

• Population and demographic data
• Infrastructure and access
• Long-term economic outlook
• Education 

Keep in mind that the information you provide will also be influenced by the type of investors you are seeking, especially if you are targeting specific industries. 

Think Strategically

Rather than taking a shotgun approach to investor recruitment, think strategically. Consider the types of investments that your community needs. What are your priorities? What would benefit the community the most? Then, narrow it down further by identifying which industries would be a fit for helping you to achieve those goals. 

Once you have identified your target industry clusters, you can tailor your presentation to address needs or concerns of that industry. Keep in mind, you may not be targeting business owners, but developers who build properties for them. Demonstrating a combination of industry knowledge and risk analysis will be beneficial during conversations. 

Another advantage of targeting specific industries is that many investors will repeatedly invest in a certain type of real estate or project. They stick with what they know. Fortunately, this makes it easier to research and find them using information on those projects. 

Be Comprehensive in Your Presentation  

An Opportunity Zone prospectus should be detailed, thorough and comprehensive. Investors are reviewing information presented by communities throughout the country. If a prospective is thin on the details and leaves them with too many questions, they may divert their attention to the next prospectus on their desk. Taking steps to avoid this is critical since a community may only have one opportunity to entice an investor to learn more and visit. 

Be sure to open and close a prospectus with information on how investing will benefit the INVESTOR. Ultimately, investors need to see a clear path towards a return on their investment. Detailed information, data, and visual representations can help to paint this picture. 

Get Help Building a Prospectus

If you are unsure of where to start, there are several tools that can be useful in building an Opportunity Zone prospectus, including the following:

• ESRI tools
• Data from the U.S. Census Bureau
• GIS planning

Time is Limited

The time to market Opportunity Zones is now. Investors will be making decisions this year to get the maximum benefits of making their investments. 

For more information on Opportunity Zones, visit the Wyoming Business Council’s website. You can also email Brittany Ashby at bashby@thealignteam.org.