We built a community-driven online directory to showcase local businesses in North Central Alberta.

In Web, Apps

UGC BUSINESS DIRECTORY

Helping rural Alberta business owners shine online

ClientLac Ste. Anne CountyServicesWeb application developmentYear2020Linkshopthecounty.ca

The Client

Lac Ste. Anne County is a rural municipality in North Central Alberta. Its proximity to the City of Edmonton gives it a unique set of challenges and opportunities from an economic development standpoint.

The Challenge

Businesses in rural communities often struggle with limited marketing budgets and low visibility, making it challenging to reach local customers and compete with larger retailers. Lac Ste. Anne County leadership sought ways to equip its business community with user-friendly promotional tools and further entrench this municipality as a vibrant rural destination.

Our Solution

We envisioned Shop the County as a user-generated content (UGC) directory that showcases the authentic experiences and offerings of businesses in the Lac Ste. Anne region. Core features include:

  • Business Profiles: Any business that serves the Lac Ste. Anne region can create a profile, including descriptions, photos, operating hours, contact information, and links to their websites and social media channels.
  • Platform Moderation: Administrators can help onboard new users, verify local businesses, and disable accounts that violate Shop the County’s terms of use.
  • Search and Filtering: Robust search functionality helps users easily find businesses based on keywords, location, and business category.

Implementation

The creation of Shop the County involved several key phases:

  1. Stakeholder Consultation: We held initial and ongoing strategy sessions with municipal leaders and community stakeholders to understand their needs and gather input on desired features and functionalities.
  2. Platform Development: Utilizing the SilverStripe framework, we developed a user-friendly platform with robust capabilities for user-generated content (UGC).
  3. Business Onboarding: To achieve a minimum viable product, we manually created about 250 business profiles using Lac Ste. Anne County’s business licence database. Through consistent promotion and user adoption, Shop the County now contains details on more than 700 local businesses.
  4. Community Engagement Strategy: Lac Ste. Anne County continues to use a multi-pronged approach to encourage user participation, including local partnerships, contests, and promotion via owned and paid media channels.
  5. Moderation and Quality Control: We established guidelines and processes for moderating user-generated content to ensure accuracy, quality, and compliance with Shop the County’s terms of use.
  6. Ongoing Support and Development: Tangent Civic provides continuous technical support to Shop the County businesses and users. Our team iteratively improves the platform based on feedback, analytics, and evolving scope requirements.

Quantitative Benefit

Since its launch in the summer of 2020, Shop the County has grown to include more than 700 unique local business listings — a number that climbs weekly as new businesses add their listings to the directory. This platform has increased visibility and enhanced customer engagement for participating businesses in the Lac Ste. Anne region, while delivering value for the County’s business licence program.

The client achieved a significant return on investment with this business development initiative.

EXPLORE SHOP THE COUNTY

Pride of Place

Images for Shop the County’s landing pages were sourced from locally produced professional photos, supplemented by shots from Travel Alberta’s multimedia library.

User-Centric

Shop the County continues to grow as new local businesses create accounts and add new listings. All of this UGC content is easily moderated via an intuitive administration dashboard.

Business Builder

We’ve empowered local business owners with a marketing tool that’s super simple to use. We’ve also given shoppers in Lac Ste. Anne an expansive directory of local goods and services.

“Tangent Civic brings the perfect blend of creativity and professionalism to their work. Everything that Tangent has designed for us, from marketing strategy to print design to the new website, has been executed to the highest standards.”

Nick Gelych
Deputy Reeve, Lac Ste. Anne County

Can you envision bringing something like Shop the County to your municipality?

At Tangent Civic, we don’t just consult; we leverage decades of niche expertise to help community leaders turn their ambitious visions into reality. We hit the ground running with any engagement, delivering tangible results quickly, effectively and on budget.

If you’re ready to move beyond planning and see real progress, let’s talk.