WILMINGTON – Delaware has a new resource to sell its strengths to prospective workers considering relocation: the website LiveLoveDelaware.com.
Created by the state’s public-private economic development agency, the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, the site features a mix of information about the state’s economic opportunities, resources for residents and its natural, artistic and cultural offerings.
Michele Schiavoni, marketing director for DPP, explained that the new site was a resource identified early in the organization’s strategic planning. After launching the ChooseDelaware.com site, which is focused more on business attraction, DPP sought to highlight the benefits of the First State to bolster the state’s workforce.
“We wanted to create a site that incorporates just about anything that anyone would need to know about considering a move to Delaware,” Schiavoni explained. “Pandemic or not, the reality is that there will be people who will be moving for reasons to do with lifestyle choices or jobs. This is a resource that actually didn’t exist before, so we like to say that it takes the best of all the other sites that exists in Delaware and creates a more comprehensive one-stop shop.”
The nonprofit organization bid out the work for the site, selecting Wilmington-based marketing agency Shiny to complete the job over several months.
“We really wanted to capture the marvelous diversity of Delaware,” Schiavoni said of the design of the site.
That diversity is readily apparent through the racial and gender diversity in those selected as “Delaware ambassadors,” or local business owners who shared their stories about how they ended up here and why they’ve stayed in a “state of neighbors,” as Schiavoni described it. Included in the lineup is serial entrepreneur and Goldey-Beacom College professor Dan Young, Code Differently CEO Stephanie Eldridge, M. Davis & Sons CEO Peggy Del Fabbro and Dogfish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione, among others.
“[The ambassador program] been a great experience because it’s really validated Delaware’s value proposition,” Schiavoni said.
Another feature on the site is a cost-of-living calculator that shows visitors the comparative tax advantage and cost of living in Delaware compared to other states.
“We like to share the fact that it’s a very favorable environment when compared with our neighbors in the Mid-Atlantic,” Schiavoni said.
With the site now live, DPP hopes that state employers embed a link to it on their hiring pages so that prospective employees can get a look at the First State. While still too early to know the full reach of the site, Schiavoni said that visitors have come from throughout the Northeast corridor already, although some have also visited from as far away as the Midwest.
