Overview:

TownSpeed connects local businesses and new residents through the Welcome Neighbor, USA program. When families move into a neighborhood, they need a one-stop online destination to find the nearest hardware store, pizza place or body shop. TownSpeed is that destination. In order to support community businesses, TownSpeed’s co-op marketing program looks for ways to make their program affordable to local businesses rather than actively soliciting the big box advertisers that they compete with.

Objectives:

In December 2009, TownSpeed engaged Roll Mobile to come up with a low-cost platform solution to serve these online needs, while also incorporating a mobile presence.

Challenges:

• Cost. TownSpeed needed a program that put the largest number of eyes on their site, yet at a minimal cost so as to not have to pass its expense on to the local businesses who wanted a presence on the site. The challenge was to redevelop their site on a new CMS platform that was conducive to growth, while also establishing a mobile presence from scratch – all at a cost low-enough that TownSpeed wouldn’t have to pass its expense on to the local businesses who wanted a presence on the site.
• Premium vs. Non-Premium. The site had to be able to include all area businesses, so as to be a valuable resource to new residents in town. However, those businesses that pay to be listed on the site should get premium placement and additional details/display properties that non-premiums listers couldn’t receive, so as to motivate local businesses to join.
• Community-centric Advertising. Advertising space was going to be sold on the site, and needed the ability to be displayed according to the Place/Community. The local Keane, New Hampshire hardware store didn’t need its ad showing up on the Poughkeepsie, New York community page.
• Growth Potential. The framework had to be designed so that TownSpeed could use the template internally to create different pages for additional locations/zip codes along the east coast as they joined the program.

Implementation:

Roll Mobile chose to build the new TownSpeed website using the Drupal content management system (CMS). The decision was due in part to its free and open source platform, which provides one of the better ways to self-manage and build on to the site.

In January 2010, the Roll Mobile development team returned with a web template that produced a site which displayed in its regular format when accessed by a desktop computer and in a mobile-friendly format when accessed with a smartphone’s mobile browser. Programming continued and in February 2010, Roll provided the mobile styling to detect when phones hit the site, thus recognizing the mobile experience and serving up the mobile site instead.

With the help of Roll, TownSpeed loaded their own content and built their own pages once the template was created and put into place by Roll Mobile.

From a desktop computer, the non-premium listings appear beneath the premium listings. However, on the mobile site, only premium sponsors’ businesses appear. The “free” listings will not, thus creating another distinction between and motivation for businesses to become premium sponsors with TownSpeed.

Finally, because mobile visitors use the site differently than desktop users, the information on the mobile site needed to be displayed differently. Mobile web viewers are people who are on-the-go. Meaning, they’re probably using townspeed.com as a reference resource, trying to find either a place or info in a hurry. Therefore, it’s the the name, the phone number and a Google Maps link that get displayed for each location and easy reference. The user doesn’t have to waste time scrolling through unnecessary info they wouldn’t need from their mobile device.

Results:

Whether at home or on the go, people can bring up townspeed.com and find whichever local business they are looking for. A win-win for the businesses and for the consumer.

At the time of this publishing (October 2010), townspeed.com has now grown to 7 states and more than 100+ communities.

The mobile site can be viewed on mobile devices such as iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, numerous BlackBerry devices and many other webkit-enabled smart phones, which covers most of the smart phone market.