South Central Reporter

The Taylorville Village Board received and discussed an update regarding the Small Town Taylorville project during a meeting held last month.

Small Town Taylorville is an online initiative that began years ago to promote the village's downtown district and the broader community to both residents and potential visitors. Co-President Steve Craggs came to the board meeting to share their progress with board members and to further the relationship between the two organizations. In 2022, Taylorville donated $76,000 to Small Town Taylorville to boost its growth and attract more people to the area.

Craggs presented a summary regarding how the budget was spent and what the results were. The organization utilizes multimedia advertising, such as on billboards, websites and newspapers, to try to maximize the amount of attention they get. Between Facebook and Instagram, Small Town Taylorville spent $14,040 on ads and reached 2.2 million people throughout 2022. Through their related Facebook pages, such as their downtown Taylorville and shopping district pages, the company reached an additional 380,000 people. In print, Small Town Taylorville spent just over $12,000 in ads and promotional material and reached approximately 1.1 million people through various flyers, banners and newspaper prints published across Illinois.

Beyond the aforementioned advertising efforts, Small Town Taylorville is also utilizing smaller promotions. One such program, which they considered a success, was their short videos displaying different downtown stores and restaurants. From the beginning of the 2022 summer season to Halloween, restaurants in the downtown area reported a 40% increase in visitors, which matches the increase that the area saw during their usual monthly events and celebrations. The Christmas shopping season also showed high levels of success and growth, and Small Town Taylorville is excited to continue working to showcase and grow the Taylorville community.

"We're moving the needle, you know, that's the point," Craggs said. "As a group, we are moving the needle. And I appreciate your investment in this effort. I mean, we do this with volunteers. Liz is your employee that reports to us, but we wanted you to see how well we hope we think we're managing your money. And I'm kind of blown away by the results and I really do appreciate it. We will be coming back in March with the budget, and we've got some other ideas and some more things we're going to be doing to move the needle even further. But I think between all of this and what we're doing to resurrect our downtown with our grant programs and the investors now that are showing up and heading our direction and coming on strong, the landscape is going to change rapidly all over the course of the next several years, and it's changing in a big way. So thank you very much for your investment."