Internet Presence a Factor in NIMAC’s Successful Bid to Keep Niagara Air Base Open

Beyondus helped the Niagara Military Affairs Council leverage their website and email communications to build community support

Niagara Falls, NY, August 30, 2005 – The BRAC Commission’s decision last week to keep the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station open was a clear victory in NIMAC’s tireless campaign to save the base. From the start, NIMAC identified the need to use the web and email to build community support. They called on Beyondus, Inc., a design and marketing firm based in Niagara County, to manage their online efforts.

The NIMAC website served as a way to notify supporters of the latest news and contributed to the overwhelming success of the letter writing campaign. NIMAC efforts generated more than 126,000 letters of support to the BRAC Commission. The web extended NIMAC’s reach beyond the local region by providing a way for supporters across the country, and even on duty in Iraq, to participate.

Key components of the strategy included an online petition, electronic letter templates, email notifications, and webpage forwarding. Beyondus also redesigned the site’s homepage, which drastically improved its search engine ranking, and optimized the base video for faster download.

“When we initiated our campaign to save the base, we knew that it would be crucial to include an online component in our strategy to raise community support,” said Merrell Lane, Chairman of NIMAC, “Beyondus responded quickly and consistently to our needs and kept our website fresh with our constantly changing news updates.”

Select statistics from NIMAC’s online campaign include:

• 313,000 Website Hits. In June, at the peak of the letter writing campaign, the site was averaging more than 200 hits per hour.
• 4,000 Letters submitted for the BRAC Commission via email or downloaded templates.
• 1,900 Online Petitions signed by supporters from coast to coast.
• 925 Active Email Subscribers, with more than 400 individuals joining the volunteer list as well.

View the NIMAC website at www.nimac.org. For more information about the online campaign or Beyondus services, visit www.beyondus.com or call (716) 304-1925.

About Niagara Military Affairs Council (NIMAC)
To support the continued growth and prosperity of the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, the Niagara Military Affairs Council (NIMAC) has served as a liaison to promote communication between the base, the community, other local military units, business, and government since late 1995.

About Beyondus, Inc.
Beyondus provides integrated design, marketing and web development services to small and mid-sized businesses. Originally founded in Salem, MA in 2002, Niagara County natives Alessandro and Karen Renzi relocated their company to the Buffalo Niagara region in 2004, where they continue to serve clients locally and across the United States.