Simpleview Inc. Blog

Tampa Bay & Company Hires Vice President of Marketing and Communications

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:00:31 GMT

Tampa Bay & Company is excited to announce that it has hired Doug McClain to serve as vice president of Marketing & Communications. McClain is a tourism marketing executive with 20 years of regional and national destination marketing experience.

"Doug's marketing background, along with the depth and breadth of industry experience that he brings to the table is truly remarkable," says president and CEO of Tampa Bay & Company, Kelly Miller. "We are excited to have Doug as part of the Tampa Bay & Company team."

PRESS RELEASE: PRNewsChannel.com

simpleview Announces DMAI Event Impact Calculator Integration

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:27:59 GMT

TUCSON, Ariz. (April 13, 2012) - simpleview, a leader in the tourism industry that provides interactive marketing tools and services to destination marketing organizations, has successfully integrated Destination Marketing Association International's (DMAI) Event Impact Calculator into their destination management system - simpleview CRM.

With the industry association's new tool, users can now accurately calculate the economic value of a particular event and report its return on investment for the destination. Combined with simpleview's array of integrated products for forecasting and reporting marketing efforts, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) will have access to a dynamic and credible industry standard to quantify the impact in terms of direct expenditures, taxes, employment and wages.

Ryan George, chief executive officer of simpleview, said the collaboration with DMAI will be useful for DMO staff members to prove the worth of the overall meetings and convention business.

"From recent conversations I have had with destination marketers throughout the country, this new tool from DMAI will help add credibility for the entire industry," he said. "I am proud that we were part of a initiative that will better prepare tourism professionals when advocating for the ongoing development and growth of the meetings sector," he said.

DMAI's calculator is updated annually through several sources, including survey data supplied by Tourism Economics, which is an Oxford Economics company, and city-specific data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is the association's goal to develop an industry-wide standard for determining the direct and indirect impacts of a meeting to a region.

"Our clients make up more than 200 domestic and international DMOs that have been adding data about their destination's events into the simpleview CRM system for years," said George. "By adding the Event Impact Calculator to the mix of data sources, this integration can only strengthen the organizations' ability to demonstrate the real value of face-to-face meetings at the local and national levels."

For more information about DMAI's Event Impact Calculator, visit http://destinationmarketing.org/page.asp?pid=417.

About simpleview

simpleview helps destination marketing organizations (DMOs) succeed on every front, from convention sales to tourism marketing and day-to-day operations. The company offers integrated products and services, including the industry's most advanced customer relationship management (CRM) and content management system (CMS) platforms, powerful forecasting and reporting tools, dynamic websites, sites for mobile web, search engine optimization and interactive marketing. Founded in 1991, simpleview employs more than 100 people with offices in Arizona, Texas, Minnesota and California who serve more than 200 domestic and international DMOs. For more information, visit www.simpleviewinc.com.

Commentary: How Online Housing Can Help Planners

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:15:26 GMT

"The life of a sports event planner is busy. Between working with sponsors, venues, governing bodies and volunteers, effectively managing housing for participants can often fall down the priority list.

But not paying enough attention to housing can mean lost revenue, or worse, unanticipated costs from hotels for unsold rooms. These costs can be significant and can make the difference between your event making money or being in the red."

BLOG POST: SportsEventsMagazine.wordpress.com

US Airways Magazine features Cumberland Valley

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:56:52 GMT

"The Cumberland Valley takes center stage this April as a highlighted premiere destination in US Airways Magazine.

The April edition of the magazine, which is available to travelers on all US Airways flights, will be read by some 3.1 million fliers, according to the Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau."

NEWS ARTICLE: Cumberlink.com

Changes to Facebook Timeline Layouts – What DMOs Should Know

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:24:44 GMT

The layout changes from Facebook are continuing, as the company rolled out its Timeline for business pages at the end of March. This created a situation where all companies and organizations that are using the social platform had to adapt to the new format. Overall, this has added some new functionality and options that can help maximize marketing and outreach efforts.

Chronological History Lessons: In many cases, our clients represent locations such as cities, regions, states and even countries that have a rich history. Now, this information can be shared via social media to provide information on when the Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) was created, when the city they represent was founded, when specific partners built businesses in the area and more. To do so, DMOs can develop Milestones to add past events to their Timeline, similarly to how the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has done it.

Cover Photo: Rather than using the previous layout's photo stream and profile icon, Facebook's Timeline uses a large, 851-by-315-pixel image to represent the brand. This adds more ways to creatively showcase attractions, events, scenery and more. However, Facebook does have very specific rules about ways organizations can utilize this new space, which is important to read and follow. For an example of best practices, check out what Visit Orlando has done with their Cover Photo.

Transition from Custom Pages to Apps: Previous to this rollout, Facebook allowed brands to have a custom landing page, which could be the default space for new visitors to land on and learn about the organization. Specific promotions, requests to "like" the Facebook business page and other actions could be called out here. However, the Timeline layout has reconfigured this situation, so brands can't redirect Facebook users to a customized space.

Instead, brands can now develop multiple Facebook "apps" with customized content. Instead of having just one page with marketing information, brands can have several areas to help visitors learn more about the DMO and the area it represents. The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau has done a great job using this new area, as they have Apps for finding the best airline fares to the city, discovering music venues and learning about the region's upcoming events.

Facebook does continually keep users on their toes with new updates and revamps. Some of the other recent changes that are worth highlighting include:

If you have any questions, please feel to leave a comment below and our team will respond as soon as possible with the answer.

Promoting a Meeting Planner’s Prime Setting in Irving, Texas with Two New Websites

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:38:32 GMT

Irving, Texas has many of the key elements that a meeting planner needs to be successful - a central location to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, more than 75 hotels and 11,000 rooms for visitors to enjoy, as well as a gorgeous convention center that has welcomed hundreds of groups.

Our team worked closely with Irving's Convention and Visitors Bureau on developing a new customer relationship management system (CRM), content management system (CMS) and a fresh look for the CVB and Convention Center sites.

The Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau's Website - Before and After Screenshots

The Irving Convention Center's Website - Before and After Screenshots

As the city does focus on attracting meeting and event professionals, the two sites were developed to accentuate their business focus with a clean, high-end look. Our creative team also developed the design to reflect the CVB's traditional collateral layouts to build a cohesive brand. This is particularly shown through a site-wide header, which provides a tile-based view of the city's attractions and was used in all print materials before the site was developed.

Specifically with the convention center's site, our team built it to reflect the physical characteristics of the unique features of the meeting site. This included backgrounds that put emphasis on the site's wall and floor textures, slanted lines to match the center's distinctive roofline and other distinguishing aspects.

Our development team also created a mega-widget to help the destination attract visitors and meeting planners alike, which contained multiple widgets inside a larger package. From this portal, one can submit an RFP, directly contact an event coordinator at the CVB, sign up for newsletter mailings and more. This widget also is image-rich, allowing for staff members to highlight partner events and activities with pictures at ease.

As we've learned throughout this process, Irving is truly a great location with access to world-class amenities. We're excited to have collaborated with the CVB and Convention Center staff on this marketing effort and we hope you enjoy the work we've done together.

Marketing Four Seasons of Fun with the Utah Office of Tourism’s New Website

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:56:53 GMT

Utah is truly a four-season, world-class travel destination. From the world-famous, dry powder snow in northern Utah to the sunny biking trails in the southern portion of the state, there is always a chance to take in the breathtaking scenery.

The simpleview team and the state agency decided to showcase the 365 days of activities that Utah provides in their latest website version, which was launched this month with a fresh customer relationship management (CRM) system, content management system (CMS) and web design to show off Utah's natural beauty.

Utah Office of Tourism - Before and After Homepage Builds

This emphasis on yearlong fun was placed into several new features, which include:

Seasonal Themes - In the CMS, there is an easy-to-use switch to convert all imagery on the site to a particular season. Rather than overhauling the site to focus on summer or winter for a few months, the Office of Tourism's staff can go from snow to sun in seconds.

Thumbnail Mapping - Rather than developing a slideshow of pictures of the state's events and attractions, our development team created a way for the agency's staff to point out where in Utah the particular picture was taken. This was to help visitors easily plan their trips and build their schedules. This feature was in addition to developing region-focused tabs to organize the Utah Office of Tourism's extensive library of images.

Statewide Weather Widget - As the weather in Salt Lake City can be vastly different to what St. George is experiencing, a weather widget that pulls data from multiple locations was developed. Visitors can easily find out if it's raining or shining in Provo, Ogden or Moab through an easy-to-use drop down menu.

Outside of the project's seasonal focus, our search engine marketing (SEM) team was able to develop a new sitemap and ensure their SEO efforts were maximized to attract visitors. To top it off, our CRM team worked closely with the state agency to convert all their listings and other internal data in an efficient manner.

To quote Geoffrey Schultz, our CMS project manager who was extensively involved with the website launch, "I encourage everyone to check out the new site at www.visitutah.com and consider taking a vacation there soon. I was fortunate to drive up to Salt Lake City, through all three regions, during our holiday break for some skiing and I can testify that it is a very beautiful state. Now it has a website to match."

Creating & Using Tracking URLs for Google Analytics

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:18:03 GMT

Why should you use Campaign URLs?

Make the most of your data by setting up tracking URLs for the current campaigns that you're running. This allows you to group together visits coming in from various sources based on a common campaign theme, which can be as generic as grouping all of your summer campaigns, or as specific as grouping your newsletters. This can be a very powerful tool when trying to gauge the overall success of a campaign - whether that's based on traffic numbers, conversions or another ROI metric.

When should you use Campaign URLs?

There are many great uses for campaign URLs, they can be used as checks and balances for media buys. This way you have a point of reference instead of just relying on publisher data, which can vary greatly depending on how they track clicks and impressions. Another use of campaign URLs is to track domain redirects, which are not captured in Google Analytics. Our SEO team can set up a 301 redirect directly to a campaign URL, which will also help to measure print or radio ads. Campaign URLs are also very useful for tracking visits from Twitter. The referring source is often stripped out with Twitter traffic, causing it to show up in Google Analytics as direct traffic. If you're creating a campaign URL for Twitter, you should use a URL shortener such as bit.ly since tracking URLs can be pretty long.

URL Builder

There is a simple online tool for creating Google campaign URLs: http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578

Creating the Campaign URL

The most important thing about tracking URLs is that you're consistent - make sure you build the URL the same way each time so that the data appears in the same place in Google Analytics. It is recommended that you set up a spreadsheet template that you use each time to create tracking URLs.

Here is an example of how to structure a tracking URL:

   Source = twitter OR october-newsletter
   Medium = social media OR email
   Campaign Name = social OR newsletters

The URL will look something like this:
http://www.simpleviewinc.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=social

You can see the different elements right in the URL, with the "source=facebook" and "medium=social-media".

The tracking URL should be used in place of the destination URL, so this would be provided to a publisher for a banner ad or it can be used to track links to your website from a newsletter or from social media posts.

Once the URL has been clicked on, the data will automatically propagate in Google Analytics.

Note: If you're testing a URL, you may need to wait a little while since Google Analytics is not real time.

Viewing the Data in Google Analytics

This defaults to show the data from the source that you entered into your campaign URL. You can click on the word Source to view the data by Campaign Name or Medium.

Once you get the hang of creating campaign URLs it's pretty quick and easy. It just adds one step to the process of generating your newsletter or sending out banner ads for your next media buy. The value that it provides - in ways that you can view campaign data - is well worth it and it will save you time down the road.

Feel free to contact your SEO Analyst or your Account Manager with any questions.

simpleview Names Rick Vaughan as Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:16:00 GMT

simpleview, a leader in the tourism industry that provides interactive marketing tools and services to destination marketing organizations, has named Rick Vaughan as vice president of sales and marketing, serving as a company lead for the Sales and Marketing departments.

"Rick's proven expertise and vast experience in the tourism industry will be an asset to help simpleview expand into new markets and provide our clients with well-executed growth strategies," said Ryan George, chief executive officer of simpleview. "Our staff and colleagues will benefit from his knowledge, counsel and leadership."

Vaughan brings more than 34 years of experience in the tourism industry to simpleview. He has held executive positions with global hotel brands such as Westin Hotels and Resorts, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts and Marriott International.

Most recently, Vaughan served as the senior vice president of the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau (MTCVB), an independent, non-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting Southern Arizona as a convention, visitor and film production destination. In this role, he oversaw sales, marketing, advertising, public relations, convention services, creative services and website development campaigns for more than 12 years at the organization.

"Adding such a talented professional like Rick who has had extensive experience working for a convention and visitors bureau to the simpleview team will ensure that we continue to offer our clients the strongest destination marketing capabilities available in today's marketplace," said George.

Vaughan currently serves on several national tourism-related boards. He is also a Certified Destination Management Executive by Destination Marketing Association International and a Certified Tourism Ambassador by the Tourism Ambassador Institute.

"I am excited to be joining an organization with such a tradition of excellence and understanding of what destination marketing organizations need today," said Vaughan. "It is my plan to focus on providing customer service that generates the positive results our tourism-focused clients have come to expect from simpleview."

About simpleview
simpleview helps destination marketing organizations (DMOs) succeed on every front, from convention sales to tourism marketing and day-to-day operations. The company offers integrated products and services, including the industry's most advanced customer relationship management (CRM) and content management system (CMS) platforms, powerful forecasting and reporting tools, dynamic websites, sites for mobile web, search engine optimization and interactive marketing. Founded in 1991, simpleview employs more than 100 people with offices in Arizona, Texas, Minnesota and California who serve more than 200 domestic and international DMOs. For more information, visit www.simpleviewinc.com.

Media Contact: Sam Brace
Communications Manager
(520) 575-1151
sbrace@simpleviewinc.com

DMAI Expands Membership to Welcome National, Provincial and State Destination Marketing Organization

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:04:50 GMT

Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) has expanded its bylaws to welcome official national, provincial and state tourism organizations as members.

"We are excited to extend our membership to official destination marketing organizations (DMOs) of every level, from the largest country to the smallest town," said Michael D. Gehrisch, President & CEO of DMAI. "DMOs of every size from around the globe can benefit from DMAI membership, including access to extensive industry-specific resources and professional development and connecting with our vast network of destination marketing professionals."

NEWS ARTICLE: FTNNews.com

Butler County VB Gets Colorful with New Web Creative, simpleview CMS and CRM

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:46:47 GMT

According to the Butler County Visitors Bureau, Butler County, Ohio is "a place where families grow, history is preserved and new friends are made." So, the simpleview team worked closely with the Visitor Bureau's staff on incorporating these key values and traits into their new site, which was launched this month.


Butler County's Old Website	The New Butler County

With a new creative direction, bright colors and large photos were incorporated into the site's overall look. This helped showcase the county's lush scenery and fun attractions, including football games at Miami University and monster-themed mini-golf courses in West Chester.

The simpleview team also added some interactive elements to the site to add some excitement around these events, such as a home page collage that provides "thought bubbles" that visitors can click on to learn more about the region's local shopping, festivals and heritage.

The visitor's bureau is very active in providing deals and contests for participating businesses in the county, so an "Alert Bar" was created to emphasize these incentives right at the top of each page. Staff members can use this tool to drive traffic to specific partner sites or social media platforms.

And to top it all off, the Visitors Bureau also received an updated customer relationship management (CRM) system, allowing them to have a central place to manage their marketing and customer support initiatives.

These are just a few of the fun features that were added into the Butler County Visitors Bureau's new site, so please check out the redesigned website (http://www.gettothebc.com/) and consider visiting this beautiful part of Ohio!

Pensacola Bay Area CVB Announces Partnership with BookDirect

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:21:05 GMT

"Pensacola FL, March 15, 2012 - JackRabbit Systems, Inc., developer of online travel software for destination and tourism bureau websites, today announced a partnership with Pensacola Bay Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Travelers will now interface with the BookDirect^TM system when they visit www.visitpensacola.com to search for accommodations. "

PRESS RELEASE: JackRabbitSystems.com

simpleview and the Greater Houston CVB Unveil Several New Websites

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:17:41 GMT

We are proud to announce another successful project from the simpleview team!

Working jointly with the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau on a new customer relationship management (CRM) system, we also launched several new websites to enhance the CVB's overall marketing and outreach efforts.

Some of the features on the Greater Houston CVB's sites include:

Expandable Image Boxes - Our website team created a widget that can showcase text, links and an image in a tidy package. If visitors want to see a larger version of the image, the widget can easily expand the picture to fill more of the screen and show off the region's amazing scenery.
Top Stories Module - As the Greater Houston CVB is constantly writing new articles and posts about the happenings around the city, this is a way to call attention to the articles throughout the site. We created windows into other areas of the site using this widget that pulls in menu titles, images and descriptions. Overall, it allows for new content to be populated on many site pages with minimal effort for the CVB staff.

In addition to the new CRM system and the development of the bureau's main site, we also developed associated sites on the simpleview content management system (CMS):

Houston Film Commission
Houston Culinary Tours
Houston Reunions
My Gay Houston
Visita Houston Texas

If you're planning on visiting the greater Houston area (and you should!), be sure to use the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau's site (www.visithoustontexas.com) for guidance and check out some of the city's amazing restaurants and attractions.

DeRaad New Head of Visitors Bureau

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:56:04 GMT

"After a nationwide search, the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau has tapped a Scottsdale tourism promoter to be president and CEO.

Brent DeRaad will replace Jonathan Walker, who announced his retirement in September after 18 years with the Tucson bureau."

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: AZStarNet.com

Google Places: Setting it Up & Tips

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:20:00 GMT

Even if you haven't heard of Google Places, you've probably seen the listings when conducting a search on Google.com. Whenever a user conducts a local search, such as "pizza" in the example below, Google will present businesses listed in Google Places towards the top of the organic results. Reviews a business has collected will be presented along with the business' information and website. Ensuring that your business is listed is vital, and best of all, free!

To begin, go to www.google.com/placesforbusiness and create a Google account if you do not already have one; the "Sign Up" button is in the top right corner. Once you are signed in, you simply need to add your business. You will need to verify your business with Google once you have added it. This will be done either over the phone or by postcard. New listings typically are verified with a PIN number that Google mails to the address on your listing. Updates to your existing listing may be able to be completed by phone.

Tips:

Make sure you complete all of the fields available, including optional ones if they apply to your business. The better you can describe your business, the easier it will be for Google to determine your business' relevancy.
Add photos to your Places listing.
Encourage your customers to write a review about your business and respond to those reviews to thank them for their time and kind review.
If you receive a poor review, make sure you reach out to that customer to resolve their complaint. Make sure you respond to reviews respectfully and complete your resolutions. Users respond favorably when business owners are actively engaging with their customers.

For more tips on how to fully utilize Google Places, as well as how to respond to reviewers, check out "How to Pimp Your Google Places Listing."