For the first year of the tourism conference blog we want to thank every one of you who read and became a part of the blog.

We’ll be ending our regular updated posts in the very near future, but in the meantime we want to get your feedback.

• What did you like?
• What would you like to see more of?
• What would you like to see less of?
• Any suggestions on usability?
• Would you download and/or listen to a podcast?
• Would you consider being a guest blogger?

We will take all of these suggestions as we get ready for year two of the Talkin’ Tourism Blog.  Look for us to start up again for our 2010 conference next year. 

In the mean time, set your RSS feeder so you won’t miss us when we start back up. You can do this by clicking “Subscribe.” For instructions on navigating an RSS feed, read here. If you liked what you saw this year, send the link to a friend in the tourism industry.

Thanks again on behalf of the entire blogging team and we’ll see you next year!

Wanda, Buddy, Dave, Emily C, Emily H.and Jeff

•  The Governor started off joking about vacation ideas to South Dakota for outgoing president George W. Bush-including a trip to Mount Rushmore where nobody would recognize him as the “only president there without a 60-foot granite head.”
•  The Governor congratulated the people in the room for their ability to take on the challenge of the 2010 Initiative to double visitor spending in the state-a goal deemed overly ambitious by some, but not the tourism industry.
•  While other states grew three to four percent annually, South Dakota bucked the trends and experienced six, seven and last year, 8.8% growth in visitor spending. The Governor highlighted many examples of how South Dakotans worked together in 2008 to continue the growth even as gas prices hit a record high.
• And what was visitor spending in 2008? The Governor released the budget number last night. With a plunging economy, South Dakota stayed ahead of the national trend with $967 million, a 2.8% increase. “Growing visitor spending, even when the economy is strong, is a difficult challenge. But growing our visitor numbers nearly 3% on top of the biggest single visitor spending year in our state’s history and doing it in the face of the most difficult economic conditions since the Great Depression is truly remarkable,” he said.

 The Governor closed by sharing his confidence that we can reach our goal of 1.2 billion dollars in 2010. He encouraged the industry to continue to do what we’ve been doing to get through these uncertain economic times. After all-South Dakota is the true American family destination and a great value.

1. Comply with the law.
2. Build your list. Make it easy for consumers to opt-in, and give them some value for joining your list.
3. Use permission. This isn’t a law, but definitely a best practice.
4. Segment. By sending different messages to different parts of your list (by demographic, preferences, lifestyle, etc.) you’re giving your audiences more value.
5. Messag to Customer Lifestyle. Think conversation, not broadcast. Also, not all of your customers are at the same stage with you. Some are prospects, some are new customers, some are loyal customers.
6. Be relevant. Think about what’s in it for your customer.
7. Optimize Creative Design.
8. Test. Track responses, the email creatie, the landing page to which you’re driving traffic. See what’s working and what’s not by using test groups and establishing controls.
9. Clean and manage your list. Make sure your list is as accurate as possibly by getting rid of undeliverable emails and those that have opted out.
10. Measure what matters.

Hear from those who have:

Beth Terry, a South Dakota native by way of Kadoka, Philip and Madison, spoke highly of her roots and expanded on new and creative ideas that were home grown in which we all have and need to remember.

Below are some key concepts she spoke of and are excellent ways to keep promoting our great state with the attractions, accomodations and people that we have here…in more ways than one we can help connect one another and let more people know just how great we are here!

• Remember who you are and where you are from. Make others feel like they are at home when they are here.
• Remember the resources throughout the state and use them. Connect people to the places we have.
• Make the world a better place…one South Dakota visitor at a time!
• The world needs South Dakota and we need each other. Tell people about what you have and what else there is to see along the way.
• Make it easy for people to do business with you.
• Focus on what works.
• Just be nice to people
• Continue the natural conversations you are already having.
• Get people to know what is going on within our borders.
• Stay on top of what the Internet is saying about you or your business.
• Take advantage of the cooperative marketing programs that the Office of Tourism promotes. These can be found in your booklet handout or www.sdvisit.com, our industry site.
• COLLABORATE, CROSS SELL, and be CREATIVE.
• Have the knowledge, familiarity and enthusiasm to sell yourself, your business as well as others in your state. Start promoting each other!!!

Ask yourself these questions:

• Where can you be resourceful?
• What ideas do your employees have?
• How can you engage your customers and visitors to help you?
• How can you use the technology you have learned through this blog and others who attended the conference this year?
• What are we doing right?
• Why is it working?
• How can we expand that success?
• Where else might we create positive change using the information we already have gained?

Resources:

• http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/
• http://www.answers.com/topic/south-dakota

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
Jim Tunney

That’s all the time you have to keep someone on your website or lose them to another. How can you win them over? The number one thing you can do, according to Search engine marketing expert Matt Bailey, is use analytics to truly understand your site and how people interact with it. 

Matt Bailey presents Advanced Internet Marketing

If you want to cut to the chase, here’s a link to his presentation, Advanced Internet Marketing.  If you want the recap, read on.

1. The Power of Words

First step… understand how people search for sites like yours. What words to they use? For example, is the word plural or singular. Even small variations can make a big difference. Use tools such as KeyWordDiscovery.com and WordTracker.com
This research is critical to your SEO success!

Call things what they are!
Stop using industry speak. Use the word your visitors use and they’ll respond.

2. Clarity of Words

Be accurate.  Be descriptive. Be concise.
Our eyes naturally look for areas of high contrast. What do they find on your site when they look there? Is it easy to scan your web page in five seconds and immediately know who you are and what they will find if they visit you?

3. Old Fashion Marketing

Just because its online doesn’t mean the rules of marketing don’t apply. Here are six rules to remember.

• Find the pain.
  What will people miss if they don’t visit your attraction or location? Tell them and explain how only you can make the pain of missing it go away.
• Anticipate the objections
  For example, do you have to create an account before you can buy? Or even look around? If they must, sell them on the benefits.
• Ask for the sale.
  Make the calls to action clear, consistent and obvious. And put them above the fold. If the page is long, put them at the bottom too.
• Close with a commitment.
  If they won’t buy, will they signup for a free travel guide or subscribe to an e-newsletter? Offering a phone number doesn’t count… the commitment has to take place online. You have to collect their email address at the very least.
• Don’t muddy the water.
  Don’t make it more complicated then it needs to be. Get the sale/commitment first AND THEN offer the upsell options.
• Shut up and listen.
  Once your site is up and running, study the analtics, test and listen. A website is never done. It should be in a constant state of improvement based on data. Don’t make decisions based on emotion.

4. Learn the Language

Analytics – learn to love them!
Analytics isn’t about numbers. It’s about understanding your customer’s experience.

Sources
Analytic reports can come from log files (collected on your web server, ClickTracks for example) and/or page tagging (collected on someone else’s server, for example Google Analytics).

Accuracy
There is no program that is 100% accurate. Pick the one your going to use and stick with it. If you’re running two different programs, remember the numbers will never match!

Common Terms

• Visits – the total number of times people visit your site. If someone returns multiple times, the number of visits goes up each time.
• Unique Visitors – the number of people who visit your site. If they return multiple times, a person still only counts for one unique visitor.
• Page views – how many total pages do people look at?
• Search Engine Refferals – who’s sending traffic to you? What words and phrases are driving traffic?
• Exit Rate – number of people who come to your site, look at one page and leave in five seconds or less. Also known as the Bounce Rate.
• Conversion Rate – the number of visitors who do what you want them to do. (Book a trip, signup for email… whatever you want the action to be.)
  1.8% is average but we can do a lot better.

5. Where is the Gold?

It’s in your site… how do you find it? Here are some guidelines.

Set a Goal. 
Determine the purpose of your site.
What do you want them to do on your site?
These questions must be answered first!

Information
Add context to your analytic data again and again until you get to a number that delivers visitor knowledge.

Understanding
Knowing what to do with the information.  No analytics program will give you recommendations. It requires human intervention, thought and consideration.

Segmentation
Not every visitor is equal. Don’t treat them the same.
Which ones met your site goals? Why? Who are they and how can you change your website to help even more convert?

Keep asking questions like this.
When you have this information, you can make significant improvements.
Matt predicts the money you spend on a quality analytics and analysis program will pay for itself in three months!
Only 11% of companies are taking full advantage of analytic reporting and segmentation.

In Summary:
Remember the 3 C’s of analytics:  Context. Comparision. Contrast.

Resources:
Find more information about search engine marketing by visiting Matt’s web site… he has a page dedicated to the SD Tourism Conference! He also recommends the books Don’t Make Me Think and Web Pages That Suck.

For a fee, partners will receive one MMPR that includes copywriting and a customized media list, as well as a followup analytics report that helps the partner measure their return on investment.

Mailers and application forms will go out following the conference, with applications due April 1. For more information, or if you have any questions, you can contact Wanda Goodman, Media & Public Relations Manager, at 605-773-3301 or wanda.goodman@state.sd.us.

During the sessions, travel industry members discussed ways to target group tours, travel agents and meeting and convention planners for 2009 business.

“We’re excited that Rapid City will host TAP (Travel Alliance Partners) group tour operators in June 2009 and showcase the Black Hills area to these operators who will bring potential tours to the area,” said Maureen Droz, Trade Sales Manager for the Office of Tourism.

Reports from mainland Europe show that those markets still plan to travel and the Euro is still strong against the dollar.  The United Kingdom reports that even with the low value of the pound, people will still continue to travel for their holidays.  The South Dakota travel industry will continue to host familiarization tours, attend trade shows and target both international and domestic tour operators, working together to promote South Dakota to gain this business.

• Intercept studies – geographic data, travel party profiles, travel spending, travel planning, final destination of trip
• 2008 Ruf profiling – demographic profile, geographic mapping, media traits and travel behaviors
• Focus groups – testing of messaging and imagery, travel planning, places of interest, etc.
• South Dakota Travel Monitoring System – current and historical travel and economic indicators
• National studies – Travel forecasts, leisure/business traveler data, travel habits, media usage, advertising trends

One of this team’s main goals is to provide available resources to the industry, so don’t be shy…call Kirk (605-773-3301) if you have questions about marketing research, or would like to see some of the research his team has compiled.