Tourism, Bowen Island and other stuff that comes to mind

Five Exercises to Pump-up your Hotel eMarketing Muscle – By Neil Salerno

Through the years, the job of hotel manager has become more complex and increasingly more difficult than ever before. The challenges that hotel managers face today have been further complicated by the popularity and growing importance of the Internet. Today, managers are often forced to assign many tasks to junior management and staff individuals, but, more managers need to hold-onto eMarketing tasks and create a personal relationship with the Internet. Assign eMarketing Tasks Carefully Choosing which tasks to assign and, which ones to handle personally, is often the measure of successful management. When it comes time to delegate tasks, we urge senior management to retain some involvement in Internet management, you can buff-up your eMarketing muscle through daily exercise. Some managers and owners view Internet marketing as a purely static and inert form of advertising, which requires little attention after the site is published. Because of this mistaken belief, managing the Internet and other electronic marketing sometimes gets assigned to someone else to maintain. This could be a big mistake. The Internet’s deceptive simplicity fools many hoteliers into believing that all they need do is to have a web site created, publish it to the net, and business will come flowing in. We’ve all learned that the Internet is intensely complex, it’s not just what your site says that’s important, it’s how it says it that’s important, too. You can get it to work for you. Fish Where the Fish Are The old expression ‘fish where the fish are’ is important here, no other segment in your marketing plan has more potential business than the Internet. Flex your muscles and create a working partnership between hotel manager, sales director, and web site manager to actively manage this critical business source, it’s that important. The fact is that there are many pro-active steps which can be taken to promote the popularity of your web site as well as improve its productivity. Optimizing your web site from a search and sales stand-point is an important process and will always produce measurable results. Your web site manager can then create SEO, a link strategy, marketing partnerships, and other promotion techniques, which can lead your hotel to market domination. As I have said many times, a hotel web site must perform two functions, it must be designed to satisfy search engines so people can find the site and, once found, it must have the necessary content to demonstrate value and sell reservations, no small task. It is these two separate and distinct functions that make web site design different and more complex than simply designing a brochure-type web site. Your first exercise is to determine just how effective your site is in serving both vital functions. How familiar are you with the effectiveness of your own web site? Well-managed web sites consistently undergo adjustments to stay current and relevant to changes in the marketplace. Take some time every week to explore your online marketplace. Be familiar with your own site as well as those of the competition. What are they offering? Comprehensive Web Site Reviews If you haven’t already done so, your next exercise is to have someone, with hotel Internet experience, review your site to see how well it serves search and sales demands. Often, a third-party viewpoint and some minor improvements can create a remarkable positive impact on Internet sales results. Stop judging your web site solely by how good it looks, the biggest scam in the world is web designers that create a pretty web site that can’t be found through generic search and has too little content to generate reservations. What you paid to have your site designed means nothing, we’ve seen plenty of very expensive sites that simply look good, but are totally dysfunctional from a search and sales stand-point. Know Your Productivity Numbers Next, know the numbers, number of visitors versus bookers. What rates are being offered on your site or on your booking engine? How do they compare with the competition? What is your site’s closing ratio? Are you still simply counting unique visitors to determine your site’s success or are you finally tuned-in to measuring bookings and your site’s sales effectiveness? Use your industry experience, does the company, which manages your web site, understand hotel marketing? Are they in step with hotel industry changes, do they understand how and why people select hotels? Your next exercise is to take time, at least once per month, to discuss your web site, and its results, with your site’s web manager. Deepen your understanding of how the Internet works and why it’s working or not working for you. Position your Rates against the Competition Next, use an on-line rate comparison tool, such as Kayak.com, to compare your Internet rates with those being offered by the competition, and do it often. Undervaluing your hotel rates can be even more disastrous than over-valuing them. Position your rates to parallel your proper place in the market. People don’t purchase hotel rooms by rate alone, they almost always make a value judgment. That value judgment includes all necessary elements of hotel’s location, facilities, and amenities as compared to the rates offered. All these elements need constant and consistent attention. Exercise your eMarketing muscles often, the rewards are huge. Contact: Neil Salerno, CHME, CHA Hotel Marketing Coach www.hotelmarketingcoach.com NeilS@hotelmarketingcoach.com Posted By Partner: Web Tourism Services Management

	Women swap the everyday for the getaway
	October 3, 2007
	Whether a Miss, Mrs. or Ms, the keyword when it comes to travel is “more”. Lots more. According to statistics from the US market, women took 32 million trips last year. Speaking even more strongly to the economic clout women carry, researchers estimate that next year women will spend 125 billion USD on travel. On top of that, the potential of the female travel market is suspected to be more than $19 trillion. Women of all ages and in all stages in life – single, married, divorced and widowed – are jumping on the bon voyage bandwagon. And they are not weaving across continents simply to sit back, relax and chat: 75% of cultural and adventure-trip takers are women. The average adventure traveller age? A fabulous 47. Women are also travelling even if it means leaving someone special back home. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that of 500 female travellers surveyed in 2003 by Women Traveling Together (a Maryland-based tour operator), almost two-thirds left behind husbands or boyfriends within the previous year to join an all-women tour. Even those who ultimately choose to travel alone are encouraged by an industry that now caters to gender-specific concerns. Some hotels, such as Dubai’s Jumeirah Emirates Tower and Durban, South Africa’s Royal Hotel are among the international accommodations that feature women-only floors.
	Author: TOURISM staff Organization: Canadian Tourism Comission E-mail: tourism@ctc-cct.ca

Quoted from http://www.corporate.canada.travel/corp/media/app/en/ca/newsItem.do?articleId=66797:

	Tourism generated $19.4 billion in taxes in 2006
	October 3, 2007
	On Monday, September 10, 2007, Statistics Canada released a report entitled Government Revenue Attributable to Tourism (GRAT), covering the years 2000 to 2006. A significant leap forward in this report is that it now provides considerably more timely estimates. The lag time between the date of release and the reference year has been reduced from five to nine months, as a result of ongoing work with the Tourism Satellite Account and the quarterly National Tourism Indicators. The report provides an additional indicator of the size, scope and impact of tourism on Canada’s economy. The last report published in 2003 (based on the reference year of 1998) states that roughly thirty cents out of every tourist dollar goes directly to government. Like previous reports, this new study accounts for tax revenues tourism generated for all three levels of government in Canada between 2000 and 2006. For 2006, this latest study reports that tourism generated $19.4 billion for all three levels of government in Canada in 2006 (up 4.8% compared to 2005 and up 29.4% from 2000). For every dollar of tourism spending ($66.8 billion in 2006), governments raised 29.1 cents, up from 27.9 cents in 2000. Since 2003, a number of changes have impacted government revenues attributable to tourism. For example, changes in taxes and/or consumption of following items would impact the government revenues in either a negative or positive manner: * The 1% reduction in the GST (which took effect July 1, 2006) * Reductions in payroll taxes collected by governments (for example: Employment Insurance premiums from employees and employers in tourism, estimated at 3.78% of the workforce in 2006) * Changes to individual, corporate, and property tax rates * Changes in taxes associated with goods consumed by tourists (most notably high tax items such as alcohol and tobacco) * Vehicle fuel. (In most cases, fuel is taxed at a fixed rate per litre. As the price for fuel increases, the tax revenue generated by tourism associated with the operation of personal and rental vehicles actually decreases relative to tourism spending on such products since the actual amount of taxes collected does not increase.) The Canadian Tourism Commission’s (CTC) core international markets generated $17 billion in visitor spending for Canada in 2006. The CTC, which is recognized globally for research tools like the Canadian Tourism Satellite Accounts, relies on a wide range of performance indicators, and this study is just one of the many tools it uses to monitor tourism in Canada.
	Author: TOURISM staff Organization: Canadian Tourism Commission E-mail: tourism@ctc-cct.ca

Makes me wonder….  about the year 2000, the CTC decided to forego the Moose, Mountains and Mounties image of Canada and to "KEEP EXPLORING".   Ever since, our number of "explorers" from the USA has been on a sharp decline.  Is this a coincidence?   I don’t think so!

Quoted from http://www.travelindustryreview.com/news/6147:

eTN Daily Number of US Americans traveling to Canada down, statistics reveals

The first quarter saw the lowest recorded figures for US Americans traveling to Canada, Statistics Canada revealed recently.


The number of US Americans traveling to Canada has reached its lowest level for a first quarter in 10 years, new figures revealed.





According to Statistics Canada, US residents took fewer than 1.8 million overnight trips to Canada in the first quarter of 2007, down 6.3 percent compared with the same quarter in 2006. The decline in the first quarter was the eighth consecutive year-over-year quarterly decrease.

Statistics Canada found that among the top 10 states of origin for overnight travel to Canada, eight recorded year-over-year declines, with Michigan posting the largest decrease with a 16.9 percent drop in overnight trips and Washington, despite a 2.9 percent decrease, Washington remaining at the top of the list as its residents took 282,000 overnight trips to Canada.





The Canadian statistics group stated that overnight travel both by air and by car from the US fell between January and March, making it the fifth consecutive year in which first-quarter overnight car trips declined.





The new figures also show that Canada saw an 8.3 percent decline of US Americans traveling by car from last year’s figure, and that US Americans made fewer than 800,000 overnight pleasure trips to Canada in the first quarter, a 10.9 percent drop compared with the same period last year.





Statistics Canada also found that while the number of business trips increased 7.6 percent to 440,000, overnight trips for visiting friends and relatives declined 3.4 percent on a year-over-year basis, and that US Americans spent an estimated $915 million in Canada, down five percent from the first quarter of 2006.





Canada, however, saw an increase of 7.2 percent in travel from overseas tourists compared to last year’s January to March figures. According to Statistics Canada, travelers from the United Kingdom logged in the most overnight trips with 141,000, followed by France ranked second with 58,000 tourists.





Overseas tourists spent an estimated $930 million on overnight trips in Canada, up 6.4 percent from the first quarter of 2006, Statistics Canada revealed

Quoted from http://www.travelindustryreview.com/news/6087:

eTN Daily Dealing with the senior market Dr. Peter Tarlow l Tourism Tidbits

With the first wave of baby boomers approaching retirement age in the near future, the senior market will continue to be one of the fastest growing areas of tourism.
From a tourism perspective the senior market is really three markets, what we may call the “young seniors,” the “middle seniors,” and the “older seniors.”

Young seniors are people born between the years 1946-1960. Although many of these people are not yet retired, most will soon be. Many of these people have now paid off their mortgage and see their children as self-sufficient. Because they now have added expendable income, less home responsibilities, and relatively good health, they are prime candidates to travel.

The middle senior market is generally considered people who were born between the years 1930-1946. These are the pre baby-boomers. Most of these people are now retired, tend to spend a greater amount of time visiting family and friends, have slightly higher medical costs, but still desire to travel. This group especially cares about being protected and desires visible security and safety measures.

The old seniors are those people born before 1930. Many of these people are less likely to travel, and when they do travel often seek both security and personalized service.

Despite the fact that this group has three sub-groupings they share enough common characteristics to be seen as a single cohort. Although much of this month’s Tourism Tidbits uses US data, the general trends toward increased senior travel and a strong senior markets hold true for most developed and many developing nations.

Here are some valuable pieces of data regarding the senior markets. As it is in much of the developed world, the “young senior market” is the largest and wealthiest niche market is the USA. It is estimated that it comprises some 78 million people and over the next 9 years it will have a per year 3.5 percent increase of over 60 year old travelers. These people also are expected to inherit a great deal of money. In 1990 it is estimated that they received over US $11 billion dollars while by the year 2015 they will have inherited approximately US$340 billion dollars. While these figures refer to the United States the economic picture is approximately the same (adjusting to size of country) for the other developed nations and many of the developing nations. Tourism officials would also do well to remember that senior citizens now live longer than did their parents, tend to be more active and travel more. By 2015 they will control a large percentage of the world’s assets and will have a tendency to both spend more and to demand more.

This month’s Tourism Tidbits then offers several ideas and suggestions on how to deal with the senior market and prepare its economic impact on both travel and tourism.

Seniors are not only the developed world’s wealthiest group they are also its most demanding. The parents of today’s upcoming senior citizens tended to spoil them as children. This means that senior citizens are not afraid to demand what they want and complain until they get it. Especially the younger seniors come out of an age of political activism. Those organizations, businesses and institutions that provide good customer service have a great opportunity to thrive. Those that do not; may face economic destruction and multiple lawsuits. This principle is true not only for businesses but also for governmental agencies.

Tourism Surety is important to senior travelers. As we age we tend to become more psycocentric in our travel habits and demands. Especially in an age of terrorism and in places of high crime, seniors will demand good security. Those cities that have developed TOPs (tourism oriented policing/protection services) units will have an added marketing advantage. Those cities that have not established such units may find that both their citizens and business people may ask some very hard questions as these locales begin to lose travel and tourism market share.

Seniors tend to show higher levels of frustration. This frustration manifests itself in lack of patience, refusal to read small print, and almost zero tolerance for poor service. Tourism locales that wish to capture the senior market need to review not only their physical structures (are they accessible to everyone?) but also the size of print that they use in information brochures and signage and the level of customer service and visitor protection offered.

Seniors are manifesting tendencies to move toward quieter and less congested areas. This migration toward “livable outer fringes” means that tourism facilities can no longer be centered just in the principle cities. Smart tourism bureaus will know how to take advantage of a dispersed tourism market and attract people who now shun the inner cities due to perceived high crime rates, poor customer service, and difficult parking conditions.

Smart tourism bureaus and businesses know that this is the time to develop a senior task force. This tourism senior task force should keep abreast of the newest travel trends and demographic changes. For example, many tourism professionals are under the mistaken notion that the trend from the cold states to the warmer states will continue well into the future. Recent data however suggests that there is now a reverse flow as the aging seniors seek to be closer to children, family and friends. This reverse migration now means that those tourism entities located in colder climates will have many new business opportunities. Your senior tourism taskforce then should be composed of a wide ranging of specialists, from a marketing expert, to a tourism security expert, from a health expert to food safety and food diet experts, from a transportation specialist to a representative of the hotel and restaurant industries.

The lack of good airline service will become a major difficulty for the senior tourism industry. Many airlines have switched to smaller and less comfortable aircraft. The trend toward regional jet commuter planes, along with increased security hassles at airports, has made travel especially hard on senior travelers. Many of these potential travelers are now shying away from air travel and long range travel and instead seeking travel opportunities closer to home. Regional marketing and the use of city personnel as marketing agents may pay off in increased tax revenue and new business opportunities.

Dr. Peter E. Tarlow is the President of T&M, a founder of the Texas chapter of TTRA and a popular author and speaker on tourism. Tarlow is a specialist in the areas of sociology of tourism, economic development, tourism safety and security. Tarlow speaks at governors’ and state conferences on tourism and conducts seminars throughout the world and for numerous agencies and universities. He may be reached via e-mail at tourism@bihs.net>mailto:tourism@bihs.net.

Banking on Bowen is now a reality! 

Last weekend a 4-year personal quest was accomplished.  We opened the FIRST CREDIT UNION – Bowen Island Community Branch. 

Over the years, I have met with North Shore Credit Union, talked to HSBC (they have an "agency branch on some teeny island …. Pender Island… has anyone ever heard of it?), Prospera Credit Union, VanCity, and Coast Capital.  Finally, after going to Texada Island to visit my sister and to do a presentation to their Chamber of Commerce and seeing a building with the sign TEXADA CREDIT UNION on an island of 1200 people, I vented for so long that my brother-in-law, Larry Clarke said that he had just joined the Board of the Powell River Credit Union (BC’s FIRST Credit Union…thus the name change) and would I mind if he spoke to their CEO.  Well, after a phone call or 10, a flurry of emails throiugh November and December and a tour of Bowen with Dave Craigen and Valerie Carlsen in January the branch became a reality on June 9, 2007. 

Attached is a brochure I did to explain the workings of the Credit Union to the Island community.

Brochure_bowen credit union3

L to R – Matt Maxwell, Murray Atherton, Lois (Joanell) & Larry Clarke

Bowen Branch Staff:  Julia Simpson, Grace Brind (Branch Manager, Naomi Nabata and Richard Scott (in the background).

On April 19, 2007, Mark Tewksbury kick-started the launch of the new season for Rocky Mountaineer, Gray Line West, Thompson Hotel and Royal Blue Lines in a spectacular way!  The instantaneous thunderous standing ovation following his presentation said it all.  Takeaway points from Tewksbury’s presentation are featured here.

Trait 1:  Trait 1:  Ask Yourself Questions

The power of the question is something that is fundamental to everything you do.  There are no wrong or right answers.  The important thing is to find what rings true for you.  Think about it:  What are you doing?  How are you doing it?  And does it look/ feel like when you are doing it in a spectacular way? 

Trait 2:  Expand Your Perspective

Human nature is to have selective awareness.  As you launch this year, notice what you notice. What are you paying attention to?  My challenge is for you to see what you and those around you are doing with excellence, and stay open to possibility in terms of ways to be even better.  If everyone does their part – Rocky Mountaineer, Gray Line West, Thompson Hotel, Royal Blue Lines – imagine how spectacular the Armstrong Group will be!  (MA says to remember his mantra: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got).

Trait 3:  Make a Plan

Planning is like the roadmap of achievement, but it is so obvious that many of us never take the time to do it.  While the Armstrong Group has an organizational vision to deliver the most spectacular experience in the world, how are you going to keep that alive in your own way?  Write down your answer to this:  I am going to do my part in bringing spectacular to life by ___________.  This is your own personal vision statement.  Map out some of the things you need to do to get from where you are now to bringing this vision to life for yourself.

Trait 4:  Act Effectively

The plan is there as a guide, but in life things never unfold exactly as planned.  Acting effectively means doing what works.  It is about holding yourself accountable to the vision you have set for yourself, and to living the corporate values of passion, integrity and excellence on a daily basis.  It also means making effective decisions to keep you on track.  When things don’t work – and sometimes they don’t – it is all in the recovery!  Acting effectively means you learn from the experience so that it never happens again.

Trait 5:  Go the Distance

The train has left the station.  But the guest experience is only as memorable as the accumulation of the entire journey.  From the sales agents, call centre and on-boards to the hotels, coaches and trains and the tours, it is the collective team’s undying commitment to excellence that determines if spectacular works.  Maintaining that standard consistently through all levels of the organization is one of the biggest challenges many of us face.

 Trait 6:  Be Innovative

The Armstrong Group is inspired by a rich tradition and driven by dreams. Your success has come from everyone in the organization – from the employees, suppliers, and partners to the guests – receiving the most spectacular experience.  Inherent in this success is a faith in your abilities.  Use your skills and knowledge of the business to generate new ideas that puts innovation into action to keep spectacular alive.  

 Trait 7:  Utilize Power of Thought

Science has shown that thoughts have energy, and whether you realize it or not, they manifest themselves in the body.  Recognize the impact your thinking has on your actions – and ultimately your results.  The Armstrong Group has overcome enormous challenges to get where it is today, and did it through a culture of positive people.  Continue that tradition by harnessing the power of your thoughts to work for you en route to your spectacular achievement.

 Trait 8:  Generate Enthusiasm

Our outlook sets the tone, which in turn spreads to the people around us.  What makes you excited about working for Rocky Mountaineer, or Gray Line West, or Thompson Hotel, or Royal Blue Lines?  Share that with people as you go through the day and watch for the boomerang effect.  It will come back to you from the mouths of your guest in the form of, “I just had the most spectacular experience.”

The Most Spectacular Experiences in the World!

 Passion                 Integrity               Excellence            

The following Tourism Marketing Articles have been published by Vancouver Coast & Mountains Tourism Association (www.vcmbc.ca).  They are awesome outlines of what CAN be done with very little work.   Feel free to hightlight them, copy and paste them into your own Word document.  They ARE worth paying attention to.

Quoted from http://www.vcmbc.com/enews/2007/enews_feb14_exp.htm#morejournalist:

VCM Weekly E-News

Here is a fabulous article we have discovered, written for Museum Marketing Tips, but certainly relevant to all kinds of tourism businesses! Enjoy…

Is Your Website Journalist-Friendly?
How to Make Sure Your Site Meets Journalists’ Needs
by Katherine Khalife

When journalists visit your website and look for information they would need in order to write about you, can they find it? The answer — whether yours is a million-dollar site or one designed by your board president’s 14-year-old nephew — is a resounding “Probably not.” And as a result, your organization may be missing out on valuable media opportunities.

As I surf the Web doing research for articles I’m writing, I’m constantly amazed at how many sites bury necessary press information or omit it entirely. PR contacts, basic facts about the organization, press releases — even phone numbers — are sometimes impossible to find. And particularly when I’m on a deadline, my decision of whether to include an organization in a story is often influenced by the information available on its website.

Lest you think I’m the only one who feels this way, studies conducted in the past year by both Vocus and the Nielsen Norman Group confirm that I’m not alone. According to the Vocus survey, more than 90 percent of print journalists feel they waste half their time sifting through a website’s contents trying to find what they need. And 60 percent say that not finding it can cause them to pass over a company they might otherwise write about.

With nine out of ten journalists now using the Internet to gather material for stories they’re writing or to do follow-up research on pitches and releases they’ve received, it’s imperative that your website help, not hinder, your organization’s PR efforts.

Lisa Bousquet, director of marketing and public relations at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, knows this first-hand. The zoo recently revamped all the press information on its website because, Lisa says, “I had many a journalist complain that he/she couldn’t find what they needed. The overhaul has definitely paid off for us.”

It’s also lightened the load on the zoo’s small PR staff. Journalists can now choose photos online and flesh out leads received in news releases. “The press room has also made fact checking much easier,” Lisa adds. “I’ve had reporters tell me they’ve used the site after covering a story to double-check admission prices, dates of events, animal facts, etc. — something they used to have to do with a phone call.”

To make sure that your organization’s website is meeting writers’ and editors’ needs, follow these important tips:

Include a Press Section
Whether you call it Press, Press Room, Press Releases, Media, Media Information, News or News Room, a clearly labeled section of your site should be earmarked for journalists. Ideally, a direct link to that section should be available from your home page and from every other page of your site as well. If that’s not possible, then at least be sure to provide a link to it from your Information or About Us page.

And yes, even small organizations should provide a press section on their sites. With so many reporters and writers out there in cyberspace writing on so many different topics, the chances of one happening upon your website at some point are a lot better than you might expect. And you need to be ready for them when they do.

Put the Emphasis on Information and Navigation
Journalists judge your press room by the quality of the information it contains, not by how many bells and whistles it has. In fact, state-of-the-art technology can actually work against you here. Many writers are freelancers who, like me, use older computers with older browsers and dial-up modems. Huge graphic files and multimedia presentations are the bane of our Internet existence, taking forever to load or crashing our computers in the process. If you don’t want to frustrate us, keep it simple.

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, and the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge are two examples of institutions that “get it” in this regard. And once journalists land in these press rooms, they’re not left stranded there. (Believe me, it happens!) Links are provided back to the home page and to other parts of the site for further information.

What Your Online Press Room Should Contain:

Complete PR Contact Information
Include your PR contacts’ names, phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, pager numbers if available, and your organization’s street and mailing addresses. This seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? But the number of websites that neglect to include important contact information is astounding. The Nielsen Norman Group study found that although one of reporters’ main reasons for visiting websites is to get a PR contact’s phone number, 45 percent of the time they can’t find one. Many sites, in fact, include nothing but a generic PR e-mail address such as media@xyzmuseum.org. To a journalist on a deadline, that’s shorthand for “Somebody here might get around to checking this mailbox in the next week or two, and if you’re lucky we may get back to you.” In other words, it’s useless. You must provide a phone number. I recommend putting full PR contact information right at the top of your press section’s main page. Why make journalists hunt for it? If you have a large PR department and need a separate contact page in order to list everyone, then put a prominent link to that page on the main page. Including contact information for other organizations in your area can also be helpful. Monterey Bay Aquarium’s contact page, for example, lists the local Convention and Visitors Bureau and other marine science resources.

Press Releases
In the Vocus survey, respondents ranked press releases as the most important resource to include in an online news room. When you post yours to your site, here are some important things to keep in mind:

Post them in HTML, not as PDF files or Word documents that have to be downloaded in order to be read. Journalists don’t care about fancy formatting. They do care about finding information and finding it fast. And they’ll often want to browse through a number of releases, especially if they’re gathering background information or trying to get a feel for your organization. Don’t hinder that process by expecting them to take the time to download each release they want to look at. They won’t do it.

Make the title of the release a link to the full text, which should be located on a page of its own. And be sure to include the original date of the release next to the title.

The most recent releases should appear at the top of the list.

If you issue a lot of releases on different topics, consider grouping them in categories. The Chicago Botanic Garden and the National Gallery of Art are two organizations that take this approach. When determining which categories to use, keep in mind that reporters cover different beats. Lifestyle editors and travel writers are looking for different information than business reporters are. And if you’re planning a major new exhibition or a building expansion, it makes sense to group all the related releases together.
If you distribute a release through a wire service, be sure you’ve posted it — and any supporting information — to your own site before the release goes out. That ensures that interested reporters won’t read the release, go to your site to do follow-up research and feel like they’ve walked into an empty bakery.

Don’t remove your old releases. Press release archives are a wonderful resource for anyone researching an organization’s growth and evolution. That’s one of the reasons why every release you post to your site needs to have a date on it.

Backgrounders and Fact Sheets
In order to write about you, journalists first need to understand who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Backgrounders and fact sheets are the best way to relay that information.

Provide basic facts about your institution such as number of employees, members and volunteers; annual attendance figures; number of objects in your collections; and total operating budget. Also include a brief overview of your collections, programs, facility and community, a short history of your organization, and interesting bits of trivia about your operation. All of this helps writers and editors put your organization into context and identify the things that make you unique and newsworthy.

You need to present this information in quickly scannable chunks, not as an essay. Subheads, bullet lists and liberal use of white space are good solutions. Journalists just want the facts, so keep flowery brochure-talk to a minimum. And since they may not be fluent in museum-speak, use laymen’s terms. Here are a few good examples of different types of pages you might want to include in your press room:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Fact Sheet
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza: FAQ
Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village: Did You Know?
Sometimes, of course, using technical language and terms that may be unfamiliar to reporters is unavoidable. The Canadian Museum of Nature does a great job of addressing this with its palaeo-speak page, Tips for Science Journalists.

Image Availability
In the years 1995-1998, the annual Middleberg/Ross Media in Cyberspace study found that fewer than 30 percent of journalists used the Internet to find images. By 1999 that number had climbed to 52 percent, and it’s still rising. In fact, last year’s Nielsen Norman Group study found that downloading images to use in stories is now one of the top five reasons journalists visit company websites. So it’s important that your online press room contain information about image availability.

Lisa Bousquet’s recent experience confirms this. “Perhaps the most used feature of our press room so far is the photo menagerie. Tis the season for summer travel guide requests — a time when many publications contact us asking for general “zoo” photos. We’ve been referring them to the menagerie — they choose what they like from the low-res versions, then I send along high-res versions.”

The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge handles the image availablity issue in this same way — providing photo sample sheets in the press kit resources section of its press room. Monterey Bay Aquarium’s photo library carries it a bit further. A sophisticated online catalog of 60 images available in various resolutions and formats is provided, with clear instructions for ordering by e-mail.

What else should your press room contain?
Contact information, press releases, backgrounders and fact sheets, and information about image availability are the basics of a good online press room, but there are many additional things you can include as well:

Press Kits for New Exhibitions
Turn a sub-section of your online press room into a press kit for a new exhibition. Include press releases, a backgrounder and fact sheet, biographies of the artists or subjects, a photo sample sheet, and links to any articles available online that have been written about the exhibition.

Tip Sheets
The Middleberg/Ross studies have found that more than 50 percent of journalists now use the Internet to find story ideas. Roger Williams Park Zoo posts a tip sheet outlining upcoming photo opportunities and ideas for news features and live broadcast remotes.

Posting consumer-oriented tip sheets is also a good idea. Things like How to Turn Your Next Beach Walk Into a Treasure Hunt, 6 Tips for Preserving Your Grandmother’s Quilts, or 7 Ways to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden are great to include, for a couple of reasons: They’re articles that can be picked up and run verbatim, and they also help journalists realize that your organization is a good resource for all kinds of different stories.

Expert Sources
Reporters and writers visiting the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village press room can find experts on everything from Christmas carols to croquet. And the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Need an Expert? page offers a whole alphabet’s worth of natural science experts. From algae to zebra mussels, they’ve got it covered. The Middleberg/Ross 2000 study found that 76 percent of journalists now use the Internet to find expert sources, so why not highlight your staff’s expertise?

An important tip: Your experts page needs to have good search engine rankings so that journalists searching for experts can easily find it. Using the word “experts” and the phrase “expert sources” in the page title and again several times in the body copy will facilitate this. The Canadian Museum of Nature, for example, could title its page Expert Sources – Natural Science Experts at the Canadian Museum of Nature. On the page itself, it could add “expert sources” to each subject listing, ie. Expert Sources – Algae, Expert Sources – Birds.

Press Clippings
Devote a sub-section of your press room to What the Press is Saying About Us. Include links to any articles written about your organization that are available online.

Advance Exhibition Schedule
Give the media a head start like the National Gallery of Art does. Post an outline of your upcoming exhibitions.

Location Filming and Photography Guidelines
Include your photography and filming policies. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum lists theirs on a page in the press kits section of their press room. Monterey Bay Aquarium offers a PDF download spelling out procedures and fees for using the facility for location shoots of commercials, magazine ads, movies and TV shows.

Other Important Tips to Make Your Site Journalist-Friendly
Having an online press room is only part of what’s required. Here are other important things to keep in mind:

Don’t Require Press Registration
You wouldn’t believe how many museum press rooms I visit that require completion of an online registration form in order to gain access. The thinking behind it, I suppose, is that registration will keep the general public out and help build a media database at the same time. But trust me on this: If you want to keep journalists from writing about you, infuriating them with a required registration form is absolutely the best way I know of to do it. Besides, your press room should be available to everyone. Students, museum professionals, members and potential donors may find the information contained there helpful as well.

If you do want to include a form members of the media can submit to be added to your distribution list, that’s fine. Just make it optional, like the registration form used by The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. And don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a lot of sign-ups. At least you’ll know that the journalists who do register are truly interested.

Keep Your Press Room Up to Date
There’s no point in having an online press room if it contains out-of-date information. And no journalist visiting your site in 2002 is going to trust the credibility of any of your information if they’re greeted with “Coming March 1, 2001 — A Major New Exhibition: Highlights from the Highlands!” Keep your press room up to date.

Respond to All E-mail Inquiries
Don’t let any e-mail press inquiries go unanswered. Answer every single one you receive in a timely manner. If you’re not able to accommodate a journalist’s request or you’re unable to respond before their press deadline, don’t just ignore the e-mail. Send an apology. And don’t ever not respond just because you don’t recognize the name of the publication or you don’t think it’s “important enough.” You never know who else that journalist might write for, or what major publication he or she might end up at in the future. Journalists have long memories. Make their memory of your organization a good one.

Quoted from http://www.vcmbc.com/enews/2007/enews_feb27_exp.htm#moreshoestring:

VCM Weekly E-News

Shoestring Marketing

A limited budget does not mean your marketing ideas have to be limited. Shoestring marketing is about making more money with less effort; it’s about growing your business without spending unnecessary dollars by looking for unique communication opportunities. Every interaction you have provides an opportunity to build public relations and business growth. The key is to focus on ensuring that each interaction is consistent with your brand and provides value by making meaningful contributions to the lives of those you communicate with. The following are 10 ways to create meaningful connections and leverage your marketing investment:

1. Develop an Integrated Approach- Everything you do has the same look and feel.

2. Create Strategic Alliances – Find an individual or company that is connected in the industry that has a different expertise than you do, align your business with theirs.

3. Find a Champion – Find someone supportive of your business and can connect you with key decision makers.

4. Befriend Your Competitors – Many established businesses refer customers to a competitor when they don’t have time to handle the business themselves.

5. Bundle your Services – Bring together a group of businesses and pool your funds.

6. Contra Promotion – Find another business that wants to connect with your target market, trade promotional opportunities, literature, display brochures.

7. Barter – Exchange services for others you need.

8. Co-op Advertising – Use funds, discounted offers, etc. from supported marketing efforts.

9. Use Small Ads – These are just as effective as large ads.

10. Model Success – Look for successful businesses inside and outside your industry and model their ideas.

These tips are from David Saxby, professional speaker, consultant and specialist in marketing strategy. For more information call him at 1-877-800-3457 or email at dsaxby@sparkcommunications.com.

Source: www.cspa.com February 2007