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Optimizing your Camp’s Online Presence

Optimizing your Camp’s Online Presence. By James Davis. Communications Pyramid. Creating Outposts Social Media, Online Advertisements, Links back to us. Online Strategy How do we harness the power of the internet?. Communications Strategy Print Word of Mouth Digital

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Optimizing your Camp’s Online Presence

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  1. Optimizing your Camp’s Online Presence By James Davis

  2. Communications Pyramid Creating Outposts Social Media, Online Advertisements, Links back to us Online Strategy How do we harness the power of the internet? Communications Strategy Print Word of Mouth Digital How will we get our big idea out to the world? Organizational Big Idea Who we are, What we do. Why do we exist?

  3. Mastering One Way Communication • Be a good listener • Collect Data – What do your customers want? • Talk about what people want to hear • Talk when others are listening

  4. To whom are we talking? • Great Internet Presence means communicating to two audiences: • Campers/Parents • Search Engines!

  5. Search Engine Optimization • Search Engine Empathy – What do they want? • Provide their users with the best possible sites. • Most linked to (talked about) • Best Reviewed • Most relevant to keywords searched for. • Frequency, Location, and Density of Keywords • Freshest content • Most usable (no broken links!) • Fastest loading • Not to be lied to

  6. Getting People to Link to Your Site • Ask for them! • Raffle a campership to people you know for a link. • Make posts for Camp Business, Camp Leadership, other publications. • Relevant links are better – religious groups, camps, camping associations, camping blogs. • Social Media • Claim your business listings!

  7. Places to claim listings • Hotfrog • Manta • Yellowbot • Super Pages • Yellowee • DexKnows • FourSquare • Judy’s Book • YP.com • Insider Pages • Kudzu • Local.com • Many more! • Google Places • Bing • Yahoo • Yelp • Citysearch • Yext • Alexa • Merchant Circle

  8. When Claiming your Listing… • Fresh content every time • Tedious, but tells search engines you aren’t cut/pasting stuff all over the internet. • Make sure you link back to your site • These listings are more for search engines than to drive your business – know to whom you’re communicating! (keywords!!)

  9. Your Website Itself • Must communicate to customers AND search engines. • Don’t embed words in images – Search Engines can’t see them! • Don’t password protect content that will help SEO! • Make sure you’re sending a clear message about who you are – don’t assume any person has heard of you, much less a search engine! • Keywords in your title, meta description, tags, headers, posts/paragraphs.

  10. How a Search Engine Sees You Part 1 Keywords in title Reviews KEYWORDS

  11. What a Search Engine Sees Next Keywords in Header Text

  12. And Finally – Keywords on Pages Using Without overusing is the key to talking to search engines without ignoring the needs of your customers

  13. Google Talks Back • google.com/webmasters/tools

  14. Page speed • Picture size • Pics look the same at different sizes, load much faster • Back end optimization • http://www.webpagetest.org • Wordpress plugins – WP Minify, Force GZIP, Super Cache

  15. Other ways customers find us online • Social Media (Facebook, Twitter) • Tough to generate new business – but great to keep old business. • To generate new business, must relate exciting things – new events, offerings, pictures, philosophy. You’re counting on other people sharing YOUR content. • Advertisements • Local city websites • Facebook Advertising • Google Adwords

  16. When to Run an Adwords Campaign for Summer Camp June Sept-Dec Google Keyword Search: Summer Camp

  17. When People Look for Retreats Oct Jan Dec Google Keyword Search: Retreat Center

  18. Conference Centers vs. Retreat Centers Conference Center Retreat Center 4x more searches for Conference Centers Are you a Conference Center or a Retreat Center? Or Both?

  19. Summer Camp vs. Conference Centers vs. Retreats Feb Aug Summer CampConference CenterRetreat Center

  20. How do we use these data? • AdWords campaigns – cheap, and they’ll give you $100 to start. • Gear website content toward the people who are seeking to do business with you that time of year.

  21. Is Online Marketing Worth it? Customize these values – Google adwords will charge you $1-$3 per click. Can you convert 1 in 300 of those clicks? Figure out what you need to break even on an ad, since these numbers can’t account for exponential gains. • http://www.vk.org/wpsite/retention

  22. Don’t forget your customers! • Figure out your big picture message • We all have great properties – what makes YOU special? • Decide to whom you’re marketing • What do people want to read about your camp? • Marketing to yourself, or to your customers? • What age does your content target?

  23. Fresh Content Ideas • All content on your site must fit into your “big picture” message. • Blog posts: • What’s happening at your site? • What’s your philosophy? • What makes you special? • What can guests expect? • Testimonials from kids • Pictures from the summer with keyword rich descriptions. • Publish your newsletter

  24. The time is now! • Most camps haven’t optimized their online presence – first movers have a huge advantage.

  25. Questions? http://www.vk.org/wpsite/marketing for the Powerpoint Email james@vk.org

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