Marketing
B&B (Branding and Booking)
Tuesday, January 24, 10:45am – 12:00pm
Caraway Rooms 2 & 3, State House Convention Center
P. Allen Smith, Hortus, Ltd.
What made your guest seek you out? Why did they prefer your property among all their various choices they researched? How do you differentiate yourself? How do they keep coming back and telling their friends and family about you?
These are the types of questions that P. Allen Smith will help answer for you. He will talk about how he grew from a gardening expert into a national lifestyle brand and how he is continuing to grow his brand by engaging with audiences in many new ways through social media. He will also share the ideas behind his seasonal cookbook and ways you can take simple gardening ideas by season, both indoors and out, to create interest and differentiate your Inn from others.
Google Places: Search, Smartphones & More!
Tuesday, January 24, 3:00pm – 4:10pm
SH Caraway Room 1
Lisa Kolb – Acorn Internet Services
Google Places is one of the fastest growing forces in the Search World. Google Places data is now showing up in many different locations beyond traditional search capabilities on a laptop or PC. Smart business owners are learning how to take advantage of these advances to promote their properties and increase their occupancy. This session will show you WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW as a business owner regarding Google Places data in both traditional and new mobile device local markets!
Google Analytics – Beyond the Basics
Tuesday, January 24, 3:00pm – 4:10pm
SH Fulton Room
Scott Thomas, Brewster House (ME)
Understanding and using Google Analytics’ powerful capabilities, including Goals, Conversions, Ecommerce, Advanced Segments and Filtered Reporting.
Google+, Facebook or Both?
Tuesday, January 24, 4:20pm – 5: 30pm
SH Caraway Room 1
Bill Mitchell – rezStream
What is Google+ and why is analytic tracking being added to Facebook? With the battle raging betweeen Facebook and Google for supremicy in search engine traffic control, who is really winning? In considering your inn’s profitability, we will explore new and useful features and what’s just wasting time. You’ll learn how to take advantage of the latest and greatest in the battle of these giants. If you crave new ideas and want to keep up with the latest trends, you’ll love attending this presentation!
Measuring the Success of Online Marketing
Tuesday, January 24, 4:20pm – 5:30pm
SH Fulton Room
Scott Thomas, Brewster House (ME)
How do you determine how well your online marketing efforts are paying off? What tools do you use? What do you measure in order to determine where to put your resources? Using Google Analytics and other tools, this workshop will introduce practical ways to track, measure, and evaluate how well your online efforts are working for you.
Just Because it’s on the Web…Doesn’t Mean it’s Legal
Wednesday, January 25, 8:30am – 9:40am
SH Caraway Room 1
Jeff Logan – Avelient, Inc & Denise Mroz – Woodcock & Wasburn Intellectual Property Law
Who owns what? Learn what you do own and don’t when it comes to your website, domain names, photos, logo and everything else. Bring all of your tough questions to this session about intellectual property ownership.
Under the Microscope: Evaluating your Marketing – Part I
Wednesday, January 25, 9:50am – 11:00am
SH Fulton Room
Scott Crumpton, Whitestone Marketing
Are you doing everything you can, is your marketing company doing what they should, how much business are you missing and how can you improve your marketing to obtain greater occupancy? Working with our brave audience, we’ll give practical advice you can take home and use to improve your marketing in order to increase occupancy and revenue. You will learn what the ideal marketing plan should be, free tools which give you insight into your marketing efforts, and show you how to evaluate your marketing company’s efforts. If you care about your own marketing — you don’t want to miss this chance to evaluate and improve it.
Embrace Social Media! Not Convinced? Come Learn More.
Wednesday, January 25, 9:50am – 11:00am
SH Caraway Room 1
Brandon Dennis, buuteeq
“After all”, you may say, “I’ve managed my inn for years and never needed social media before.” Like any evolving technology, social media can be a little scary, confusing and intimidating. But like the typewriter before the computer, traditional marketing will soon be eclipsed but a faster, more efficient technology–social media marketing. This workshop will help you to embrace social media. Sharing the latest trends leading you to want to hop on the bandwagoon or into the bandwidth so to speak.
Your Website is Not Enough
Wednesday, January 25, 11:10am – 12:15pm
SH Caraway Room 1
Adam Brownstein, buuteeq
Research shows there are specific things travelers want to see when the search for lodging online. Does your website deliver? With over 90% of lodging discovery and purchase now on the web, on mobile and on social media, you not only need to be there but you must be communicating with guests in the way they like, otherwise they move on to the next inn or B&B. This workshop will address what’s NEW in research, technology and design to help innkeepers book more rooms by delivering better digital marketing, as well as review examples of good and bad websites and discuss why the work (or don’t work). Meet guest’s needs while also addressing the importance of having a website that is optimized for mobile and a strong presence in social media.
How do I Measure Up? Evaluating your Marketing – Part II
Wednesday, January 25, 2:45pm – 3:45pm
SH Caraway Room 1
Scott Crumpton, Whitestone Marketing
Ever wondered how you measure up to the competition or the industry as a whole? Now you can! For the first time ever, years of Google Analytics data across hundreds of B&B websites will be presented, allowing each innkeeper to evaluate their marketing efforts against industry averages and standards. Bring your laptop and follow along as we discuss unique visitors, bounce rates, time on site, traffic from sites like bedandbreakfast.com, Google Organic and PPC. If that’s not enough, we’ll cover conversion ratios on true reservations and even track reservation dollars back to revenue sources for actual ROI evaluations. Sound too technical and nerdy? No problem — everything will be presented in an easy to understand and fully explained format of open discussion where questions will be encouraged. You don’t want to miss this session.
Video Making Basics for Innkeepers
Wednesday, January 25, 11:10am – 12:15pm
SH Caraway Room 1
Lisa Kolb – Acorn Internet Services
Join other innkeepers in learning how to turn your professional photography into video that can be used in YouTube, Google Places, content for your Blog, Facebook, Twitter and your website. We will be teaching this class using FREE Windows based software, though the concepts and ideas in this session will easily transfer over to Mac users.
Think You Know Internet Marketing?
Wednesday, January 25, 11:10am – 12:15pm
SH Caraway Room 2
Bill Mitchell, RezStream
Ready for some more advanced strategies? This special seminar will focus on how to get more out of Google’s vast array of money grabbing offers. Learn how to take better advantage of pay-per-click marketing with advanced geo-targeted advertising. Learn how to do mobile PPC marketing and offer mobile coupons. Learn why tracking revenue to the keyword level is vital to all your marketing efforts. The content of this seminar will cover the very latest in Internet marketing trends. If you are progressive, up to the basics, then this advanced course should stimulate your mind and pave the way for increased online profits.
Social Buying: Just Plain Crazy, or Worthy Craze?
Wednesday, January 25, 2:45pm – 3:45pm
SH Ballroom A
Moderator: Scott Thomas, Brewster House B&B (ME)
Panelists: Carol Davis – BlissWood B&B (TX), Shirley Price – Foxtrot Resorts (TN), Tony Barthel – Featherbed Railroad (CA)
What is social buying anyway? Can an innkeeper actually make money on a deal? Does it make sense for your inn? What are the differences between sites like Living Social, Groupon, Yuupon, Snique Away, etc? Join us as a panel of innkeepers who have used social buying dive into the successes, challenges and everything in between.
Get the Hell Out of Lodge!
Thursday, January 26, 2:15pm – 5:15pm
SH Caraway Rooms
Tim Brady, Brand Pandemic and Forty Putney Road B&B, VT
These days we are in the crush of immediate gratification. With technologies continuing to produce immediate demand at a breakneck pace, here is a session dedicated to presenting applications and technologies specifically geared to assist our innkeepers in becoming more efficient in this world of mega-multitasking. Regain some sanity and maybe some much needed time outside the inn.
