With these exciting times in mind, we are moving the Wilmerco blog

to a new location at blog.wilmerco.com.

At our new blog, you’ll find the latest industry secrets, case studies, tips and articles such as our latest piece, How to Focus Your Marketing Message When You Have Something for Everyone.

We hope to give you some juicy details about our industry to get you moving quickly toward your marketing goals with ease. We like to think of the Wilmerco blog as an “Insider’s Guide for Marketing Places to Stay, Play and Live Everyday.”

Check out our new place to blog and let us know if there’s any topic you’d like us to tackle.

Sincerely,
The Wilmerco Team

Take a quick tour

• Our home is your home. Did you know you are fascinating? We occasionally get distracted by the beautiful photos and compelling stories of your places to stay, play or live everyday. We’re sharing your stories with a monthly featured client on our homepage along with case studies and the latest marketing tips and industry news.
• Innovate with an integrated strategy. Our services will enhance your core marketing activities into targeted marketing campaigns.
• What do you need to Create? Whether it’s a website, online or print brochure, ad, brand identity, logo design, or social media strategy our team is experienced at delivering your on-brand creative with ease.
• Do It Yourself when you want to execute a print or electronic marketing campaign on-demand. The Digital Drive Thru Fueled by Wilmerco marketing portal gives you as much or as little control as desired. You can create an entire campaign on your own, or call us and we’ll build it for you.
• Let Our Work provide some inspiration for your marketing plan by viewing a portfolio of various websites, ebrochures, online display and print ads, email and more of our recent client projects.
• Get to know Our Story and our Partners for a little bit of background into the people and collaborators at Wilmerco.
• Let’s Connect online (Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin) or in person. We’re located in Downtown Seattle and would love to chat over coffee or Green Tea.

The new wilmerco.com is also built on the same Content Management System we use for building custom websites for our clients. A Content Management System like this one gives you the freedom to have a completely custom website design with behind-the-scenes access to update content, such as text, photos, special offers, menus and more, at any time with just a few clicks.

We hope you enjoy visiting our new site and would love to hear what you think!

While undergoing a major renovation to bring back that history and add a more modern, hip feel to the hotel, they needed to do the same with their web presence. We created a web solution that built from the hotel’s distinctive style and voice incorporating the requirements of today’s hotel: booking engine, photo galleries, social media, special offers and the power to update it all with just a few clicks.

Update website content anytime
Hotels are constantly evolving and especially during a renovation, like The Hotel Blackhawk, you will want to have your best photos of your new space online as soon as possible. Websites built on Wilmerco’s Content Management System give you the power to change the content – whether it be photos, links, promotions or news – at any time. Fresh content can drive traffic to your site, improve your SEO and keep your hotel interesting to loyal clients and potential visitors.

Need some ideas to refresh your website? Let us know and we’d be happy to help.

Visit: Hotelblackhawk.com

"come see us...in a whole new light." Example of the direct mail card's cover. The renovation added customizable, thematic lighting to the event spaces - a feature we highlighted throughout the campaign.

Build around your goals
With these goals in mind and the renovation’s completion fast approaching, we focused a plan on generating buzz from her current database of meeting planners as well as attracting and capturing new meeting planner contacts online. Because Wilmerco has specific tools available for direct mail, email and online advertising campaigns, we are able to implement this plan very quickly. For current contacts and a specially selected list of additional meeting planners, we created a unique, attention-getting direct mail card and email.

Where you direct your online ads to is important too
Online, we proposed implementing a method that begins with an impression and ends with a new contact. First, targeted banner ads will be displayed on Bay Area wedding, social event and meeting planner websites as well as specific channels for business and women.

Yummy, display advertising banner targeting wedding sites

These banner ads will click-through to dedicated landing pages showcasing the renovated space, completion date and message unique to each audience and their unique type of event (meetings, weddings or social gatherings). The landing page includes a contact form for more information and to sign up for the very special offer. Our online advertising system allows us to track each metric from online ad impressions to click-through rates to lead captures and adjust where the ads will display to improve the results throughout the campaign.

That special something
Finally, we tied the special offer to a specific conversion action: signing up to hold an event in the new space. We proposed a special offer that would hopefully excite the well-organized, thoughtful, detail-oriented meeting planner – an iPad. Anyone who signs a contract of a set value by the offer’s deadline will receive an iPad engraved with a message from Hilton San Francisco Airport that is preloaded with images of the renovated space.

When you need the whole package
From strategy, to creative, to implementation and beyond, we were able to provide this Hilton hotel with their multi-faceted campaign. If you are considering putting together your own campaign, we would love to help. Feel free to contact us.

Prominent booking engine
If the goal of your website is to inspire website visitors to make a reservation at your hotel (that is the goal right?) be sure the booking engine makes it clear and simple to start the process. The Sheraton website displays a large, clean booking engine directly on the homepage and each subsequent page. Your website should too.

Photo gallery page
Every hotel website seems to offer a different way to view images of their hotel. Some have really nice photos spread out throughout their website. While other sites have an option to view all the hotel photos on one page, often broken up into individual photo galleries. The single page devoted to photos was sited in Forrester Research as the more user-friendly option. It allows visitors to visually explore your entire hotel experience.

Consistent experience
Online and offline, create a seamless experience for guests. Not all hotels can offer palatial luxury and that isn’t what all guests are looking for. Don’t make promises online that you can’t keep offline. Understand your brand, your guests and the uniqueness of your hotel to develop an authentic online voice and mood that is consistent with what guests can expect when they stay with you.

Location connections
Many people start with their destination and then choose a hotel. While maps and lists of local areas of interest are important, get creative and become a connection to the local experiences that visitors to your area are looking for. You could also include some areas of interest around your hotel on your photos page.

Clear features and amenities
I tend to filter hotels by swimming pool when searching for the perfect place to stay. Some guests’ must-have list might include Wi-Fi, a gym or pet-friendly places. While language is important in creating your brand experience, be careful not to bury the best parts of your hotel in lengthy verbiage. Write for the web. Be clear and be concise.

Reviews
Don’t be scared, the majority of reviews on many review sites are actually positive. Reviews also show potential guests that the great experience when they visit your website will continue when they come visit your hotel.

What are your goals?
Whether you need an entire website makeover, or a smaller web brochure for specific audiences, we’re here to assist you with each step to incorporate these concepts and your specific goals into your online presence from strategy to design to development. Contact us for a web consultation session today.

Each year, we work with more and more of our clients to integrate emerging social strategies into their plans. There are many ideas and tips out there about how to execute your new strategy and we would be happy to discuss various methods and techniques with you.

But we just want to share this one thing with you today. One thing you can add right now, to whatever you are doing, to promote your place to stay, play or live everyday.

That one thing is: passion.

Why passion?
It’s amazing what can happen when you genuinely like (and love) what you do, the possibilities of your industry and all of the people involved from clients to employees to neighbors to detractors. Here are just a few ways passion can enrich your marketing execution especially if you are going more social this year:

Become a better listener. There are an increasing number of products out there to help brands understand what consumers are saying about them online, but good listeners also care about what people are saying. Passion can make the difference between tracking your Facebook fans and caring so deeply about what is being said (whether positive or negative) that you do something about it.

Develop your authentic voice. Today’s consumers have an endless supply of information about your brand at their fingertips. An authentic energy for what you do and why you love doing it helps your voice cut through the clutter so your message is heard, loud and clear.

Call and respond. Consumers can tell right away if your social skills are limited to self-promotion. Since you are already a better listener, why not take the time to respond thoughtfully too?

Make the world a better place. Passion separates the brands who truly want to make things better for their clients and their industry from the rest of the business-as-usual pack.

Now we just have to ask: do you have passion?

Why should your business join a location-based service like Facebook Places, Foursquare or Gowalla for marketing? The theory is that if someone tells their friends how great a place is, their friends will follow them there. It can also help build loyalty between you and your frequent clients. In addition, location-based marketing can be an inexpensive investment that is easy to set up and it’s growing.

With all the buzz about location-based services, not everyone is using them (yet). The chance to be a mayor, receive a badge, or tell everyone where they are all the time just is not enough of an incentive for many people to check-in. Which also means, it’s not enough for you to simply be on these location-based services for customers to tell their friends what a great time they are having at your location either. Of course there are people who will check-in because of your amazing service, fabulous products and friendly staff. But those things are not enough.
How to get more check-ins

• Ask. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. While most locations have claimed their place on a location-based service, they don’t tell their visiting customers that they have. Just remember:
  • Think about your signage. Can you add a note encouraging visitors to check-in?
  • What about your staff? When I checked-in for the first time, it was because a staff member welcomed me to the store and asked me to check-in for a great reward.
  • Not all visitors buy something at every visit. Make sure you greet every visitor, not just those who make a purchase.
• Be bold with your giveaway. Sure it’s a nice idea to give something away to your visitors for checking-in. But if you really want to encourage check-ins, do something unique with a fun spin on your brand. Here are some examples:
  • Lululemon sells yoga and athletic clothing so logically (and creatively), they partnered with a local yoga studio to offer a free class to visitors just for checking-in. This offer ties perfectly to the brand and is an exciting gift to customers.
  • Gap had their online fans buzzing a few weeks ago when they gave away 10,000 pairs of jeans through check-ins. Each person who checked-in was entered to win and every store had at least one winner.

• Pick one service. You can’t be everywhere are at once so pick one service to focus your energy on. Do you already have a large following on Facebook?  Or are you looking to attract more foot-traffic from the local neighborhood?  Think about where your client base is and where you can best connect with them.

• Start with a plan. Even new marketing concepts need a well thought-out plan behind them. Ask yourself some questions about your client base. Be sure to set a goal of how many of your current visitors you want to check-in and how many new or repeat visitors are coming to your store. If you’re looking for some guidance to start your location-based campaign, let us know, we’d love to help.

Do you use a location-based service for marketing? We’d love to hear what you do to encourage check-ins in the comments.

Photo courtesy of victoriapeckham.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
My mom was a United flight attendant and so I wanted to be a pilot (back in the 70s that was a strange thing for a girl to want to be). Ironically, my sister IS now a pilot…she always said she was going to be President of the United States. Because we traveled a lot growing up (thanks to United) my eighth grade teacher predicted that I would ultimately do something in the travel business.

What was your first job?
My first job was sweeping floors and shoveling sawdust (and eventually answering phones and doing bookkeeping) at my family’s lumber company. My first post-college job was at a stock brokerage firm and shortly thereafter I moved into corporate marketing with Westin Hotels & Resorts. I then actually worked for Wilmerco back in the early days before making a switch to real estate marketing as a Marketing VP for Windermere Real Estate.

How has the marketing business changed the most since you began in the industry?
When I started, marketing was ALL about brand awareness and the emotional connection / loyalty factor. Today, with the digital influence, it’s more about tracking and analytics and analyzing and proving what works to build loyalty. That said, pretty pictures and clever words remain as valuable today as they were back then.

What attracted you to Wilmerco?
As a self-proclaimed “Hotel Snob,” I was attracted back to Wilmerco because I love the notion of connecting people with the places they want to be. We work with some amazing clients and I’m drawn to the idea of getting to know them and sharing their story in a way that helps the right people find them.

Where can we find you when you’re not working?
My philosophy is that I work to live, I don’t live to work…but as a result, I’m always working on something. But when I’m not at our great new office space in the heart of Belltown, I can be found out and about being active with my kids, scouting out the best new restaurant in West Seattle, skiing in Sun Valley or spending time with family in Lake Chelan.

Swap more stories with Lynn anytime. You can reach her at lynn (at) wilmerco (dot) com or 206.462.2260.

When you get tired of walking and want to sleep presidentially in the city, you could stay at the  St. Regis Washington DC (right on infamous K Street) where according to their website every American president has visited since President Coolidge cut the ceremonial grand opening ribbon.

And just for Sarah Vowell fans, she’ll be speaking next weekend at George Washington University.

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor.

Would you place a bid? You could just “buy it now” for $160,000…