What Every FEC Website Should Have in 2011 Katie R. Bruno, PhD

Transcription

1 What Every FEC Website Should Have in 2011 Katie R. Bruno, PhD

2 Topics Content Management Mobile Sites Ecommerce: Parties and Gift Cards Facebook and YouTube Special Offers Special Programs Photography Design Search Engine Optimization

3 Content Management A Content Management System or CMS helps you and your staff to keep your website up to date without having to call upon a professional web designer Usually utilizes a What You See is What Your Get WYSIWYG Editor

4 Content Management Information always up to date Ability to create promotions on the fly Discussion Do you currently use a CMS? What CMS do you use? What person at your facility is charged with keeping the website up to date?

5 Mobile Version of Your Website Nielsen reports that 31% of US mobile phone owners have a smartphone as of December 2010, and expect smartphone to become the majority by the end of Moran Stanley Research estimates sales of smartphone will exceed those of PC s in 2010 Most Popular Platforms Android: Growing share iphone: Growing share Blackberry: Decreasing share Your customers will be trying to view your website on their mobile phone through a browser. How will it look? Can users easily navigate and find the information they need?

6 Mobile Version of Your Website Look at your site on different smartphones to see how it looks. Create a mobile site for your FEC Talk to your web design company about creating a mobile enabled version of your site. Talk to a mobile specific design company Create your own mobile site using services available such as mofuse or mobisite. Discussion Do you currently have a mobile version of your website? If so, how did you do it? Do you need to update your website and mobile site separately?

7 Ecommerce The two ecommerce functionality all FEC websites should be using are: Online Party Reservations Custom application on your site Integrated with your POS system External Services Online Gift Card Sales Easy to do with PayPal Website Payments Standard Discussion Do you currently have Party Reservations on your site? Have you seen increased party reservations? What type of service do you use? Do you currently sell Gift Cards on your site? What type of sales volume do you see? Are sales primarily at holiday time?

8 Facebook and YouTube All parks should have a Facebook Page and a YouTube Channel Facebook Discussion How are you building your fan base? Have you created your own Tabs Do you do Facebook Fan Only offers? YouTube How do you create your YouTube Videos? Phone Flip Website users LOVE video Do you know how easy it is to embed YouTube videos into your website?

9 Special Offers on Your Website Discussion Do you have any printable coupons on your website? Do you think it drives additional business? Do you require users to sign up for your newsletter or give you any information to receive special offers? How often do you change your offers? Do you ask people when they redeem your coupon for their zip code and whether they have been at your facility before?

10 Special Programs Birthday Club type programs Users sign up for a free offer on the child s birthday. Started by Disney, picked up by other parks and FEC s Drives traffic Opportunity to up sell to a party Do you have a Birthday Club type program on your website? What has been the impact on attendance and birthday party reservations? School Fitness or Reading programs Work with local schools to create special offers for students who complete certain tasks such as read a certain number of books or do a certain number of hours of exercise. What other school programs have you used on your site or seen on other websites? Positives and Negatives?

11 Photography Strong photography sells a park Does your current site utilize strong photography? Were the photos taken professionally Did you use guests, employees or professionals How did you handle releases? How hard is it for you to update the photos on your website? How do I use a photo I found on Flickr? Have you ever considered a Photography Contest? Some type of free admission for prizes. Photos must be available for the park to use in promotional material.

12 Website Design is Important Most guest will visit your website before they visit your facility. Guests make DECISIONS based on their visit to your website. What impression does your website give of your facility?

13 Which park do you want to visit? Which looks like good clean family fun?

14 Website Design Discussion Do you know how many people visit your website daily, weekly annually? How often do you update your website s overall design? How much did you pay or how much do you think is the right price to pay? How does the money you spend on your website compare to other advertizing?

15 SEO Can People Find Your Site? Have you claimed and updated your Google Maps listing? Do you use the name of your facility and its geographic location in the text of your site? Do you use Google AdWords? Are you listed in local parenting and activity directories? Where do you advertise your site online?