2019 Workshop Schedule

Sarah Benoit of JB Media Institute

Communications technology and digital marketing are changing constantly. There are new online tools for planning a night out or a week long vacation launched every few months that impact your audience’s behavior and influence the trends. Find out what has shifted in 2019 and what tourism and local marketing professionals can expect in 2020. Learn what trends are worth paying attention to and why.

Sarah Benoit of JB Media Institute

Tourism organizations and local businesses rely on social media to share stories, connect with the community, attract visitors and customers, and provide higher levels of customer service. Getting to the top of the news feeds is harder than ever, so brands are using social media for more one-on-one communication. Engagement is the key to success. Learn tips and strategies for increasing social activity and conversions.

Peter Frisa of JB Media Group

Join us for a presentation to learn how to efficiently run tourism and local marketing campaigns on Google Ads. We will cover targeting strategies, best practices for conversion tracking, local and tourism industry benchmarks, and keyword strategies. The team at JB Media Group has been managing Google Ad campaigns for tourism organizations, events, and local businesses since its founding in 2010. If you’re considering or currently utilizing Google Ads for your marketing strategy, you don’t want to miss out on these tips and tricks.

Chris Cavanaugh of Magellan Strategy Group

It may be considered old school, but a good marketing plan is still essential in a new school world. We’ll discuss the process for creating a marketing plan (or writing an even better one). This class will identify the most desirable components of a comprehensive marketing plan, look at the best ways of delivering the plan, and delve into examples of good marketing plans. You’ll learn about best practices, and even a few examples of common mistakes and what not to do.

Justin Belleme of JB Media Institute

When planning trips to new places, tourism destinations, or even your own home town, people often build itineraries featuring multiple experiences and activities. This kind of planning opens an opportunity for uniquely positioned travel, tourism, and local businesses to collaborate and create effective partnerships. These partnerships can help to grow your social media following and reach, expand your email list, and improve your search engine and referral traffic. Explore real-world examples of creative marketing partnerships, social media cross-promotions, collaborative content marketing, and effective list building. Learn best practices to implement and execute authentic tourism and local marketing campaigns with both your existing relationships and to develop new, mutually beneficial, long-term relationships.

Sarah Benoit of JB Media Institute

Facebook and Instagram advertising strategies help brands reach people with messages that are relevant, useful, and entertaining. Most Facebook and Instagram pages with  small budgets for social media ads are still willing to test out various audiences, ad types, and mediums in order to find out what their audience really wants. As the social advertising landscape gets more competitive and expensive, up-to-date strategies are needed to remain relevant and stay visible. Explore the current best practices for social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

Led by Hana Bieliauskas and Amanda Ensinger of Inspire PR

The power of influencer partnerships for travel and tourism continues to grow. Influencers and bloggers, who have large and engaged networks of social followers, are the new travel agents. Instagram is today’s travel guide, especially for millennials. Learn how to identify and form strong relationships with the right national and regional influencers and turn them into ambassadors of your destination. Find out how to get the most out of investing in influencer partnerships—how to ensure they share quality social and online content and exceed expectations. Know what’s okay (and what’s not) to ask of an influencer—and for them to request of you. Get tips for leveraging top influencers’ Instagram accounts to share compelling, authentic content that fuels wanderlust and creates visitors.

Sarah Benoit of JB Media Institute

Google Analytics is a tracking and monitoring tool every website should be using. It is free with any Google account and provides information about how people arrive on your website and what content they look at when they visit. Digital marketing reporting is an essential part of strategic planning and decision making, especially when it comes to managing online campaigns and driving website traffic or conversions. Learn the basics of how to quantify your brand’s success.

Justin Belleme of JB Media Institute

Managing the balance of internal team resources and outsourced vendors support is a challenge for tourism organizations and businesses of all sizes. This class will explore key questions and considerations that small destination marketing organizations and local tourism businesses need to consider when hiring and managing outsourced marketing services. We will discuss which areas of marketing are easiest to outsource and which are better to keep in-house. You will also learn how to evaluate results, how to measure return on investment from outsourced support, and how to avoid feeling trapped in your vendor relationships.

Led by Wolf Hoelscher and Nick Romanos of Status Forward

Getting ranked in Google and attracting traffic to your website is only useful if people visiting your site are taking the actions you want them to take. We’ll explore 10 actionable tips for your home page (or landing page) that will get tangible results.