Online presence is important these days. The Internet has been around since the mid-90’s. We’re now looking at over 20 years of people using the World Wide Web to reach out across the globe. And a properly designed online strategy can help to drive any business new customers. Today we’re going to walk through one of our RV Park Websites, built in 2015, and talk further about the overall online strategy we built for the park.
Point of Rocks RV Park – “Everybody’s Hometown” Park
Prescott Arizona is a destination location. An attractive downtown area, referred to as “Everybody’s Hometown,” complete with hiking trails, mountain biking, several small lakes, historic Whiskey Row, and more. For people in Southern Arizona, Prescott is the “go to” spot during the hot summers. At a mile high, Prescott has milder summers, and offers so much to visitors. And with all of that in mind, Prescott is a competitive market place for many lodging services.
Point of Rocks is one of many places to stay when you visit Prescott. Nestled in the Granite Dells, it’s a scenic location to stay for a while. And RV’ers from across the country enjoy this gem of a park. But even with a great setting, many potential guests missed out on the park due to their lack of an actual online presence. January of 2015 RLC Design started working with the park. With less than 5,000 visitors per year coming to their website, we knew there was room for improvement.
The Pain Points
With a scenic location and a tourist destination town, you’d think that being at 100% occupancy during the “season” would be a slam dunk. However, with more and more travelers making their plans with smart phones, tablets, and computers, a lack of a complete online strategy left the park with open sites throughout the year. The old strategies for RV Parks reaching out to potential new guests are starting to fail, and new methods needed to be used.
For 2015 Point of Rocks drove a lot of visits to their new website and park.
In the case of Point of Rocks, there was definite room for improvement. What were some of their “pains”?
- Paying large sums for print advertising to the RV community.
- Realizing the print advertising was not driving new guests to the park.
- Discounting site prices to attract visitors.
- Their single page website was not receiving any traffic.
- The single page website lacked compelling visuals of a park that is in a stunning area.
- They knew they needed a better online strategy, but didn’t know where to start.
- The park wanted to engage more with potential clients, but didn’t know where to start there either.
2016 saw even further increases in overall visitors to their website, and additional inquiries for reservations during the year.
Solutions Developed Over 2 Years
RLC Design started out providing services to RV Parks and Resorts nationally. As full time RV’ers, the company founders have an intimate knowledge of what guests are looking for, and how guests find parks and resorts today. We knew we could help Point of Rocks reach more guests, and we also knew that the process would take a little time. Like other small business owners, there was uncertainty that the Internet could offer actual solutions. But once the results started coming in, the park was willing to expand their online outreach through to this day.
What solutions were developed for Point of Rocks?
- A total website makeover. Informational pages about the park, its rates, amenities, the local area, things to do, and professional imaging for the website.
- Training on website usage. Park staff can update their website now in order to change rates, update events calendars, and more.
- Social Media Tie Ins. Point of Rocks wasn’t leveraging any social media platforms in 2014. There was a hesitation it would be too much work for minimal results. Now with Facebook and Instagram they’re reaching a larger community.
- Reservation Inquiries. It wasn’t until 2016 that the park started taking e-mail inquiries regarding reservations. Fall of 2016 they felt comfortable enough with adding a simple e-mail inquiry form for potential guests. That simple step in online interactivity started paying off within the first week of implementation.
As you can see, Point of Rocks RV Park Website is continuing to grow with ongoing support from RLC Design. They’re Google outreach continues to grow, even during the off season!
The Results
For any business out there increasing business and adding new clients is probably one of the most important results you can achieve. As you’ve seen in this article, Point of Rocks is increasing traffic to their website each year. And that’s awesome. But does that translate into new business for the park? Most definitely, yes! With the addition of the reservation inquiry form in late 2016 the employees and owners have seen a substantial increase in actual reservation requests. Direct and indisputable results!
Can we help your business achieve similar results?
Yes, yes we can. But there are a few caveats. You see, it’s an ongoing process in order to grow your business presence online. We work hand in hand with our clients. That means you have a continuing role in improving your online presence. In order to get similar results a few things need to happen:
- A commitment from you to be interested in growing your business.
- Regular follow up meetings (twice a month) with RLC Design.
- A commitment to try the “unknown.” Social media engagement is becoming very important these days.
- Understand that this is a process, just like any other component of your current business strategy.
- Understand that your online presence isn’t a “magic pill.” Growing requires commitment to nurturing your online presence on many levels.
- Finally, knowing that RLC Design will be your partner in this venture. We want to see you grow as well!
Want to learn more? Get in touch with us today!