Here in my home state of Massachusetts, a problem in recent years involved elementary schools (already considered to be among the best in the country) that were concentrating too much effort on teaching students to pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Test, commonly known as MCAS. More recently replaced by newer testing that is in line with the national Common Core Standards that have been adopted by most states, the problem with MCAS was that teachers had to devote far too much classroom time teaching students to score highly on tests rather than actually learning. I am not a teacher, but is seems to me that it is more important for students to learn effectively than to be taught to pass tests with the highest possible scores.

A similar issue takes place when companies that market their website services run bot-based tests that present audits of potential website errors, warnings and load speeds. There is no question that it is important to have a site that renders properly and loads quickly across a full range of browsers and devices; however, all speed tests have their limitations. To run an automated test that purports to present the final word on the quality of a website and the experience that it offers to visitors is a flawed concept at best and a competitive potshot at worst.

No bot can effectively measure the quality of the end-user experience because that is an inherently subjective process. There is a tradeoff between a site that is visually exciting and a site that loads instantly, and many of the “errors” that bots identify account for mere milliseconds in the scope of initial overall page load times. A site that consists of nothing but text will usually run a perfect score, but how many reservations do you think such a site might generate for a campground or outdoor resort? My advice is to avoid falling for the bait, particularly when it is offered by companies that fall short themselves when it comes to overall quality and integrity of design – factors that directly influence human-based decisions rather than bot-based tests.

Let me offer an analogy that relates to the family camping industry. Many parks have begun offering one of the many “wine and paint” sessions that have become popular in recent years. They all follow a similar formula, where an artist whose career has never caught fire leads a session where attendees drink just enough wine to encourage their creativity but not so much wine that they can’t find the end of the paintbrush with the bristles. The idea is for everybody to copy the painting that the session leader paints. The order of the day is uniformity, a lack of originality, and the building of self-esteem. If Pablo Picasso was still alive and attended one of these sessions, his work would be the laugh of the evening.

When it comes to websites, the single most important consideration is whether or not a site is mobile-friendly. A site that is not optimized for display on mobile devices – particularly smartphones – presents an impediment to the end-user experience. What is most important is how long it takes before a user is able to read and navigate your site. Whether some images might take a few seconds to load is not an impediment to that experience.

If you are wondering whether your website is up to par, ask for a human, personalized evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses. That will take some time and effort to prepare, but it will offer results that are based upon the actual experiences of human end-users, not the bots that will never contact you to make a reservation for Site 127 for the second week of August.

Times change, along with the ways that websites are viewed and the algorithms that determine how they are ranked in search results. The one thing that is consistent is the importance of working with a knowledgeable and reliable company with a trusted track record to stay on top of things and to represent the best interests of your company.

It is human nature that we all tend to resist change. From brand loyalty to daily routines, we tend to be pretty predictable as individuals. When it comes to the browsers that we use to surf the Internet, we tend to be quite settled in our ways, with very few of us whimsically switching from Safari to Edge to Opera. Part of the reason has to do with the way we each like to stay within our own comfort zone, and another part of the reason involves convenience. Switching to a new browser can be a somewhat daunting task, with bookmarks, history, remembered passwords and other settings to be either imported or rebuilt.

In my own instance, I had been loyal to the Firefox browser for several years now, ever since Internet Explorer’s difficulties pushed me over the edge. More recently, I had been reluctantly tolerating the fact that Firefox was either locking up or crashing on my relatively new Windows 10 computer for several weeks. It got to the point where its misbehavior became predictable, with a day when Firefox did not crash being about as rare as a three dollar bill. I continued to wait for the next Firefox update to resolve my problem – after all, I had auto-submitted probably 100 error reports to Mozilla over this time – but to no avail. When it locked up, I would often check Windows 10 Task Manager, and I would find that Firefox was using 15% of my CPU capacity and taking up way too much memory.

Enough was enough. I decided that I had run out of patience, and it was time to leave Firefox behind as my default browser. Although most of us are familiar with only a handful of options, there is actually quite a collection of available options. I was gravitating toward Vivaldi, but neither the LastPass password manager nor the Disconnect ad blocker that I rely upon support the Vivaldi browser. Based upon plug-in support, I decided to move to Chrome, and I am seeing a remarkable improvement in the speed of my browsing experience, with Chrome using about 0.1% of CPU capacity and barely more than 0.001% of my system’s RAM.

For a variety of reasons, it is difficult to compile really accurate statistics regarding browser usage, even in only the United States, let alone globally. If you check your own website’s statistics in Google Analytics, you will notice that a very high percentage will be identified as “unknown”. Probably the most reliable data is presented by Net Market Share, where it is clear that on desktop computers and tablets, Chrome is the leader of the pack and gaining ground, Internet Explorer is rapidly losing market share (with few users embracing Microsoft Edge as its replacement), and Firefox, Safari, and everything else is pretty much just holding its own with far lower percentages of users. These trends are also tracked in the ongoing browser statistics compiled by W3Schools.com.

Of course, smartphones are accounting for an ever-greater share of Web browsing, and they present an entirely different set of statistics, where most users tend not to switch away from the default Android or iOS browser that comes installed on their devices.

You may be wondering why this might be important to you. First of all, go ahead and embrace change in your own browsing habits. Almost incomprehensibly, the (fortunately dwindling) numbers of Internet Explorer users include people who are still using IE10, IE9, IE8, and even older versions, seemingly oblivious to the fact that IE 11 was replaced by Microsoft Edge, where the current version at the time of this writing is Edge15. Running older versions of browser software represents a severe security risk, particularly when that browser is no longer supported by its developer (Microsoft, in the instance of Internet Explorer.) There is a big difference between being loyally running the latest version of Safari on your Mac and blindly running Internet Explorer 8 because it came installed on your old Windows 7 computer.

From a business perspective, it is important that you (or your webmaster) check how your website renders and performs on all browsers, operating systems, and devices that are commonly in use today. Some sites look fine on some browsers but less than perfect on others, whereas many older sites are essentially useless on mobile devices.

Not that long ago, I checked the new website of a campground using the Firefox browser that was still my default at the time. The site, which looked very nice with its embedded YouTube video, embedded widgets and more WordPress plug-ins than you could shake a stick at, would barely load in Firefox and who knows how it works in all those versions of Internet Explorer that people are still using. (Yes, it works much better in Chrome!) Well, according to Net Market Share, Firefox holds 11.79% of the current market share, Internet Explorer’s various versions still occupy 18.95% of market share, and I do not know of a single campground that can afford to risk driving away over 30% of its potential customers.

Going back to that content-heavy website, another very interesting and eye-opening test measures the actual cost of viewing a site on a mobile device using the most popular mobile service providers in various countries (those providers being Verizon and AT&T in the United States.) Calculating the best case scenario using the least expensive data plans, the actual cost of visiting that website is $0.86 in the United States and a whopping $1.65 in Canada (based upon U.S. dollars.) If your potential guest is on a limited data usage plan, a site like this with 9MB of total loaded content is not making a favorable first impression. Chances are those people are not going to wait for the site to load and run up their bills. To run a test of your site, visit What Does My Site Cost?

Are you in the mood for another test? Although any website (unless it uses Flash) will render on a mobile device, it may or may not present optimized content on either Android devices or iPhones. To test your site’s appearance on mobile devices, use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test, where the results might present a rude awakening of how your site appears to perhaps 50% or more of its visitors (many of whom will then abandon your site even faster than they found it!)

As you can see, choices in Web browsers can have far greater implications than first meet the eye. Although Firefox is no longer my default browser, it is still running on my computer for testing purposes, along with Safari, Edge, Opera and, of course, Chrome. If your site’s testing is not up to par, particularly in terms of its overall mobile-friendliness, it may be time to consider its overall cost to your park in potentially lost business.

I logged onto Facebook this morning, and I was immediately presented with a sponsored display ad hawking a t-shirt design that read, “Never underestimate an Old Man who listens to Neil Young and was born in September.” If I was naïve, I would see that ad and think, “Wow! This is my perfect t-shirt”, then order one. In the short time in which this ad has been displayed, it has been “liked” by 480 people, shared by 182 people (multiplying its reach at no charge to the advertiser), and has received 61 comments. Every one of those comments is from a man who confirms that he was born in September (usually adding a year from the 1950’s or 1960’s) and wants one of the shirts.

Is the fact that I was shown this advertising a coincidence? No way! It is custom-tailored to my identity. If I went to the order page and modified the URL, I could display any of a number of t-shirt designs based upon:

• The name of the performer.
• The birth month.
• Whether I was a man or a woman.

Here is an example:

To make the ad even more effective, the ordering page includes a countdown clock to create a false sense of urgency:

Depending upon how you view it, being presented these ads is either a brilliant use of Facebook’s marketing potential or an egregious violation of the personal privacy of Facebook users. In this case, I was being shown advertising that was based upon the disclosure of my gender, age, month of birth, and taste in music … all information that I had either voluntarily or unwittingly published on Facebook for either my friends or the world to see.

Yesterday, I was presented with another variation of the ad, based upon the fact that I drive a Jaguar … another fact that I had disclosed on Facebook. Now, I can also order a coffee mug! I am sure that I could modify the URL on the ordering page to change the design to show the name and logo of just about any car company. (On a side note, I have to wonder if these performers and companies are being paid royalties by the t-shirt company for use of their trademarks.)

You may think that this is all innocent, fun, and the price we pay for the otherwise free use of social media apps like Facebook, but there is more involved. I don’t know how many times I have seen friends on Facebook post a complete set of answers to 50 personal questions such as the name of their elementary school, their first phone number, name of their eldest sibling, and so forth. Whenever I see this being treated as a harmless and fun exercise, I cannot help but ask myself, “Are you insane?” If any of these questions and answers seems familiar, it is because they are among the same ones that are used as security tests on your online banking or an e-commerce site when you reset a password. Yes, the name of your first pet can lead to the theft of your identity!

You may have seen the recent news about the “Google Docs” phishing scam that proliferated in e-mails on May 4, 2017, said to be the most effective e-mail worm since the “I Love You” virus that caused havoc back in 2000. The scam was effective because it looked legitimate (it is so easy to copy the appearance of a legitimate website!), came from somebody you knew (rather than some random name chosen by a hacker in Belarus), and was spread through the type of shared online document that we have come to accept as routine. Even cautious recipients who would never open an e-mail attachment from a stranger thought that it was safe to download the same sort of document that appeared to have been shared via a cloud service by a known sender. All of these scams, whether relatively harmless or downright nefarious, play upon the human willingness to trust those with access to our personal information.

At the moment, leading into Mother’s Day 2017, there are several gift card scams that are proliferating on Facebook almost faster than they can be identified and taken down. One purports to offer a $50.00 coupon for use at Lowe’s home improvement stores in exchange for taking a short survey, in which you will be disclosing a wealth of personal information. Another purports to offer a $75.00 coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond, the same sort of scam that attempts to gather your personal information for exploitation later.

As I have said in the title of this article, it is never too late to start guarding your privacy. In fact, today is the best day to begin!

Most people are unfamiliar with the term “heritage tourism,” even though many have already personally engaged with this, the single highest growth segment of the overall tourism industry. Often based upon archeological, cultural or religious sites, heritage tourism is far from limited to world class destinations like Machu Picchu, in Peru or the Vatican, in Rome. Despite our more recent history in the United States, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has defined cultural tourism as the exploration of cultural, historic and natural resources through a process of “traveling to experience the places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past.”

Cultural and heritage tourism is so important that a Position Paper on Cultural & Heritage Tourism was developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities for the 2005 U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Summit. The conclusion was that “America’s rich heritage and  culture,  rooted in our history, our creativity and our diverse population, provides visitors to our communities with a wide variety of cultural opportunities, including museums, historic sites, dance, music, theater, book and other festivals, historic buildings, arts and crafts fairs, neighborhoods, and landscapes.”

According to the report, cultural and heritage tourists spend more, and represent a significant international component (where the top 5 markets at the time were the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France and Australia) of guests who stay longer than others, in their quest for uniquely American experiences. The report also outlined how “Every place in America — rural area, small town, Native American reservation, urban neighborhood and suburban center — has distinctive cultural and heritage assets that can potentially attract visitors and their spending.”

The report continued, “Communities throughout the U.S. have developed successful programs linking the arts, humanities, history and tourism. Cultural and heritage organizations — such as museums, performing arts organizations, festivals, humanities, and historic preservation groups — have formed partnerships with tour operators, state travel offices, convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs), hotels, and air carriers to create initiatives that serve as models for similar efforts across the U.S.” It is time to take the initiative to add campgrounds to this list!

We often tend to be unaware of the historical treasures in our own backyards. For example, I was born and raised in metropolitan Springfield, Massachusetts; however, it was probably not until I was in my forties that I visited the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, when we had guests coming to visit from another region of the country. Founded as “The Arsenal at Springfield” under orders of George Washington, the Springfield Armory became famous for its innovative manufacturing techniques, the use of interchangeable components that simplified maintenance and repairs in the battlefield, and the development of the M1903 Springfield and the M1 Garand rifles that were manufactured in tremendous numbers and saw decades of legendary service. Now under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, a visit to the Springfield Armory National Historic Site (more locally, still referred to as the Springfield Armory Museum) is an essential stop for anyone with an interest in American history in general or its manufacturing or military components. This is the essence of local heritage tourism and its ability to draw in vast numbers of visitors from near and far alike.

According to an article published in the Springfield Republican newspaper on July 28, 2014, the Springfield Armory National Historic Site hosted 17,783 visitors, comprised of both individuals and groups, in 2013. Admission to the park is free, but these visitors directly contributed $980,200.00 to the local economy, on a per capita basis outspending visitors to any other National Park in the northeastern United States, including the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell. Some of that spending should have gone to campgrounds in the local area, and it should certainly be a goal for local RV parks to promote this type of heritage destination. The things to do in the local area form the essence of why many people will choose to stay – or extend their stays – at the local campgrounds that make an effort to capitalize upon their proximity. Some of the major attractions in the Springfield area are Six Flags New England (open about half the year) and The Big E (open for 17 days in September.) The Springfield Armory National Historic Site is open 7 days a week from Memorial Day through October 31^st, then 5 days a week throughout the rest of the year.

Continuing with heritage tourism in the City of Springfield, Massachusetts as my example, a visit to the Springfield Armory National Historic Site goes hand-in-hand with a visit to the relatively new Museum of Springfield History, located in the Quadrangle museum complex about a mile down the road. This museum offers superb collections and exhibitions that highlight the city’s important role in the American industrial revolution. In its Automobile Gallery alone, transportation buffs will see examples of vehicles built by Stevens-Duryea (locally argued to be the first automobile built in America), Knox, Atlas, and Rolls-Royce of America – which built nearly 3,000 luxury vehicles in Springfield between the years of 1920 and 1931, when this only manufacturing facility outside of England fell victim to the Great Depression. The fact that the site of the Rolls-Royce manufacturing plant was demolished in 2011 makes the preservation of what remains all that much more important.

In other wings of the museum, visitors will marvel at over two dozen rare Indian Motocycles, built in Springfield from 1901 to 1953, and the largest collection of Smith & Wesson firearms (still in Springfield and now employing 1,200 workers) anywhere in the world. Other displays showcase Milton Bradley Company board games, Granville Brothers aircraft, and dozens of small manufacturers who once called Springfield home.

What I have described here is precisely what the Position Paper on Cultural & Heritage Tourism explained in the following words, “Linking similar assets together as a linear ‘strings of pearls’ allows consumers to travel by motivation and interests — such as military history, ethnic settlements, music, commerce and industry, architecture or landscapes — to expand opportunities for these visitors to stay longer and spend more.”

I have concentrated on only one component (manufacturing) within one city (Springfield) in Western Massachusetts. Wherever your park is located, there is an equally fascinating history that is waiting to be discovered by heritage tourism enthusiasts from around the country and around the world. The first step is for you to become aware of what is in your backyard, then to actively promote those unique resources to your guests. Consider arranging possibilities such as field trips, discount admission passes, and special presentations at your park.

In order for your business to grow and prosper, it is important to continually add to its customer base. Look toward the old to find a new component of business in local cultural and heritage tourism.

Passwords have come a long way since the days of Prohibition, when a knock on the door of a speakeasy required the necessary password for entry and the consumption of illegal liquor. Today, we use passwords and personal identification numbers for just about everything online, in an effort to protect the privacy of our personal information.

Identity theft has grown rampant, proliferating at a time when almost every personal or business transaction passes through one or more computer network. According to the Federal Trade Commission’s latest annual report (covering the 2015 calendar year, with the 2016 report due out in February 2017), there were 480,000 identity theft complaints filed during that time period. Of these, 45% involved tax- or wage-related fraud, 16% involved credit card fraud, 10% involved phone or utilities fraud, 6% involved bank fraud, and 4% involved loan fraud.

One recent report surmised that 15 million Americans have become the victims of identity theft in 2016. That means that 7% of all adults have been victimized in this year alone, with an approximate per-instance loss of $3,500.00. On average, these people spend an additional $500.00 and 30 hours of time trying to recover their identities and make their private information less vulnerable.

Start with Your E-Mail Passwords

My company provides e-mail hosting services through Google and Rackspace for our website hosting clients, and it is rare for a few days to pass without being contacted by a client who has purchased a new computer or mobile device but has misplaced an e-mail account password. For obvious reasons, we do not store those passwords, and we strongly advise our clients to keep records of their passwords in a secure location. Our only option is to assist with changing the lost password, which will then require that passwords be updated on any other actively used devices.

When setting up those e-mail accounts (or updating a password), clients are often annoyed that we will not agree to use a weak password like 123456, abc123, password, passw0rd, qwerty, steelers, yankees, football, baseball, camaro or firebird. (Yes, those are actual passwords that consistently show up on compiled lists of weak passwords.) In fact, Google’s Gmail will not allow an admin to use a password that is made up of fewer than 8 characters (although there are no further password security requirements beyond this minimum length.)

Some people make an attempt at generating a secure password that they can still remember. For example, they might concoct “AIwfCim2ft” from “All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth.” The rule of thumb is to use something that is both easy to remember and difficult to guess. This is definitely a step in the right direction, but something totally random that also uses special characters and spaces would be even better, although far less memorable.

Secure passwords will provide a layer of protection against some bad character obtaining your password and hacking into one of your accounts, but they are of far less value in protecting your identity should your account be one of thousands (or millions) compromised in a major data breach.

Hacks Happen

You do not need to be Sony Pictures getting under the skin of Kim Jong Un. Big companies are routinely targeted by hackers from around the globe, putting the security of their subscribers at risk when a breach occurs. In general, big businesses take extraordinary measures to attempt to maintain the utmost security standards, but it is an ongoing game of cat and mouse. For example, Facebook alone has paid out over $5 million to date in its not-highly-publicized Bug Bounty program, where it pays independent “white hat” hackers to identify and repair security vulnerabilities.

That is an example of what one big online business is doing; however your own personal security is to a great degree your own responsibility. You will want to check (and often disable) routinely loose security settings when you buy a new computer or mobile device or when you upgrade one of those to a new operating system. Keep in mind that settings that benefit convenience and ease of use are very often directly at odds with the safeguarding of your personal security.

There are many ways that passwords can be hacked online. The most common technique is the use of dictionary attacks, where commonly used words are highly vulnerable and easily uncovered. Another technique consists of using the brute force of computing power and sophisticated software to run through every possible combination of characters. The more bits of data involved (directly proportional to the number and random nature of characters), the longer it will take to hack a password. Complex character combinations and the use of encryption slow down, but will not prevent, the disclosure of a password to a determined intruder.

There are actually times when a company or individual needs to recover a lost password, and there are other instances where law enforcement needs to crack a password in order to uncover criminal activity. We are all familiar with the FBI vs. Apple Computer encryption debate, involving a cell phone owned one of the shooters in the December 2015 San Bernardino, California terrorist attack. Whether used for good or bad, there are dozens of free, open-source brute force hacking tools that can be easily found and downloaded online. Their existence and ease of access should provide a wake-up call to any computer or mobile device user.

Just in case you think that one of your own passwords is “secure enough”, enter it into this online tool for what will probably be a rude awakening:
https://howsecureismypassword.net/

Minimum Standards

The minimum standards for password security that are generally considered acceptable today involve the use of at least 12 (preferably 16) entirely random characters (a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, spaces and special characters), never including a dictionary word or a repeated sequence, and with no password used in more than one application.

There are several online tools that will assist you in generating secure random passwords. Using one of these tool, I just generated a random 16-character password that I then entered into the secure password test site (shown above.) According to that site, the password that I entered would take 41 trillion years to crack. Here are two such password generator tools. Give one of them a try:
Password Generator
https://passwords-generator.org/
Bitwarden Password Generator
https://bitwarden.com/password-generator/

Storing Passwords

The best advice for keeping track of your cryptic passwords is to always maintain a written paper record in a very secure location. To simplify your life, you can also use one of several password managers that will allow you to encrypt and store all of your passwords in one secure location. You will only have to remember one password to access your files. (If you have been following along and learning from what I have written, that password will meet the standards that I have outlined above.)

The following are some of the best free password managers. They all work across multiple devices. Compare their features and choose one:

LastPass • Dashlane • KeePass

Bear in mind that even these password managers are vulnerable to hackers; however, in one documented security breach, only users with weak passwords were impacted. We are over a month into a New Year. Resolve to at least take a step in a positive direction when it comes to your online security.

I thought that it would be a good opportunity to share some of the key points from one of my marketing seminars at the recent National ARVC Outdoor Hospitality Conference and Expo. In that seminar, I suggested that print marketing is very much alive and well in these days when most everybody obsesses over the impact of the Internet and its social media components. I also suggested that there are guidelines to be followed that will help you to maximize the impact of your investment.

First, target your marketing. A shotgun approach rarely works. For the same reason that it would make little sense to run an advertisement for a campground in Michigan in the Florida pages of a national directory, it makes total sense to embrace the opportunity to advertise in your own state association’s directory.

My next point was to never waste money on ad space that is too small to be effective. Size matters. An ad that is lost in the clutter generates little if any recall. Beyond size, a clean design that makes effective use of what is broadly referred to as “white space” will stand out on the printed page. That clean design will almost always be produced by an independent professional design firm that is working for you – not the publication – and that understands your marketing objectives and how to ensure that your ad is part of your business’s overall branding strategy.

Your print advertising should reinforce – and be reinforced by – your collateral advertising, website, social media content, signage, and branded merchandise. When it comes to graphics, colors, fonts, headlines and taglines, consistency is mission critical, and “close enough” represents nothing more than a missed opportunity.

Because you never want to settle for close enough, always see a proof prior to publication. If necessary, never hesitate to ask for a second or third proof. On the other hand, if you have been shown a third proof that you still feel is off target, it is time to decide what is going wrong. Is the design firm a mismatch with your company, or are you attempting to micromanage to the degree that you are interfering with the creative process? Always try to evaluate the marketing message from the perspective of a prospective customer.

Trust your designer to understand the “nuts and bolts” of ad production. We have all seen do-it-yourself advertisements with low-resolution graphics and text that is almost unreadable on the printed page. Your designer will choose the right color space, resolution, fonts, and file formats that will make your business look its best.

A Few Secrets to Lowering Your Cost
and Maximizing the Impact of Your Directory Advertising

• A professional design firm may qualify for a 15% agency discount, essentially negating the cost of its services. In a smaller publication with light distribution numbers, however, do not be surprised if your ad production costs equal or exceed the cost of the ad space itself.
• Ask for discounts. Most publishers offer early payment discounts. You may also obtain discounts if you are placing more than one ad in a publication, if you are bundling your ad with other media, or if you hold out for a “remnant” – unsold advertising space just prior to a publishing deadline.
• Insist on color, but never pay a premium for it. Most publications these days are printed in four-color process. Be aware that it does not cost a publisher a penny more to run your ad in full color than it does to run that same ad in black and white. Negotiate, and do not pay a penny more.
• Keep your eye on auctions. Most campground state associations have fund-raising auctions that are incorporated into their annual meetings or conventions. These auctions often present opportunities to purchase ad space at deep discounts, especially if there are not several parks bidding up the price.
• Ask for preferred ad placement. This generally means a right-hand page, with your ad adjacent to related editorial copy. You never want your ad to appear on a page (or a two-page spread) that is populated by nothing but advertising. Those are what I like to call “page-turners” because nobody spends time lingering on those pages. Negotiate premium ad space at no charge, using your leverage as either a new advertiser or a loyal advertiser. Never agree to “ROP” ad space. This stands for “run of publication” and means that you will have zero control over where your ad appears. It will usually be buried away somewhere in the back of the book.
• Proofreading requires more than one set of eyes. We rarely see our own errors or omissions. Always get another set of eyes, but explain your objective. When you are asking somebody to proofread, you are asking them to look for typos or other blatant errors. You are not asking them to critique the ad concept or design at this stage of production. If you want design input, ask for that earlier on in the process, never forgetting the old idiom that “too many cooks spoil the broth.” Trust the professionals that you hire, taking the opinions of relatives and employees under advisement. Ultimately, remember that once you have signed off on a final proof, a publisher is beyond liability.
• Always include a compelling call to action. Be sure to include your telephone number and website address, but present them in a manner that encourages people to proceed to that next step. Never expect any single ad to generate a significant amount of business in and of itself. There is only so much that can be said within the confines of a printed space. Use your ad as an effective tool that will encourage prospective customers to go online or call, where your persuasive process may continue to its intended conclusion.
• Learn to say no, but also learn to say yes. Do not waste money on advertising that is not a natural fit for your business, but remain open to exploring new opportunities.

For any business to prosper, it is important to maintain ongoing awareness in the eyes of its consumers. This should be accomplished in a variety of ways, with directory advertising being an important component in the mix. Wisely executed, that directory advertising can easily be one of the single most effective components of your business’s overall marketing strategy.

I am writing this article after attending the latest Warren Miller Entertainment ski film, “Here, There & Everywhere”, at the first of two showings on a Saturday night in November at the Bushnell Theater, in Hartford, Connecticut. For those unfamiliar, this was the 67^th in a series of annual ski films that bear the name of the now 92-year-old, legendary filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and outdoor sports enthusiast, Warren Miller.

Miller actively directed and narrated each of these films through the 1990’s, selling the company to his son in the 1980’s, with the company eventually being sold to a series of publishing conglomerates, starting with Time, Inc. and now Active Interest Media (the publisher of Ski Magazine and a long list of equestrian, backpacking, and outdoor lifestyle magazines.) It has come a long way from when a young Warren Miller was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1946, buying his original wind-up 8mm Bell & Howell movie camera, and camping out in a teardrop camper in the parking lot of Squaw Valley for two years. The production quality of the films has spectacularly improved, with high-definition cameras and helicopters replacing the old 8mm movie camera, as I can clearly recall from the time when I attended my first Warren Miller film back in 1971 or 1972.

That night’s two showings in Hartford represented only one of 136 venues in the United States for the English language version of the current film, with the United States being one of 14 countries that are included in the world tour. These extravagant live events all take place within the month of November, leading into the upcoming ski season (already underway at some resorts that strive for early opening dates.) People pay an average of $20.00 per ticket (with a discount for purchasing a month or more in advance) to attend, and there were probably 1,000 people at the Bushnell that night for the first showing. Per the Warren Miller Entertainment website, the films are shown to 500,000 fans per year.

I am relating this story because I see remarkable parallels between the business enterprise that a young Warren Miller founded and the histories of so many of the leading campground operations today, particularly the nominees and winners of the annual National ARVC Park of the Year awards. Many campgrounds share a common beginning, with owners who devoted endless hours to performing every necessary task, saddled with shoestring budgets and staffs that often consisted of little more than family members who shared the commitment to a vision. One common element that I see between Warren Miller Entertainment and successful campground operations is an investment into consistent improvements from one year to the next.

The parallels between Warren Miller films and the campground industry only begin with production quality and infrastructure. Both businesses are probably incorrectly perceived by most people as “seasonal” operations, since most of their respective incomes are generated within very narrow calendar windows. (If you think that a campground with a prime season between Memorial Day and Labor Day has a short season, imagine showing a film in venues around the world within the single month of November!) What most people fail to understand are the endless hours and investments behind the scenes that involve everything from backhoe labor to hiring an upcoming season’s entertainment.

I should also mention that the Warren Miller films feature some of the finest athletes on skis and snowboards today (as well as a tip of the hat this year to snowmobiles and fat bikes.) The films do not simply show footage of anybody who knows how to stand up on a pair of skis or a snowboard. The common thread here would probably be represented by the quality of the staff employed at a park, a persuasive argument for recruiting the best employees possible.

The success and longevity of Warren Miller films is only partially based upon the income from ticket sales to people who want to see the finest athletes on snow. Perhaps the biggest players are the sponsorships. These include the obvious connections like Ski Magazine, with the same corporate ownership, as well as several of the destinations, such as Western Montana’s Glacier Country, that are featured in the various location segments within the current film. Other current sponsors include K2 Skis, L.L. Bean, Helly Hansen Outerwear, and Moosehead Beer. Then there are local sponsorships and media partners, such as the Hartford Courant newspaper and Connecticut’s Ski Sundown.

The sponsors pay dearly for the opportunity to be promoted both within the films and within the events. In at least one segment of the film, the product placement for Moosehead Beer was almost embarrassing in its transparency. In another segment, everybody seems to be skiing on K2 skis, with frequent close-ups of the K2 logo and branding. These sponsors are also prominently featured in the “Warren Miller’s Snoworld” magazine that is given out to each person who attends a film showing (remember that the parent company is in the magazine publishing business), featured in the on-screen advertising preceding the film and shown during an intermission, given the opportunity to participate in the free “swag” coupons that are available online exclusively to film attendees, on on-location signage, and during the live program segments where handlers work up the crowd to cheer for sponsors.

There are also opportunities for schools, clubs, and independent promoters to host DVD showings of the films in local venues in exchange for an upfront guarantee or percentage of gross tickets sales, whichever is greater. These opportunities come with a wide range of marketing and promotional support materials that help to ensure a successful partnership.

Whether a sponsor or a venue for a local showing, these arrangements are highly profitable for Warren Miller Entertainment and present an opportunity for businesses to effectively reach a wide audience with sought-after demographics. The sponsorships themselves help to drive ticket sales. For example, our price of admission was more than offset by the value of the free lift ticket to Vermont’s Sugarbush ski resort, a solid incentive for us to attend the showing. When we ski at Sugarbush this winter, we will be spending money on food and drinks, while others might include lodging, rentals, and additional lift tickets. These are clearly win-win situations for everybody involved.

For years, I have been encouraging campgrounds to develop partnerships with local businesses that need their guests … and that their guests need to both choose a campground and to justify extending their stays. I am hoping that this article will have demonstrated the potential benefits of building those relationships with any of a wide range of local businesses that depend upon the same base of consumers that is represented by your guests. This goes far beyond having local businesses buy an advertisement in a guest guide or displaying their literature in your registration area. It is to your advantage to work these partnerships for everything they’re worth. Your business will benefit, and the results will be clearly visible in your bottom line. Perhaps the most famous Warren Miller one-liner from among his many compiled words of wisdom sums this up: “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll just be one year older when you do.”

Successful business concepts today generally involve entirely new ways of thinking. In the world of computer software and mobile apps, the terminology is known as disruptive technology, and it refers to the fact that nothing really new or transformative comes from simply applying a new coat of paint or polish to something old and familiar. In a broad sense, the personal computer and the cell phone were among the greatest disruptors of recent time.

If you go back in time, other ground-breakers included the friction match, the printing press, the incandescent light bulb, the internal combustion engine, film, radio, television, and so on. Certainly, some of these inventions evolved over time rather than instantly bursting onto the scene. Television, for example, gradually evolved from radio to the flat-screen displays of today.

From the dozen local VHF channels of the early years, came UHF adapters, cable, and satellite systems that now bring hundreds of programming options into the home of any subscriber. Even the remote control has evolved by leaps and bounds from the original Zenith Flash-Matic, introduced in 1955, to the programmable, multi-function devices of today. I remember a very primitive one-button remote control on my family’s Sylvania console TV back in the 1960s. We could not watch TV during a thunderstorm because lightning made the remote control go crazy, endlessly changing the channels on the motorized tuner!

Disruptive ideas are far from limited to the technology industries. In the customer service industries, we need to think less like our grandparents and more like our next generation of customers. For campground owners, this means thinking outside the box, seeking out the next new idea that will appeal to your guests. When was the last time you invested in a major piece of new recreational equipment? Not simply a new playground, but things like a fitness course, canine agility park, jumping pillow, gem mining station, laser tag, or spray park. And when is the last time that you really shook up your activities schedule, adding an event or two that will run the risk of being ahead of its time but that could also prove to be overwhelmingly popular?

I recently heard about a business in New Jersey that was founded in 2015, has apparently been successful, and is one of those “who wudda thunk it?” head-scratcher concepts. Stumpy’s Hatchet House is difficult to explain, but if falls under the umbrella category of the adult fun industry. It is the first indoor hatchet-throwing facility in the United States, probably a lot more fun than either bowling or darts. Customers pay $40.00 per person for a two-hour session that includes safety training, a lesson, hatchet rental, and use of a hatchet pit. A separate party room can be rented by groups for $100.00 for a two-hour session, or the entire venue can be rented for $1,000.00 per hour. Spectators (referred to as “non-throwers”) pay a cover charge of $15.00 each. When I visited their website in December, Stumpy’s was taking reservations for a New Year’s Eve hatchet-throwing buffet and seeking out inquiries from prospective franchisees.

Time will tell whether this venture will take off and succeed in the long run, but most service business today are not planning where they will be 50 years from now. Serial entrepreneurs work within a far shorter time-frame (typically 10 years) within which to take risks, hopefully profit, move on to the next venture, and sell to a new investor. When you come right down to it, how many campgrounds are not currently for sale, given the right price and circumstances, along with a ready and willing buyer?

A park that embraces concepts on the cutting edge (no hatchet-throwing pun intended) will profit in the short run and tremendously increase its value in the long run. Give this thinking a new level of commitment as we head into a new year.

Returning from a recent vacation in Ecuador, I had time to pause and reflect upon the extraordinary customer service that my wife and I consistently experienced in our travels in a country that is doing everything imaginable to brand itself as the next major tourism destination. Far from being random instances where we were lucky enough to encounter that rare employee who cared, we found that customer service that extended far beyond all reasonable expectations was the rule rather than the exception. Let me outline a few specific examples. Then ask yourself if you and your staff are doing everything possible to make your guests feel special. It is my belief that the businesses that we encountered in Ecuador represent the new standard that will separate the winners from the losers in the hospitality industry. It is no longer about price. I believe that your next wave of guests will make their decisions based upon the customer service extended.

Casa Divina Lodge

During one leg of our trip, we rented an SUV and drove from the coastal city of Guayaquil through the Andes Mountains to the capital city of Quito. Along the way, one of our stays was at Casa Divina Lodge, high in the cloud forest of Mindo. On our way, we had the misfortune to find ourselves in a very awkward situation with the Transito police near Santa Domingo, thanks to an expired registration certificate on the vehicle that we rented from Thrifty Car Rental. The police did not speak English, we did not speak Spanish, and they were demanding a bribe. We called Casa Divina Lodge, and the manager intervened on our behalf, reducing the bribe that we were forced to pay and allowing us to continue our journey.

Upon our arrival in Mindo, Efrain Toapanta, the owner of Casa Divina met us in the center of town and escorted us to the eco-resort that he had built himself. Otherwise impossible to find, the resort is hidden in the forest some 5 kilometers from the center, and its owner trucked our suitcases in a wheelbarrow from the parking area to our second-level lodging. Meals were catered to our special dietary needs, and Efrain arranged for a local ornithologist to take us out for a lengthy session of birding where, with his assistance, we identified 74 species of birds in one day.

Molino San Juan

Our next stay was at Molino San Juan, in the shadow of Cayambe Volcano and on the outskirts of the city of Cayambe. The hospitality that was extended to us here, part of the family owned and operated Hacienda La Copañia, was truly remarkable. During our off-season stay, we were the only guests at what is considered the “hotel” of the hacienda, but Jaime Pallares, its owner/manager (who had previously worked with Hilton Hotels) gave us more undivided attention that one might expect to be afforded to a full house. For example, during the first night of our stay, just in case we needed anything, he slept in an upstairs guestroom rather than going home for the night!

Heated living spaces are not the norm in Ecuador, and our desire for greater warmth in our room was met with additional blankets, a space heater in our room, and hot water bottles in our bed. As part of our visit, we were given a personal tour of the Hacienda’s rose showroom. (The region is the world’s third largest producers of roses.) Displaying dozens of artistic arrangements, the roses are replaced every three days, ensuring that the blossoms are always nothing less than perfect – even if they are only to be seen by two guests. In addition to our personal tour of the hacienda grounds, museum, historic Jesuit chapel, and rose showroom, Jaime researched and arranged the finest possible guide service for our visit to Cayambe Volcano.

Carlota

The Carlota is a new boutique hotel in the historic district of Quito. From the moment that we arrived, we were greeted by name and made to feel right at home. Operations Manager Nydia Vargas did everything possible to ensure that we enjoyed our stay, even modifying her work schedule so she could be on desk when we might require her assistance. When we were unfamiliar with the area and needed to visit a nearby ATM, she had an employee escort us. When the weather was rainy, she reserved two umbrellas for our use. When we had two large bags of clothing to be laundered, she negotiated a significant discount with the hotel’s laundry service provider.

When we were checking out, we asked if the hotel could provide us with water in plastic bottles that we could take to the airport. (Their usual water is served in glass bottles.) Without hesitation, Nydia asked the waiter to get us two bottles of water (after first asking us if we needed more than two.) It was not until he reappeared a minute or two later that we realized that he had been sent to a nearby store to purchase the water bottles on our behalf. Are you beginning to get a feeling for the exceptional level of service at this hotel? The Carlota was once the home of a former President of Ecuador, and we were made to feel presidential!

What Is Your Park Doing that Makes It Special?

I have far more stories that I could relate, if space allowed, not the least of which would be our experience spending a week on a the M/Y Grace, a small yacht in the Galapagos Islands, where a dozen passengers were outnumbered by thirteen crew members. I think I have made my point, and I have already related my experiences in TripAdvisor reviews, where I now have 110,000 readers. Ask yourself what you can do that goes the extra mile for your guests, offering a service that would never be made available by your contemporaries. Standards and expectations in the world have changed, as baby boomers and subsequent generations finds themselves with disposable incomes but limited amounts of leisure time. Travel yourself, if necessary, and I think you will soon recognize that customer service has become mission-critical to your park’s success.

Activities at your park are capable of capturing the public’s attention, as I noticed recently when National Public Radio picked up a story about what used to be called Hebron Maine’s Redneck Olympics. It seems that the U.S. Olympic Committee caught wind of the long-running event and made the organizers drop the word “Olympics” from the name of the event, which they are now calling the “Redneck Blank.” If you believe in the adage that “all publicity is good publicity,” the Hebron event just got a major boost.

Without entering into the realm of trademark infringement, there are probably events at your park that are just as newsworthy. No, I am not talking about how you have celebrated Christmas in July for almost as long as Santa Claus has been alive; however, events that are either topical or unique constitute the material for press releases.

Take a look at your park’s activities schedule, and keep opportunities for publicity in mind when planning next year’s events. Here are just a few categories that might be of interest to your local newspapers, radio, and television stations:

• An anniversary celebration. Is it your 20^th year of ownership? Promote it!
• Charitable events and fundraisers.
• Unique or unusual events, such as the “Redneck Blank.”
• Events where you involve other local businesses, such as wineries, craft breweries, and wildlife demonstrations.
• Groups or clubs rallying at your park.
• A park-wide “yard sale” that is open to the public.
• Noteworthy entertainers booked to perform at your park.
• Halloween events such as haunted houses.

By definition, local news media reach out to a local audience. Considering how 50% of a typical park’s demographics might include guests who live within the local market, local publicity can go a long way to generate short-term business and long-term awareness.

Partially due to laziness and partially due to staff cutbacks, the news media love to be spoon-fed stories with even an indirect news angle. On a national scale, we are bombarded with what is reported as “news” but is often little more than carefully crafted press releases. These include everything from stories about new products (such as the latest iPhone or the latest pharmaceutical drug) to stories about the candidates in the upcoming election that come directly from the campaigns themselves. On the local level, the news media love to promote “feel good” stories with a local angle, particularly on weekends (when your events are more likely to take place), which are otherwise considered “slow news days” when major businesses are closed.

Here are a few tips on how to craft
an effective press release and how to send it.

First of all, follow a conventional press release format. You will find templates in Microsoft Word. Edit your release so that it fits onto a single page, with your full contact information at the top of the page. Next follows bold text reading “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”. (Yes, you can prepare and submit a release in advance, indicating a future release date, but immediacy and news go hand-in-hand.) Follow this with a brief yet comprehensive title, followed by your location, the date, and the body of your release.

The body of your release should be carefully crafted, written in the third person, and cover the 5 W’s: who, what, where, why and when. A quotation or two is always a plus, and you will significantly increase the odds of your release being picked up if you include one or two high-quality photos (perhaps taken at the previous year’s event.)

Send your release via e-mail to the local news editor of each media outlet. You can generally find that information online; however, until you have compiled your list of contacts, you may need to make a phone call to obtain the name and e-mail address of the proper person. Your release should be in the body of your e-mail, with copies of the release attached to the e-mail in both PDF and Microsoft Word format, along with your accompanying photo(s). Do not call afterward to see if your release was received or, worse yet, to ask for an explanation, in the event that it was not used.

Keep in mind that your release should be presented in a manner that makes it easy to use. If essential information is missing, you will have seriously limited the likelihood of usage. A reporter is unlikely to have the time to track you down to obtain missing details on a borderline news story. On the other hand, if a reporter asks for more information or offers to attend your event, be prepared with answers and be ready to make a positive impression. Particularly if one of your local TV stations is willing to cover your event, be sure that everything involved will look its best.

Once you establish a relationship with your local media – as well as establishing a reputation for reliability – your first media coverage is unlikely to be your last.