All Around Custom Fit
Integration between Web and print custom publishing is on press LIKE THE CATALOG WORLD – which discovered that while people want the convenience and speed of shopping online, they still like having the print catalog to casually browse through – companies that utilize custom publications are seeing a benefit to online/offline synergy.
“We find more and more people going to the Web site, yet reluctant to give up the printed material they can hold in their hand and look at the pretty pictures,” notes Amy Strack, director of communications for the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism (MOTT), which publishes the annual Massachusetts Getaway Guide.
For custom publishing to succeed, says Diana Pohly, president of Boston-based custom publishing agency Pohly & Partners, it needs to “create an emotional connection” for the reader. The vehicle has to build the brand while serving the reader’s needs. This is done, she says, by “marrying the science of relationship marketing with the art of journalism.”
To get the best of both those worlds, many custom publications are creating a strong link between their print and Web identities. MOTT has aggressively been cross-promoting its Web site (www.massvacation.com) and the Getaway Guide. One million copies of the guide are distributed each year through handouts in state visitor centers, AAA offices and Connecticut CVS drugstores. Over 50,000 copies are also sent to readers who request them.
The Web site’s URL is featured throughout the print guide, including right under the cover logo and on the bottom of every other page of the 152-page magazine, produced with Pohly & Partners. The URL is also included in newspaper and magazine ads in publications such as the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bon Appetit and InStyle. Online ads for the guide and site have been placed on Yahoo!, Boston.com and iVillage.com.
The custom initiatives are “absolutely” seen as a way to build relationships with visitors, says Strack. “We hope they’ll get the information they need quickly and easily and keep coming back,” not only to the site, but the state.
MOTT will launch the third generation of the site next winter, but in the meantime, it is already concentrating on ways to increase interactivity online. In June, a section allowing visitors to make hotel reservations online debuted, and has taken an average of 250 reservations per month. The site is also updated frequently with seasonal features like a foliage report from state park rangers. And in addition to the expected attraction and monument listings, a variety of other content is featured, ranging from a list of outlet malls to a tutorial on how to eat a lobster.
In general, the site, which debuted in 1988, averages 160,000 user sessions per month. In July 2000, it peaked at 195,000 user sessions, compared to 120,000 for that month in 1999 and only 55,000 in July 1998.
Realizing that people planning a trip often need information quickly, Strack says the goal is to respond to visitors’ e-mails within an hour. Visitors can register at the site by filling out a survey, in exchange for a chance to win a free vacation. Information such as whether a visitor travels with children, other states they plan on vacationing in, types of leisure activities they enjoy and whether they have been to Massachusetts before is collected in the survey, which is promoted in the print guide.
Those who register also get the option of receiving a getaway guide in the mail or e-mail updates six times a year about events in the state. The department is storing the information collected in a database, and mulling how to use it for future customized follow-up promotions, such as pitching a trip to another part of the state like the Berkshires to someone who previously vacationed on Cape Cod.
Tourism is big business in the Bay State, which will spend $4 million marketing itself in 2001. The 26.4 million tourists who visit Massachusetts each year spend $10.8 billion. The return on investment for the custom initiatives are judged on the number of visitors to the state, which has increased annually, notes Strack. Another positive sign is a steady rise in ad pages for the 15-year-old print guide.
