By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – After hiring Marketing Manager Whitney Millspaugh more than a year ago, Visit Wabash County’s digital impact more than quadrupled.
That was the core of the report given by Christine Flohr, the organization’s executive director of tourism, at Monday’s meeting of the Wabash County Board of Commissioners.
Flohr said that Millspaugh’s work, which includes marketing the organization’s partners and events in addition to advertising the county in publications throughout the state and nation, has drastically improved its online presence and impact.
“We’ve had over one million impressions since Whitney joined our team. What that tells me… is that by putting someone that has that training in that position we can effectively invest the marketing dollars into the right categories,” she said.
“The higher your impression rate, the better that you’re getting the word out. Usually we averaged around 300,000 impressions, so to hit well over the 1 million mark is critical and is a measure of our success.”
Flohr said that “other communities throughout the state” are reaching out to Visit Wabash County to look at their marketing plan and find out how they market the county so effectively.
The organization, which promotes tourism in Wabash County, is funded in part by the county’s County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) funds. Those funds were used to hire Millspaugh, and fund her marketing efforts.
Flohr provided the commissioners with a packet breaking down how Visit Wabash County used those funds since July 2016 and their , and verbally presented details on how the creation of a marketing manager position has strengthened the company and improved its ability to sell the county to potential visitors.
“We were able to advertise on VisitIndy.com, which is a huge attraction to this area. We know that Indianapolis is one of the top areas that visits our website, so I really wanted to make sure that we targeted that area. Also, Travel Indiana. We have a full online staycation guide that I was able to have for an entire year,” Millspaugh said.
“The Chicago Tribune was another one that I wanted to target, as well as Chicago Life, which is an insert in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.”
She also advertises the county in Business Weekly, Fort Wayne Magazine, Lake Escape and Glo Magazine, all out of Fort Wayne.
“Another thing that was very important to me was partnering with the Honeywell Center. We are sponsoring a billboard for them, and in return we get a Ford Theatre slide, and a slide at the Eagles and a slide at the drive-in… that’s been over 100,000 [impressions], and we just started that a few months ago,” she said.
Visit Wabash County has also partnered with The Paper of Wabash County and Wabash WebTV for Wabash County Life, an online program released on the first of each month that gives information on upcoming events.
“This is a digital that releases the first of every month. Not only is Whitney one of the features, but we also do sponsored marketing of the content so that we can increase viewership. That’s another way for people to see what else is going on and keep the conversation going,” Flohr said.
Marketing the organization’s partners and events is another major part of Millspaugh’s job.
“When we’re working with other companies, organization, events throughout the county, we also help social media market those types of events. [Since hiring Millspaugh], we quadrupled that, surpassing 371,000 engagement rank… we were averaging right around 75,000,” Flohr said.
The organization’s website is also getting a makeover, which Flohr said should increase their Google ranking and decrease their bounce rate by improving search engine optimization (SEO) and making the site more user-friendly.
Additional work the organization has done in the past year includes a gateway sign for the Town of Roann; digital informational kiosks for visitors at Charley Creek Inn; familiarization tours of the county for travel writers; trolley tours of various county amenities; and soliciting conferences to host in Wabash County.
“The work that we are accomplishing and Whitney’s position is dependent on the receipt of CEDIT funds. We hope that [the commissioners] are pleased with what we have done with that. We consider it a gift of investment. Our workload definitely grew quite a bit, but we’re seeing a lot larger returns when we look at impression rates. We ask for your commitment for 2018. All of this is dependent on it,” Flohr said to the commissioners, who will review the proposal.