FORT EDWARD — After years of studies, arguments and hesitation, Washington County has settled on a tourism strategy.
The Board of Supervisors hired three marketing agencies to share a two-year contract for $73,200 per year. The proposal would also use $58,200 in annual I Love NY funds from the state.
Black Dog Designs and Mannix Marketing, both from Glens Falls, will work together to market the county, draw tourists to events in the county and create a strong online presence. The “chief strategist” will be another company: 8 of Eight Strategies, based in Queensbury.
Black Dog Designs will start by coming up with a brand that describes Washington County. The company said it will focus on agritourism, outdoor recreation, craft food and beverages, and the arts as the foundation for the brand.
The firm plans to develop three to five potential brands, involving the county in each step of the process from concept to logos, and turn the selected design into a full brand for the county.
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Mannix Marketing will work on the online presence by drumming up content and marketing events.
The firms will have to grapple with the fact that many business owners in the county do not do much online. Mannix plans to slowly teach them how to do simple social media marketing, how to create Facebook ads and other tools. They will offer classes with progressively deeper skills as business owners begin to want more, they said.
They plan to start with door-to-door recruiting to persuade business owners to tell them before they hold an event so it can be advertised. One of the biggest problems in the past has been that people don’t go online to enter their own event information into tourism calendars.
The team will also create brochures, posters, flyers and other media. The company will create a digital travel guide for visitors as well as a digital business recruitment effort that will use data to explain why businesses should come to Washington County. Current businesses will receive vinyl stickers, while those running events will get a 10-foot stand-up display, banners and table covers.
In terms of content, they will create a promotional video, shoot photos and post on Facebook and Instagram several times each week, year-round. Mannix will also send out an email newsletter and will create 24 online articles about places to go and things to do in Washington County.
There will be a package to visit the county — complete with lodging, things to do and dining options — that Mannix will promote.
To assure the supervisors that progress is being made, marketers pledged to track how many businesses were contacted and “engaged” each quarter, as well as tracking the more common web statistics for articles and social media posts.
The firms will also track attendance at the seminars for businesses and whether businesses were later able to utilize the tools they were taught.
Supervisors have been hesitant about spending money on tourism, and have been saving their budgeted tourism money for two years as they considered what to spend it on and whether any expense would be a waste.
In the final vote, Kinsgbury Supervisor Dana Hogan and White Creek Supervisor Bob Shay voted no. Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff was absent. The rest of the board approved the plan without comment.
You can reach Kathleen Moore at 742-3247 or kmoore@poststar.com. Follow her on Twitter @ByKathleenMoore or at her blog on www.poststar.com.