Enjoy Staffordshire on the move
12/04/2010
Now it's even easier to explore all that Staffordshire has to offer as the area's Destination Management Organisation becomes the latest to launch a mobile-specific website.
Destination Staffordshire's new site is the latest addition to the portfolio of cutting-edge mobile sites designed, built and project managed by New Vision's acclaimed Web Team. Our user-centred approach to website design is well aligned to the considerations that impact on the creation of mobile sites. By understanding and prioritising user needs, we are able to create effective, easy to navigate websites that deliver a positive user experience and enrich the online journey.
The DMO is a partnership of the area's visitor attractions, accommodation providers, tourism businesses and local authorities that are working together to promote tourism in Staffordshire. The mobile website is a compelling proposition as a vehicle to promote the broad and varied range of activities and attractions available to the visitor on arriving in Staffordshire.
Andrea Bowers is their Senior Visitor Economy Marketing Officer and has been involved with the project throughout. She says "We are very excited to be launching our first mobile website. The site looks great and will be a valuable tool to help us engage with our visitors in a very direct and useful way. Enabling our visitors to get the information they need whilst on the move - such as events, accommodation, special offers and places of interest - will surely contribute positively to the customer experience.
Graeme Whitehead, Tourism and Marketing Group Manager at Destination Staffordshire is in no doubt that the mobile site will play a key role in the marketing strategy supporting the local visitor economy:
"Leisure and business visitors make over 18m visits to Staffordshire annually and contribute to a local tourism economy worth around £1.5b. The mobile site will be our visitors' travelling companion, offering access to the latest information on events, availability and special offers, right at the time when they need it. And by inspiring our guests to do more, see more and enjoy more of all that Staffordshire has to offer, we can further boost revenue generated by fully exploiting all our opportunities."
The site follows the same brand design, colours and format as Staffordshire's main website. The high level of intuitiveness of the home page of enjoystaffordshire.co.uk includes device detection. This high-tech tool recognises a visitor request from a mobile device to www.enjoystaffordshire.co.uk and automatically re-routes it to the mobile site.
New Vision adopts recognised industry best practice & conventions to denote the mobile site, hence m.enjoystaffordshire.co.uk (as per m.yahoo.com or m.google.com).
Alongside sections on latest events, attraction information and availability, it's one of the first .mobi sites to incorporate Special Offers.
The Enjoy Staffordshire Card enables visitors to take advantage of exclusive special offers, discounts and promotions from some of Staffordshire's top attractions, accommodation, restaurants and shops. With online sign-up via the mobile site, visitors can now register for the card anytime, anywhere.
The mobile site provides a real and very lucrative opportunity to strengthen and build the customer relationship. This immediate access to everything that's available in Staffordshire - from event details, accommodation, restaurants and shopping - cannot be under estimated. As a trusted source of information it opens up additional revenue possibilities for trade members of the DMO.
The information on the site is maintained directly via the latest Modular CMS by New Vision, just as it is with Staffordshire's main website. This ensures their visitors always have access to the latest news, availability and offers wherever they choose to access it. And smart technology means that information is no more than three clicks away - who wants to be scrolling through page after page on a mobile or hand held device?
Once you've searched for accommodation based on availability, location and quality rating, you can click through to see accommodation details, available room options, prices and telephone and email contact details. There's even a ‘view on map' button to see its exact location. Similar search and details information is available for events, restaurants and activities.
A variety of easy-to-use templates enables Staffordshire's webmaster to create and edit pages at any time, keeping the site fresh and dynamic. Offering special feature spots to trade members provides a good avenue for self-funding revenue.
The traditional SEO methodologies followed by New Vision for mobile websites broadens the site's online presence and ensures it is found quickly for the information sought by users on the go.
Explore the site at http://m.enjoystaffordshire.com on your mobile device or visit http://m.enjoystaffordshire.com/?iphone=true&full=1 from your computer.
To find out more about how a mobile website can complement your marketing strategy, visit New Vision's demo site at http://www.web.newvisiongroup.co.uk/mobile/
Alternatively contact your Account Manager or Alex Rehm from the Web Team on 0845 430 0321 or alexander.rehm@newvisiongroup.co.uk