Plan B2B

Google Places for Your Hotel

2011-08-19T12:30:00.000+01:00

All of Plan B's more recent web clients have benefitted from the set up or auditing of their Google Account which includes the set up usually of a Blog, Analytics, YouTube Channel, Alerts and possibly most importantly Google Places.

First off is if you don't have a Google Account then you need to get one set up immediately. It is free and any business that is not utilising the tools in there is not truly working their online presence properly.

In a blog posting featured on Hotelmarketing, Laurian Clemence, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs with Google UK highlighted the imprtance of Places, “By having an online presence via Google Places, hotels are enabling users to find and interact with their business,” says Clemence. He recommends keeping listings simple, accurate and consistent.

From a tourism perspective Google Places is taking, and is likely to take even more, prominence as Google identify means of improving their social media offering (see Google + and Googe +1 Button articles elsewhere in this blog). But even now have a look at how it impacts on you just now.

Before jumping into the content below why not spend a couple of minutes looking at what's currently happening in your area and how Googel Places is using your (and your competitors) information.

Open a new window and try the following for your own area.
We've typed in Ayr Hotels and the search has come up as follows.

As usual paid listings at the top and right hand column - no change there. But on the left hand column you can now filter your searches - Click on Places and see what happens to your results.

Another addition you may not have seen is the Travel Dates button on the left. Visible on Tuesday but not Friday so a test feature we'd guess but an indicator perhaps of how Google Hotel Finder will come into play very soon.

The hotels are listed by letter via the Google Places information and on the map. Not the new information associated with each entry. By rolling over the listing you get an impresion of the website. In reality this means that the potential guest can get an impression of your website without leaving the search. Is your site ready for that?

You'll also have noticed that in Google Places the online travel agency and third party websites have vanished. This in iteself must offer hotels hope for regaining some of the business lost by the OTAs adveritsing and buying power. As the traveller uses Places more for specific searches the hotels have got a greater chance of relevant visibility.

The price button on the right hand side is linked to the Travel Dates button on the right hand side. Change the dates and the rates displayed will alter. The prices the hotel is offering to each of the OTA's then becomes visible with a click of the drop down button next to the best available price.

Most importantly however is the fact that the hotels are now clickable directly from the link. It is therefore of obvious importance that you have the best available rate on your website and use every tool available to promote it. See below. Also note at this point that if you don't have your Google Place active you won't see your own booking link.

It also increases ease of competitive price transparency - the easy to click price button means that for any selected dates you and by definition your potential guests can review your competition's pricing (or be reviewed by) before they even need to open a website. Good or bad? Depends on how effectively you promote best available rate in your title tag!

Hotels who are succeeding in converting direct online sales (that is through their own online booking engine on their own website) Best Available Rate is a given. Why offer your direct customer a higher rate than if they book elsewhere? Rhetorical question.

So with the introduction of this on-search page transaparency there is a strong argument for using the Meta Title to promote the fact that your site is offering Best Available Rate as with the example above.

Last thing to note here is that Google have now launched their own reviews and the other review sites have been dropped to below the search.

Action
So what should you do? Well make sure that your hotel, bar, restaurant, leisure facility has the correct presence in Places. Ensure that no-one else has hijacked your business name and be ready for whatever comes next; for instance did you know that you can already highlight offers through Google Places?
And most importantly do it NOW!

Research your hotel profile in your town, county, region.Type Yourhotel in YourTown, YourHotel in YourCounty and
Take note of what others are doing better or differently.
Look at your rates differences in your own channels and your competitors.
Update your Google Places account accordingly - content, images, categories, video, offers, etc
Create new Google Place for all definable products - restaurant, bar, leisure. Google are clearly happy that your products are legitimately listed
Update your Home Page metatag to promote Best Available Rate even before guest opens the site
Ensure you have best available rate on your site at all times
Consider encouraging guest reviews via Google Places not just encouraging TripAdvisor

Quick Links
An overview of your Google Place
Look at Google Adwords - who's bidding for your brand or hotel name?
Look at your metatags and content? Understand what they do.
Read more about Google Places from Google itself

Updating and Monitoring Google Places

2011-08-19T12:28:00.000+01:00

Google Places is going to play an increasingly important role in searches for the hospitality sector and it is important that product producers maximise their use of this free tool. If you need to understand how it's changing have a read of Google Places and Your Hotel.

The following was motivated by an interview featured in HotelMarketing's blog in an interview with Laurian Clemence, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs with Google UK.

Updating Google Places

Ensure that your business’s name, address and phone number are listed in a consistent format across the web. The Company/Organization field acts as the title of your listing and should include the word “Hotel” and your destination if they are part of your official business name.Google doesn’t permit descriptors or keywords in titles.

Your property description is limited to 200 characters and needs to sum up what your hotel, product and key markets are. This 200 character limit is something that hotels and other businesses must come across on a fairly regular basis for online advertising, listings and other third party activity.

Why not therefore spend some time developing a few templated 200 character descriptions for different markets - business, leisure, golf, activity... makes sense and means that you keep a consistent theme and never miss out the obvious things. Remember who, what, why where, when and how. Keep it simple.

Use of Multiple Listings?

The Google Guy went on, “We recommend that separate listings should be created if the restaurant, lounge or spa within a hotel has its own name and telephone number, separate from that of the hotel. An individual website is not a requirement.”

The same principle therefore applies as you would for the creation of a separate web page for each of your product areas - Leisure Club, Restaurant, live music venue - create a separate searchable entity for each one in Google Places linking back to the relevant website or page.

Categories and Additional Details
You can choose up to five categories to describe your business. At least one must be standard; the rest can be customized. Google recommends being as specific as possible, as it will automatically determine the generic category as well. For example, if you enter “Country House Hotel” Google will know that you are also a hotel.

In the Additional Details section Clemence recommends hotels include “any additional information that would be helpful to potential customers as long as it’s specific and factual. Examples could be specific awards the hotel has won or a unique URL that leads to a menu for the hotel restaurant. The purpose is to help the user find all of the details about your business that might be useful to them.”

Imagery and Map
Businesses can upload a maximum of 10 photos and five videos, so make sure they are high quality, representative of your property and do a job for your sales conversion. You can't currently add captions but that may come in the future. The chances are that increased user photo uploads will follow in the future but you should keep an eye on them and report inappropriate photos.

It's obvious that you should ensure you place marker is in the right position as it will impact on Maps, Street View, Satellite View, Driving Directions and Hotel Finder in the future.

Offers, Updates and Analytics
You can also add offers and updates to your listing and again it is free and as with any content it is a positive means of ensuring that your business is seen as engaging with your customers and lead to increased conversion through your own website.
If you add an offer it will appear on your Places page and Google Maps listing. Similarly to share news, events or packages click the “Share an update” link.

Google now features room rates and availability data on Places, Maps and Hotel Finder but restricts access to a limited number of online travel agencies, GDS providers and brands with sizable inventories across multiple markets.

For your hotel, only a link to the hotel/brand website is provided. Some would argue that this is a deterrent to direct bookings but we'd argue that it's an awful lot less so than having OTA's buy your name in Google Adwords or flooding the searches with your product on their pages. In any case it is likely that an interface will emerge allowing hotel's to show their own direct rates - soon hopefully.

Reviews
With the recent removal of third-party reviews from Places listings and the addition of a more prominent “Write a review” button, Google has embarked on a campaign to develop reviews from its own users and whilst the volume builds they may have limited effect but you should not ignore.With the introduction in the UK of Google+ and Google Hotel Finder and the integration of other products Google user reviews can only become a more important part of your online reputation management program.

We already know the many benefits of traveler reviews to search visibility and conversions. Says Google's Clemence, “Engaging with the reviewers can be a good way to get to know your customers and what they think about your business. Business owner responses allow you to build relationships with customers, but keep in mind that the responses are also public.”

Presently reviews are not monitored by Google. If you're concerned about the accuracy of a review, Clemence recommends clicking the “Flag as inappropriate” link to submit a report. “If we find that the review is in violation of our Google Maps policies,” he says, “we'll take the appropriate action since we aren't always able to remove or be certain of violations.”

What’s the Future of Google Places?

The opportunities for increasing direct sales for hotels is a real one and we see the new products as offering an opportunity for hotels to gain back some of the business lost to OTA's. It won't necessarily be easy but it is do-able if you put your mind to it.

Quick Links
Read more and some action points on a related blog Google Places for Your Hotel

Bookassist and MICROS-Fidelio announce certified OPERA Connectivity Solution for Hotels

2011-08-18T10:05:00.000+01:00

We're delighted to announce that our booking engine partners in Scotland Bookassist has announced official certification of their booking engine software integration with the OPERA Property Management System (PMS) from the world's leading hotel solutions provider MICROS-Fidelio. The connection service allows hotels to automatically and seamlessly manage their online reservations from Bookassist via the OPERA PMS.

The connection service is the latest in a list of integrations between Bookassist's popular booking platform and the world's leading property management systems and channel managers.

Speaking about the advantages of the integration, Karen Moran, Sales and Marketing Director at Moran & Bewley's Hotels UK & Ireland said: "We're delighted to have direct integration between our online booking and our MICROS-Fidelio OPERA property management systems right across the group. It saves considerable time and effort, and more importantly makes sure that the reservations detail is end-to-end accurate. The automation allows our staff to get on with the more important business of running the hotel rather than worrying about technology."

Bookassist have collaborated with MICROS-Fidelio on the integration and client roll-out over the last 18 months culminating in official certification. A number of existing mutual clients have been using the integration since its first introduction in late 2010.

Discussing the official certification, Bookassist CEO Dr Des O'Mahony said: "A significant number of our clients in all the countries we operate in are also MICROS-Fidelio clients. This integration is a real advantage for them, reducing manpower, eliminating transfer errors, and improving efficiency. We expect a significant uptake of this new joint service."

"MICROS-Fidelio is pleased to offer connectivity between our hotel solution OPERA and Bookassist. The interface with Bookassist provides automated booking notifications directly into the OPERA hotel system," said Dr Peter Agel, Senior Vice President eCommerce and Strategic Solutions EMEA at MICROS-Fidelio.

Bookassist® (bookassist.org) creates and manages successful and proven online strategies for thousands of hotels and groups and is one of the leading hotel booking engine and online marketing providers in Europe. Headquartered in Dublin and with offices in 6 countries, Bookassist has received numerous awards in Online Trade, Online Marketing, and Technological Innovation.

Ian McCaig managing partner of Bookassist in Scotland, was delighted with the news, "This latest integration on top of some excellent new upgrades just presses the point about continuous improvement being critical. As the online booking sector moves ever faster with shifts to mobile, integration into social media and the need to react even more quickly to the market place this proves again that Bookassist can provide the hotel operator in Scotland - large and small - with the competitive advantages that they are looking for.

If you're interested in finding out more about how Bookassist can work in conjunction with your MICROS set up inScotland email Bookassist Scotland or call 01292 512404.

MICROS-Fidelio International (micros-fidelio.eu), the global markets subsidiary of MICROS®, is the premier provider of enterprise-wide integrated information technologies for the hotel industry. MICROS-Fidelio has become "the standard" in the industry with over 25,000 installations worldwide. Its enterprise solutions include multi-property, fully integrated hotel systems encompassing property management systems, sales and catering systems, central reservation systems, customer information systems, revenue management systems, an Internet/global distribution system-based hotel reservation service called myfidelio.net, and installation and support services associated with the various software products.

Google +1 Button - An Introduction

2011-08-15T11:12:00.001+01:00

You may have noticed when browsing on Google over the past few weeks that there is now a new +1 Button.

It has some similarities with Facebook's like button but has significant differences and potential benefits for your website traffic and search engine strategies.

If you like any web page you can just click the +1 button on your screen and the same choicdes would become visible to your friends and contacts when they Google it. It is a virtual word of mouth recommendation.

According to Google +1 is shorthand for "this is pretty cool" or "you should check this out" and they advocate that websites should embed the necessary code to allow your site visitors to publicly give the webpage their stamp of approval. The pitch is that +1's can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search. Watch the video below to find out a little bit more.

We are recommending that all our clients should start using the +1 button on their website - it shouldn't take long and the notional cost should be well outweighed by the benefits. Just drop us an email and we'll let you know the cost and schedule the work in over the next couple of weeks for you. To find out why you could watch the video below and read some of the FAQs.

Google provided some FAQ's on the developer website pages which may clarify some issues. Here's some of the the bits that may be of interest to you.

How does +1 affect search results?

+1 helps people discover relevant content—a website, a Google search result, or an ad—from the people they already know and trust. Adding the +1 button to your pages lets users recommend your content, knowing that their friends and contacts will see their recommendation when it’s most relevant—in the context of Google search results.

When a signed-in Google user is searching, your Google search result snippet may be annotated with the names of the user's connections who've +1'd your page. If none of a user's connections has +1'd your page, your snippet may display the aggregate number of +1's your page has received. Does +1 affect my site’s performance in search?

Does +1 affect my site’s performance in search?

Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1’s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query. This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality. For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality.

How does the +1 button work?

If you want to use the +1 button, you will need a Google account. When you create a Google account, remember it is not just a mail-box; there are many added benefits to it. Generally, the +1 theme will work for all the Google sites but you are also provided with an option through which you can have the +1 button for non-Google sites.

Dragon's Tooth Website Integrate Blog News

2011-08-03T14:52:00.000+01:00

Just completed a wee update for the team at the wonderful Dragon's Tooth Golf Course near Ballchulish in the West Highlands.

Plan B developed the new site for Laurence Young in 2010 and they have supplemented that with an active Facebook page and regular blogging.

We've now dropped the RSS feed from his blog directly into the website to ensure that all blog items can be viewed from the golf courses own website as they come through.

In addition we dropped in similar feeds from the Scottish Golf Union and The Herald sports pages to keep the members and site visitors up to date with the winder world of golf.

Ian McCaig of Plan B commented, "The website developed for Dragon's Tooth is driven by our own tourism content management system The Claymore Project and it gives the course complete control over their content, images, and uploding documents whether they be green fees, competition entry forms or menus. We can then develop a highly visual website based around the needs of a golf course at a really competitive rate. There really is no excuse for a golf course or club not to have a full CMS driven website incorproating the latest socail media tools"

Castle Stuart enters Top 60 Best Golf Courses

2011-07-26T17:47:00.000+01:00

Plan B were delighted by by a request from our friends up at Castle Stuart to turn around a quick wee PDF design job for them last week and even more so when we got an email in from marketing boss Fraser Cromarty telling us that Castle Stuart Golf Links is now officially rated as the 56th best Golf Course in the World!

The official rankings by the US based GOLF MAGAZINE were released this week on the 'front9' app with Castle Stuart being the highest-ranking debut on the World list.

Following on from its success as host venue to the recently played Barclays Scottish Open, Castle Stuart's reputation continues to spread worldwide. This recent award confirms that Castle Stuart is now one of the very best in the World.

"When we first saw the land here at Balnaglack, the extraordinary setting, the free-draining sandy soils, the varied topography, and the extensive links vegetation, we knew we had the grist of something wonderful. Earning recognition as 56th best course in the world by GOLF MAGAZINE so soon after opening along with hosting such a world-class event as the Barclays Scottish Open is incredibly satisfying. And to be located in the Highlands capital city of Inverness is even better. It is a city of intimate charm and world-class dining. Together with all the attractions of the Highlands, eg fishing, shooting, stalking, the whisky trail, a trip to the Highlands is now even more inviting for golfers than ever before" Mark Parsinen, Managing Partner, Castle Stuart Golf LLP

Also ranked in the Top 100 is Royal Dornoch Golf Course where it again features in the top 20 with a world ranking of 16th place. The Highlands of Scotland continues to grow its reputation as a must visit golfing destination and with two of the world's top 100 courses in close proximity to each other there has never been a better time to take the trip North.

We continue to enjoy working with some great golf partners up that way too. Last year we redesigned the website for The Royal Golf Hotel in Dornoch, worked with Brora, Golspie, Tain and Dornoch in creating the Dornoch Firth Golf Pass and have more recently launched a complete redesign for The Clubhouse in Nairn.

Add to that ongoing work for some great businesses such as Inveran Guest House in Nairn, and the pro shop at Royal Dornoch itself amongst a host of others and the idae of having a Highland office isn't so daft!

Facebook Side Bar for Scottish Hotel

2011-07-26T13:34:00.000+01:00

Following a wee three or four day trip around Inverness, Moray, Speyside, west Highlands and Argyll (and I can sympathise with the cost of visitor fuel!) I ended up at the wonderfully well located Crianlarich Hotel.

Sitting on the corner of the A85 from The Trossachs and Stirling and the A82 from Loch Lomondside and Glasgow the hotel was simply noticed in passing for too many years due to it being a coach hotel only. It's been in new hands for sometime now and the new GM Andrea provided me with patience and coffee as my last stop on the way back to the office last week.

Andrea is not one of those to whom you have to point out the opportunities of online business to; the recently added Facebook pages has already accrued more than a thousand followers and the websites recent conversion to the Bookassist Booking Engine is already reaping rewards with increased direct sales traffic.

The plans are also underway for the winter season with the printed materials already in place for January offers for locals and visitors alike. The promotion ties in a business card style log in with the booking engine to provide for the "exclusivity" required. By using a Bookassist Promo Code (available to all users of the booking engine) the hotel can promote a very attractive promotional rate without opening it up to the whole world. Took ten minutes to set up and now the hotel's January promotion is a fully integrated on and off line tool which can be used with email marketing and social media.

Great what you can achieve in ten minutes!

Andrea also liked the Facebook side bars we've been creating for our clients so we rattled one of them up for her which will no doubt be on the hotel's Facebook page by the time we publish this article. So next time you're heading up through Crianlarich stop off for a coffee or a bite to eat or book your January Crianlarich offer online!

Click through for further information on adding a Facebook banner to your page. You can also find out more about how your accommodation can benefit from increased direct sales with the award winning Bookassist Booking engine.

Golf industry reveals Gold Standard winners

2010-11-13T08:57:00.001Z

This year’s top golf honours have been announced at the glittering Golf Tourism Scotland’s Gold Standard Awards held at the Macdonald Marine Hotel & Spa in North Berwick. The sell-out event has become the golf industry’s annual jamboree during which the very best of Scottish golf tourism is celebrated.

This year’s exciting evening culminated in Angus Watson, a leisure sales executive at the Fairmont in St Andrews, being named Young Industry Person of the Year, which carried with it an international learning journey. Earlier, Davy Gilchrist of Kingsbarns Golf Links picked up the CaddieMaster of the Year award for the second successive year.

One of the biggest winners on the night was Castle Stuart Golf Links which beat off competition from Kingsbarns and the Old Course in St Andrews to clinch the Golf Course of the Year award. In addition, Mark Parsinen, managing partner at the Highland resort, was honoured with the acclaimed Special Achievement Award.

Following a memorable Open Championship at the Home of Golf, St Andrews also had a successful night with no less than five winners hailing from the Auld Grey Toon, and two others from its outskirts. But as the chairman of GTS pointed out, this year’s winners came from across Scotland.

“It’s been a fantastic year for golf tourism throughout Scotland,” said Nick Hunter. “Scotland has hosted a number of high-profile tour events which have showcased exactly why playing golf here is so special. And despite tough times, our members have upped their game so that once again our facilities have improved and our standards of service have been fine-tuned. The Gold Standard Awards recognise the very best exponents of this process, but I think the golf industry generally should be congratulated for a job well done.”

On hand to meet the winners was two-time major winner Sandy Lyle, who highlighted the importance of the GTS awards. “Playing golf in Scotland is very special indeed,” he said. “And often what makes it special, apart from the terrific courses, are the people who arrange your trip, transport you between venues or meet you at the hotels. In my view, the GTS Gold Standard Awards celebrate the efforts of these individuals who are the golf tourism industry in Scotland.”

In all, 11 awards were handed out on the night, three of which were sponsored by some of the country’s leading businesses. Joining the awards’ host resort, the Macdonald Marine Hotel & Spa in North Berwick, was Arnold Clark Car and Van Rental, Europe’s largest independently owned, family run motor dealer, and the Fairmont St Andrews, which hosted the G20 Summit in November 2009.

The award recipients came from every sector of the golf tourism industry. And the winners are…

GOLF COURSE OF THE YEAR. Nominations for this category were open to any golf course in Scotland that offers tee-times to visitors. And the winner is:

Castle Stuart Golf Links

GOLF SECRETARIAT OF THE YEAR. Nominations for this category were open to any golf club/course whose administration provides a service to visitors and/or the travel trade. And the winner is:

Crail Golfing Society

CADDIEMASTER OF THE YEAR. Nominations for this category were open to any caddiemaster providing a service to visitors and/or the travel trade. And the winner is:

Davy Gilchrist, Kingsbarns Golf Links

HOTEL OF THE YEAR (Small hotel/guest house category). Nominations for this category were open to accommodation providers with 20 or fewer bedrooms that provide services to golf visitors. And the winner is:

Ugadale Cottages, Machrihanish

HOTEL OF THE YEAR (Country house hotel category). Nominations for this category were open to hotels and exclusive-use properties operating in rural areas that provide services to golf visitors. And the winner is:

Rufflets Country House Hotel, St Andrews

HOTEL OF THE YEAR (Large hotel category). Nominations for this category were open to hotels with more than 20 bedrooms which provide services to golf visitors. And the winner is:

Royal Golf Hotel, Dornoch

HOTEL OF THE YEAR (Resort hotel category). Nominations for this category were open to resort hotels with golf course(s) attached. And the winner is:

Fairmont St Andrews

GOLF TOUR OPERATOR OF THE YEAR. Nominations for this category were open to any tour operator bringing golfers to Scotland. And the winner is:

Links Golf St Andrews

TRANSPORT OPERATOR OF THE YEAR. Nominations for this category were open to any business providing transport services in Scotland including rail, road, air and sea. And the winner is:

St Andrews Executive Travel

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. And the winner is:

Mark Parsinen, Castle Stuart Golf Links

YOUNG INDUSTRY PERSON OF THE YEAR. And the winner is:

Angus Watson, Fairmont St Andrews

This article is just one part of the on-line Business Development and PR support available to all clients of The Edge Studios. The E-dge provide web design, content management, marketing and project management services to Golf Tourism Scotland and golf tourism businesses across Scotland. In addition to the website The Edge have supported GTS with social media, design and print, exhibition support and production of their Corporate Video - below.

Contact us by email or telephone 01292 521404 for further information on how we can help develop your on and off line business.

Golf Course Group Hold Prices for 2011

2010-11-05T16:28:00.000Z

That’s the message from First in Fife, and it confirms the Golfpass’s position as the best value way to play on 13 fine courses in the Home of Golf – Aberdour, Balbirnie Park, Burntisland, Canmore, Charleton, Dunfermline, Elmwood, Forrester Park, Kinross Bruce and Montgomery courses, Kirkcaldy, Pitreavie, and Thornton. A 3 round Pass is still just £63, and a 5 round Pass is even better value at only £99.

First in Fife also has its own online system for buying your Golfpass and then booking your rounds – still the only Golfpass in Scotland to offer this unique facility. Just go to www.firstinfifegolf.com, read all about our courses, buy your Pass, check tee time availability at all 13 courses, and then use your online account to book your tee times. It can all be done 24/7 and at the touch of a few buttons.

The Golfpass can be used any time from 1 April to 31 October 2011, and on one trip, or several, to Fife. There are some supplements, so please read the full terms and conditions on the website before buying your Pass.

You can also check out details of our hotel partners, both on www.firstinfifegolf.com and on their own websites. They will be happy to quote you excellent rates for your golf break in Fife.

So, join the thousands of golfers who have already used the First in Fife Golfpass to enjoy great value golf in the Home of Golf – we’re waiting to welcome you!

Find out more about First in Fife Golf on their website.

This article is just one part of the on-line Business Development and PR support available to all clients of The Edge Studios. The E-dge provide web design, content management, marketing and project management services to First in Fife Golf and golf tourism businesses across Fife and Scotland. The fly through video was created by The Edge using Google Earth Pro.

Contact us by email or telephone 01292 521404 for further information on how we can help develop your on and off line business.

Ayrshire Golf Group Head For Travel Market

2010-10-25T13:50:00.000+01:00

Scotland's West Coast Golf Links are delighted to confirm that they will be attending the International Golf Travel Market in Valencia this November alongside industry partners on the VisitScotland stand.

Group Chairman, and Prestwick Golf Club Secretary, Ian Bunch was delighted that the marketing group were going to be represented, "IGTM presents an exciting opportunity for Scotland's West Coast Golf Links to promote the golf destination of Ayrshire to the travel trade. Whilst we are hardly unknown there is more to the area than many realise and this market gives us the opportunity to present our product clearly to the travel trade."

The group will be represented by Guy Redford from Dundonald Links who is looking forward to the challenges and opportunities the event offers. "We've believed for some time that Ayrshire needed a presence at key travel trade events and we are sure that being at IGTM will open up some great new business relationships not only with the golf courses but also the accommodation providers all over Ayrshire."

Find out more about Scotland's West Coast Golf Links on their website and get the low down on IGTM online

This article is just one part of the on-line Business Development and PR support available to all clients of The Edge Studios. The E-dge provide web design, content management, marketing and project management services to Scotland's West Coast Golf Links and golf tourism businesses across Ayrshire and Scotland.

Contact us by email or telephone 01292 521404 for further information on how we can help develop your on and off line business.

Ayrshire Business Celebrates National Award

2010-10-25T12:58:00.000+01:00

The Old Loans Inn, the hotel, bar and restaurant near Troon, part of the privately owned SimpsInns hotel group based in the heart of Ayrshire, reached dizzy new heights this week after being announced as winner of the Scottish Licensed Trade News (SLTN) award in the category of “Best New Business” for 2010.

Based in the village of Loans near Troon, The Old Loans Inn was short-listed for the prestigious award before taking top plaudits at the glittering ceremony hosted by TV personality Tess Daly at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow on Thursday night.

The much sought-after SLTN awards, now in their 15th year, identify stars of the hospitality industry with the category of “Best New Business” fiercely contested after organisers received hundreds of entries across Scotland.

Owner Malcolm Simpson was delighted with the recognition, "The award is tremendous acknowledgement for all the effort, commitment and dedication that our entire team deliver on an ongoing basis.”

The Old Loans Inn has also been nominated for Hotel of the Year in the Golf Tourism Scotland Gold Standards Awards, which celebrate the very best in Scottish Golf Tourism. With this nomination we are now in the running for four awards over the next month.

This article is just one part of the on-line Business Development and PR support available to all clients of The Edge Studios. The E-dge provide web design, marketing and on-line booking services to The Old Inn and hospitality business across Ayrshire and Scotland.

Contact us by email or telephone 01292 521404 for further information on how we can help develop your on and off line business.

SimpsInns Announce Latest Development for Irvine

2010-10-25T09:30:00.000+01:00

The site of Irvine’s Golf Hotel is set to be transformed into a continental-style bar and restaurant.

This week, new owners Malcolm and Karen Simpson, of SimpsInns, confirmed they had big plans for the former hotel in Kilwinning Road which will see the hotel being torn down within a year as work starts on Si! Restaurant and Bar.

The ambitious project boasts a two-storey restaurant and bar complete with a balcony for al fresco dining. And it will bring 40 jobs to the town. Malcolm and wife Karen, who also own the Gailes Hotel, the Old Loans Inn and travel company, Wilkinson Golf, have also bought over the Waterside Inn in Seamill.

The Waterside is set to be transformed into a five-star hotel and spa, the likes of which have never been seen in North Ayrshire.

As Malcolm showed the Irvine Herald his ambitious plans for Si! and the Waterside Hotel he said: “The Golf Hotel site deal has taken some time to put together but we are finally at the planning stage.

“I had a clear vision for the sort of restaurant and bar that I wanted to see open in Irvine and to achieve that I felt it was best to start with a clean canvas and knock the old hotel down.

“We want to create somewhere fairly informal but with quality dining along with a bar offering continental lagers and somewhere different.

“We anticipate creating 40 full-time and part-time jobs at Si! and a further 140 at Waterside. We are in pre-consultation with North Ayrshire’s planning department who have been very supportive and we are working closely with Irvine Bay Regeneration.”

SimpsInns are also about to launch their first ever loyalty card for customers to gain points, whatever hotel or restaurant they choose.

This article is just one part of the on-line Business Development and PR support available to all clients of The Edge Studios. The E-dge provide web design, on-line reservations software and online marketing services to SimpsInns and their businesses at Old Loans Inn near Troon and Gailes Hotel in Irvine and hospitality and tourism businesses across Ayrshire and Scotland.

Contact us by email or telephone 01292 521404 for further information on how we can help develop your on and off line business.

McCaig Electrical Celebrate 25 Years in Business

2010-10-22T12:53:00.005+01:00

Twenty Five Years on – From kitchen table to staff of 50 and electrical contractor John McCaig & Sons has celebrated a quarter century business.

The milestone was marked with an open day held at the company’s old farm road premises in Ayr and has been further enhanced by a short-listing in the annual Select Awards.

To help with the celebrations customers and suppliers of John McCaig & Sons attended to show their continuing support.

Director Frances McCaig said: “ We were delighted at the turn out for our open day, it is with the help and support of such people that has made the past 25 years such a success”.

John and Frances started the business in 1985, where they worked from their family home, while looking after their two young sons before moving to a leased premises in York Street in Ayr.

It was always their aim to own premises and they and they achieved this in September 2008. The prominent block 3 Old Farm Road became available and it proved to be ideal for the rapidly expanding business, which now employs 50.

It was always there wish that their two sons joined the company and they were delighted both of them decided to do so.

Frances said: We thought it was extremely important John and Jamie had a trade behind them, so both served their apprenticeships as electricians”.

John now holds the position of Contracts manager and Jamie is Estimator/Buyer.

Dad John said : “ we feel the experience both our sons have within the company stands them in good stead for the many years they have ahead of them”.

In 2005, Robert Stirrat, who started working for John McCaig & Sons in 1998, was made a Director. Robert started off as an electrician and has worked through the ranks.

This article is just one part of the on-line Business Development and PR support available to all clients of The Edge Studios. The E-dge provide web design services to McCaig Electrical and business across Ayrshire and Scotland.

Contact us by email or telephone 01292 521404 for further information on how we can help develop your on and off line business.

A Guide to Picasa

2010-08-18T13:53:00.001+01:00

This is the first post in a new series of "A Guide To.." highlighting better practice or at worst opinions on how you might improve your profile online.

We hope that you find them useful and of course if you do you can always let your fellow businesses know!

First one to be published is about Picasa and Picasa Web Albums. We use the Google products widely for our own administrative and marketing purposes but also heavily for our web developments and our channel distribution sites. It's a great way of storing, editing and sharing your images for both Business to Business and Business to Consumer.

Find out how we use the tools at The Edge Briefings: A Guide to Picasa

Updating West Coast Golf Links

2010-08-06T13:11:00.000+01:00

We've been working this week on updating the website and blog for Scotland's West Coast Golf Links - a collection of ten of Scotland's finest links golf courses.

We've done some updating of the group's homepage the most visible being the insertion of the news items directly from the blog to give the page more immediate interest to the visitor. We've also inserted the Facebook Connect button which should be interesting to monitor as it allows Facebook users to click Like directly from the page and post a comment without even leaving the site. Really cool little function that you should consider for your own website.

In addition the Blog has had a mini makeover with the addition of a dozen new posts, the addition of the search blog feature and the Share button to the articles allowing it to be published to the users own Facebook

The blogs get indexed very quickly indeed and should be seen as a positive distribution channel – for example open Google and search for “sunset golf Ayrshire” – it was only published at 12.15pm yet it’s indexed first and second on Google already and ahead of the Turnberry listing itself – this isn’t an issue as it has a direct link back to the website.

New Logo For Kilmarnock History Group

2010-07-30T14:55:00.001+01:00

It's always good fun when you're given a blank sheet of paper and allowed a bit of free expression!

Well as part of a wee project we're doing for The Kilmarnock and District History Group they asked us if we could start with a bit of branding. The project's going to be broken into a couple of phases with the group needing to first of all get their on-line communications in place using social media and then in the longer term looking to working collaboratively with other bodies to create both written and visual on-line archives of all things Kilmarnock.

The phase one website is due to go live on the 7th of August, The Facebook pages have been set up and the group are testing their blog pages as we speak.

The logo however has already been completed much to the delight of project co-ordinator Gary Torbett and it is already featured on the Kilmarnock History Facebook Page and Blog

Fairfield Christmas Brochure

2010-07-21T14:37:00.000+01:00

Fairfield House Hotel in Ayr are a long standing client of ours using our website services and Bookassist for their online reservations. We're just planning out a new social media campaign with them currently which will lead to an improved on-line presence through the use of Blogs, Facebook and email marketing as well as a refreshing of their website for 2011.

In the meantime the website remains live and performing wonderfully well with a high level of on-line bookings being converted through the site.

The hotel is well known for its creative festive programmes and it has just taken delivery of the 2010 Festive Brochure. You can download a copy of the programme from the Fairfield House Hotel website.

Find out more about how The Edge could help your hotel market online.

Using Google Blogs? Share Your Posts

2010-07-21T09:49:00.010+01:00

You can now make it easier for your posts to get out and about and see more of the world.

If you're using Google Blogger, go to Design; click on Edit in the Posts section and tick"Show Share Buttons.

Once saved every post will be accompanied by a Share this Post option which will allow links to your information to be quickly posted elsewhere.

Worth taking a few minutes to add we'd suggest

Enterkine Celebrates Ten Years with New Restaurant

2010-07-20T11:34:00.004+01:00

Over the years at The Edge we've worked with the team at Enterkine on a number of projects and currently provide the exclusive Country House Hotel near Ayr in the west of Scotland with their booking engine Bookassist.

We've also just spent some time doing a quick mini audit and update of the hotel's search terms and key content on The Enterkine Hotel website. In updating the site we were once again impressed by the quality this wonderful hotel offers the visitor to Ayrshire and their continuing commitment to taking it further.

2010 marks the 10th anniversary of Enterkine being opened as a Country House Hotel and in that time have established themselveas as a Hotel and Restaurant of great merit having been awarded numerous accolades for the quality accommodation and service they offer and, of course, recognition as one of Scotland’s top fine-dining venues thanks to the talents and skills of their award winning Head Chef, Paul Moffat, and his team.

Much of their success has been achieved through a commitment to develop and continue to grow the hotel and restaurant services. With the introduction of our unique Woodland Lodge and the opening of the refurbished Kirk House they now have more quality accommodation on offer than ever before. More recently, the installation of their stunning permanent Marquee at Enterkine has allowed them to develop their corporate events business and to cater for larger scale weddings, now placing them as one of Ayrshire’s leading wedding venues.

We look forward to a continuing relationship with the team at Enterkine.

New Website for Redspire

2010-07-16T14:20:00.006+01:00

We're delighted to have gone live with a new Content Managed website for Glasgow based Retail IT Consultancy Redspire.

We first worked with Graeme Miller of Redspire when we developed a website for the Olympia Skating Club last year and so delighted with the ease of use of our very own CMS, The Claymore Project, that he came back to us recently when his own company website needed a refresh.

We've brightened the look and feel of the old site up and the content including the metatags, images, links are all client managed.

Graeme commented on the project, "The Edge has worked closely with us to develop a website that we are very proud of. They understood our requirements from the outset and were able to interpret them into a creative execution that exceeded our expectations. We are delighted with the results."

New Branding for Highland Golf Group

2010-07-09T13:13:00.001+01:00

We're getting the final launch of the new website for Highland golf group Dornoch Firth Golf.

The group comprise of five wonderful links golf courses in the North Highlands - Tain, Dornoch's Championship and Struie Courses and the great layouts at Brora and Golspie.

The clubs have got together to create a discounted golf pass and over the past six weeks The Edge have been busying themselves with leaflet design, member cards, wallets and of course website and blog development.

The logo was developed after a meeting with the project leaders and was designed to encapsulate the history and heritage of golf in the area and the links with course designers Braid, Ross and Morris. We feel that the end product captures all of that.

The whole project reflects this pedigree and plays heavily on it. More to follow in the next week about how the project developed in the meantime you could have a look at some of our other logo and branding projects.

Dornoch Firth Golf Pass look for The Edge

2010-05-11T15:55:00.003+01:00

The Edge are absolutely delighted that we have been selected by North Highland Tourism to develop an on-line presence for the recently formed Dornoch Firth golf development group.

Following a recent presentation at Royal Dornoch Golf Club, The Edge have been asked to produce a new brand for the group and then take it to a new website supported by an aggressive social media campaign. The project which brings together five courses in the Dornoch Firth area - Royal Dornoch's Championship Links and The Struie, Tain, Brora and Golspie.

Director Ian McCaig was delighted at the news, "We work with an extensive range of tourism businesses in The Highlands and the securing of this project is really exciting. We know the area well having worked with the courses previously in the Highland Golf Classics and recently we just launched the new websites and on-line marketing strategies for the refurbished Royal Golf Hotel in Dornoch and The Royal Marine Hotel in Brora. Late last year we were also delighted to go live with a website for Dragons Tooth Golf Club near Fort William."

The Edge are also working on a new blog for Castle Stuart Golf Club which support their current website and have been heavily involved recently in the project management of the Cup Final single for Ross County recorded by Highland band Torridon.

"We recognised late last year that we were working with more and more tourism businesses in the area and decided that we needed a permanent presence in The Highlands. We were delighted therefore to bring on Nairn based Sue McCulloch to work with us on key projects and this is proving highly successful and increases dramatically our direct communications with our clients. An office in Inverness is now a very serious possibility for The Edge"

The work on the Dornoch Firth Golf Pass follows on from work done in recent years with First in Fife Golf, Links with History, the Ayrshire Golf pass and Scotland's West Coast Golf Links

The Edge also created the website and Blog site for industry body Golf Tourism Scotland

"We're proud of the work we've done for golf tourism in Scotland and we hope that we'll continue to build the relationships with this most important of industry sectors throughout the rest of this year." finished Ian McCaig.

Moray Firth Radio Support Ross County Song

2010-05-11T14:24:00.001+01:00

Great support for one of their local teams from MFR in The Highlands. The radio station has got fully behind the promotion of the Cup Final Single, "We're On Our Way" which was recorded only two weeks ago at The Ironworks in Inverness.

Not only are they providing great airplay for the track but they've add the Edge designed logo and banner onto the from page of their website with a link through to how supporters can help getting the song into the charts.

The Edge have provided marketing support not only for the logo design but also in pulling together elements of the original recordning and working with The Music Kitchen in edinburgh to ensure the track was available the week of the final, Ian McCaig was delighted with the results so far. "Dingwall has only a population of I think about 5000 and for the track to chart even in the Scottish Top Forty would be great fun!"

The Edge have previously had "chart success" before with a UK Top Ten with Runrig and The Tartan Army and a Top Forty with Pudsey, Tartan Army and "We Have A Dream".

The support from MFR is helping the track go viral and it's looking that even with it only being available on iTunes that it could well chart high in The Scottish Top Forty this weekend.

Visit Moray Firth Radio online for more information

We're On Our Way Downloads Page

2010-05-07T09:59:00.000+01:00

It's just over a week until Ross County hit the A9 and all B roads' off it south to Hampden Park for the biggest game in the club's history - their Scottish Cup Final showdown against Dundee United.

The whole of the North Highlands is buzzing and we're guessing that not much else will happen this week beyond Inverness. The Staggies really are on the Way.

And talking of which the iTunes single which we've been helping promote is dues for release on Monday morning.

To keep the momentum going we've created some online promotional material for Torridon to ensure that Ross County fans - and anyone else who wants to - can easily promote and find their way to downloading the single and hopefully get it into the charts next Sunday. Wouldn't it be perfect just as the open topped bus pulls into Dingwall with the Cup...

iTunes
The single is only available to buy on iTunes from Monday 10th of May. All proceeds will be going to Highland Disability Sport.If you don't have an iTunes account you'll need to set one up - pretty painless - click to find out How to Set up an iTunes account

Anyway both of the banners below link directly to the page selling Torridon & The Staggies "We're On Our Way".

A4 Poster Download
We've also asked Ross County fans to download and print a poster (right) to encourage sales from Monday.

That can also be downloaded from here.

We're On Our Website Way Banners

If anyone wishes to drop the code for either of the banners below into their blog or their website it can be done from The Torridon & The Staggies Downloads page

Integrating Email Lists and Facebook

2010-05-04T13:05:00.003+01:00

Interesting little App from our preferred email marketing software partners ConstantContact which allows you to create a list sign up on your Facebook page.

We're just pulling together all of the elements of the integrated online marketing campaign for The Royal Golf Hotel and its sister hotels Loch Ness Country House Hotel in Inverness and Royal Marine Hotel in Brora and whilst creating their email tempalates and sign up lists we added the Sign Up tab to their Facebook page.

The Facebook Fans (or likees!) can now click on the the Join My List tab and sign up as they would from the hotel's own website. Seems to us a useful tool in bringing together opportunities for multiple distribution methods.

You can try ConstantContact for free for up to 60 days and of course The Edge will work with you in developing it into your overall online marketing campaign.

Find out more about ConstantContact with The Edge

Golf Tourism Video Gets Expo Broadcast

2010-04-23T17:02:00.006+01:00

The Edge were delighted to have worked with Golf Tourism Scotland to produce a short corporate video to highlight their raison d'etre, aims and objectives and partnerships.

The video was scripted, story boarded and finally mixed down by The Edge Studios with superb video production from Studio Scotland.

It's not the first video production that we've pulled together over the years and there are a couple of more projects in the offing. However in working through the many stages of the project you can't help but thinking that the use of video will become increasingly important in a whole host of business sectors helping to get clear unambiguous quality and product messages across online.

We've still got some final edits and voiceovers to do for the final DVD version but the Expo version of the GTS video went down quite well on what was one of the shows busiest stands.

Torridon Artwork comes together for Ross County Song

2010-04-23T16:06:00.002+01:00

So this time last week we didn't know that there was going to be a Ross County Cup Final song. Now we're just a few days from a live recording of the track at The Ironworks in Inverness, the distribution deal has been arranged with top Scottish record label The Music Kitchen - owned incidentally by Stuart "Woody" Wood of Bay City Rollers fame - and we've now even managed to get the artwork togethe ready for the weekend newspapers!

Torridon already have a pretty cool logo already and almost at first look we had an idea of how we'd take it forward. We had to take the track title "We're on Our Way" and make that prominent as well as building in the team colours, sponsors logos and yet not lose the feel. We also needed to think about the track listing for iTunes as well to ensure that the fans can look back in fifty years time and say that they were named on a top forty chart hit! So the band title for the track quickly became Torridon & The Staggies - Ross County's nickname and now a famous Highland live act!

We took the wee Torries and gave them three Adidas stripes (size 41 Bambas would be nice thanks) the main sponsors logo and away we went.

So that was it. From briefing to logo in about four hours. We hope you like the results.

Tartan Army Greatest Team

2010-04-22T09:48:00.003+01:00

Following up on the previous post about the power of email marketing we thought we should bring you the results from the Tartan Army poll to find the greatest team. The email questionnaire created by The Edge for Scottish Television and the Tartan Army resulted in more than 600 responses and the following 4-4-2 team...

Manager: Jock Stein

Craig Gordon

Richard Gough

Danny McGrain,

Willie Miller

Alex McLeish.

Graeme Souness

Jimmy Johnstone.

Jim Baxter

Billy Bremner

Kenny Dalglish

Denis Law

You can view the full breakdown of the vote on the STV website

Email market research is an immensely powerful and very immediate method of getting customer feedback and opinions. We use email marketing for detailed analysis of guest comments post hotel departures, for analysing market activity and we can even embed topical polls into your homepage.

For more information on how The Edge can assist your online market research give us a cll on 01292 521404

Ayrshire Hospitality Business Increases Social Media

2010-04-21T22:18:00.000+01:00

Just started work today on increasing the social media presence of the businesses of Meridian, Caprice and The Ayrshire and Galloway Hotel.

The Edge revamped the sites of the well known Ayrshire wine bars and hotel a couple of years ago and following an account review with owner and management a refresh of the website and addition of new blog, facebook and ae-mail marketing camapign was decided upon.

At the same time The Edge will undertake a Key Content Builder project which is aimed at improving content and search tags and increasing the traffic through the sites.

The use of social media can undoubtedly build the online profile of any business and fast moving enterprises such as pub groups can both reduce costs and increase sales. The return on investment from a strategic online marketing stratgey can be quite dramatic.

So if you think that having a website designed three or four years ago constitutes an online marketing strategy why not give us a call and we'll explain how we could help your business communicate more effectively.

The Edge on Side With The Staggies

2010-04-21T21:59:00.001+01:00

The thing about working at The Edge is you're just never sure what the next phone call is going to bring...

So it shouldn't have been a surprise when we got a phone call late last week from Kenny from Highland band Torridon asking if we could help out with their idea to release a single to mark Ross County's historic Scottish Cup Final appearance at Hampden next month.

Of course when we're asked to do these things the brain tells you to hang up, the heart however tells you that this is why you're in this business and not in banking. It's about taking some time out to smell the roses and just enjoy the project to the full.

So yes it was and since yesterday morning we've been finalising details with the venue - The Ironworks in Inverness; we've sorted out the sound recording with Dingwall based Highland Backline; met with The Sun discuss some promotional opportunities; discussed the lyrics with the band and hopefully have finalised a distribution deal for the proposed launch of the single on 10th of May.

It's great fun, not perhaps a day to day occurence but it's great to be involved in, absorbing, challenging and requires us to be able to think quickly, adapt, adopt and decide at on the spot. We'll keep you up to date with the progress of the song which is being recorded live in Inverness on Tuesday 27th April.

You can read the launch Press Release from The Edge online

Good luck all involved

Social Media with Purpose...

2010-04-14T00:10:00.002+01:00

We're always banging on about Social Media requiring purpose or it's not worth doing. It must achieve an objective, develop brand, create revenue, reduce costs.
Something other than finding pink animals in a neighbour's farm or sitting down for another glass of wine!
Anyway, the ability of social media to communicate quickly is truly amazing.
As part of our management on online marketing for The Tartan Army, we are always dealing with media requests for something or another about The Tartan Army's opinions or actions; so it was no real surprise to be approached by Scottish Television this morning with a request for a Tartan Army spin on Scotland's Greatest Team - a programme finishing this week with votes on who should play in a 4-4-2 team.
So rather than giving them a single opinion we've put together a ConstantContact Questionnaire online and driven it through the Tartan Army facebook page which The Edge set up for them.
The results will be collated real time online and sent in spreadhseet form to STV pre broadcast.
Now you can imagine how online polls could benefit your business' customer care.
Give us a call.

Open Rooms Website for Ayrshire Cottage

2010-03-23T15:03:00.001Z

When we at The Edge developed our SiteBuilder Lite and the subsequent Open Rooms CMS Website package for accommodation providers it was always with the veiw that as an entry level pacakge it should provide good solid design backed up with easy to use content management and supplemented by strong SEO from the outset.

If ever there was an exampale of what we were trying to achieve it's been over the past few days with new business Rose Cottage in Maidens.

The cottage has been bought by Guy and Jo Redford and will be let out to families and golf groups seeking quality self catering accommodation a mile from Turnberry.

Following agreement to go ahead with the development of an Open Rooms website on the Friday the site has already gone live on the Tuesday with new domain name, content, imagery and every page tagged and submitted. The cottage now has its own Google account complete with Picasa Gallery, Google Analytics account and content managed website.

There is no reason why any tourism business regardless of how small should not have a porfessional presence on the internet. Jo provided us with about ten pages of copy and a couple of dozen digital images of the preoprty which gave the feel for both the product and the market place. In return we've produced a high quality entry level Content Managed website which they can now drive forward.
It is anticiapted that they will add Bookassist online availability in the next few weeks and the availability checker jsut simply drops into the site.

If you are a self catering operator in Scotland or indeed beyond and you haven't looked at your online marketing strategy in the past couple of years you really could do worse than have a look at what an entry level website should comprise of.

All the very best to Jo and Guy from the Edge!

Sitebuilder ProGolf Unveiled

2010-01-15T14:45:00.003Z

The 2010 version of Sitebuilder ProGolf has now been launched across the UK and Ireland by The Edge Studios in Ayrshire.

Sitebuilder ProGolf allows for the creation of a fully updateable website using the multiple functions of our easy to use online content management system and creates your website based on individual designs. The management system allows the creation of your own multiple pages for events, features, news or promotions and these are easily dropped into your website structure. The ability to add feature pages has never been easier and requires only a basic knowledge.

Sitebuilder ProGolf is driven by The Claymore Project, an easy to use content management system to keep your website up to date and additionally manage your Image Gallery, your YouTube account and access your Site statistics, Adwords campaign, FlickR or TripAdviser accounts. It can even show local attractions on your Google map and will manage your own website descriptions for the Search Engines.

While doing work on the website design package and had another look at Lawrence Young's Dragon's Tooth Golf Course site again. He's got a nine hole course next to the Balluchulish Hotel near Fort William yet the site content, imagery and tone shows up many larger operations.

His understanding of the need to showcase his product made developing the site a pleasure and by choosing to use Sitebuilder ProGolf ha can manage his content, imagery, video footage and social media.

Understanding Retrun on Investment

2010-01-13T12:06:00.000Z

Understanding ROI? Hmmmmm...

Why bother? Well most don’t but if you start getting into the habit of looking at your marketing spend and analysing just what it generates you may very quickly realise that you’re facing the wrong way. It can be a serious wakeup call and when applied to the potential returns from online marketing be a “Road to Damascus” moment.We ran an articale at the beginnng of the year about ROI being King and the result was a few emails requesting more information on how best to interparate Return on Investment. So we have tried below to give an insight from our perspective.

The oft raised issue with online marketing is understanding just what you’re paying for when it comes to your website and associated spends. Using a basic ROI calculation may help you understand just a little bit better why diverting your spends towards your online marketing is well worth considering.

Very basically Return On Investment is calculated by working out the returns on your activities against the resources put into achieving those results.

In formula terms ROI % = ((Returns – Investment)/ Investment) x 100

Calculating Returns

Returns on investment should not be based on simple sales but the contribution or Gross Profit figure. Room sales should, for example, include the additional Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) including servicing, commission paid on the sales and other directly related costs.

While many marketers will happily calculate the ROI based on sales only it is not a truthful figure for your business and you should always use the Gross Profit figure. An online marketing campaign aimed at increasing room sales must be calculated on gross profit of those sales not the total sales. Similarly so should any F&B promotion or campaign.

Therefore the figure can more accurately be represented as

Return on Investment = (Gross Profit – Investment)/Investment
Simply divide it by 100 to calculate your percentage

Calculating Investment

For an online marketing campaign for example, the following annual costs should be included in the investment side of the calculation.

Website design costs
Pay Per Click Costs
Emarketing costs
Project Management Time

We would suggest that direct cost of the sales is calculated in the returns side of the equation. For instance for a restaurant promotion

Website Design Costs

Obviously include the development costs but ensure to spread the costs over the lifetime of the site. Don’t plan to hold on to your website for more than two years – so spread the costs over the projected lifespan. Include all related costs for maintenance, hosting, email services.

Pay Per Click

Online advertsing costs are easily managed. Set a planned budget for the year but track results. Is it converting to bottom line?

Look at your offline advertising budget and consider matching it (not always appropriate but good starting point – remember ROI!)

Emarketing Costs

Licence or fees - £20 - £50 per month?
Build in time to write newsletters – 2 hours each?
Analysis – 1 hour a month?

Project Management Time

Be realistic and include the time you or a member of your team need to devote to making the project work. In online marketing time is the most precious resource and without allocating it your online projects will fall short

Management of direct online availability – Five hours a week?
Management of website copy – two hours a week?
Management of Blog articles – five hours a week?
Facebook and other social Media – five hours a week?
Management of Review sites (such as TripAdvisor)and website references – two hours a week?

Only you can look at the time you have for your online marketing costs but whatever you do make sure you use an estimate and don’t discard. To achieve results online someone’s time is required. The website, the social media, the booking engine, the search engines are the vehicles available for your business but you have to take the responsibility of getting behind the wheel and driving the vehicle.

An online marketing campaign without a driver should not be expected to reach your destination on time or on target

Calculation of Return on Investment – Web Campaign
Returns
Estimated Additional Sales	25000
Gross Profit %	85%
Return (Gross Profit) on Additional Sales	21250

Investment
Project Costs	2500
Costs of Time	2500
Total Investment	5000

ROI	3.25
ROI %	325.0%

Royal Golf Hotel is Back with an Online Edge!

2010-01-08T17:11:00.001Z

The Royal Golf Hotel in Dornoch is reopening and The Edge are delighted to have been appointed to develop the hotel's online presence ahead of its April opening.
In advance of Christmas we were asked to make sure there was at least a temporary presence online and Steven in our design team has pulled together the holding site which incorporates a Google map, external links and the Bookassist online reservations system.
The Royal Golf Hotel Facebook page has also been launched and will form an important part of the hotel's social media campaign over the coming weeks.
It's really great news for the Royal Burgh of Dornoch that the Royal Golf Hotel is reopening and we look forward to working with Grant Sword and his team to maximise the returns from the website.

ROI is King!

2010-01-08T17:01:00.001Z

Excuse the schoolboy French pun but as we move into 2010, Return on Investment really is King.

Every penny spent must lever the maximum return possible in all areas of the business. No more so than with online marketing.

So what should you plan to do in 2010?

Well this year is being labelled by many online marketing gurus as “The Year of The Independent”. So what does that mean?

Well in our eyes it means that the technology has come of age and now allows the independent operator access at an affordable cost to the same tools previously only available to the larger operators or to the Online Travel Agents (OTAs)

Accommodation providers need to focus on developing online marketing initiatives that bring the highest rates of return in terms of higher rates, lower commissions and the most bookings.

So what should you’re online focus be for the next twelve months? Well it should be the things that have got the best means of providing the Return on Investment.

Concentrate on the basics as they consistently bring in the most bookings and the highest returns. Some industry analysts estimate that more than 75% of hotel website bookings originate directly from these four basic areas alone.

Website Redesign
Search Engine Optimisation
Paid Search
Email Marketing

Website Redesign
If you haven’t done your website in the past eighteen to twenty four months then it is most likely that it requires some sort of surgery. New technology will have passed it by, the design may be dated. A new website with positive images, rich content and integration of social media is now a basic of any hotel website.

It almost goes without saying that a fully integrated online reservations system such as Bookassist is essential.

More about Website Design with The Edge

Search Engine Optimisation
No point having the best website in the world if no-one can find it. Don’t expect loads of business just because your hotel name comes up first. The vast majority of your potential bookers are not looking for you by name. We’ve developed our own 3-6-9 SEO Audi which will help you analyse your website not only month on month but against your key competition. Management of SEO terms and your website content is an ongoing process that once again can provide stunning increases in traffic leading to greater opportunity to convert.

It is essential and whilst the investment may be unseen, the results are not.

Paid Search
If used without caution it can be expensive but managed properly pay per click can provide excellent rates of return on the money spent. It really is worthwhile to allocate a decent budget to paid search for 2010 and monitor click throughs and bookings generated. It can be easily managed and monitored and should not be overlooked.

Email Marketing
Direct contact with your previous customers is maybe an accepted principle but it like the other basics above requires creativity and strategic planning. It’s no longer just about sending out brochures. It may involve post departure email questionnaires, deep linking to exclusive offers and certainly strong management of the design and content of newsletters. Mailing to customers who know you is very rarely viewed as junk or annoying, it may not be relevant at that particular time but one of those occasions it will push the button.

If you can focus the majority of your 2010 online marketing budget and efforts on these four areas and monitor your results so that you can allocate more of your budget to those specific elements in each initiative that works.

It doesn’t mean you systematically ignore Social Media and other offline tools but get the basics right when money is tight and can see dramatic increases in Return on Investment.

For more information on improving your ROI give us a call on 01292 521404 or send us an email

Dragon's Tooth Capped!

2009-12-08T10:08:00.000Z

It's always nice when someone says something nice; even better when it's someone respected throughout the industry. We've recently completed a website for Laurence Young who was known for building the Freedom of the Glens Hotel business. Amongst other things he's now developing the Dragon's Tooth Golf Course near Fort Wiliam and we developed the course's online presence during November.

He wrote to us recently, "Ian, now that the Dragon's Tooth Golf Course site has gone live, could I just say a warm "thank you" from the team and I? We really appreciate how you have driven this project forward to ensure we went on-line in a reasonable timeframe. Plus we appreciated all the practical advice and help given along the way. Getting a new web site together from scratch is a daunting task and we've been wanting to do it - and stepping back from the brink - for months.

But having taken the leap of faith with The Edge, we're delighted with the way things have gone. The Claymore Project is proving to be a brilliant way of managing content and has provided a framework for us to quickly take control and build a website that we feel represents our business. And we like the idea that we can "get in there" and develop it so easily (and without paying developer fees at every turn!).

So thanks for all the help, creativity and hand-holding!

Laurence Young, Director, Ossian Development Limited and Dragon's Tooth Golf Course"

It has been our pleasure Laurence - thank you for your support

Interviews Support Online Marketing

2009-11-27T10:30:00.001Z

Golf Tourism Scotland, the industry body representing tourism businesses from accommodation, travel providers, tour operators and golf course sectors celebrated its annual awards dinner recently at Turnberry.

In the aftermath the usual press and PR was generated by the organisation with Flash banners for each winner's website, Hi res images downloadable from a specially created media page and hi res logos of the awards for printed media.

New for 2009 however was a series of live interviews of each of the winners. The interviewer was Yvonne Alexander of Word Association and all the winners give their opinions on the market and their own sector. These interviews were then loaded onto YouTube and GTS' own website.

It's a nice touch and Ian McCaig of The Edge Studios explained the benefits, "The GTs awards dinner has become an annual celebration of the best of the golf tourism sector and the work done since the awards ceremony has raised the profile further. The interviews have helped personalise the whole process and offer a different dimension to the normal. We took Yvonne's Interviews and easily uploaded them using our CMS, The Claymore Project, into www.golftourismscotland.com "

The new site was launched in time for the awards ceremony and is unique in that 85% of the copy is Business generated Content.

Listen to the GTS Interviews online now and perhaps get an idea of how you could use some audio clips to promote your products or projects.

New Online Bite for Dragon's Tooth

2009-11-27T10:09:00.002Z

We're delighted to have gone live today (Friday 27th of November) on the web and online marketing project for Dragon's Tooth Golf Course at Glenachulish near Ballachulish (which in themselves are both within touching distance of Glencoe and Fort William!)
We were approached by Laurence Young who owns the course to look at what we could do with the online presence and make some suggestions.

The result we believe is pretty impressive but that in large part is down to the product and the work put in by the team at the golf course itself. The website is driven by our own content management system The Claymore Project and this allowed Laurence the ability to go online with his staff and update the content, images and metatags while we concentrated on pulling together the design that reflected this unique golf course.

The nine hole course is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most beautifully located courses in the country - have a look at the image from above - and really should be played if you're in the area. The facilities are excellent and would put many larger clubs to shame. Golf's Hidden Gem category is overused (and we hate it!) so let's call Dragon's Tooth an Undiscovered Diamond!

The site itself was designed by Steven and incorporates a sympathetic layout powered as we said by The Claymore Project. It also incorporates a new Dragon's Tooth Facebook Page and a redesign of the ConstantContact email features. Twitter will follow as will integration of Traveline Scotland information and the possibility of accommodation reservations using a fully integrated Bookassist model.

The main thing about the website however is that old truism about images making the difference. The layout only emphasises the beauty of the location through the images. The words support, the metatags assist the searcher but the images sell the product almost on its own. When you have such tools to work with web design and online marketing gets a wee bit easier.

Thanks for your trust Laurence and we look forward to a long term relationship.

Golf Nominations for Edge Clients

2009-10-13T14:36:00.006+01:00

The nominees for the Golf Tourism Scotland Gold Awards have just been announced ahead of the Annual Awards dinner to be held at Turnberry on the 5th of November.

We're delighted that five of our online clients have been nominated for an award including Gailes Hotel and The Inn at Lathones in the Large Hotel Category, The Old Loans Inn in Small Hotel category and McLaren Travel in the Transport Operator of the Year Category. In addition we are delighted to also provide Ogstons on North Street in St Andrews with the Bookassist online reservations engine for their website - Ogstons have been nominated in the small hotel category as well.

We wish them all the very best of luck in their respective categories.

The 5th of November is also the target date for The Edge in realtion to ensuring that the new Golf Tourism Scotland website explodes with proverbial fireworks onto the internet with the planned unveiling of the new design and content at the AGM before the dinner.

Energy Agency Prepare Online Survey

2009-10-13T14:13:00.004+01:00

One of our clients, the Energy Agency, has recently signed up to use ConstantContact to drive their online newsletters. The Edge have provided the training and support in getting the system up and running but also introduced the Ayrshire based team to the joys of online surveys and questionnaires. As a direct result the Energy Agency are using the survey tool within Constant Contact to monitor the effectiveness of their recent Sustainability Fair.

They have created the questionnaire which will be linked to in an email sent to all attendees of the fair asking for their opinions on a variety of issues relating to the show.

The questionnaire was easy to set up mixing open and closed, subjective and objective, ranking and multiple choice questions and will give the EnergyAgency live results as the responses are made online.

The results can then be downloaded in both spreadsheet and graph format for the client to present and further analyse.

If you need some help with your online marketing simply drop The Edge an email or call us on 02192 521404

Two Years On and We're still Singing Loch Lomond!

2009-10-09T12:26:00.005+01:00

How time flies, eh? It's now been two years this weekend since The Edge hit front page headlines in the newspapers with our Loch Lomond Children in Need Campaign and we thought it was as good time a time as any to reflect on the experience.

Sometimes it's difficult to define your business. Design, marketing, web development, e-commerce, promotions, PR, product development?

They all have a place but sometimes it's projects and clients that explain things better than we ever can. And to some extent that's just what our "Sing Loch Lomond for Children in Need" campaign did a couple of years back.

The project, even for us, was a big bit of out of the box creative thinking, lots of project management, developing strong and mutually beneficial partnerships, having focussed objectives and targets, strong design, effective web presence, positive e-marketing, good strong copy writing. When they all come together - and they can come together - it describes our business and our thinking and ethos better than any number of words could.

So when you secure front page Daily Record, double page spread and editorial, BBC Scotland coverage, live broadcast from a Scotland international, 500% increase in web traffic, enquiries for website advertising opportunities and a major jump in e-commerce sales through the website and a UK Top Ten record for Runrig and The Tartan Army then perhaps we should be reminding our clients that this is indeed what we can do!

The project from start to finish was great to be involved with. Simply pitching the idea to Runrig of recording a new version of Loch Lomond was the first hurdle and it was with some considerable fortune that Steve Cullen, Runrig's manager saw the potential just as much as we did. BBC Scotland were next and likewise the opportunities of a fantastic campaign tied in with the Tartan Army's final match against Italy hit the net in style!
So we now had the lead artists, the full support of BBC Scotland. All we needed to do was convince the SFA that we could mic up Hampden and record 52,000 Scottish football fans at half time! Easy? Well actually it was and Colin Banks pulled out all the stops to make that part no problem either. He even allowed us to record the squad singing the track at Cameron House on Loch Lomond.

The Edge even produced a karaoke version of the track for the big screens at Hampden to ensure the crowd sang in time!

After that it was a rush job to get the single remixed which Runrig looked after at their Danish studios while we designed the CD and promotioanal artwork for the campaign including a Loch Lomond downloads page.
The Daily Record loved the concept and for the whole period of the campaign supported the whole thing from start to finish. Front page features were followed by double page spreads and artist interviews and readers competitions making sure the entire nation knew what was going on.

The highlight for all involved however was an unforgettable Children in Need night at the BBC Studios in Glasgow. The Edge had been asked to get three hundred Tartan Army to the studios on the night for a live rendition with Runrig; not a problem given that it was the evening before Scotland's biggest Hampden occasion in years and if you were one of that group it will live long in the memory from the march along the Clyde from the Renfrew Ferry into the studios and the most amazing piece of live television which even now raises hairs on the back of the neck watching it.

The ending however was as usual the same. Scotland failed to qualify against Italy and the Euro Dream was over; even an early morning phone call from the record company on the Sunday morning with the amazing news that the song had charted at number nine in the UK charts couldn't lift that cloud! It must be said however that listening to Fearne and Reggie introduce Runrig and The Tartan Army was pretty cool!
Anyway, it's always worth having a look at that video all over again - it's had more than half a million views on YouTube - and if you wish buy the track on iTunes!

It was an achievement and a half and showed what collaboration can achieve. Thanks for the memories again to Steve and Runrig, Colin and the SFA, Donald and Grigor at BBC Scotland, Alex McLeish and the Scotland Squad, The Daily Record, Nigel at Active Media and of course the wonderful Tartan Army!

New Site For Ayrshire Golf Course

2009-10-09T11:13:00.003+01:00

Kilmarnock (Barassie) Golf Club are now owners of a shiny new website designed by The Edge.
We've been looking after Barassie's online presence for a number of years and the new design and structure simply builds on the progress made over the years.

The site is powered by our tourism content management system, The Claymore Project, and allows club secretary/manager Donald Wilson to update everything and anything he wishes to. He can upload minutes and files into the secure members' Section or publish visitor information and updates, change images in his gallery or even publish YouTube footage directly to the site.

New content includes a History and Heritage section which over the coming months will increasingly feature archive materials from the golf club's history - the first phase includes a PDF version of the 1937 Jubilee Book celebrating the golf club's first fifty years.

New image galleries, pro shop pages and a Short Breaks section are all aimed at increasing the visibility of the golf club to visitors as well as keeping members' informed.

Kilmarnock (Barassie) Golf Club on Facebook

The club has even taken a grip on the Social media media bandwagon and now has its own Facebook page where visitors can be come Fans of Barassie!

Sharpened Edge for East Kilbride Skaters!

2009-10-07T16:12:00.002+01:00

East Kilbride based Olympia Skating Club are this week celebrating the launch of a brand new website. The club approached The Edge in September with a view to giving the club an on-line profile and as part of our ongoing support for youth sport and development we were delighted to help with a discounted proposal for the club's committee.

The result appears to be a positive outcome for the club who were delighted with their new on-line presence. The site is powered by The Edge's content management system The Claymore Project and allows the club's organisers the ability to update their own news, events, images and even picture galleries. They can also embed YouTube video footage as well.

The site completes a trilogy of sites The Edge have done in the past month for youth sports clubs in Scotland having redesigned the website for Young Killie and a new site for Kilmaurs Thistle youth football club.

Make Sure Your Landing Page is Working For You

2009-10-06T18:09:00.001+01:00

We got an excellent feature through yesterday from a blog we subscribe to in The States about ten things to do with your landing page. As usual however (as we do with almost everything) we cut it back to three things to do. Three things always seem to be manageable for most businesses even the busiest!

Firstly Don’t Lose Them

How often have you heard that your homepage needs the WOW factor? Well first of all that’s pretty subjective and in all honesty the WOW factor that can be most felt with websites is “Wow that’s bad!”.

Click. Closed. Gone.

In the past it used to be about web developers selling their design first; flash images, creating a Wow Factor. We think that’s changed. On the basis that you only have a few seconds to keep the attention of the visitor there has to be an immediate comfort zone which the site visitor feels immediately; that doesn’t not need to be based on moving images or weird and wonderful navigation.

Content precedes design. Every time.

Brilliant design and Brilliant content will achieve this but so on most occasions will Good Design and Brilliant content. What’s the difference? Well normally several thousand pounds for no major increase in conversion rates.

As a small, medium or large operator all you can really do in the first five seconds is lose your potential customer. It’s a bit like playing golf at The Open Championship and you’ve heard it a million times in interviews; “All you can do in the first round is stay in contention. You can’t win the event after only eighteen holes but you can certainly lose it!”

The analogy is the same for websites. You can’t secure the sale in the first five seconds but you can sure as hell lose it. Bad design and bad content will do that every time.

So look at your landing page and don’t think what can I do to keep these people but more along the lines of what can I do to ensure they won’t switch me off? Resolve the issue of immediate losses from your site and you’ll then be able to take the nest step and fulfilling their search needs.

Understand Why They’re on Your Website

Is it in response to an advert, an email promotion, Pay per Click campaign, generic search? Whatever the reason for their visit you need to ensure that the reason can be taken to the next level quickly and easily.

If it’s in response to a sales promotion ensure your retail offering or availability checker for accommodation providers is prominent – converting to sales is the bottom line after all. Ensure it’s as easy to do as possible from your landing page.

Your sale is dependent on the content you have pushing that sale; equally your availability checker should ensure easy checking from the landing page. Don’t just say click here to book; an availability calendar will always gain more clicks.

Web 2.0 tools and social media are great but only if they are driving sales. They should also be used wherever possible to drive traffic TO your landing page not away from it. Unless you have a very good reason for driving potential sales towards your social media sites DON’T!

Remember it has to be Social Media with Purpose.

Make the call to action clear

Your sales tools must be on view on the screen or above the fold as it is known. The top left corner is the most viewed and receptive area on any webpage and your key sales tools should be positioned here including where possible your availability checker. Top right also ranks highly.

All your key messages however should be on the screen and not require scrolling. Non sales messages, no matter how cute should not be given the same level of prominence.

Special features and promotions should be well navigated. The use of a three column layout has helped many of our clients in the past with graphical calls to action for weddings or festive information sitting below the availability checker. The call to click on them being very clear. A good example of clear navigation is in the recently redesigned website for Gailes Hotel in Ayrshire.

Similar use of bold banners pronouncing Best Available Rate or Sign up for E-News, Facebook or Twitter can all generate action.

So there it is. Three things to do this month...

Balance Design and Content
Interpret why the visitor is on YOUR Site
Make action easy

The Edge serves up a little Blue Spinach

2009-09-14T16:44:00.004+01:00

September's been an incredibly busy time so far for Ayrshire tourism marketing company The Edge and the most recent upload is the addition of a website for Management Consultancy firm Blue Spinach.

London based Blue Spinach is fronted by Lee Derrick who is well known to many in the tourism industry for his work previously with DeVere Cameron House and The Old Course Hotel. He's gone out on his own now and we were delighted to be asked to develop a website to showcase what he's currently up to.

The site is fully content managed and is powered by our own database, The Claymore Project, allowing Lee to update his site whenever he needs to.

We wish him all the very best for the ongoing growth of his business.

Simpsinns Update from the Edge

2009-09-08T11:07:00.002+01:00

Over the past couple of months we've been working closely with owner Malcolm Simpson and Gill Gallagher on bringing the company's online presence up to date.
The project has now passed a few important milestones and some of the results are now starting to come through. The project with Simpsinns is mapped out over a two year period to ensure that we can progressively develop the on-line presence of the group, the individual properties and the profit centres with the properties.

In doing this return on investment for the online spend can be better analysed and tracked.
The first phase of the project is approaching completion with only secondary navigation to be added for the hotels to give a deeper level of information for the guests and site visitor.

At this stage the new websites have been designed to reflect the design work completed by the hotel's own graphic team. At The Edge we've never been precious about working with others; it is essential that positive partnerships are created and collaborations worked upon and when we're provide with the palette of colours and quality of corporate branding as we were from Lynart then it is our job to ensure that the branding remains continuous wherever viewed on-line. Add to this a portfolio of wonderful images to play with we were delighted with what we had to start the project.

The result to date therefore is a brand new website for the brand new product; an updated website for the existing product and a new Blog for the joint product.

After discussion with Malcolm and his team it was readily decided to provide different websites for each business unit; different styles of operation and location we believe merited different contents and designs. However we decided to keep the layouts and navigations similar to ensure that the visitor going to both sites was able to find their way around easily.

Old Loans Inn Website went live a few days after its opening in the middle of July and with the help of an early push with Google Adwords and early submissions to the search engines the site is now performing very well for a start up. The site is driven by our own Claymore Project content management system which means that the team at Simpsinns have full control over their content, images and even metatags and uploads. The image gallery is even automatically updated from their Google Account.

The site also features fully integrated booking engine Bookassist and the group function here means that any enquiries not fulfilled by Old Loans are offered availability at Gailes. Complete with Google map and guest reviews Bookassist is already converting site visits to online sales at a highly competitve cost.
The Gailes Hotel website benefits from all of the similar functionality to Old Loans and since it's relaunch the increase in online bookings has been very impressive. Having switched over from another system the hotel's conversion rate has increased substantially confirming much of what is a given already and that is that in order for an on-line sales strategy to be successful it needs not just a good looking site with relevant content, nor a world class booking engine nor only good levels of optimisation and site traffic. No it requires a balance of all three; without any one the other two are it could be argues almost worthless in bottom line terms.
The final stage of phase one was the launch of the Simpsinns blog which is being used to drive up to date news, information offers and even things such as vacancies and guest images.

We're really happy with the seamless integration of the off line design into the new sites and look forward over the coming two years to extend the ongoing development yet further. The phase running up to Christmas 2009 will include the launch of the company's YouTube, Twitter and Facebook content. We'll keep you up to speeh with how it's all going.

Refresh of Young Killie Website for New Football Season

2009-09-04T10:07:00.002+01:00

With a new season comes an upgrade to our sponsor website for Kilmarnock FC's Young Supporters the website has a new cleaner and easier to navigate design and includes content management to keep parents and players alike up to date on fixtures and vital travel arrangements.

View the website at http://www.youngkillie.co.uk/

Nelson Civil Engineering Website Launch

2009-06-29T18:57:00.004+01:00

Nelson Civil Engineering recently launched an upgraded version of their website. Changes made to the original website included modernising the graphic look and integrating the Claymore Content Management System. Benefits of running a content managed website include the ability for the Client to update any part of the website content including news and managing the photo gallery at any time and at no cost all through an intuitive online control panel.

The website now runs on the new Edge web servers and care was taken to ensure that there was no interruption to Nelson's email service which is provided through their IT provider.

New Web Servers at The Edge

2009-05-27T14:46:00.002+01:00

We are pleased to announce that on Sunday 24rd May 2009 we successfully completed the migration of our main hosting services to a new network with brand new hardware.

We have invested in the new network with brand new Dell servers and Cisco network equipment. All servers are new state-of-the-art machines and much more powerful than any we have used before. This means your hosting services will be faster than ever and equipped to move forward for the future.

We have invested heavily in this move to provide you with the best available equipment and network connections to move forward into the future with.

Hotel Content Management System for Rowardennan

2009-02-02T16:54:00.008Z

Rowardennan Hotel relaunched their website today having integrated the Claymore Project Content Management System. The Claymore Project, a tourism focused database, allows the Hotel to update the content on any page of the website at any time. The CMS integrates seamlessly into the existing website design, which was originally produced by another developer, providing a low cost but valuable upgrade to the Rowardennan online presence.

Key Benefits:

Add new pages on demand at no cost
Control the key meta tags for search engine optimisation
Add images and files eg. Restaurant Menus

As part of the change The Edge were also contracted to provide their website hosting and domain name management services.

The Rowardennan Hotel is situated in the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Forest at Loch Lomond. Offering breathtaking views of Ben Lomond, Loch Lomond and the mountains to the North the Rowardennan Hotel is a notable milestone on the West Highland Way. Located virtually at the base of Ben Lomond the Rowardennan is the ideal place to meet fellow travellers and share tales of adventures over a malt whisky. www.rowardennanhotel.co.uk

Useful Links: The Claymore Project, The Edge

What does the Nominet Annual Report 2008 mean for your business?

2009-01-10T15:14:00.006Z

Nominet published it's annual domain name industry report recently and whilst the majority covers domain name statistics and the UK registrar market it does include some interesting research on trust and awareness of UK domain names.

Based on their own research and a survey of 2352 people carried out by Opinion Matters the report makes the following points:

the .co.uk domain suffix is the most trusted in the UK
when searching for travel and entertainment information 82% of consumers from Belfast prioritise .co.uk over .com domains and 79% of consumers from Sheffield prefer .co.uk domains believing them to be local
twice as many women as men regularly use social networking websites
75% of women compared to 66% of men prefer to use websites with a .co.uk domain
over 85% of people know that a domain name is related to a website, email or an online identity
the Confederation of British Industry [CBI] supports the use of .co.uk domains
over 50% of businesses see .co.uk domains as critical or very important

This provides some important guidance for businesses to consider as part of their online strategy. For example, using Social Networking to further your online presence is especially valuable to those businesses with a high proportion of female customers. Those involved in the UK travel and entertainment market should take note that a very high percentage of consumers prefer to use websites on a domain with a .co.uk suffix. This will be especially important in 2009 when it is expected that the current economic situation in the UK will lead to more people holidaying at home.

For further information about you domain strategy and how these statitics affect your business please contact Chris Dempsey on 01292 521 404 or email chris@gettheedgeonline.com.

The full Nominet Annual Report 2008 is available at: http://www.nic.uk/intelligence/industryreport

Keeping print costs down in the current economic conditions

2009-01-10T12:23:00.004Z

The current deterioration of the general economic conditions in the UK combined with increased cost of raw materials and the fall in value of Sterling against the US Dollar, Euro and the Yen have forced print costs to rise recently.

For example the cost of some inks went up 13.5% and vinyl 5.5% at the start of 2009 and paper and vinyl costs have been climbing steadily for the past six months or more. Additionaly, fuel surcharge costs applied by several of our suppliers are still in place even though the cost of diesel fell sharply towards the end of 2008.

The Edge are committed to maintaining our highly competitive pricing structure and through careful negotiation and strengthened relationships with local printers will ensure that any increse in costs are passed to our clients only where this absolutely cannot be avoided.

For further information on the Print and Design services offered by The Edge please contact Steven Timpson by telephone 01292 521 404 or email steven@gettheedgeonline.com.

Ayrshire based EGM launch new online store

2008-12-16T16:57:00.005Z

Ayrshire based supplier of Environmental and Gas Monitoring products, EGM Ltd, has this week launched their new eCommerce website.

EGM operated their own website for a number of years which was successful at providing visitors with product information but the availability of new technology and a more demanding marketing strategy dictated that a new website was required.

Following meetings to discuss the overall business strategy and the part the website would play in this our proposals were accepted and timescales agreed.

The new website is fully eCommerce enabled allowing EGM to sell products to new and existing customers worldwide. The online store software allows visitors to change the currency display on the website and the advanced shipping system allows EGM to specify the shipping costs to any country.

One of EGM's new innovations is to make equipment available for hire and customers can arrange this with online payments.

As well as control of all products and descriptions on the website th online store software also gives EGM full control over the text and images of all the additional pages. This means they can react quickly to any situation ensuring the website is always up to date and new products and information is immediately available for customers.

Embracing Web 2.0 technology and some clever coding from The Edge allows EGM to run a Blog and Newsdesk simultaneously.

Finally, the icing on the cake was provided by giving the slightly dated looking EGM logo a new look.

Darkstar Scotland has the Edge

2008-12-16T12:12:00.010Z

The Edge are pleased to announce the launch of the new website for their latest client Dark Star.

This dynamic, energetic and youthful pub, club & hotel group is based in Glasgow and is probably best known for it’s Budda bar's in the city centre of Glasgow. Since 2007 the group has been evolving by acquiring many new sites across Scotland, stretching from Ayr to Aberdeen.

This evolution has seen the creation of a powerful brand identity which Dark Star were very use to create an online space which their clientele would view as an extension of their customer experience.

To make this happen they needed to work with a web development company who would pick this concept up and run with it. This is where The Edge came in, using the latest social media tools to create picture sharing galleries, blogs, video channels and even online restaurant and hotel bookings.

The end result is a website which showcases all of the Dark Star properties and lets customers interact with the brand in a variety of ways, and by harnessing the power of Web 2.0, the customers can actually create content for the site itself.

In selecting The Edge, Sarah Mazzone, the On-line Marketing Manager said

"We know our customers enjoy the experience when they are in our pubs & clubs, and with the help of The Edge, we have created a unique online space where they can share their great times with their friends whenever they want"

Dark Star and The Edge will continue to push the boundaries to ensure that the online Dark Star experience is as exciting and fun as the real thing.

For more information on how to give your online strategy the Edge, contact James Kennedy on 01292-521-404, info@getheedgeonline.com.

Online Marketing IS Marketing..

2008-12-08T10:56:00.006Z

So says, Proffessor John Lennon of the Moffat Centre for Travel & Tourism at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Professor Lennon was amongst a number of speakers at the recent Scottish Tourism Forum's networking event "Surviving the Crunch" at the Royal Hotel, Bridge of Allan.

The event was held to foster discussion and share thinking on the most effective ways for tourism businesses to operate during these difficult times. A number of key themes were constantly referenced by the presenters,

"Online Marketing is Marketing"
"Value and Quality will deliver growth"
"Your website strategy needs to keep moving"

Both Prof John Lennon and Neil McLean from Smallmedialarge highlighted the need for tourism websites to embrace the latest developments in Social Networking, Photo & Video Sharing & Blogging in order to identify new customers segments and to help with ranking in search engines.

They also agreed that the weakness of the GBP against the Dollar and the Euro would see an influx of North American and European travellers in 2009 and that booking engines which easily allowed for currency conversion would be the main beneficiaries.

David Smith, owner of the Buccleuch Arms Hotel in Moffat and Debbie Taylor, General Manager of the Old Course Hotel & Spa in St Andrews both spoke of the need to stay true to the principles of quality and service and find innovative ways to use latent staff skills and enthusiasm to upsell.

Overall this was a really useful event, however one key question remains unanswered, so I ask it here and welcome your comments...

Who is going to support the already stressed out, time poor, small and medium accommodation providers in Scotland to take advantage of these new opportunities.?

Many of them already feel totally overwhelmed by the information overload from third party distribution websites and spend too much time constantly updating their rates and trying to gain a competitive advantage on their neighbours.

Does this really help ? No, all it does is help to keep the third party distribution websites content nice and fresh, with their customers coming back time and again to make a booking..... and, here's the crunch, the small and medium operators are paying upwards of 15% per booking for this. Who is really winning here ?

What if they spend as much time updating their own website's booking engine and investing time in learning about how to take advantage of Web 2.0? I know that once a small business starts to see a volume of bookings coming from third party websites, it can be difficult to give it up, but in the long run it is truly a false economy, but the tools are out there if only someone can lead the way....

And here at The Edge, we are doing just that, we already have many customers whom we have created online strategies for, built around Web 2.0 best in breed applications such as Picasa, Flicker, Youtube, Facebook and Blogger. Contact us today on info@gettheedgeonline.com to find out how to give your business the Edge.

Truck Hoodz Website Launched

2008-11-25T09:05:00.005Z

Truck Hoodz, the UK importer of a unique folding rear hood for pickup trucks, launched their new website this week. The Edge developed a small website driven by our Claymore Project Content Management System. This allows Truck Hoodz to update text, images and downloads on demand. It also allows Keywords and other important meta data to be managed and comes with Google Analytics built in.

The website features the company branding also developed by The Edge and matches their other marketing materials including leaflets and magazine adverts.

The website also provides video examples of the Truck Hood in action via YouTube.

You can visit the Truck Hoodz website at www.truckhoodz.co.uk.

Great Scot Tours Website Refresh

2008-11-20T13:17:00.007Z

The team at The Edge have refreshed the design layout of greatscot-tours.com to improve useability and to highlight a new side to Gordon Ross's Personal Tour Guide business - Whisky Talks.

Useability has been improved by increasing the size of navigation links and improving the contrast between link colours and their backgrounds and an additional section Whisky Talks promotes Gordon's whisky tasting tours and seminars throughout Scotland.

We Have A Dream En Route To Stores

2008-11-05T17:47:00.004Z

Less than a week until the release of the Tartan Army's second single and the CD's are winding their way as we speak to ASDAs, Tescos, Sainsburys, Woolies and some other stores around the country.

So as of Monday you can drop one or five in your shopping basket...

The Edge designed not only the CD artwork but also the posters and Counter Display Units for the stores. So watch out for the displays next week when you're doing the shopping and remember to buy one for Children in Need!

Reviewing October

2008-11-03T20:20:00.006Z

Sometimes months just vanish...October was one of them!

From start to finish it has been non stop for all of the team at The Edge. From design and print jobs, new website developments and some interesting project management; so with apologies for the retropsective nature but we thought it worthwhile giving a brief overview of the past few weeks - and where better to start with our now annual Children in Need project!

Last year we had the idea with The Tartan Army to record a single for Children in Need - with only six weeks to plan it we ended up with an unbelieveably succesful result, culminating in a Top Ten UK chart hit and almost 50,000 single sales of Loch Lomond with Runrig.

So having done it once we thought we'd try it again!

This year we approached BA Robertson and the BBC to come up with a re-recording of We Have a Dream - the famous 1982 World Cup song.

The track will be released just before Children in Need but the work leading up to perhaps showcases many of our strengths - Project management in pulling the whole thing together; website redevelopment; Web 2.0 tools in the form of a dedicated blog; big screen graphics for half time at Hampden for the Scotland vs Norway game; design of the CD cover and original artwork; production of Point of Sale materials for supermarkets and stores; copy writing, press and PR campaign for a plethora of related Tartan Army stories; TV and Radio interviews, design and production of t-shirts; database development and emarketing campaign and even dressing up as Pudsey on one or two occasions.

We Have A Dream... could The Edge help you with yours?

Sunnybrae Website Goes Live

2008-11-03T20:01:00.005Z

It's always nice when you get an enquiry based on a recommendation so we were delighted to receive a call from Nairn hotelier Ian Bochel who was looking to update his website. He'd heard about The Edge from a fellow Nairn hotelier and after a in depth introductory discussion about our ethos we agreed a way forward.

The result is a brand new website with a fresh feel that reflects the hotel's dynamism, incorporates Bookassist online reservations and is built around the Sitebuilder Standard web package.
Sitebuilder allows hotels the opportunity to manage their own content and, when ready, upgrade further to the Pro version with its additional Web 2.0 tools.

Ian knew he needed an online booking engine but was confused by the plethora of options available to him. We discussed his requirements fully with him and once the key benefits of Bookassist were outlined he was confident that he had a fully integrated and future proof online package.

So from introduction to new website was less than six weeks and we've looked after not only design and content management but online reservations, search engine optimisation, domain transfers and training.

Ian can head off on his own holiday confident that his web presence is in safe hands.

Music Kitchen Website Launch

2008-10-27T09:01:00.006Z

Having been introduced to The Edge by The MacDonald Bros of X Factor fame, The Music Kitchen had no hesitation asking us to develop an online store integrated with our Claymore Content Management system when it became time redevelop their website.

These facilities along with a redesign of the website layout addressed the areas in which the old website was lacking and ensure the website can be maintained in house well into the future.

Our Online Store software allows The Music Kitchen to sell their artist's abums world wide and have card payments authorised in real time. Claymore integration means all important content can be updated on demand with our easy to use Content Management system. Also integrated with the website is a YouTube Channel allowing music videos, sample tracks and TV adverts to be uploaded.

Visit The Music Kitchen Website at www.themusickitchen.co.uk

Open Rooms Website Updates - new templates and keyword control

2008-10-20T11:37:00.009+01:00

Open Rooms website customers can now take advantage of new search engine features and a choice of three different template designs.

Open Rooms offers small hotel and bed and breakfast owners full control over their website with our extensive content management system, The Claymore Project, which offers an RSS enabled news system, gallery, room rates and this integrates fully with our online booking engine Bookassist.

Control over Search Engine Optimisation has been advanced and full control over your Meta Tags is offered viayour control panel.

You can see an example Sitebuilder Hotel Website by The Edge at www.golfviewhotelnairn.co.uk.

Online Store and New Content Management for Pebbles Spa and Leisure

2008-10-20T11:35:00.011+01:00

Pebbles Spa near Girvan, Ayrshire have just updated their website to reflect a new range of treatments and to expand their market by offering products for sale online.

Following an in depth consultation Pebbles accepted our proposal to install our online store software which offers full management of the system via an easy to use control panel as well as:

Unlimited category levels
Multiple display layouts
Cross selling and other promotion tools
Voucher and multi buy discounts
Fully customisable shipping zones and pricing
Search Engine Optimisation and Integration with Google Base

Pebbles chose to go live with their range of spa breaks and vouchers with a view to adding their full range of beauty and relaxation products at a later date.

The existing Pebbles website was seamlessly integrated with our Claymore Content Management System which allows easy update of text, images and search engine keywords on the website. This allows the company to take control of their website and ensure it is up to date with weekly changes.

In support of the website updates The Edge produced a number of updated brochure inserts allowing Pebbles to provide detailed and up to date information about the main products and services they wish to promote to enquiring customers.

Other supporting work was carried out including the creation and management of Google Sitemaps which are submitted to Google for inclusion in their index.

You can visit the Pebbles Spa and Leisure website at www.pebblesspa.com.

Allstons BC Online Catalogue Website

2008-10-19T15:29:00.007+01:00

Alstons BC of Cumnock approached Ayrshire based website developers The Edge to redevelop their existing website. The original had been written in house and whilst it was functional and kept up to date it was time to introduce some new features and redesign the layout to give a professional feel without being overly comple

Alstons are the main Valtra Tractor dealer for Ayrshire and Lanarkshire and their agicultural engineering business also provides maintenance and repair, used equipment sales and stores.

We advised installing our online store software and enabling the special catalogue mode which turns off the shopping cart and online purchase features. This solution allows Alstons to use the software's extensive content management capabilities and search engine promotion features and in the future simply enable the built in shopping cart to take orders with live online payments.

The news system is powered by Google Blogger which as well as integrating seamlessly into the website provides significant search engine benefits. Other Web 2.0 website features include submission to Google Base and Google Local.

You can visit the Alstons BC website at www.alstonsbc.co.uk.

New Sales Manager for Bookassist Scotland

2008-09-15T09:02:00.001+01:00

Bookassist Scotland are delighted to announce that James Kennedy has joined their team as Business Develpoment Manager for Scotland.
James who is well known across the Scottish Tourism industry has been performing a similar role over the past four and a half years for VisitScotland.com and it is anticipated that he will bring both a wealth of knowledge and natural enthusiasm to the Bookassist role.
Ian McCaig, in charge of operations for Bookassist in Scotland, was delighted to have James on board. "We've been expanding very rapidly over the past twelve months with Bookassist performing exceptionally well across all accommodation sectors but we recognised that we needed to increase the reach as we go into a challenging period for Scottish tourism. James' understanding of the market place and most importantly the people in that market place made him easily the the number one person for this position."
James will now be reponsible for a raft of new marketing opportunities for Scottish tourism businesses including the rolling out of Bookassist's Web 2.0 tools, a new and exciting Sitebuilder product and the continuing growth of the Bookassist Trafficbuilder programmes.
Bookassist continues to offer accommodation providers and their customers unrivalled booking engine technology - multiple languages, multiple currency, SMS Text confirmations, detailed reporting, complete integration and - but this is now being supplemented by a marketing support pacakge which assists in bringing together all the elements of the accommodation providers online marketing to maximise site visits and conversion to booking.
James Kennedy was excited at the new challenges ahead, "I'm delighted to be joining the Bookassist team and look forward to working with clients old and new over the coming months and years. The Bookassist suite of products offers real and affordable solutions for all sizes of operators throughout Scotland and will be able to help many hotels, guest houses and self catering businesses get their product to the market more directly."
James will be based out of the Ayrshire offices of Bookassist Scotland but will be making it a priority to be on the road across the length and breadth of the country. To arrange an appointment or just to discuss the Bookassist product you can contact James by email on james.kennedy@bookassistscotland.com or call the office on 01292 521404.

It's Christmas...

2008-07-11T00:15:00.000+01:00

Well okay it's not but that's our first Festive job of the year now signed off. A couple of years ago we had the idea to create a separate and unique website for Fairfield House Hotel in Ayr promoting nothing but their Christmas programme and promotions. Hotel websites, we thought have enough to do year round without being taken over by the Festive programme. And we thought, have the site up all year round and it's going to be more relevant to the search engines and true to our plan it's now found readily and when seen alongside the complementary brochure design it becomes a mini marketing campaign all of its own.

So if you're already thinking of your Festive Break, Christmas Party Night or Hogmanay Celebration then stop it! But of course if you can't help being organised you can always have a look at Christmas at Fairfield.

Tourism Matters - Doesn't It?

2008-07-10T23:54:00.000+01:00

A lot of the work we do is for tourism related businesses - we have the web design side working with golf courses, hotels and guest houses, attractions and organisations such as Ayrshire Food Network - and like most industries there are challenges ahead for many of these sometimes small and often independent businesses.
We manage and administer the day to day operations of Golf Tourism Scotland from the Ayr office and this week has been fairly hectic pulling together the arrangements for a national workshop at Ayr Racecourse for up to 75 delegates from across the country and all aspects of the industry.
The word crisis is not being bandied about without caution but there is increasing concern and growing frustration from the industry that it's knowledge, experience and potential input is simply being ignored by the public sector bodies.
How will this frustration express itself? Time will tell but it seems a strange strategy for the tourism marketing bodies and government departments to ignore the free and motivated talent that is available in this country. Having worked with many of these individuals in projects spanning more than a decade their passion, understanding and creativity cannot be understated. To not utilise this skillset really is nothing short of criminal.

Young Killie Goes Live

2008-07-10T23:31:00.001+01:00

Just over a year ago we started working on the development of a dedicated site for Young Killie. The group is the official young supporters club of Kilmarnock Football Club and is manned wholly on a voluntary basis by a group of dedicated guys and girls. During the season they operate a training session every Saturday at Powerleague in Kilmarnock - initial membership and then just £3 per head for a couple of hours of coaching and football. Great value and the youngsters love it.
They also arrange trips to away matches, invite away supporters along to Rugby Park and raise chunks of cash in a number of ways.
Anyway, we designed their site the season before last - just shortly before being gubbed by Hibs in the CIS Cup Final as I recall - and it seems to have worked quite well for them. So after the disaster that was 2007/08 season we thought it time for a refresh of the design and structure using our upgraded Claymore Project database and a new look. Jill had a wee go at the layout with Steven overseeing and after a bit of cleaning old stuff out it now features just what it needs to.
Home page with forthcoming events for parents and kids to keep an eye on; news items and a newsflash section and clear navigation. We've incorporated some relevant football related RSS News Feeds into the site and have integrated Google's Picasa to drive the gallery section. It's wholly updateable by the organisers of Young Killie.
We're delighted to provide the design and support completely free to the guys in thanks fopr the work that they do. Good luck for the new season!