I’m sure most of our clients already know, but I have started working at the Dunnellon Business Association as their Assistant Executive Officer in March of this year. I am in charge of membership and running the Visitor Center. This position is only part time and has lot of challenges ahead, but the part that makes me most excited is that I get to work on DiscoverDunnellon.com and really tweek it to my liking.
The DBA has recently come out with a new program called Passport To Dunnellon. See, in our small town of Dunnellon, FL we have the beautiful Rainbow River. During the Summer time, our tiny town is overrun with people coming to enjoy the crystal clear waters that come out of the Head Spring and travels south. About 80% of travelers are tubers who will enter the river at the top, float four hours to the tuber’s exit and then get back into their cars to stay and eat in Ocala. Our Passport Program is a free Welcome/Discount card that we want offer to visitors to entice them to stay and eat here, in Dunnellon. Though the passport is free, we do want a little bit of information about the visitor, mostly where are they from? And why are they here?
But how will I get this information? Have them fill out a paper form before receiving the card? Then I’ll have to decipher their handwriting and enter that information somewhere… This sounds extremely time consuming. And since I have a lot to do, and only part time hours to do it in, I need to find another way.
So then I began to think about how I can use the website to collect the information I need. Josh and I had implemented a “kiosk” at Dunnellon Jewelry Pawn where users could review the store while checking out. If I could get Josh to create a ghost page on DD (one that isn’t visible to people randomly searching through our site) with a form asking for this information, then I could save myself lots of time by using a “kiosk” tablet to ask the questions for me. Once a visitor has submitted the form on the website, all the information would immediately be emailed to me where it’s already typed out and ready to review.
There are so many other ways to get your website to work for you. E-Commerce is one of the most obvious ways, but taking reservations online or submitting testimonials are other creative ways to get your website to be more than just a design.
