20 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Fair Website

1. Cassie Roberts Dispenza| Saffire
20 WAYS TO RUIN
A PERFECTLY GOOD
FAIR WEBSITE

4. A beautiful, unique,
engaging website
Manage it yourself &
quick, unlimited help
Integrated ticketing
if you need it

6. PRINT-AT-HOME TICKETS

7. ADVANCE TICKETS

8. SCANNING PRE-SOLD TICKETS

9. OR SELL AT THE GATE

11. WE’LL SEND THE SLIDES IF YOU LEAVE
YOUR BUSINESS CARD!

12. WHAT MAKES A GOOD WEBSITE?

13. MOBILE-FRIENDLY
FUN EASY TO NAVIGATE
INFORMATIVE
GOOD PHOTOS
QUICK-LOADING
WELL BRANDED

14. THE FOUNDATION

15. 1. BUILD WITH OLD PROGRAMS
• Flash breaks on iPads and sometimes
computers too—ditch it!
• Programming languages change
• Social media outlets change
their plug-ins

16. SITE WIDTH & ALIGNMENT

17. SITE WIDTH & ALIGNMENT

18. DESKTOP MONITORS
1997 2017

19. 2. HAVE A BAD HOST
• Some hosts don’t monitor for traffic spikes
• Has anyone’s site crashed during their event?
• Some hosts don’t isolate your space from your neighbor’s
• With many hosting plans, someone else’s high traffic
or improper usage can affect you

20. WHAT CAN YOU DO?
• Scale server capacity during peak times
• Invest in dedicated server space
(more expensive but fewer or more reliable neighbors)
• Make sure the platform your website is on is up to date
Wordpress & Squarespace often offer free updates

21. 3. BE INVISIBLE TO GOOGLE
Most people that search for your fair name are going to find your website.
What about other things they type?
• What is the title of your website?
• What is in your Google Snippet?

22. WASHINGTON COUNTY FAIR
Saffire Website
#19
Best URL
Changing Content
Saffire Website
Saffire Website

23. WASHINGTON COUNTY FAIR NE VS OR

26. HOW DID WE DO IT?
1. Changed their URL! BIGGEST thing you can do!
From: www.wcffair.com
To: www.washingtoncountyfairne.com
2. Updated their Snippet to include the words “Washington County Fair and
Arlington, Nebraska
3. Indexed their site map –Google can read the text on your page

27. WHY IT MATTERED

28. THE FRAMEWORK

29. 4. CREATIVE SITE NAVIGATION
• A place to watch “design over function”
• If there is a place to keep it simple, this is it!
• Your map to your content

31. 5. FORGET THE FAVICON
Normal Day!

32. FAVICON IMPORTANCE
Users (especially a younger audience,
opening multiple pages in rapid-fire
succession as a way to remember the
items on those pages and revisit them
at a later time.

33. 6. NEVER CHANGE YOUR CONTENT
1. Visit
2. Visit with same content
3. Never visit again

34. CHANGE YOUR WEBSITE
If you update your Facebook page

35. YOUR BRAND
YOUR LAND!

36. SERIOUS OFFENDER: NEWS & BLOG
• If you have them, keep them updated
• Pro tip: Don’t say how often you're going to publish.
A “once a month” newsletter is a surefire way to be behind.

37. SERIOUS OFFENDER: OLD EVENT DATES
• Next year’s dates should display the DAY AFTER this year’s festival is over. Why?
• Festival Dates: September 23-October 3

38. 7. FORGET CALLS TO ACTION
What’s the action item for someone visiting your site?
SMALL
• Listen to music
• View photos/videos
BIG
• Sign up for your email list
• Buy tickets

39. IMPORTANCE OF WEB ACTIONS
OLD WEBSITES NEW WEBSITES

40. COPY FACEBOOK

41. TWITTER DID!

43. 8. FORGET ABOUT ONLINE SALES

44. MULTIPLE BUY OPTIONS

45. BUY FROM ANY PAGE

46. 9. DISREGARD MOBILE
If you:
• Send email (something people check on their phone!)
• Post Facebook ads (something people check on their phone!)
• Sell Online
• Have a website
YOU MUST BE MOBILE!

47. GOOGLE LOVES MOBILE

48. MOBILE STATS

49. 10. FORGET ABOUT EMAIL SIGNUPS
Not Cool:
Email seems lame compared to social media
Cool:
It’s the most successful tactic!

50. Most Cost-Effective
Top Revenue Generator
Fastest Results

51. YOU OWN THE DATA

52. EVERY PAGE!

53. 11. HIDE CONTACT INFO
Very poor customer service to only have a contact us form on your website
• Utilize email aliases if you’re worried
about spam
• At least one phone number should always
be available

54. THE DETAILS

55. 12. FEATURE TEXT INSTEAD OF PHOTOS
Engagement per follower is 58 times higher on Instagram than on Facebook.

56. DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
PHOTOS:
• Provide a personal connection to your event and your brand
• Evoke desire to “do what they’re doing”
• Allow visitors to virtually experience your event all year long

57. DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
Albums do even better than single photos, so don‘t forget those!

58. PHOTO ALBUMS

59. 13. SHOW MORE LOVE TO ADS
THAN YOU DO YOURSELF
A lot of websites make the mistake of using their most important real estate for ads
instead of their content.

60. WOULD YOU RATHER YAHOO…

61. …OR GOOGLE SEARCH?

63. ROTATING ADS

64. 14. DON’T THINK ABOUT VIDEO
Visitors will engage with your site if they’re watching videos/listening to music!
• Video brings an average of 3 times more visitors to your site per month
• Organic search traffic increases by 157%
• The average website visitor spends 88% longer on sites with video

65. APPEALS TO MILLENNIALS
4 BILLION videos are watched every DAY on YouTube
• 18 - 49 year olds watch more YouTube than any cable TV network.

66. • Use an eye catching thumbnail to encourage more clicks
-Use what you just learned about photos!
• Film “behind-the-scenes” with performers, event organizers etc.
• Tour of the grounds videos can be fun and informative!
VIDEO TIPS

67. SHORT AND SWEET
Use what social media has taught us about video.
• Instagram Video 15 seconds
• On Facebook, videos can be any length but they automatically play as you
scroll past, so first few seconds must be compelling!

68. VIDEO REFERENCES IN EMAIL
Using the word “video” in an email subject line:
• BOOSTS open rates 19%
• INCREASES click-through rates by 65%
• REDUCES unsubscribes by 26%

69. 15. BURY CONTENT IN .PDF
PDFs are the easiest way to keep customers from seeing your content!
• Poor SEO – Search engines can’t always read the content
• Your internal site search can’t read them
• Adds an extra click for your customers
• No exposure to photos/videos on your website

70. ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR FORMS

71. 16. DISMISS USER-GENERATED CONTENT
That’s what social media is right? We already know people love it!
• Allow customers to share photos, info
• Ask sponsors/guest writers to contribute to your blog
• Put customer YouTube videos on your website
• Share Instagram content of people at your festival
• Integrate customer reviews

72. User Generated Content
92% of consumers trust online content
from friends and family above all
other forms of brand messaging
50% of consumers find UGC more
memorable than brand produced
content

74. Ben & Jerry’s

76. #ShareaCoke

78. 17. FORGET WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL
Find your differentiators and sell the heck out of them!
• Scenery
• Attractions
• Special Events
• Culture/Tradition
• One-of-a-Kind Experiences

79. SCENERY

80. ATTRACTIONS

81. ATTRACTIONS

82. EVENTS

84. THE FOLLOW UP

85. 18. IGNORE CUSTOMER VIBE
If your people are talking about memes, include memes on your website.
• If Snapchat is all the rage, use Snapchat
• Current events can provide great content
• Not every option is good for every event

86. 19. IGNORE YOUR ANALYTICS
What should you watch?
• Google Analytics
• Facebook post analytics
• Email opens & click-throughs

87. YOU’RE NOT
MARKETING!
If you’re
not measuring,

88. FACEBOOK ADS

89. EMAILS
• Test layouts and content
• (Almost) always include more than
one topic.
• The things people care about will
shock you!

90. GOOGLE ANALYTICS - LOCATION
• What are you doing to make strong places strong? What could you do to increase
areas you wish were strong?

91. GOOGLE ANALYTICS - MOST VIEWED
• How can I make those pages serve me better?

92. THEN APPLY IT EVERYWHERE!

93. 20. DON’T ASK FOR ANY INPUT
Sometimes we are the softest critics of our own work and websites
• Ask your friends to buy a ticket from your website while you watch
• See how easy it is for them to get to important information
• The thing you’re missing may be the thing they catch!

94. Don’t forget to drop off
your business cards.

95. Thank you!
cassie@saffire.com
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