Yes, Virginia, You Can Have a Nice Website

Many of us know our systems should be updated. We’re sick of old, ugly websites we can’t change. Maybe we’ve given up on having a website altogether and confined our online presence to social media platforms like Facebook. We’d love to change things, but who has the time and patience to figure out what needs to be done or the money to hire a web designer to fix everything? Take a deep breath and relax. You can do this. You don’t have to learn to write code and you don’t need thousands of dollars.

TechnologyLynne SturtevantNovember 16, 2016website builders, Squarespace, WordPressComment

Dodging the Fool's Tax

The fool’s tax is the premium you pay when you rely on meaningless business advice. We are going to focus on three particularly pernicious examples. These approaches sound good at first. Unfortunately they don’t work.

MindsetLynne SturtevantJuly 12, 2016fool's tax Comment

Yesterday's Flavors

Culinary tourism is a hot travel trend. Let's kick it up a notch by creating programs that give people an authentic taste of the past.

Programs and EventsLynne SturtevantJune 28, 2016culinary tourismComment

Kid Stuff

Kids love history if it’s presented in an appealing and accessible way. Young folks, including *gasp* teenagers, also enjoy historically-themed tours and events. All you have to do is create programs that are interesting, interactive and age-appropriate.

Programs and EventsLynne SturtevantJune 14, 2016kids' programsComment

The Myth of the Great Problem

Many people new to tour and event planning assume the more customers you attract to your program, the better off you are. This is not necessarily true.

MindsetLynne SturtevantMay 31, 2016great problemComment

Ghost Signs as Tourist Attractions

There are lots of ways to create programs and tours around ghost ads and it’s easy to include an experiential aspect, the Holy Grail of contemporary tour and event design. Let’s take a look at a few possibilities.

Programs and EventsLynne SturtevantMarch 15, 2016ghost adsComment

New Media Haters Anonymous

Not everyone is comfortable with technology or social media. However, refusing to participate in online channels opens a chasm between you and your customers and members that will be very hard to bridge.

MindsetLynne SturtevantMarch 1, 2016new media haters Comment

Old School Marketing

With the hubbub over digital assets, organic reach, Facebook ads, Twitter campaigns, responsive design, local search and yadda, yadda, yadda we tend to overlook traditional marketing techniques. That’s a mistake.

Marketing Social MediaLynne SturtevantFebruary 16, 2016traditional marketingComment

Your Perfect Customers

Before you begin promoting and marketing your new tour, program or event, you need to answer one very important question. Who is your target audience?

Marketing Social MediaLynne SturtevantFebruary 2, 2016Comment

Quick and Easy Ways to Alienate People

If you want to attract customers to your business or members to your organization, you need to keep your personal feelings out of the equation and focus on what your target audience wants.

Marketing Social MediaLynne SturtevantJanuary 19, 2016customer serviceComment

Becoming Anne Boleyn

Bringing a historical character to life can be a fascinating and satisfying project. It can also be surprisingly lucrative.

Programs and EventsLynne SturtevantJanuary 5, 2016living historyComment

The Pricing Conundrum

Figuring out how much to charge for a new program, tour or event makes us nervous, uncomfortable. We’re afraid we’ll make a mistake. Let's focus on the basic questions that will help you find your magic number.

Programs and EventsLynne SturtevantDecember 22, 2015PricingComment

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