Woodstock to spend $90K for tourism website redesign

Woodstock plans to spend tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade the website for Real Woodstock, the city’s tourism arm.

The City Council recently voted 6-1 to move forward with the website upgrade. City documents indicate costs include a one-time fee of $25,000 and an annual $21,675 licensing fee, with total costs about $90,000. The contract is with Simpleview, “an internationally recognized leader in Destination Marketing Organization-focused (DMO) technology,” according to city records.

The website would allow customized features and offers a customer relationship management system, among other capabilities. CRM systems help companies manage relationships and interactions with customers.

Council member Tom Nierman said he was very skeptical that the city would get a good return on its investment. Nierman, the only “no” vote, said he understood the website has to be redone from time to time, but he didn’t think this upgrade was an appropriate use of taxpayer funds.

“Our primary goal here is to serve the taxpayers of the city of Woodstock,” Nierman said. He said many of the places cited by city officials that use CRM are much larger than Woodstock or “100%-tourism based.” They include South Bend-Mishawaka, Indiana; Gatlinburg, Tennessee; and the country of Norway.

Nierman later said Woodstock is not a 100% tourism town, and events such as Groundhog Day, Woodstock Pride, Mexican Independence Day and Lighting of the Square are packed.

“We’re doing a good job the way it is now,” Nierman said, adding that he didn’t think spending $100,000 would generate $100,000 in returns.

In response to a question from Mayor Mike Turner about how the staff views the site’s functionality and impact, City Marketing Director Heather Arnold said, “We would love to take this to the next level.” That involves improving the website, she said, including with analytics that the city “can share with our partners, who would be businesses.”

Woodstock Executive Director of Business Development Danielle Gulli added that “websites have a life cycle” and the last time site was built starting before COVID-19 and its cost was in the $20,000 to 25,000 range, which Gulli said was common. Real Woodstock was absorbed into the city in 2023. Gulli said technology is changing, and now is the time to go through the next life cycle. Council member Melissa McMahon, who used to work for Real Woodstock, said the website launched in early 2021.

Council member Bob Seegers, who said later he would yield to the staff’s wishes on the proposal, asked if there would be revenue generation on the new website.

“I mean, ideally, yes,” Arnold said. When Seegers followed up and asked if the current website allowed that, Arnold said not to the level it would be with an upgrade. Gulli said some tourism websites allow users to book itineraries straight from the site, and Woodstock doesn’t have that capability now.

By creating the CRM system and tracking visitors and their interests, “you’re kind of developing your persona for the person who’s your ideal target audience” and then you can market directly to them, Gulli said.

She said the city currently gets information from Placer.ai, a software company that specializes in location information. The city can’t communicate, identify or build profiles of people with Placer but would be able to with the new system.

Gulli said event organizers can’t spend the money Real Woodstock does to promote events, and the new website will target making experiences that can benefit local businesses.

City officials said the money for the website upgrade comes from $140,000 the City Council appropriated for Real Woodstock in this fiscal year.

“When we explored updating our current WordPress site in August 2023, the estimated cost for the necessary improvements ranged from $12,000 to $18,000. Those updates would not have added CRM functionality, trip planning tools or improved partner integrations, features that come standard with the Simpleview platform. Investing in this next-generation platform ensures Real Woodstock continues to meet visitors where they are and where they expect us to be,” according to city documents.

Council member Natalie Ziemba said that what the city has now “is OK, but what we could have is so much better,” adding she could see the city recoup its costs because it can optimize web content, targeting and traffic.

Council member Darrin Flynn said it was important to be ahead of the curve and called the expense a “sound investment.” Flynn remembered the “panic” of being on the board of Real Woodstock years ago and looking at the price tag of $20,000-plus for the site design. But Flynn said it was the cost of doing business.

McMahon said that she wanted to see the site focus on Route 47 during construction because the businesses are going to need all the help they can get.

“We owe it to businesses off the Square,” McMahon said.