Small Publisher Makes Big Gains In North Country

July 30, 2009 PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Rachael Brown or Kim Beals FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

North Conway, NH: Hard work has paid off for Kimberly Beals, president and publisher of Corporate Communications, Inc., a full service advertising, marketing and public relations firm in North Conway Village, New Hampshire.

While she added six new businesses this year to the ad agency client roster, the rising star in her company is her publishing division, Hospitalitymaps.com, which saw more than 30 new advertisers come on board since January of this year. Beals says that this represents a more than 30 percent increase in advertisers which is unheard of in this economy and especially so in the publishing and newspaper industry.

The publications at the root of all this are a series of five printed marketing brochures and accompanying web sites focusing on the White Mountains, Lakes Region, Mt. Washington Valley and the Great North Woods. They are the North Conway Village Map, Golf in the White Mountains Map & Guide, Food - Mt. Washington Valley Map & Guide, Adventure in the White Mountains Map and Guide, and The Best Shopping Map and Guide, Mt. Washington Valley. Each map and guide is targeted to promoting aspects of New Hampshire that tourists and even residents can benefit from.

Beals attributes part of the guides’ success to the popularity of Web sites she designed to promote each publication. At one of those sites, www.hospitalitymaps.com, the visitor can peruse all five maps and get a feel for the region before they come to visit. Last year, on busy days, her Web sites received nearly 20,000 hits a day from all over the world. She receives hundreds of calls and e-mails each year via the sites, requesting hard copies of the maps. Orders range from single maps to boxes of thousands. This summer records show that on Mondays, the sites receive the most hits a day. Last year Wednesday and Thursday were the busiest days. “Major search engines rank us in the top five for certain key words because of our organic content (high value content) and because the sites are easy to navigate,” says Beals. “Web site hits are always world-wide, but so far this summer we are seeing a lot of hits from India, Russia, the UK and Ireland, with Canada being the highest (non-US) on a daily basis.” More than 2 million hits were tallied in 2008.

Distribution of the printed maps has played an important role in the company’s growth each year. Nearly 500,000 guides are printed annually and distributed to more than 400 locations world-wide through European tour operators, at 16 Canadian travel and tourism shows, New Hampshire state rest areas, and more than 250 locations in Mt. Washington Valley. More than 45,000 guides are distributed in the Campton, Lincoln, Franconia, Meredith/Weirs region alone. They are also requested from New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont chambers of commerce and regional AAA offices. Even the IRS training center in Andover has requested the maps for employees flying into their training facility who then want to tour the region before they depart.

Word of mouth also plays a role in helping to increase business. Beals says her current advertisers tell their associates about the success they have advertising in the maps and it snowballs from there. “It becomes a win-win for everyone involved. New Hampshire tourism wins when we attract new visitors to the state, which increases commerce, and the rooms and meals tax. My advertisers win when new customers come to their door. And I win because I have happy clients who in the end make it possible for me to live here and continue to do what I enjoy in an area that I love to live in.”

Business has been so good in fact that she already has a waiting list for advertisers on some of the maps, which were just published last month. Beals says, “As the designer of the maps we are usually able to redesign the pieces to accommodate the waiting list each year, but this year we had to say no to a few because they came in too late and we just had to get to print.”

The maps have calendar events, advertiser indexes, directional maps, discount coupons and are designed specifically for the end user- tourists and visitors looking for important information. Beals says, “The coupons in all the maps and online are a huge hit, with many advertisers saying they get the biggest coupon return from our maps. In fact, one of the top hit pages at our Web sites is the coupon page, which is no surprise in this economy.”

The increase in business has been a surprise to Beals. “We’ve had a remarkable year and no one is more surprised than me.” She added, that although the maps have grown about 15 percent a year for the past 10 years, the economic climate had her nervous. “I know I have a good product, but I began this year concerned about client retention, expecting to lose some and we did lose a few, but in the process of pounding the pavement I added nearly 40 new ones, with about 20 percent of those being new businesses to the region.” She continued, “That, in itself, is an encouraging sign for the North Country.”

Corporate Communications, Inc. offers high visibility advertising, marketing, strategic planning and public relations.
Clients range from small family businesses to major international firms. For more information call: 603-356-7011 or visit www.corporatecommunication.net