Emerge Inc. Blog

Yellow Ball Tennis Camp recently expanded their Tennis Camp to include 2 new locations. Emerge worked with Yellow Ball Tennis Camp to expand their website to offer online registration for 3 different locations, Miami, Oberlin and Toledo. The site also includes information on camp types, locations, coaches, staff, sponsors, tennis news and a Pro Shop.

Campers can learn more about camp, register online and download their player packet. Once camp begins, campers and their parents will be able to view the tennis match results and photos from camp. To learn more about Yellow Ball Tennis camps, visit http://www.YellowBallTennis.com.

If you are interested in added online registration to your website, contact us at (440) 284-4949.

By: Ed Skimin

Mike and I visited San Francisco, California recently to attend the Web 2.0 Expo. A very large (some estimate are over 10,000 attendees) conference that provides a 30,000 foot view of the Internet industry.

Since our inception, Emerge team members have attended at least 1 major conference each year. This provides us an opportunity to broaden our understanding of the industry, form a clearer vision of the future direction of the industry and build relationships with thought leaders.

We were exposed to a lot of great ideas and insight this year. To be honest, we are still digesting everything and thinking through the implications for Emerge, LorainCounty.com, our clients and ourselves personally.

If anyone is interested in discussing some of the themes, just let me know. Could be a great topic for lunch or an after work beer.

Emerge recently worked with the Lorain County JVS to add informational videos to their website. The videos provide information on:

• Building Trades
• Business and Marketing
• College Tech Prep
• Community Service
• Culinary
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Transportation

In addition to watching the videos online, website visitors can download the videos to their iPods.

Video on the Internet is huge. In February 2008, United States Internet users viewed 10.1 billion online videos, an increase of 66% over last year.

And, its not just high school kids watching videos. In February 2008, 135 million people watched online videos, spending an average of 204 minutes. These statistics come from ComScore.

For information on adding Internet video to your business strategy, contact Emerge.

Emerge is looking for great students for two new Internships:

Web Application Developer/Programmer
Website Developer/Designer

Each year Emerge creates summer internship opportunities to provide students with experience working in an office and with a team. We also use it as an opportunity for us to evaluate who might be future additions to the Emerge team.

If you know anyone who is motivated, focused and skilled in these areas, we would appreciate it if you let them know about the internships.

Just 10 weeks after launching Assured Vacation Rentals, Emerge worked with the company to rebrand, redesign and relaunch the website as WhyRentARoom.com.

Both sites enable websites enable owners of vacation properties to market their properties on the Internet to travelers. However, the reality is that there are a lot of sites that provide this service. Why be the same?

WhyRentARoom.com focuses more on the traveler. The site has seven blogs, everything from traveling with family to traveling with pets.

If you are a traveler, be sure to check out the vacation homes available and the interesting travel information.

If you are a vacation home owner, be sure to list your vacation property on the site. If you add your property by May 1st, it is completely free for 1 year.

During a recently presented to a group of marketing directors from Lorain County non-profit organizations, I included a slide titled ‘Ed’s Bias’. The topic was Internet marketing and I thought that in this era of transparency it was important that I start out by being clear my predisposed position.

As it relates to marketing on the Internet, here are some of my biases:

• Strategic use of the Internet is vital to the success of every organization.
• Internet Marketing is about Experimenting; there is no one size fits all option.
• The Internet is not/should not be a free medium. It provides great value and should therefore be an investment.
• Local Matters. The Internet is not just about marketing to the world, but also to your neighbors.

The full presentation included 10 marketing related topics, from search engines, to social networks. In future posts, I will share more of my thoughts and Emerge’s work in Internet marketing.

No need to wait for the hot weather, the MetroParks serving Summit County (Ohio) have already begun accepting online purchases for 2008 swim passes.

The Emerge developed online reservation system is designed to enable users to quickly and easily complete their purchase. Website users simply enter their name and birthdate and the system automatically checks if they qualify for an adult or child swim pass. In addition, users can purchase as many swim passes as needed in a single transaction, so go ahead and get one for the babysitter.

MetroParks Serving Summit County Home Page

Swim Pass Purchase Page

For more information on Emerge’s work with many Ohio parks agencies and departments, visit EmergeParks.com.

Emerge was one of the corporate exhibitors from throughout the United States at the 2008 Ohio Parks and Recreation Association Tradeshow. The “Let the Games Begin: Learn, Play, Experience” tradeshow and conference featured exhibits for everything from playground equipment to sports gear to computer database systems.

Over 1,000 people attended the conference at the Dayton Convention Center on February 11th and 12th. During the tradeshow, Emerge showcased EmergeParks, a customized, online reservation and ecommerce solution designed specifically for Parks and Recreation organizations. We have worked with 12 Ohio Parks and Recreation organizations, including Columbus, Geauga, Lorain, Lake, and Toledo.

The EmergeParks Reservation Platform will enable Parks to accept online payments, access and manage payment information, maintain a park user directory, generate reports and define administration access permissions. They can also expand the platform by adding Extensions Modules to provide additional functionality to the Reservation Platform.

If you would like information regarding developing a customized solution for your business or organization, please contact us at (440) 284-4949.

At Emerge, months can seem very different. Some months we seem to launch one website after another. Other months it seems like our work mostly consists of adding new functionality into existing client’s websites or developing new internal processes and offerings.

Well, February was a little of everything. We added a new offering with the email newsletter platform. We completed updates to existing clients’ websites including a dynamic internal calendar for the Elyria Health Department, which enables all staff members to share schedule information over the Internet in a password, protected environment.

And we launched a number of new websites with clients, including:

ABC Refreshments – a full service vending company
Breezewood Party Center– a beautiful banquet hall located in Sheffield Ohio
AYP Tampa – a yellow page directory for the GLBT community around Tampa Florida
Lake Metroparks 50th Anniversary – a website celebrating the historic anniversary of the park system
Vote for Issue 13 – Murray Ridge’s renewal issue to support Lorain County children and adults who have mental retardation and developmental disabilities
JDRF Promise Ball - Fundraiser for the Columbus Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

In February, Emerge launched a new email newsletter platform that provides clients full control to create unique e-newsletters, build email contact lists of clients and prospective clients and access statistics on the success of each campaign.

The process begins with Emerge developing a graphical template for each email. This provides recipient’s visual cues that reinforcing the client’s brand.

Next we update the website to enable interested customers and prospective customers to sign-up to receive the company’s e-news. Clients can also add email addresses from other sources such as customer files or off-line sign-ups.

Each time the client wishes to send an email newsletter, they log on to the password protected administration section and add the content and photos they wish to share. Clients can select to send the email to everyone on the list or pick specific recipients based on groups, for example clients, online sign-ups, etc.

Simple, eloquent reports enable client to view information on the success of each newsletter. Information available includes how many people opened the email, clicked on a link and how many unsubscribed. You can even drill down to minute-by-minute statistics to see when people read the e-newsletter.

If you would like a demonstration on Emerge’s new email newsletter platform, please email (Emerge@EmergeInc.com), call (440-284-4949) or complete our online contact form.