Discover Upcountry Carolina Association’s website had proven to be ineffective and difficult to manage since its launch in 2000. Hired to do a complete makeover the result was Synergy Point’s “Upcountry South Carolina: Discovery Begins Here,” (www.theupcountry.com).

According to Chris Young, president of Synergy Point, “analytics showed that less than three months after the new site launched, visits were up 90%, there was a 534% increase in search traffic and a 46.5% increase in page views.”

“By totally reworking the website design we also were able to strengthen the “Upcountry” branding by creating the positioning “Discovery Begins Here.” From there, we made it simpler to navigate, drawing from our experience on what people are looking for from a travel and tourism website. Plus, adding colorful imagery of events, people and the places being promoted makes for a much more enjoyable experience.”

Synergy Point’s SiteManager content management system for Tourism allows destinations to take control over managing their content so they can effectively promote their destination. It provides complex database functionality and interactive features travelers expect to find in world-class tourism websites.

According to Tim Todd, Executive Director of the Discover Upcountry Carolina Association “ The new site is a huge step forward for us. Synergy Point gave us the ability to use our website effectively as a marketing tool. Our traffic has actually doubled since we launched the new site in March and now we are able to immediately publish articles and features that promote our destination. We are also able to integrate the site with Social Media and run special promotions and package deals. The site has strengthened our reputation as the ultimate resource for travelers in the Upstate and it continues to help us grow.”

The “Best of the Mountains” is an annual competition by PRAWNC that requires each submission to clearly outline strategic goals and objectives as well as present design execution.

ABOUT SYNERGY POINT – Synergy Point is an award-winning, full-service interactive agency headquartered in Asheville, NC, providing turnkey website design and development services. Synergy Point thrives on complex, collaborative projects, incorporating custom and open source CMS software, Social Media, video-for-web multimedia, software programming, and database management to develop productive, effective, and complete websites.

CONTACT:
Chris Young
Synergy Point
828.239.0295 x7000
chrisyoung@synergypoint.net
www.synergypoint.net

Asheville, NC – October 30, 2009

“First Peak of the Blue Ridge,” created for Polk County, NC Department of Tourism is the sixth consecutive win for Synergy Point in the “Brand/Marketing Campaign” category.  It is their fifth “Best of the Mountains” award created for a tourism site.

“We were extremely pleased to not only win in this category again, but to be recognized for our development of websites that support tourism and the hospitality industry,” Young said.  The agency developed and executed a website design, online marketing strategy and collateral materials.

The “Best of the Mountains” is an annual competition by PRAWNC that requires each submission to clearly outline strategic goals and objectives as well as present design execution.

To see the award-winning website, visit www.synergypoint.net.