Category Archives: Marketing and Promotion

The Plan…

24 Thursday Aug 2023

Posted by in Byway Administration, Event, Marketing and Promotion, Partners, Telling the Byway Stories

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The next meeting of the Friends of the Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway will be Sept 12 at Schenectady Distilling Company, 3304 Amsterdam Road, Glenville.  This will be a tasting open to the public.  We supply the Erie Canal related presentation, drum up an attendance of forty people, and they will provide a tasting of their products.

This will be a pleasant, relaxed departure from our usual meetings which tend to be totally focused on the Byway; the Erie Canal; and the waterway west.  I plan on bringing a power point type presentation (lots of images) of the “State of the Byway”.  

This is a kick-off of our public availability sessions on the draft Corridor Management Plan (CMP).  Sure it is a bit different than any other Byway has done it, but why not?  The “State of the Byway” summarizes sections 1, 2, and 3 of the CMP.  I will add a slide or two to show where the nearest Erie Canal features are to the Distillery (which features “36 Locks beverages”).  Here’s an approximate schedule of what we have planned:

  • 4 to 5 PM – Tour of the distillery and tasting
  • 5 to 8 PM – hors d’oeuvres 
  • 6 to 7 PM – Byway Presentation, questions, discussion, answers

From a historic perspective alcohol played an important part in building the Erie Canal. Treated municipal water, that we take for granted, was not available.  In the spirit of building public acceptance of our Byway plan, let’s relax and enjoy each other’s company as exhausted canal workers must have ended the day of moving mud and stumps to make way for what is now history?

Note that attendees are expected to make a $5 donation to the Byway on entry. Non-alcoholic beverages will be available for us tea-toddlers who are encouraged to provide car pool or rides for others!

Visitor Experiences

24 Friday Feb 2023

Posted by in Bringing Tourists to the Byway, Marketing and Promotion, Mohawk Towpath, Telling the Byway Stories, tourism experience, Uncategorized

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Our number one, top priority within the Mohawk Towpath National Scenic Byway corridor is to provide a positive visitor experience, period.

But how do we measure or quantify our successes? The designated route is along public roads that are open 24/7/365! Most of our historic features are along public highways or in, or along side the right-of-way. One such measure would be the number of hits on our website. That’s a start, but that’s only the visitors to our website. Intuitively visits to our website would reflect early curiosity or the number of people searching for a unique experience, not physical visits to the Byway. When we first set up the Byway’s website one of the concerns was that if we included too much information, too many pictures that would provide the whole experience and no one would try the real, authentic, visit.

I disagree. The more we can provide pictures of people enjoying the Byway and its many features the more we inspire the public to gain their own experience by physically visiting the Byway. My feeling is that use of our cell phone based self-guided tour is one of the best metrics of Byway visitation and experience.

Gathering information on visitors, not personal information, but number of calls to the self-guided tour are most helpful. Also the number of brochures that are picked up at various Byway locations are revealing.

Data provided by OnCell Systems, now STQRY.

The above data shows that visits almost doubled during the pandemic. People, including you and I, needed to get out of the house, but go where they were not exposed to others. A drive on the Mohawk Towpath Byway or visit one of our parks or historic sites was the perfect answer. Recent numbers are back, but not down to pre-COVID numbers. Perhaps return visits to the Byway and a greater digital marketing effort are definitely playing a role.

Also note that visitors don’t spend a lot of time on the page or listening to the entire narrative. If it is longer than 2 minutes they are gone to the next or are otherwise distracted.

For those of you who have used the self-guided tour service before, we will be adding new sites, new STOPs this spring along Erie Blvd. in Schenectady and in downtown Cohoes.

Marketing and Promotion

23 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by in Marketing and Promotion, Telling the Byway Stories

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I am stuck. I cringe whenever someone says, “We should do more to market and promote the Mohawk Towpath Byway.” This is not one of my strong points and I don’t think a hard sell is appropriate or even effective in this case. However, my most comfortable clothing is a bright orange tee shirt that has a prominent message “Bike the Byway”. Another is a frayed, pail blue, faded denim, collared shirt with an embroidered Byway logo in place of the chest pocket. I realize I am quite comfortable if an old friend sees me and mentally labels me as “Mr. Byway” before they can remember my real name.

“What’s the Byway?” is a perfect opportunity to launch into my elevator speech about the driving route between Waterford or Cohoes and Schenectady that follows the historic Erie Canal and the waterway west. It’s a perfect conversation as you are standing in a checkout line trying to figure out if you are keeping a safe “social distance.” Better than trying to figure out which credit card will work with this retailer.

Bike the Byway. Do you have one of these shirts?

One of the most memorable activities was the “Walk the Byway” event back in 2010. Larry Syzdek and I started out very early one summer day in downtown Schenectady. We had refreshment stops planned along the way. He dropped off at almost precisely half way (at his house) and Ruth Olmsted joined. One of the most uncomfortable segments was the stretch that included the Cohoes – Crescent Road with narrow shoulders and limited maintenance of the vegetation along the roadway. [Note that this is stipulated by environmental concerns for activities in the regulated wetlands right up to the narrow right-of-way]. But others joined us including my wife and other supporters. Cohoes, Waterford and Halfmoon were a rewarding way to end the day. This was a promotional effort that worked. Others worked and we will continue to work. Thank you for reading.

If you would like a soft, cotton tee shirt, tan with forest green silk screen that says, “Walk the Byway” I still have a box with limited sizes.  If you walk any part of the Byway or it’s many recreational assets and would like a Byway tee shirt, I will try to find your size… providing you tell me about your favorite walk on the Byway.

With those thoughts I am off to work on another chapter of your updated Corridor Management Plan…

“An effective Marketing and Promotion strategy should include a consistent, coordinated effort of online presence, regional effort with partners, individual or group visitor outreach and international initiatives with national partners…”