Ray Peabody, Digital Marketing Coach & Strategist
His expertise has been recognized by the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (President) – American Marketing Association – Harvard Business Review – The Wall Street Journal – International Association of Business Communicators – SoCon – Standard & Poor’s Society of Industry Leaders – Digital Summit and Kentucky Travel Industry Association.
For the University of South Florida, MUMA College of Business. Ray served on the Steering Committee for the Digital Marketing Certification Program.
Ray has had articles published by International Association of Business Communicators and Southeast Tourism Society. For eight years, he taught a monthly seminar on digital marketing. He most recently led digital marketing for a Verizon company and the brand reinvigoration for a Michelin group company. Both provided artificial intelligence (AI)-based products for businesses.
Speaking engagements:
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- Keynote Speaker, The Wall Street Journal Luxury Conclave
- MBA Lecturer, Georgia Institute of Technology and Jacksonville State University – “Internet Law” and “Internet Business Strategy”
- SoCon (digital marketing conference) – “Maintaining Your Brand’s Voice in Dynamic Social Media”
- International Association of Business Communicators – “Maintaining Your Brand’s Voice in Dynamic Social Media”
- Digital Summit – “Keyword Selection and Intelligence”
- Georgia Association of CVBs “Integrating your DMO digital marketing strategy. Breaking down the digital silos and identifying how social media impacts PR, blogs, and advertising.”
- Has taught many training sessions on digital marketing including seminars for Chambers of Commerce and AI for travel websites.
Tourism Marketing
Ray began his career in tourism marketing as an economic development consultant for the cities of Portsmouth VA, Riverside CA and Billings MT. He soon recognized the challenges of bringing visitors to smaller cities that have to work harder to attract them.
He spent five years in Portsmouth developing its tourism potential in partnership with the city. He counseled the Chamber of Commerce and Department of Economic Development and served as Chairman of Long Range Planning for the Museum and Fine Arts Commission. And, he initiated the renovation of historic Commodore Theatre into a movie bistro that preserved its architectural integrity.
As Chairman of Communications for the national Commemoration Commission for the 125th Anniversary of the Battle of the Ironclads, he directed media coverage and set up an authentic Civil War encampment on the grounds of the historic Naval Hospital Portsmouth (1837).
Tourism Event of the Year recognition by Southeast Tourism Society, he was the lead marketer for the US Hot Air Balloon Team Championship staged by Gwinnett County, Georgia.
For America Online’s (AOL) first Olympics coverage, Ray was AOL’s local host including staging events, creating the interactive exhibit at the Olympic Experience, and he built Digital City Atlanta a pioneering online media outlet that showcased Atlanta to the burgeoning online community.
Ray’s leadership introduced Cox Media’s ICFlorida.com, becoming the most visited website for Central Florida and encouraged visitors to look beyond the theme parks and spend an extra day visiting other areas in and around Orlando.
He published the “Practical Guide to Event Planning” for the metro Atlanta area and for Gwinnett County, Gwinnett’s “Meeting and Tour Planner.”
Cathy – Content Creator
Cathy has written blogs with significant readership for tourism clients. Examples can be read on the “Visitors Eye View” page of our website.
A persuasive writer with a strategic focus, her blogs curate and bring to life the uniqueness of local experiences. The monthly cadence of her editorial calendar built in collaboration with the DMO leaderships enables multifaceted consistent telling of their story with keyword-rich prose that impacts SEO rankings.
Topic areas she has written about include history — Revolutionary War, Civil War and local lore — historic homes and living history events, and outdoor adventures like Mammoth Cave exploration, trail towns, equestrian experiences, fishing, boating and outdoor art installations and special events.
At the end of each month, an SEO analysis report is provided that quantifies readership, reader engagement with the website initiated by the blog, and ranking progress for strategic keywords.
Chelsea – PR and Media Relations
Chelsea provides fractional and project-based strategic communications tools for the products, places and gatherings that make life special. She is the incoming President of PRSA, the largest public relations organization in the Southeast.
She is experienced promoting lifestyle products and hospitality, travel and tourism, the arts and nonprofit communications with customized strategies based on measurable metrics and an intimate understanding of their passion and creativity.
Traditional and new media relations, data-driven digital strategy, engaging content creation and industry-specific knowledge gained from hands-on experiences yields impactful storytelling and relationship building that effectively influences target audiences.
Specialties include community and media relations, executive communications and positioning, internal communications, influencer marketing, social media management, media buying, email marketing, content creation, trend forecasting, special events and account management.
Melissa – Digital Media
With more than 10 years’ experience, Melissa provides day-to-day management of multiple digital marketing campaigns including strategic planning and execution of paid search, shopping, display, discovery, and social advertising strategies across multiple brands.
Her oversight of PPC fulfillment includes research, development and optimization of Google Ads & Microsoft Bing Ads& Facebook Ads including search, display, video, and shopping campaigns.
She actively analyzes and test keywords, ad copy, landing pages and bid strategies to hit target acquisition goals, growth and efficiency metrics and provides recommendations designed to improve and strengthen both PPC and organic SEO efforts.
Her technical proficiency enables us to integrate and leverage Google Tag Manager tracking and Google Analytics for SEM analysis and insights. She is experienced in multiple platforms including: Kenshoo bid management, Marchex/CallRail call tracking, YouTube, Google My Business, Google Merchant Center, Shopify, Salesforce and TapClicks Reporting.