It’s been a busy year here at DropZone Marketing and we’d like to share with you some of what’s been going on!
Australia – May
In May, Marcella Smith, Melissa Nelson Lowe and James La Barrie had the honor of visiting Australia to attend and present at the Australian Parachute Federation’s, National Symposium which was hosted on the Gold Coast outside of Brisbane. Marcella presented on the intricacies and importance of the Google Business page, Melissa on how to get on a world record and James presented on maximizing sales with customers along with the ins and outs of e-mail marketing. It was such a pleasure connecting with the Aussie skydiving community once again as this was our third APF Symposium and 4th visit to Australia.
During our last day, the three of us took in some of Brisbane including the famous Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which included roaming in an open field with lots of kangaroos. It was amazing!
New Digs – June
We never made it known publicly, but for the first five and half years at DropZone Marketing, we operated our business from a converted, two-car garage. While it was a very professional office, we were starting to outgrow our space. In June we decided it was time to move to a professional office and develop our other brand – Beyond Marketing (our Beyond Marketing brand works with business operators outside of the skydiving industry). We moved into a converted theatre that had been built in 1949 with beautiful old brick walls and old timber. We have created this space with the vision of keeping what’s most important central to what we believe as a business which is our core values.
New Role for Melissa Nelson Lowe – July
As our agency team has now grown to a team of 16, we have had a new need – to keep business coming! Since we opened our business in 2013, we have grown gradually via word of mouth; now with the Beyond Marketing brand in development, Melissa Nelson Lowe has pivoted from the role of Account Manager to Director of Business Development. In short order, Melissa has already introduced us to two new clients that we’re thrilled to be working with.
New WR for Melissa Nelson Lowe – July
While Melissa has been busy in her new role, skydiving remains a central piece of Melissa’s life. Last week, Melissa and 41 others set two new world records – a two-point, head down 42-way followed by a three-point, head down 42-way! These two records add to Melissa’s tally of world records to an incredible 23! In August, Melissa returns to Skydive Chicago to join her brother Rook and the ‘Vertical Elite’ to attempt the largest vertical world record to date during Summerfest. It should be epic to watch!
New Service – Phone Support
This week, we announced the launch of a new service – phone support for DZs. Over the years, we’ve noticed a pain point with DZs struggling to find help with qualified and professional people answering the phones while possessing the skydiving knowledge to correctly answer questions as well as the capability of taking reservations. We’re trying to solve this problem!
New Work
Our agency has picked up new work in our areas of expertise with Google Ads, SEO, social media, reputation management, branding and content writing, but it’s also been a busy year for web design.
Some recent web design work includes completed projects for Butler Parachute Systems, Oklahoma Skydiving Center, Maybe Sailing, Skydive Hibaldstow, Wicked Wingsuits, Sun Path Products (to be launched at a later date) and different projects with Shannon Pilcher, Skydive Deland and LiquidSky Sports.
New Membership – PIA
We are proud new sustaining members of the Parachute Industry Association. Being that we are so rooted in the industry, we felt the need to get more involved. We will be attending the next PIA conference hosted in Tampa in August. If you’ll be there, please say hello!
