I’ve been asked several times: “Do we market Lake Wildwood? I never hear or see anything.”
My usual answer is: “You don’t see anything because we are not marketing to those who live inside the gates.” For those who have considered the same question your answer is in the article below.
The LWA Community Relations Committee (CRC) — One of the responsibilities of the CRC, as stated in its Charter, is to “promote Lake Wildwood to the surrounding community and outside areas.” With limited funds CRC External Relations Sub-committee, along with the LWA Administration, has made great strides in the past couple of years to promote Lake Wildwood locally and outside Nevada County. We still have a long way to go, working within the budget of LWA and with the funds CRC raises through its Performance Sub-committee. The following are some of our promotional activities.
• Local Marketing: Over the past few years LWA joined the Greater Grass Valley, Nevada City and Truckee chambers of commerce, and we have been long-time members of the Penn Valley Chamber. Currently, three of the chambers’ websites have links to our Lake Wildwood website.
Joining the chambers has helped us build a bridge into Nevada County by hosting two joint chamber mixers in our beautiful Oaks Clubhouse. Local business members enjoyed the mixers, with a “no host bar” and appetizers prepared by our chef and paid for by the Community Relations Committee (CRC).
If you have purchased tickets for a CRC-sponsored event, such as the Jed Dixon and the Rhythm Vandals (Santana tribute) concerts, your money helped the CRC to market Lake Wildwood.
Another way Lake Wildwood is building a bridge into our county for community relations is having Donna Brazil, our Director of Administration and Communications, as an Ambassador to the Greater Grass Valley Chamber. Also, our General Manager, Bob Mariani, has been a guest on KNCO Radio on numerous occasions.
Recently LWA acquired a space at the Greater Grass Valley Chamber for a display with a monitor, which runs a Lake Wildwood video produced at LWA’s own Channel 95 by Paul Towne. You can view this video by going to the http://www.lwwa.org Visitors page. On the right of the screen, displayed in bold blue letters, is “Take a Closer Look at Lake Wildwood” — click on it to start the video. I think you will be well pleased with what you find, and it will remind you once more why you love living in Penn Valley and in Lake Wildwood.
• Lake Wildwood Brochure: Several years ago the CRC, with the help of Roger Stover, developed a Lake Wildwood brochure. The brochures are available free of charge to local realtors and to individuals who inquire about Lake Wildwood. The brochures are also at all four Nevada County chambers and local inns. Just to give you an idea, the Greater Grass Valley Chamber alone receives 10,000 visitors a year. LWA brochures and event flyers are available in the Administration Office.
• LWA Website — http://www.lwwa.org: Our new website now has the ability to track the number of visits to our website and how long each visitor hangs out researching Lake Wildwood. We are currently working with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to figure out what key words drive people to our site, such as “Lake Communities,” “Private Lake,” “Golf Course Community,” etc.
Since I’m on the topic of the Lake Wildwood website, you will be pleased with the improvements made by Donna Brazil and Kelly Mullaly in the LWA Administration Office, who have made the website easy to use and very informative. It’s about everything Wildwood — like clubs, exercise class schedules, meetings, security, contact information, beautiful photos of Lake Wildwood and so much more. Kelly recently informed me that only one-third of the Lake Wildwood residents have logged onto the website, and our website has actually had more public visitors than our own members. If you haven’t visited our website, you are really missing out because it is loaded with very useful information. The website is http://www.lwwa.org. If you have a problem logging in, just follow the directions for assistance.
• Magazine Ads: Last spring LWA placed an ad in the Military Officer Magazine, “Retirement Lifestyle” issue, which reaches a physical and online circulation of 80,000 worldwide. The online ad includes a link where LWA is listed and directs those interested to our website.
Destination Nevada County is published once a year and is used in all types of promotions. Last year LWA placed a half-page ad, and this year we ended up with two full pages — one page was an article about Lake Wildwood and the other page showed beautiful photos of Lake Wildwood. Destination Nevada County is distributed in more than 80 locations in hotels in Grass Valley. Additionally, copies are distributed at bridal fairs, home and garden shows, film and music festivals, and tech events. The Economic Resource Council of Nevada County uses the magazines at recruitment fairs for smaller businesses who want to relocate from the Bay Area or Sacramento.
• The Cedar Room for Events: Andi Miller, our Catering and Event Manager, works to assist LWA members to fully utilize the Cedar Room in The Oaks Clubhouse. If you are interested in planning an event — such as a wedding, anniversary, reception or family reunion — Andi will be happy to work with you to book the event. You can reach her at [email protected] or (530) 432-1154. As a LWA member you can sponsor an outside group. However, you need to get your event on the calendar early, especially if it falls around a major holiday. LWA event flyers are available in the Administration Office.
• How You Can Help Market LWA: The Community Relations Committee would like to receive contact information for Bay Area and Sacramento corporate human resource departments in order to send information for their employees who are ready to retire and who are searching out retirement communities. For those who have served in military, LWA is a perfect location because we are within a few miles of the commissary at Beale Air Force Base. Along with the Golf Committee, we are looking for golf groups, outside of the area, who would like a new location to enjoy a good day on the Lake Wildwood Golf Course. If you have connections with an HR department, military base or golf group, let us know so we can send them information about Lake Wildwood. Also the CRC is always looking for people who have marketing experience to assist our team.
Contact me for more information or to help market Lake Wildwood. E-mail me at [email protected]. — Linda Murphy, Community Relations Committee