Introducing PIXL 2.0!
Sunday, February 25, 2018, 12pm by Andrew H. Baker, TMP, FEP
If you’re an avid reader of our Tourism Talk blog, we hope you already know what PIXL stands for. As we prepared to launch the new visitRaleigh.com last year, we spent plenty of time talking to our area partners about updating and maintaining their listings via the Partner Information eXchange Login.
But if this is your first time reading our blog or your 30th, we've got exciting news for all Wake County hospitality partners: beginning March 1, we are launching PIXL 2.0!
For the everyday user, PIXL will be just as useful as it was before. The main differences you will find will be an enhanced, intuitive user interface and consolidation of where to find the modules you use day-to-day. If your first time logging in will take place after March 1, then consider this a good introduction to what PIXL can do for you; the PIXL 2.0 experience is better than ever, thanks to users' suggestions and other industry best-practice improvements.
A fresh new homepage
As with before, you can access your CVB listings and other business opportunities by visiting pixl.visitraleigh.com, entering your email address and password. Once logged in, you'll notice at the top right corner of the page a drop-down selector with the name of your account. (If you are in charge of multiple locations or properties, you can access the different accounts for each by selecting the corresponding property in the drop-down.)
Experienced users will find on this new homepage several key changes from the previous PIXL. First, there will be an initial image banner of information for Bureau partners including, but not limited to, announcements, upcoming GRCVB events and hospitality trainings, Tourism Talk Blog posts and more.
Directly below that, you'll notice three colored boxes under the "At A Glance" header. This module gives a brief overview of your business or organization's listings and deals viewership. Clicking on the "See All" link to the right engages a more detailed tracking of your business/organization and its interaction with the Bureau.
The last thing you'll find on the new homepage are Partner Bulletins. Partner Bulletins, as with the previous PIXL version, are important notices, documentation, arriving group alerts etc. posted by the Bureau. Important/unread bulletins will be marked with a blue-and-white exclamation mark.
A sidebar for everything
Along the left-hand side of PIXL's new homepage, you'll find all the previous features you could access before, organized more clearly and visually:
- Selecting the Profile icon provides access to a business or organization's information, such as Contacts, Accounts and My Benefits, which displays information about interactions with the Bureau (same as the "See All" link under the "At A Glance" header of the homepage).
- Clicking the Collateral icon displays options for Listings, Deals, Calendar of Events and Media (i.e., listing images).
- The Opportunities icon allows area hospitality partners to view and respond to Leads sent by the Bureau, such as requests from convention/meeting planners for the booking of your meeting facilities and/or hotel rooms. Service Requests sent by the Bureau will allow service providers to respond to needs for convention/meeting planners after their event is booked.
When you view or edit your information in any of the above sections, you can quickly scroll to a subsection on the page by clicking the links on the left of the page. If you are viewing the account, the top left will display an Edit button. If you are editing the account, the top left will display a Save button. You must click the Save button before changes are applied!
Updating your profile and more
After you click the Profile icon followed by Accounts, you will be presented with your account name and various actions you can perform. (As with the drop-down selector located at the top right corner of the screen, you can also access your different properties if you have more than one.) The eyeball icon will allow you to view your property information, while the pencil icon allows you to edit it. The down arrow icon will allow you to view and edit amenities and meeting space information if they apply to your property.
Next in the Profile section are Contacts. Here, you will be presented with a list of all the contacts known to be associated with your property. On this page you can add or edit a contact depending upon your PIXL permissions. (A quick reminder: only the Bureau can turn on a new contact's PIXL access, so reach out to us directly once you've input a new contact for your listing.)
Finally, the My Benefits section of your Profile allows you to see the same as the Benefits Summary from PIXL previously. Like the "At A Glance" section on the PIXL homepage, My Benefits allows you to view tracking data for your listings, deals, press mentions and any Bureau events a contact has attended.
Listing collateral
Within Collateral, you can manage your media that is shared with the public. Note that this is where you'll manage both printed (e.g., Official Visitors Guide) and digital (e.g., visitRaleigh.com) collateral listings. Starting with Listings, you can edit the description that is shown on your visitRaleigh.com detail page, for instance.
Under Deals (currently labeled Special Offers until launch), you can add and manage any special offers provided by your business or organization here. You can also view their interaction with the public via the My Benefits page under Profile.
The Calendar of Events is where you can submit events for visitRaleigh.com's calendar. When submitting an event, we ask that all partners upload an image for the event on the submission page. (If no specific event image is available for a newly occurring event, still consider uploading a photo of the event venue, facility or presenter to help outside visitors form an impression.)
Media is a very important section for tourism promotion. Listings with images are much more likely to have visitor online engagement and inspire a trip. Not only can partners upload images and logos for their listings, but also they can embed YouTube videos. When submitting new images for your listings, please follow this advice:
- Upload large images (at least 6" x 4")
- High-resolution (300 dpi) images only
- Submit only horizontal images to avoid awkward cropping
- There is no limit to the amount of images you can upload for your listing
Opportunities and leads
After you click the Leads (labeled RFPS in the screenshot above; this will change to Leads upon launch) icon under Opportunities, you will be presented with your property’s sales leads (if applicable). The filters in the grid at the top of the page determine what leads are presented. You can change your filters to narrow your results. This is done by editing the filter fields and clicking the apply filters button. By default, you will see all of your open leads. To respond to a lead, simply select the eyeball icon followed by the "Responses" tab on the left. Select the "plus" symbol to add a response. As always, GRCVB's Sales Department is available to help with specific concerns or responses. Service Requests will allow us to reach out to event services providers for leads and let you, the provider, contact us regarding said requests.
Do you have access to your listing?
We're sure that is plenty of information for even an experienced PIXL user! For those of you who never have logged in but want to access your listing on visitRaleigh.com (and more), you're welcome to contact me at abaker@visitRaleigh.com. I can also answer any questions or further help your transition to PIXL 2.0 starting March 1.
Author: Andrew H. Baker, TMP, FEP
Andrew H. Baker, TMP, FEP, is marketing manager at the Greater Raleigh CVB and works directly with local partners to help promote Raleigh, N.C., as a destination of kind, charming and passionate people.