Natural Search Engine Optimization or Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Wednesday, 31 December 2008 04:46
administrator
 When people hear about online marketing, they often think of two of the more popular methods that a company can use to enhance its visibility on the Web: natural search engine optimization and a pay-per-click program.
In an ideal world, you would use both strategically to maximize your site’s profile. However, budgetary constraints often make this impossible, and trying to do both on a limited budget or with minimal resources can result in neither campaign producing ideal results. In this case, it’s usually better to focus on one or the other.
But which is best for you?
Internet Marketing: Top 10 Items to Budget For
Sunday, 07 December 2008 12:28
administrator
 Consider both traditional online channels and social media optimization in your up and coming budget.
1. Website Conversion Updates - Updating conversion features such as photo gallery, banners for specials, eMaps, community mash-ups, content refresh and website refresh.
2. Organic Promotion Highest return on investment. Results in higher organic rankings in search engines. Entails promotion in different search engines, local IYPs, and listings in relevant directories.
If You Build It, They Will Come... NOT! Hotel Website Design Ideas
Sunday, 07 December 2008 12:05
administrator
 About twice a week now I am contacted by a hotel General Manager or Marketing Director who has seen some of the recent research figures for hotel internet revenues.
The conversation very quickly gets to " I've just checked my on-line hotel revenues and they are nowhere near what I had hoped. What can we do?"
Naturally, the first thing I do is look at their web site. Some are visually stunning, especially on a high speed connection... Beautiful "flash" movies (loading, loading, loading), navigation buttons that do pirouettes, music... and usually a mega investment has been made (please give me the name of that sales person, I have some sand that I would like them to sell for me in the Middle East) and barely an extra room night to show for it.
Tips for making the best impression with your emails
Tuesday, 02 December 2008 13:29
administrator
 Interactivity is a huge factor in the travel industry, but some airlines are failing at simple best practices. Here's what you can learn from them to improve your marketing strategy.
American Airlines is big on email marketing. Its schedule is aggressive; I hear from the company twice a week, even if I don't fly for a while. But the emails arrive on the same day every week, so I'm never surprised when they arrive. When AA switched mail hosts earlier this year, it sent clear, prominent notices in advance of the change, so any inconvenience to readers was minimal. JetBlue also sends plenty of email to its subscribers. It seems to have done some email harvesting, because I recently started receiving two copies of each of the airline's emails. One goes to my main account; the other is sent to a slightly different address, which I abandoned when I set up my frequent flier account several years ago. The messages routinely get flagged as spam, so the only time I see them is when I periodically review my junk folder -- and find my JetBlue emails, delivered in pairs.
Highflying days over for online travel sites
Tuesday, 02 December 2008 13:24
administrator
 Not only are Americans flying less as the economy tanks, they're spending less time scouting the Internet for travel deals, creating an unprecedented drop in traffic for online travel agencies like Chicago-based Orbitz Worldwide Inc. As days shorten and the air chills, consumers typically start to plan winter getaways, making October one of the busiest months of the year for Internet travel sites, analysts said.
TripAdvisor wants your hotel website
Tuesday, 02 December 2008 13:18
administrator
 TripAdvisor launched a suite of tools for owners and managers of hotels, restaurants and attractions to bring the proven power of user-generated reviews and ratings to their own web sites. Unbiased user-generated reviews have been proven to turn lookers into bookers by leveraging the trust consumers place on the opinions of travelers like themselves.
In a 2007 survey of 360 e-commerce companies, sites that added user reviews reported very positive results(1): - 56% lifted conversion
- 77% raised traffic
- 42% increased the average shopping basket
International travellers still searching for travel
Monday, 01 December 2008 15:33
administrator
 New research from eMarketer shows that people are still searching online for travel, in many cases above all else, in spite of the credit crunch.
According to a recent study, of the nearly seven million Spaniards who’ve shopped online in 2008, nearly two-thirds used their time online to search for travel and accommodations. Second-most searched for were tickets to movies, theatres, and concerts, but this had significantly less search at only 36 percent.
Another study shows that in the US, the Hispanic population is beginning to go online in big numbers: over 40 percent of US Hispanics shopped online this year. And travel was the top category they researched. As Hispanics look set to represent 1/6 of the US population by 2010, this is not a category to be overlooked, and they continue to be underserved by Spanish-language sites.
How Bloggers Can Work With Tourism Boards
Saturday, 22 November 2008 02:20
administrator
 If a city needs a louder voice, bloggers can act in that capacity, but the question becomes, what message does a city want to amplify? And how could we help? I think it’s easy to think the answer is to write a great blog post that tells people to come to wherever.
I had the pleasure to take part of the last day of a tour of Pittsburgh, put on by Visit Pittsburgh. I missed the first few days, which brought the rest of the tour group to see even more of the city, but I had the opportunity to visit a historical museum, a few local attractions, and a Lucky Duck amphibious vehicle tour of the city by land and by water.
The experience was great, and because Kristin Mitchell and team at Visit Pittsburgh found some swell bloggers to talk about their experiences in Pittsburgh, they’ll no doubt get some nice write-ups.
TripAdvisor…The Best Thing Since Peanuts; Learn How to Use It
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 02:08
administrator
 Just a few months ago, there were endless articles proclaiming that social media would revolutionize hotel marketing on the Internet. Well, that hasn’t happened. The very thought of having the ability to communicate, one-on-one, with millions of consumers made many hotel marketers drool with anticipation. I’m sure this was met by equal excitement from the social media community; just think about all that potential advertising money.
The uniqueness of social media is that it features user-generated content, but, therein lays its fallacy. This means no one can manage or impact its content. Now, don’t get me wrong. I think the whole Web 2.0 movement is very exciting, but I have yet to see a practical program for individual hotels with the one exception of using travel-focused social media sites, like TripAdvisor.
Does Your Hotel Website Really Produce Sales? Can Revenue Management Make a Difference?
Thursday, 13 November 2008 15:30
administrator
 I think it’s time to slow-down, sit-down, and evaluate the impact of the Internet on hotel sales. For the past several years, hotels have been scrambling to have a meaningful presence on the Net, but few hoteliers appear satisfied with the results. For many hoteliers, it’s been a challenge to measure sales results from their websites. Many have not been able to establish benchmarks to determine what success on the Net looks or feels like.
Exposure and Conversion There are two primary purposes for developing a hotel website; exposure and conversion. Exposure, through search, is obviously most important. A website needs to be designed to follow search engine guidelines; if it can’t be easily found, it’s worthless. It may be attractive, but few people will ever see it.
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Six Free Tools for Online Reputation Management
Thursday, 13 November 2008 15:05
administrator
 Online reputation management consists of tracking your brand and reacting when necessary.
Though sometimes tedious, brand monitoring can save you from a potential disaster when someone cites your name in an article that misrepresents you. Aside from protection, it can help you proactively join conversations around your topic area, helping to get your brand name out there. It's almost 2009... and if you aren't active online you are missing valuable opportunities to advertise your value to the world—through articles, blog entries, social-network profiles, comments, videos and more. As both a content producer and consumer, your name is being spread throughout each of these circuits by people you might not even know. In fact, research firm IDC finds that there is more content being created about you than you create yourself.
Restaurant Email Marketing
Sunday, 09 November 2008 02:23
administrator
 Many of you will shake your heads when reading the title of this article- after all, you are in the restaurant business not in the email marketing business, right?
However, let me tell you something that may shock you: you are in the sales business. If you don't sell your food and beverages, nothing else counts, so you need to apply the same marketing and sales techniques that the rest of commercial businesses use.
Email marketing is one of the most effective communication and promotion vehicles on the Internet. 90% of Internet users and 56% of all Americans use email on a regular basis (source: E-marketeer. August 2006). Restaurants can benefit from email marketing because it's fast, direct, cost-effective, and builds loyal relationships with your clients.
A hoteliers how-to guide to online advertising and media buying
Tuesday, 04 November 2008 02:12
administrator
 With over 50% of all travel bookings taking place online this year (PhoCusWright 2008), it is increasingly imperative to properly position your hotel online to capture your customers' attention. Online media buying is one of the most effective methods for driving highly qualified traffic directly to your website. This form of advertising serves to secure the most Internet real estate, while reaching out to potential guests at nearly every level of the consumer purchase cycle. Executed correctly, online advertising can be your most efficient means of increasing website traffic, conversion rates, and ultimately, improving your overall ROI. With a small budget and a little know-how, any hotelier or travel professional can plan and execute their own strategic linking campaign. The following online advertising guidelines are designed to help you capture market share and stay ahead in today's competitive online travel market.
What's Your Hotel's Social Media Strategy?
Monday, 27 October 2008 16:38
administrator
 Since our company launched Chatter Guard, our social media management over a year ago, we have worked with hotel management companies, hotel chains, independent hotels and restaurants and clearly the impact of social media on these businesses is a moving target, a target that demands a constant awareness and management.
The main comment we hear from prospective Chatter Guard clients is the inability to relate social media to sales results, obviously to enable a definitive return-on-investment. You cannot track the impact of your online reputation to an individual transaction. But, over a short period of time, depending on the trend of your reviews, you will see the impact in your total sales results. Social media is a critically important element in the decision process for the majority of shoppers. Your value of your online reputation is equally important along with the quality of your website, your search engine marketing and even email campaigns. Its value clearly exceeds that of online or print advertising.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 October 2008 09:55 )
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Online Marketing
