10 Years Ago: “Yes We Have a Web Site”

Today: “Yes We Have a Facebook Page”

Ten years ago there were 350 million Internet users worldwide, today there are 350 million users on Facebook

…and there are more than 1.7 Billion Internet users worldwide. Ten years ago my company had already been in the digital business more than 7 years. Back then when I would ask some companies about their online or digital strategy they would remark “oh yes, we have a web site”. Obviously I would launch into a whole volume of reasons why that was not enough. I would talk about why an organization needs to leverage their web site and all other digital assets with online advertising, search marketing and customer relationship marketing. Well that was then and here we are today… sometimes when I ask the digital strategy question I get “Yes we have a Facebook page!” and they are very proud of the fact that they have one. Of course just like ten years ago, many organizations don’t do much with it or beyond that.

What if you could attract more than 20,000 “qualified” brand fans to your Facebook in 30 days? What if you could start a dialog with those brand fans of yours and start to listen to what they like and dislike about your brand, your service, your products, your everything? All this is very doable and actually is just the tip of the iceberg to a Facebook strategy as part of your overall digital strategy. Remember Facebook today has as many users as worldwide users on the Internet ten years ago, and the amazing fact is they doubled in one year!

As I attend Travelcom this week and talk to many amazing colleagues I am already excited about the innovations and the possibilities. Thanks USTA! If you are here catch my discussion on Thursday when we do a wrap of what we have heard this week and how we would take that information and make it actionable!

Till next time

Leah

In the old days of the web we had to be the jack of all trades… there were no subject matter experts. New technologies emerged, eCommerce was refined, search engine marketing became more complex, online media took on multiple avenues, social marketing bloomed and mCommerce emerged. In a very short time it became clear to us that as an agency and media company we had to start developing highly specialized departments and highly skilled subject matter experts within our agency to research, test, innovate and execute on all these specialties.

Without these highly specialized experts an agency or in-house marketing department is “skimming the surface” of their integrated marketing and advertising program. In fact, they don’t even recognize the gaps in a plan because they don’t know what to look for from a specialized vertical perspective.

Agencies who are telling their clients that online media is all about display, or that SEOM is only about buying Paid Keywords are doing their clients a huge injustice. They may not know how to strategize or execute on other elements that are important, so they just don’t. If you don’t, hire a digital firm or subject matter experts behind you.

The case can be made that unless you have a group of subject matter experts on your team you are missing major opportunities and opening yourself up to lackluster results. In the worst case you are not building a sustainable program because competitors are passing you by.

Focus on the highly specialized areas of your plan that will make the difference short term and most importantly long term, and make sure that you have the right people making the right decisions for you as an organization. If you are an agency reading this, and I know many of you follow this blog, take a big step and fill in the gap. You will be executing for the client on all those things you do so well and you will be bringing to the table subject matter experts that can fill in the gaps WITH you.

Till next time,

Leah

I just returned home from a two week trip to visit some client destinations in Florida and Tennessee. In both places I was met with happy clients who are seeing great returns on their  online advertising spend. For one of our biggest resort clients we ran some early spring specials and it really paid off. The resort measured results at 8x return on the investment and are extending the promotion to gain more market share.  In Tennessee we have vacation rental companies who are realizing the advantage of using our Top Ten Tips for Marketing in this economy. We use some of the attributes that vacation rentals have over single hotel rooms and target consumers who are most likely to visit the destination and consider vacation home rental. Our key learnings in this market segment are based on the first research just released by PhoCusWright about vacation rental management in the U.S.  We were a partner in the research and gained some key information from custom questions we submitted for the survey.

Vacation rentals are becoming more appealing tas a travel option this year primarily because of the economic slide and consumers needing to budget more than ever before. As I have stated, consumers will travel and have a deservability about their vacations, t they are trying to cut back on restaurant meals and other expenditures on the trip. We market our vacation rental clients in a number of ways online, primarily in very aggressive search marketing and eMail advertising. Douglas Quinby, a friend of mine and leading analyst at PhoCusWright says "It's a whole new ballgame and a $25 billion-plus market".

The biggest return we have seen on the online advertising has been where we finely target the top ten markets for our clients and then offer compelling reasons to buy... not deep discounts, but value. It is working and man, there is nothing better than happy clients : )

till next time...

Leah

As we have always preached to our clients and in our numerous speaking engagements around the world, Search Marketing (SEOM) is a critical component of your online marketing. Today it has become the foundation of tourism online marketing. Case in point is that around 80% of consumers use search engines to find a web site. With that said, consider that Google is now testing a new wiki that customizes search for consumers so that they can delete key word ads or rearrange organic listings according to their preference. Google debuted SearchWiki, which enables users to actually move search results either up or down... a great feature for consumers, but marketers who have not been focused on search must pay attention.

Google searchwiki might be used to audit a users modifications or reordering of search results, resulting in a community sharing of this informatin with other users of the same interest. Already Twitter users share news about new apps, new links to view, etc. It makes sense that consumers with like interests would want to share.

As I talk to hundreds of travel and tourism marketing executives I stress the importance of the SEOM tactics and the ongoing Strategy for their Search program. Search is very likely the best way to generate qualified web traffic to your site and your eCommerce during this uncertain economy. Organic and paid; a balance of both. If you are tracking which key words (organic or paid) are actually responsable for booking conversions you know if your budget spend is on target. Or you need to continue to fine tune your approach to gain better and better results with conversions. 

This new accouncement/wiki from Google will be interesting to watch. They get it right.

till next time...

Leah

The hot topic is search engine marketing... every company these days understands the importance of search engine marketing, especially organic search marketing. But be careful of who you hire to provide this service. Recently we have taken on several clients in the vacation rental management industry. These companies provide valuable services to vacation home owners by running professional rental companies to lease their clients' properties to tourists. Vacation home rental management companies rely heavily on search marketing to have their web sites rank so that online consumers know that there is a choice for lodging beyond the standard hotel rooms.

As I was speaking at the recent Florida Vacation Rental Management Association in Orlando this month, I had several companies ask me to take a look at their web sites and consult with them about their program and how to improve it.  My SEO department was stunned when they found company names, other than the rental management company's name, in the meta tags. As we researched this some more we realized that this company had actually done this across the board.  One of the vacation rental management companies said to me, when I told them what I had found, "well if that's not illegal it is at the very least unethical" and yes, it is.

My point is that if you hire a company to perform search marketing for you, check the work after it has been done. Make sure that no company that you are paying is taking you for a ride by hijacking your web traffic. The reality is that there is enough business out there for every professional search and Internet marketing company. If you have to play that way to get your own web site to rank in the search engines you should not be in the business.

If you have discovered this or other unethical practices I would like to hear about it, but I hope it has not happened to you.

till next time...

Leah Woolford

The Bigger Better Bang is like an Online Annuity

We all know how important search engines are in the travel industry. But do we all know how to invest our search marketing dollars wisely?

Numerous consumer surveys (by comScore, Yahoo, and others) report that three out of four travel buyers consulted search engines before making a purchase, and that travel buyers averaged six relevant searches in the 12 weeks before their transaction.

While "paid search" marketing (such as pay-per-click ads with Google, Yahoo! and others) has dominated the news and is now, according to Forrester Research, a $5 billion industry representing 40 percent of all online advertising, what is generally not understood or fully appreciated by many in the travel industry is the superior value and importance of "organic search" marketing.

According to JupiterResearch, more than 80 percent of clicks on search engine results pages actually go to organic listings versus paid search ads.

According to a study by iProspect, a respected authority on search marketing, 35 percent of marketers surveyed said that organic search optimization efforts led to higher ROI than paid search campaigns. Only 11 percent said paid search produced better results. Clearly organic search is the three-to-one leader for ROI.

So why do many travel industry businesses still rely so heavily on pay-per-click (PPC) instead of investing in an ongoing organic optimization program?

Perhaps because of the two, paid search is easier to understand. You read a rate card. You pay a fee for every click. You go to lunch. When your money runs out, so does your marketing.

Organic search, on the other hand, is a complex process of continually evolving methodology and algorhythmic science that can result in getting very high rankings (naturally or organically) for your Web site in the search engines by optimizing the Web pages submitted to the search engines. It's labor intensive. You work through lunch. But you don't pay a cent for any clicks and your efforts continue to pay rewards as your listings linger over time -- like an online annuity.

Many companies claim they provide search engine optimization (SEO) services, and many entrepreneurs and small businesses attempt to do this on their own. Most come up short. It's not easy.

We know. We began organic search engine marketing in 1993, when very few engines and directories existed. Through the years we have developed proven methodologies that serve our clients well. Today, SEO does not cost nearly as much as what the same rankings would cost if you paid for them on a PPC basis.

For example, in some of our clients' destinations, the most often-used search terms can range in cost from $2.50 or more per click up to $12 per click. Yet, if you compare their organic results to what they would pay for similar listings with PPC, the cost would be more than $9 million per year with PPC versus thousands of dollars for SEO.

A good, ongoing, organic search marketing program provides each of our clients hundreds of high ranking search engine listings and links worth millions of dollars a year for only a few thousand dollars a month. Not only is this a huge cost savings, but organic search listings are what consumers click on most when researching and buying travel online, and the dividends are recurring.

If you would like us to analyze your current search marketing program, shoot me an e-mail. We will be happy to take a top-line look and give you some recommendations to improve your bottom line. Contact me at lwoolford@usdm.net.

-- Leah Woolford

Source: WebResults, "Organic Search Yields Healthier ROI," September 2005

Posted at 10:14 AM