Blizzard Welcomes New Team Members

February 1, 2012 By Heather Austin

Blizzard recently hired three new employees to join our busy design and marketing firm. Tammy is our new Administrative/Technical Assistant. With a degree from the University of Mass, she brings with her a very diversified skill set for handling our day-to-day operations. She will also provide hosting and IT support. Kimberly graduated from the University of Denver and is a Project Manager. She has an extremely diverse work experience and background including advertising, graphic design, and marketing. She excels in customer service and is exited to help our clients reach their online marketing goals. After graduating from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dan moved to Colorado and is now our new Business Development Manager. He will be concentrating on creating relationships with our current customer base and working to increase our internal sales. We are happy to welcome our new employees and look forward to a mutually successful future.

Filed Under: Blizzard News

See How Easily You Can Learn About Google Analytics and The Power of Your Brand in Search

November 17, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

Blizzard has a few Webinars coming up. Hope to see you there:

Google Analytics Multi-Channel Conversion Tool
Monday, November 28th, 2011 10AM MST

Learn about the most exciting new Google Analytics feature to come along in years! This may be the single most exciting online marketing development during 2011.
Learn how to setup and interpret this valuable new data which is guaranteed to shed new light on where your online bookings really come from and will most likely change your budgeting process in 2012. This is a 30 minute webinar.

The Power of Your Brand in Google’s Search Algorithm
Thursday, December 8th, 2011 1PM MST

Learn how your Brand is becoming an increasingly important component in Google’s organic search algorithm. Google monitors your brand signals and will rank you higher and drive more search engine traffic to your website if your brand appears stronger than your competitors.

Learn about the brand signals Google tracks in its algorithm and what you can do to increase the strength and frequency of those signals.

Google Plus for Hotels and Vacation Rentals: Strategies, Tactics and Tips
Wednesday December 14th, 2011 10AM MST

Get a head start in the new Google+ social networking platform. Learn how to get your account going and how to get the most out of it. Includes tips for newbies but focuses on strategies and tactics that will work in the world of guest marketing.

Filed Under: Analytics, Blizzard News, SEO

Now You Can Watch A Full-Day Marketing Seminar from Your Desk

October 20, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

On Sunday October 9th, Trent Blizzard presented a full day online marketing seminar. It was chock-full of timely and important marketing tips for travel marketers.

We are making the full video available on Monday October 31st. You can order it for the small investment of $50. It will be available “on-demand” so you can watch it at your desk and at your leisure.

Event Registration Online for Online Marketing Workshop – Video On Demand powered by Eventbrite

Topics Included:

Google +1 is a promising new feature from Google that is still being developed. Learn what it can do for you now and what strategies to implement in 2012 to achieve maximum benefit.

Custom Facebook Apps and Tabs: A review of the nifty, convenient and seductive world of Facebook custom tabs. The real pros are using these to turn their Facebook page into a second website that can turn lookers into bookers. Bonus: Blizzard will give each attendee a free Facebook App. ($250 value)*

Facebook Pay-Per-Click Marketing: Learn how to take advantage of Facebook’s PPC program to increase your ‘Likes’ and steal mind-share from your competitors.

Top Facebook Tips: The top 10 tips for getting new fans and engaging with your current ones.

Link Building is still going strong. Learn about recent changes and how Google uses links in its algorithm. Bonus: Blizzard will give you 10 great links that will drive qualified traffic ($250 value)*

Website Load Time: Learn how your website’s speed… or slowness… is being factored into Google’s algorithm. Find out how to measure your speed, track it in Google Analytics, and what simple steps can improve it.

Schema: Learn about the new coding directives that Google, Bing and Yahoo! rolled out in June, 2011 and how you can take advantage to help Google index your website.

The Changing World of Online Reviews: Google has changed how they index your reviews and your strategies should change accordingly. Learn the best way to get more out of your current reviews and where to drive new reviews.

Google Analytics: Learn about all of the changes and new features that have happened to Google Analytics in the last year that will help you to measure your growth and success.

Email Marketing: Learn some easy tricks and discover a few powerful tools to capture more email addresses, and get more out of your existing email marketing efforts.

Vacation Rental Marketing Benchmarks and Stats: Learn how your website compares to industry benchmarks using BlizzardTracker.

Booking Engine Effectiveness: Increase your conversion rates by implementing 10 proven features.

New Online Tools: Discover cool new tools to track your results, monitor your competitors, increase your effectiveness or just plain have fun.

$50 to watch the video-on-demand at your leisure.
The video is free for current Blizzard clients.

Filed Under: Bits From Blizzard, Blizzard News, SEM, Travel Marketing

SEO Euro-Style Bumper Stickers

July 26, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

Share your passion for SEO with a bumper sticker. Blizzard is giving away free SEO stickers over on our Facebook Page… get them while supplies last!

Vote for Shoes, Win a Ball!

March 14, 2011 By Jill Trujillo

It’s time for new shoes!

During past events we have rocked Chucks in Neon Orange, Classic Bright Red, and Hot Pink; and now it’s time for a new color.

Vote for which color you think we should wear during the Eastern and Western VRMA Seminars and you could win a Blizzard Fit Ball!

Here is the fine print for this fine survey:

Voting ends at 2:00 pm Mountain Time on Friday, March 18th.
If you would like the opportunity to win the fit ball, include your email address at the end of the survey.
The winner will be selected at random. By “random” I mean that someone at our office will pick a number, and who ever submitted their vote in that place will win.
Getting fit from use of this fit ball is not guaranteed.

Vote now:

Filed Under: Blizzard News, Web 2.0

February is Google Analytics Month at Blizzard

February 1, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

Blizzard is going to celebrate the wonderful world of Google Analytics this month with a bevy of informative posts about Google Analytics.

We have lots of sharing to do about tools, reports, data findings, hacks and much more.

Builtwith has some interesting data on Google showing a 73% market share. They say:

Google Analytics which was launched in November 2005 is currently the most used analytical package on the internet, which was based on Urchin 5, which still features in the top analytical packages in use today, Google’s analytics javascript tag is probably the most hit URL in the world.

Filed Under: Analytics, Blizzard News

Vail HSMAI Lunch and Learn

January 28, 2011 By Jill Trujillo

Join the HSMAI Vail Chapter for a educational luncheon on Wednesday, February 2nd at the Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa.

The presenter at the luncheon will be Trent Blizzard, who will share time tested techniques as well as new strategies for 2011 to increase your online conversion rate and how to keep guests away from your competitors.

Topic:
10 Best Ways to Get that Online Booking in 2011

Date:
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Time:
11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Place:
The Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa
126 Riverfront Lane
Avon, CO 81620

Cost:
$25/member, $35/non-member. Cash or check only.

Contact:
Terri Hanley at thanley@vailresorts.com to register.