With the recent hurricanes in the southern US I thought it prudent to put together some tips for combating the whims of Mother Nature. By having a plan you can be prepared to cope with the challenges that may come your way due to a variety of weather-related and even man-made emergencies. Form hurricanes to blizzards, the unexpected is a given when traveling to certain parts of the world. Making sure your guests, future guests and potential bookers are taken care of – you’ll come out the other side of the storm in good shape.

The key to handling these issues with professional efficiency is a PLAN. What will you do if a hurricane hits your hotel next week? Do you have a step by step marketing checklist to make sure things are set in motion with a simple phone call? Take the time to set yourself up now – and the obstacles Mother Nature leaves behind will be less daunting.

Marketing in Spite of Mother Nature

Using your website is a great way to keep your current guests, future bookings and possible customers informed as to the status of your property or properties. Spend a few minutes with your webmaster or SEM company coming up with a plan that can be put into action with a quick phone call or email.

Keep guests/ future guests updated
Here are a few examples of hotels using their web sites keeping guests and even employees updated as to the status of reservations and closing:

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From MoodyGardens.com

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From Wyndham Hotel Galvez

These are both excellent examples of taking the time to convey a small bit of information. I bet every guest and employee that visited the Moody Gardens site felt a bit of comfort in knowing they’ve been thought of and they know the property will open again on Sept. 21st.

Having a policy in place and published is also a good idea. Wyndam’s Hurricane Policy is really good, and lets guests know where they stand.

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Post photos
Sometimes damage caused by Mother Nature can completely miss certain areas, or the devastation to certain areas can be exaggerated. If your area and property missed the brunt and is open and comfortable for business – then post date-stamped photos to prove it.

Transportation updates
Airport closures, bridge malfunctions – things happen and when a guest may be inconvenienced getting to your property – providing them with information on the easiest route will alleviate having an already disgruntled guest showing up at your front door. You might send them an email w/ alternate directions, send a sms/text message to their cell phone. Maybe even meet their flight with a driver to deliver them safely and without hassle. Taking advantage of small opportunities to excel in a time of adversity is a great way to earn repeat customers.

Family and Friend Messages
I had some friends that were stuck in the Cayman Islands during a tropical storm a few years back. I don’t know the exact circumstances but a change in direction along with limited flights and they were stranded. The resort they were staying in offered them immediate access to a phone and computer as soon as they found out they would be riding out the storm so they could notify loved ones that they were being taken care of and would contact them as soon as they could. The hotel’s location made this preparation necessary – and because they were treated like royalty with intense rain and winds whipping around outside – my friends have gone back to the same resort every year since.

So take the time during your off season - or right now - to formulate a plan of attack - and a plan for getting your efforts off the ground. It can be as simple as calling corporate - or your marketing firm or webmaster in a different city or state.

Now that you have successfully implemented a Web Analytics program to evaluate visits to your website, what should you be looking at? Whether you are utilizing the Blizzard ROI Tracker, Google Analytics or another type of analytics software on your website, these resources can provide valuable information about the effectiveness of both online and offline marketing efforts.

1. Bounce Rate - tells you the percentage of visitors that only viewed one page on your website. There are many possible scenarios that cause websites to have high bounce rates. If the content on your website is outdated, you will typically lose visitors looking for the newest information about your business. How often do you update the content, specials or packages, local events, etc… on your website? Are your keywords reflective of what your visitors expect from your website? If the keyword phrases you are using, both in your optimization and paid advertising don’t give visitors what they are expecting from your website, they will most likely not make it past the first page.
2. Average Time Spent on Website - It is crucial to monitor how long the average visitor spends on your website. If your content keeps the visitor engaged, they are more likely to view more pages, which often lead to conversions or a request for more information. Pay attention to pages that show an unusually high time spent on the page, as there could be an issue with the page.
3. First Time and Returning Visitors - It is important to spend your time and efforts attracting new visitors to your website. It is just as important to see an increase in returning visitors, an indication that visitors are interested in learning more about what you are offering on your website.
4. Top Referring URL’s - This will help to determine which directories and search engines are bringing the most traffic to your website.
5. Top Keywords that send visitors to your website - analyze whether the most relevant keywords for your business are really the ones that are sending the most qualified visitors. Which keywords are resulting in more conversions?
6. Top Keywords by Search Engine - Analyzing the top keywords by search engine will allow you to determine what is working best for you in the organic rankings and your pay per click advertising.
7. Paid vs. Organic search engine referrals - this will help you to analyze your organic and paid marketing efforts. Are you investing enough money for Search Engine Optimization or Pay Per Click advertising?
8. Visitor Demographics - You can analyze where the majority of your visitors are coming from by Country, State, or City and focus marketing efforts in these areas.
9. Conversion Rate - The number of visitors that complete the desired action, such as reserving a room, signing up for your newsletter or filling out a request for information form. It is important that you or your webmaster define the conversion pages.
10. Other Links - Are the other link building efforts, such as lodging directories and authority websites, sending visitors to your website, if so, are they also converting?

Don’t forget that the purpose of your website marketing efforts are saving money, increasing traffic, increasing conversions, increasing your return on investment and decreasing the bounce rate of visitors to your website. The analysis is as important as the online marketing itself.

spoon image courtesy chris runoff

When evaluating website traffic, people often look at the volume of traffic to justify if their marketing efforts are worthwhile.  While traffic volume is an important piece to consider, you cannot measure it exclusively.  You must evaluate the quality of the traffic your site is receiving.  Even if you get thousands upon thousands of visitors a month, if their visit doesn’t convert into an action on your site or a call into your reservation desk, than what was the point (not to mention the cost)?  As web marketers and business owners we must use additional metrics to define what quality traffic on a website looks like, and take the appropriate steps to improve it.

So, what other metrics can we use? 

Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is probably one of the most typical metrics used to define quality traffic.  Wikipedia defines it as “…when a website visitor leaves a page or a site without visiting any other pages before a specified session-timeout occurs.”  Typically we look at the bounce rate for individual pages, and if the bounce rate is unacceptably high, then we try to isolate what is causing people to bounce from that page.  Are you targeting the wrong keywords, is the content poor, are the photos low quality, do you have a call to action on the page to entice people to stay, etc?

There are many opinions on what is an acceptable bounce rate, and most people tend to agree that anything over 50% is a red-flag for any website.  However, it is really important to benchmark yourself against other sites in a similar industry.  Let’s look at the average bounce rates of a large sample of two different type of lodging sites - vacation rentals and hotels/resorts:

While this is merely a sample, it provides us with good information to use when looking at your vacation rental or hotel site bounce rates.  As a Vacation Rental, you should aim to have a fairly low homepage bounce rate in the 20’s, and as a hotel/resort you should aim to have a homepage bounce rate of around 30%.  When looking at all pages on your site, aim to be in the lower 30% range.  When you define pages that have red-flag bounce rates, evaluate those pages and make sure you are offering guests a reason to stay on your site (specials, valuable content, easy to use navigation, etc.)  Sometimes we see sites that are so well-optimized and that rank so well organically that they naturally have higher bounce rates.  Why?  Because people land on their page, get the info they need, and then move on without necessarily wanting to book a vacation (for instance, your site offers an entire page about a popular event in your town, people are looking for the dates and times, they find your page, get the info and bounce.) This isn’t always a bad thing (we all know content and pages are important for SEO), as long as you are meeting your reservation goals.  If this is the case, you can still take steps to try to minimize the bounce rate for those pages.

Page Views Per Session or “Depth”
While bounce rate is standard, let’s take it one step further and look at just how many pages of your site visitors are viewing. Is it 2 pages, 5 pages, 10 or more?  This is an important question, and the answers depend on the type of product or service you provide. If you are a hotel chain that often has repeat guests, they may only need to get from your homepage to your booking engine to reserve a stay, as your offerings are much more standard and require less research and buying commitment.  But if you are a vacation rental with various types of properties spanning a large geographical region, than guests are going to shop around on your site until they find the exact home they want to rent at a price that they can afford. Taking this into consideration it is again important for you to compare the number of pages visitors are viewing on your site to sites that have similar offerings.

Let’s look at how many pages visitors are viewing on average for our sample of vacation rentals and hotels/resorts sites:

For vacation rentals, we see a higher number of people viewing more than 10 pages of a site, and this should be expected.  Depending on the size of your site, you want to see guests viewing a larger number of pages simply because you have more lodging options, prices, etc.  For a hotel site, you won’t see as many visitors viewing more than 10 pages of your site because of the limited room options.  Depending on the size of your hotel site, you will probably see the majority of your site visits in the 1-3 page range, but you should aim to give guests enough information about your city that they don’t necessarily have to research it elsewhere and may view additional pages.  For all hospitality sites, you don’t want visitors to leave your site if they can get all the info they need in one place.  Create quality info on your site, entice visitors to stick around, and this can impact the number of pages people visit on your site as well as conversions.

Conversions
Conversions are what marketers and business owners pinpoint as the most important metric to determine if their website is generating quality traffic. This is extremely hard to average out and show an average across websites, as the actions vary from site to site (secure online bookings, booking requests, calls, filling out contact forms, requesting brochures, etc.)  As an owner or marketer, measure a variety of metrics like the ones identified above, in addition to conversions, to improve the quality of traffic to your site.

With these metrics (and others) in mind, dig into your analytics and take steps to improve the quality of the traffic your site receives.  Consider your content, your keywords, your photos, your navigation, your calls to action, and it may even be time to consider a new design to address a variety of these issues.

Now that you have successfully implemented a Web Analytics program to evaluate visits to your website, what should you be looking at? Whether you are utilizing the Blizzard ROI Tracker, Google Analytics or another type of analytics software on your website, these resources can provide valuable information about the effectiveness of both online and offline marketing efforts.

Bounce Rate - tells you the percentage of visitors that only viewed one page on your website. There are many possible scenarios that cause websites to have high bounce rates. If the content on your website is outdated, you will typically lose visitors looking for the newest information about your business. How often do you update the content, specials or packages, local events, etc… on your website? Are your keywords reflective of what your visitors expect from your website? If the keyword phrases you are using, both in your optimization and paid advertising don’t give visitors what they are expecting from your website, they will most likely not make it past the first page.

Average Time Spent on Website - It is crucial to monitor how long the average visitor spends on your website. If your content keeps the visitor engaged, they are more likely to view more pages, which often lead to conversions or a request for more information. Pay attention to pages that show an unusually high time spent on the page, as there could be an issue with the page.

First Time and Returning Visitors - It is important to spend your time and efforts attracting new visitors to your website. It is just as important to see an increase in returning visitors, an indication that visitors are interested in learning more about what you are offering on your website.

Top Referring URL’s - This will help to determine which directories and search engines are bringing the most traffic to your website.

Top Keywords that send visitors to your website - analyze whether the most relevant keywords for your business are really the ones that are sending the most qualified visitors. Which keywords are resulting in more conversions?

Top Keywords by Search Engine - Analyzing the top keywords by search engine will allow you to determine what is working best for you in the organic rankings and your pay per click advertising.

Paid vs. Organic search engine referrals - this will help you to analyze your organic and paid marketing efforts. Are you investing enough money for Search Engine Optimization or Pay Per Click advertising?

Visitor Demographics - You can analyze where the majority of your visitors are coming from by Country, State, or City and focus marketing efforts in these areas.

Conversion Rate - The number of visitors that complete the desired action, such as reserving a room, signing up for your newsletter or filling out a request for information form. It is important that you or your webmaster define the conversion pages.

Other Links - Are the other link building efforts, such as lodging directories and authority websites, sending visitors to your website, if so, are they also converting?

Don’t forget that the purpose of your website marketing efforts are saving money, increasing traffic, increasing conversions, increasing your return on investment and decreasing the bounce rate of visitors to your website. The analysis is as important as the online marketing itself.

Bounce Image Courtesy bigwibble6

Purchase image quaziefoto

HiPPO is an acronym for “Highest Paid Person’s Opinion,” coined by Google Analytic guru Avinash Kaushik.  This person can be your boss, their boss, a client, or anyone who makes important decisions for an organization.  Much like the surly member of the animal kingdom that they get their moniker from, the HiPPO is usually in a position to trample all over those around them, leaving disaster in their wake.  This person often has final say over what goes on a website, even though they may not be the best decision maker in many situations.  Ultimately, this person’s opinion ends up seeming to be more important than that of the market you’re trying to attract with your website because they have the loudest voice.  The HiPPO often thinks that they know best what their customer base is looking for from your site, and this is where they are most dangerous to the success of your website.

How to prevent the hostile HiPPO takeover and make your HiPPO work for you:

• Proof- Web analytics and tracking results  empower marketers to prove to their HiPPO who is visiting their site, what those visitors are responding to (both good and bad), their click paths, entrance and exit links, and where they’re leaving the site from.

Show analytic data with graphs and charts so that your higher-ups can visualize the results you’re showing them.  The information will sink in faster, and doesn’t have to be as closely read through.

Don’t over-report.  Provide the data that is pertinent to the point you are trying to prove.  Often, we provide too much data simply because we can.  This is overwhelming and often causes more confusion than clarification.

• Testing- Utilize both your ideas and your HiPPO’s with A/B or multivariate testing, and show them why what you have proposed is valuable.  Create multiple versions of your site, one with their ideas, and one based on data you’ve received through analytics.  After several months, show your HiPPO which site is performing better, and why.  There may be aspects of each site that do well, combine them for a third test version.  Continue to test until you achieve desired results.
• The Spin- Make it their idea.  Take something your HiPPO has said in the past, and use it for the foundation of your plan.  Let them know that they sparked a great idea that you feel that both your customers and your company will benefit from.  Most people are a lot more likely to agree to something when they feel that it was their idea in the first place.

Be careful with this –we are not advising you to try to trick anyone or be dishonest, it never works out in the end!

Be sure to tell them why you think their idea is a good one, and offer more ideas that build on this main concept.

• Be Honest- Any superior is going to respond better to someone they know is trustworthy and above board.  Don’t engage in petty or underhanded behavior.  If your HiPPO knows they can count on you, they’ll be much more responsive to your ideas and feedback.

This goes for everyone you encounter internally and externally.  If people feel that they can trust you, it makes every aspect of doing business with them easier and more enjoyable.

• Surveys- Most of us thinks that our own plan is the best plan, which is what started the whole HiPPO problem.  Ask who matters most –your customers.  Your customers know what they want, just ask them, and they’ll tell you.  Compile the results of customer feedback and supply to your HiPPO with the results of your analytics research.

Ask visitors what their goal was when visiting your site, and if they achieved that goal while visiting your site.

Ask what you can do to make their experience better in the future.  People are often irritated by the impersonal nature of the Internet.  Give them an opportunity to feel like their opinion matters. 

Respond to your customers when they take time to give you feedback.  Even a simple “Thank you, we appreciate you taking the time to help us make your experience better in the future” goes a long way.

• And if all else fails…

Flattery- Nearly everyone responds well to some honest, well-timed compliments.  Your superiors are no different.   We’ve all had to resort to flattery in order to get someone to listen to our ideas, be sincere and genuine to ensure that what you say is well received and believable.

Working with our HiPPOs is always going to be a part of doing business.  Utilizing some of these tips will help to make that relationship run a bit more smoothly and be more enjoyable.  Remember, we’re all working towards the same end goal!  The HiPPO is not going away –from our personal or professional lives.  If it seems that they have, take a look in the mirror, the HiPPO could quite possibly be you! 

Photo courtesy  digitalART2

 I’ve talked before about the importance of learning what to look for when managing your brand and reputation online.  As someone who does mainly SEO and Reputation/Brand Management - I see brands neglected in so many ways.  Like a child, you’re obligated to nurture and keep your brand alive and growing.  Without growth and outreach, a brand is just a domain - with some content on it that will mean little to your visitors.

Review Sites
Making sure you’re checking review sites and posting management feedback where available is an important step in this process.  Being approachable and involved in the conversation is key to cultivating a favorable online reputation.  Don’t get defensive, own up – explain the issue – and give available solutions to lead the conversation to a favorable outcome for all parties involved.

Nobody can manage online reviews FOR you – it’s something each hotel, resort or property management company must do on their own.  As a marketer I can tell you where to look, what to look for, and some suggestions for responding.  If I were to respond myself, and represent myself as someone in a position of power at your lodging property – it would be unethical – and a lot less effective.  I don’t have the power to make decisions FOR you – but you do.

Branded Search Engine Results Saturation (SERS)
In my mind, branding and reputation management walk the forest path hand in hand.  Having a strong online brand can alleviate the impact of minor reputation management crises.  Let me explain this concept further:

If you’re strong in the top 10 results for your brand name, in many cases negative reviews will have less impact for brand-based searches.  Saturation for a brand can take many forms – sometimes its sites that are owned, operated and populated by content that can be controlled.  Sometimes its listings that are not all “owned” but can be somewhat controlled – see a search for Starbucks.  If I were in charge of marketing for Starbucks, I would approach the brand managers there with the following tactics in an attempt to move “ihatestarbucks.com” and “starbucksgossip” out of the top 10.

1. Get a Facebook page – optimize for brand name and the word “official.”  I see some applications and some other profiles that “might” belong to corporate, but they’re under-utilizing the potential here.  Yes it takes man hours to do this, but the payoff could be HUGE if they do it right.
2. Start a blog on a subdomain of starbucks.com where anyone in the company can post – or where your corporate employees post information on what’s happening around there.  There are many things that can be done on subdomains – I suggest taking a look at a search for “Zappos” and looking at the first few pages to see search engine results that include content from various subdomains that target a portion of their business.
3. Start some sister sites (on completely different URLS) that address most popular features of Starbucks “PikesPeakBlend.com” or “StarbucksWIFI.com” are examples.
4. Get involved on Twitter – link to your website from your profile and GET INVOLVED.  I found a Twitter profile for Starbucks that hasn’t been used and is protected.  I’m not sure if this is an “official” profile – I somewhat doubt it.
   Now not all of these are “guaranteed” to work – but they can have an impact which is exactly what you want when trying to “own” the top 10 in Google.
   Paid Advertising

Branding and Paid Advertising 
Ignoring the impact a brand campaign can have on your paid advertising is a mistake.  Because some brands are pretty obscure (hotfrog), and some are pretty generic (Island real estate) this can have different levels of success.

I recommend every client w/ paid advertising have a branded campaign.  This campaign doesn’t have to have a large budget; for the most part branded searches are fairly inexpensive.  Be sure you set these up right and use negative keywords to make sure you’re not showing for brands that are similar, but not related at all.

I looked at one client in Gulf Shores, AL and their branded search terms that brought traffic to their site from January 1 through June 26, 2008.  If we combine paid and organic conversions, branded keyword searches resulted in nearly $530,000 in revenue during that time period.  They don’t spend money t o optimize for branded terms, they don’t have particularly spectacular saturation in Google for their brand, and they only spent $1506 in paid advertising for their branded campaign over that time period.

$530,000   x100 = 35,192% an INSANE return on investment!!!
$1506

Your brand is something that needs to be nurtured, protected, fed, and exercised – just like a child or a pet.  It’s your legacy and ignoring its “upbringing” can result in severe problems with its future.  You put so much effort into creating it, if you don’t take care of it you can consider that time wasted.

Would you build a building without blueprints?   Would you set out to a place you’d never been before without consulting a road map?  The answer to these questions for most people would be a resounding “No.”  However, we at Blizzard are often asked if we can “just get started” on a marketing or design project and skip the initial research.  Below are a few critical benefits to having thorough research results in hand before beginning any website marketing or design project.

• Save Money - Like the building built without a blueprint or the road trip taken without a map, a marketing or design project launched without research is bound to take more time and incur more costs.  Why?  Because inevitably some of the work will need to be altered mid-project in order to meet unforeseen needs or concerns.  Lee Odden posted a great internet marketing article earlier this month where he describes a scenario all too familiar to online marketing professionals.   A redesign is to be published on Monday and Friday afternoon someone decides to ask, “How does this look with regards to SEO?”  The result is twice the time spent cleaning up what could have been avoided had thorough research been applied at the outset.
• Minimize Risks and Realize Higher Returns - Having research as the foundation for your marketing plan is the best insurance for that plan’s success.  If your marketing team is able, through proper research, to identify risks and weaknesses at the start of a plan, they are able to allocate marketing funds towards those initiatives that will mitigate weaknesses while building upon existing strengths.   Let’s take the example Lee offered in his article.  If instead this project had begun by creating a research team before launching their redesign, a thorough migration plan could have been in place before one piece of code had been written.  The SEO team would have been given the opportunity to identify successful, high ranking pages to preserve in the redesign process and to pinpoint underperforming pages that offered opportunities for increased visibility in the new design, resulting in increased returns from the finished product. 
• Gain a Competitive Edge - A successful marketing initiative doesn’t exist in a vacuum; a complete analysis of the competition provides a panoramic view of the marketing landscape in which your initiative will perform.  Competitive analysis will find weaknesses to be capitalized upon, strategies to be emulated and opportunities for growth in market share.  

At the beginning of a marketing project, the Blizzard Internet Marketing team may implement a number of programs to glean as much as possible about your design or marketing plan prior to implementation.  Here are some examples of the types of research your team may conduct:

• Keyword Research - We utilize several tools in order to assess which phrases will bring your website the most traffic, which will offer opportunities to expand market share and which are being overlooked by your competition.  If you want to try it out for yourself, Trent has listed a couple free tools for keyword research.
• Website Navigation Roadmap - At the outset of a design or redesign, our SEO experts map out the recommended site structure from an SEO perspective.  This research helps create a website that utilizes the latest techniques in website usability and search engine optimization.
• Competitor Research - Competition research includes search engine rankings and the various elements that affect them, including SEO and linking strategies.   Your project manager will use these findings to your advantage when creating the marketing plan for your project.
• Website Baseline Research - Your marketing team analyzes the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities associated with your website based upon industry benchmarks for page saturation, inbound links, age of domain, usability and conversion rate.  Historic traffic trends and website statistics are also recorded, if available.
• Demographic Research - If your website analytics software has the capability, your marketing team will evaluate the demographic profile of website visitors based upon location, channel and platform utilized.
• Paid Advertising Research - Pay-per-click campaigns can make up a large portion of an online marketing budget.  Detailed research prior to account creation can help maximize the return on this investment by targeting the most cost-effective keywords to include in the campaign.
• Directory Research - Our directory experts analyze your current internet reach and identify new resources to build traffic to and conversions from your website.
• Online Reputation Research - What are your customers are saying about your company or your product?  Online reputation research involves reviewing social media sites so that marketing efforts can capitalize on what your clients like while addressing any issues that may be uncovered by the team.

What’s the moral of this story?  Don’t start driving until you know where you’re headed!  Whether embarking on a design or marketing project, comprehensive research will provide a strong foundation for any project’s success. 

 Photo from federico_marque