A new “term” has been making the rounds in the Search Engine Marketing industry. It’s honestly something that I should have been thinking a lot more about. Consider for a second what your visitors are doing AFTER they have accessed your site. Are you taking the process for granted? Post click marketing is what you’re doing to market yourself on your OWN website. Radical concept, eh?

The big misconception in success is that your goal is “traffic.” Traffic just means you’re working hard to get people to your site. For many websites traffic is the goal. But traffic isn’t the be-all-end-all – Return on Investment (ROI) is. Post-click marketing focuses on the things you can do on your own website to sell the visitor once they hit your landing page – effectively increasing your return – without increasing your traffic-gaining investment. So we’re making better use of the traffic we’re already receiving.

Segmenting
Not everyone who shops on your site is going to do so in the same way. There is usually a wide variety to your segmentation.

• Bargain hunters will head straight for the “clearance section” (aka specials page)
• Business travelers or concert goers may be looking for your location and proximity to a specific event.
• Families will want to know what activities and amenities you offer for the little ones on the itinerary.

Optimization or paid advertising targeting (i.e. keyword buys and selections) will land these different types of shoppers on the correct section of the site for THEIR needs. By segmenting traffic and funneling it into the correct portion of your site, chances for a conversion increase.

Appeal:
Would you stay in a hotel with shabby 1980’s design elements? If your site was designed and photography taken more than 3 years ago, it’s probably outdated. Time in the “internet world” moves much more quickly than in real life. Think dog years - so a website that is 3 years old - is aged to 21 years in reality (well maybe not that much, but close.)

Now is the time to upgrade and reveal to your visitors what’s fresh and new with your property. Consider the following when revamping your website:

• Upgrade photography
• Clean up color schemes – primary colors are out – soft and warm colors are in.
• Great paragraphs of text are out. Think about how a visitor reads content on a website. They scan for the most part. By moving from a great paragraph of text to short descriptions and bullet points you’re giving the fickle web visitor exactly what they want – and you’re creating the opportunity to show them more of your site.
• Deliver information strategically - on the rooms page, place a quick note about sending booking info to their phone.
• Place your product messages where they will be SEEN – don’t bury them in a paragraph.

Paths
Giving a clear and well marked path through your site is going to go a long way towards increasing bookings. Uncluttered, calm, concise and obvious paths through to your conversion process make it easy to find and book online.

Features:
The more added-value you give your guests “post click” the more likely they are to stay and book with you. Right now they can book through Expedia.com and have the data saved, sent and resent – printed and emailed whenever they want – can they do the same on your website? If you’re offering these things – MARKET them. Place the message within your site and especially on the landing pages guests are hitting most often.

You’re not selling ice- cream to Eskimos.
If they’re in your booking process, they’re already targeted. Use the process to sell the process.

• Step 1 of 4
• Step 2 of 4

Might be better worded as:

• “You’re just 2 steps away from a perfect beach vacation!”

Use your thank-you page tell them how successful they are and that they’ve made the “Right Choice!” Begin forming a positive outlook immediately – don’t wait until they arrive on your doorstep.

Once they’ve booked - give them a place to go. Take them back to the activities page so they can make restaurant reservations – either right on your site with the contact information you provide. If you offer add-ons such as champagne and chocolates – show the successful booker where they can buy that, or how they can contact you to add it on to a current reservation.

Post-click marketing on your site is something I’m going to elaborate on in future articles. Stay tuned for a variety of tools and suggestions to help you make more out of the traffic you’re already receiving.
mouse photo from sabandija in da house
path photo from jurvetson

Today I was lucky enough to track down TJ Mahoney, the co-founder and CEO of Flipkey.com. I’ve talked about FlipKey a few times here - and I’m really excited to bring you some insight into how FlipKey works, who it’s for and how our clients and your guests can benefit from it’s Reputation Management platform.

The general premise is to allow guests to review individual vacation rentals and for shoppers to see reviews on those individual rentals. Until now, there really wasn’t a way for a potential guest to see reviews dedicated to the EXACT rental they’re looking at. Other sites that allow reviews aren’t really guaranteeing any aspect of the rental you’re looking at. Flipkey.com has a unique way of letting shoppers and reviewers know that the rental is part of their FlipKey Verified Program, which means they guarantee on-site property management and hospitality services.

I asked TJ some questions about the process and the product - here are his answers. Please feel free to leave your questions in the comment box below and I’ll see if I can get TJ back to answer your questions.

(more…)

Although having competitive pricing helps when selling travel online, shoppers are moving away from finding the bargain basement prices in favor of choosing an experience that’s right for their situation.  Before spending a ton of money on a trip, travel shoppers are looking for online reviews and recommendations from others like themselves.  Comparing airfares, hotel prices, rental car rates, etc are still important steps to an online travel shopper - but finding an added value could convince them it’s worth spending the extra money to stay in your location vs. the Motel 6 down the street.

An article at Forbes.com today by Wendy Tanaka outlines WebTravel 2.0.  She quotes Douglas Quinby of PhoCusWright -

“The influence of social networking and community services is growing significantly for online travel.  Seeking information and looking for perspective–like-minded experience and judgements — are currently trumping the straightforward hunt for the best price.”

My recent visit to SES New York strengthened this position.  In the SEM Small Business Blitz session Stoney deGeyeter of PolePositionMarketing.comtalked about having “Unique, Valuable Resource.”  What is the value-added proposition you add to the travel market that your competitors do not?  Are you ranked #1 for your area on Tripadvisor or Yahoo!Travel?  Do you have premium mattresses that are so phenomenal they deserve their own page on your website?  Maybe guests can take cooking classes with your in-house chef or a local chef.  Think about the little things that add to your value proposition and capitalize on those things in your online marketing and social media marketing strategies.

Not only are you selling an on-site experience - you’re selling and ONLINE experience and your website and marketing should reflect this experience.  Think about how the big brands tackle this and consider fashioning your online presence in a smaller scale.  Hilton is one of my favorites - they came up with some “travel-isms” that really work for me -

“Travel is more than just A to B”

“Travel should tempt you with the exotic”

“Travel should refresh your spirit”

I’m sure they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for this campaign - but with a little creativity and thought - you can do the same on a budget.  Host a wine party and put your guests to work - ask them questions and brainstorm some fun ideas.  Have them tell you what they think about as they walk around your property.  Have some professional photos taken that really embody the image you’re selling. 

Spending a bit of time and money on the online experience can enhance and increase ROI through the offline experience!

Image optimization is a relatively “new” phase of Search Engine Optimization.  Until the last year or so, images were just something you wrapped your content around, hoping those who read it were enticed to click or explore further via images.

Universal Search

Then along came Universal Search - and having images and photos on your website took on a whole new meaning.  Not only are you attempting to entice the user to click through and book rentals, you’re using those images in the search engines to choose your website in the first place.  A great way to market the “vacation rental” experience.

I haven’t been seeing a lot of image results integrated with regular Google SERPS lately - but they do pop up once in awhile.  It’s also likely that a web search COULD lead to an image search - just look where Google places the image button on their results pages:

 So along with integrating images into their search results - Google encourages visitors to move into the image results by featuring the possibility close to the query box.

Yahoo and MSN do the same. 

So what does this mean for you?

Well, it means a couple things.  Images are more than just eye candy.  Images are an opportunity to gain market share and move competitors “down the list.”  Maybe not in regular SERPS, but definitely in image results.  Optimizing your images isn’t “hard” per se - just time consuming.  There are some rules to follow:

1. Name the photo something keyword rich - make “image2.jpg” read “outerbanksvacationhomebedroom.jpg”
2. Make sure the image has an alt. tag that supports the content on the page and the name of the image - don’t name the photo “outerbanksrental.jpg,” make the alt tag “outer banks boat” and optimize the on-page text for “obx sunset.”  THEME the page and the image optimization along the same lines - but don’t use the SAME KEYWORD PHRASE in everything - mix it up, use some LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) and chose synonyms of the keyword you’re looking for in an effort to support and reinforce the idea.
3. Wrap relevant, optimized, text around the photo.  A page w/ a photo and no text is pretty pointless for search engines - it might work okay for the user, but our goal is to please BOTH.
4. Share the photos you OWN on photo-sharing sites like Flickr.com.  It’s important to have permission to do this if you’ve used a professional photographer.  If you’ve purchased stock photography, this probably isn’t an option.

This isn’t EVERYTHING you need to know to optimize images on your site, but it’s a good start.  Consider taking that next step.  If you’re interested in learning more about optimizing images, check out the white paper by our very own Mary Bowling - SEO: Images and Videos White Paper.

Online reviews are inevitable - especially in the hospitality industry. Whether you like it or not, your guests are going to review their stay - either at a review site like “Tripadvisor.com” or on their own blog. The key to harnessing the power of the online review is to bring that unique, fresh and FREE content onto your own website.

Content, and lots of it, more than any other factor, is going to help you rank well in the search engines. Well optimized content is going to help even more. But, realistically speaking, WRITING content is something you’re hoping little fairies, brownies or elves do at night while you’re getting your zzz’s. Unfortunately, the brownies, fairies, and elves are busy hiding your car keys and removing all of your matching socks from your drawer - they don’t have time to write content and the job falls on your shoulders to get it done.

Honestly, as an agency we CAN write content for your website - but truthfully - you’re better off doing it yourself. Yes, an agency can provide a quality product, don’t misunderstand my intention. But have they BEEN to the property, do they really “know” how cool your pool is? Probably not - so the best content comes from those who have experienced it.

Okay - this is where we get to consumer generated content (CGC) and reviews. If you provide your guests a place to leave a review of their stay with you, ON YOUR WEBSITE, you’re looking at thousands of words of content added every week or month. Content you didn’t have to write, content you don’t have to PAY for - great stuff, eh?

I know you’re concerned about the negative reviews - with good reason. But instead of dreading this inevitable occurrence, embrace it. Use a negative review on your website as a way to show shoppers and future guests how much you CARE about each and every experience given on your property or properties. Offer the negative reviewer a discount for coming back and trying again - give your email address so they can contact you directly to resolve the problem. The more public you are with this information and resolution, the more you CARE about your guests, the more consumers are going to trust you to give them a really great time, or make it right if things so wrong.

It’s a scary step, and implementing a review platform on your site can cost a bit - but the results can show a positive ROI in a short amount of time. A recent article in the newsletter about a case-study featured at HotelMarketing.com outlined how trusted reviews featured on your site DOUBLE your revenue. So mix your on-site reviews with a feed of your reviews from Tripadvisor.com. Lend credibility to what is read ON your site with a set of unbiased reviews from an independent site.

For the most part, people who consider consumer reviews are a picky bunch. They tend to discount a set of all 5-star reviews and they also tend to discount ONE bad review in a set of pretty good reviews. Keep this in mind when showing reviews on your site, don’t JUST show the great stuff, lend credibility with a little good and a little not so good. That being said, don’t let a set of comments turn into a public dirty laundry session. If things stay amicable and constructive, leave it online. Name-calling and rudeness are never okay, no matter what the venue is.

Keyboards image from GothCandy

Being in the business development department at Blizzard Internet Marketing, I often hear property managers make statements like, “We don’t offer online bookings because our guests don’t feel comfortable making week-long vacation arrangements over the Internet.” Or there’s the handy, “We pride ourselves in talking to each of our guests personally.” While I don’t disagree with the above statements, I do try to help clients understand the various reasons why this decision could be costing them.

The vacation rental industry is vastly changing the way people vacation. While these accommodations offer the same luxurious comforts of your home, they’re often more costly. It’s because of this cost, and length of stay that statistics show most guests still prefer to call rather than book online. However, you’re forgetting quite a few people when you’re only catering to the “over the phone” booker:

• Those who want to book online
• Returning guests who already know what they want
• Guests who are in a different country or time zone and want to book when your office isn’t open
• How do you handle giving potential buyers a busy signal?
• Some people prefer to buy online and have documentation of what they saw, booked and paid
• Guests may be in a hurry and not have time to make the call - but they do have five-minutes to sit down at the computer and multi-task.

How many guests are you losing because of these factors?

The question should be, how convenient is your website for all guests? Do you make it as easy as possible for ANY guest to make a booking? Whether it’s making sure your phone number is on every page, or having a secure and dependable booking engine, the point is you’re giving your visitors options!

There are so many ways to effectively track your marketing dollars with online bookings. You can also still maintain a “personal relationship” with clients who have booked online by calling to confirm their reservation. For a list of our recommended booking partners and tracking options please contact our Business Development Department at 888-840-5893.

Video is the new mobile - in a sense.  Three or four years ago, the thought of surfing the web on your phone was a bit foreign to most of us, today it’s second nature - even for those of us with horrible phones that don’t surf well.

So in the door walks the new darling child of the online marketing world - (it’s really an infant) and an excellent opportunity to take advantage of SEO on your travel website.  Most of you already HAVE videos on your site, you just may not know it.  Virtual Tours are basically videos of your hotel, property, rooms, restaurants, etc.   There are ways to convert or build virtual tours in formats that allow easy uploading to video search engines, and easy embedding on individual pages of your site….you see where I’m going with this, right?

 Each page on your site that features a video should have a few things to make the subject matter of that video rank well -

1. Search engines can’t index video - yet - so you need to wrap some excellent descriptive text around your video on the page to make sure search engines know what you’re offering.  An easy way to do this it to create a written transcript of what you have to offer and place it on the page with the video.
2. Use closed captioning when possible.  Some format allow text files that are transcripts to be attached to the video, if you can do this - take advantage of it
3. Give the video a descriptive keyword rich file name.  Try “northshorevacationmovie.wmv” vs. “movie.wmv”
4. Optimize the text on the page - add relevant and unique page titles, meta description, h tags, inbound link text, etc.
5. Link to that page with good keyword-rich text.

Search engines will not index your video on your site - they don’t have the technology to make that happen.  You MUST upload those videos to a video sharing site such as YouTube, Ifilm or MetaCafe to have them included in the Google or Yahoo indexes and showing as results.  If you do this correctly, you could potentially capture a good listing in the regular web results or in Video results.

 Converting and File Types

There are some technical and logistical issues you need to consider if you want to convert a virtual tour into a video.  Some come ready to upload to the video search engines, in .mov format - others do not.  Ask your virtual tour provider for a copy of the tour in a supported format.  Every engine is different but YouTube for example supports .wmv, .avi, .mov and .mpg. 

Make sure you OWN your videos.  Some third-party companies will not let you have a copy of your video or virtual tour for use in promoting your business - this is limiting and you should be able to negotiate a copy in the correct format when you sign the contract to have the work done.  Make sure you read the video fine print - are they going to add in ads or graphics that don’t support your brand?  Yellow Pages videos add a graphic to the corner of every video they make, this forces the viewer on YouTube to find you in the yellow pages, not directly on your own website - and the potential for a lost sale increases.  Investing in video is expensive - so make sure you can get the most out of your investment.

 For more information on optimizing the images and videos on your website, check out Blizzard’s Free Markting Whitepapers and particularly the whitepaper on SEO: Images and Videos.