Comprehensive Promotion Case Study

Mary C. | 16 June 2005 |

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AmericInn International, LLC
Customer Overview
AmericInn is one of the fastest growing upscale limited service lodging chains in the United States, with 220 locations currently open or under development. Competing across the luxury-economy and mid-market segments, the success and savvy growth is due to the unique AmericInn product and market niche. AmericInn is dedicated to the concept of growing a dynamic franchise lodging system designed to maximize the success of each franchisee, while exceeding guest expectations by providing Quiet Nights, Rest Assured.

AmericInn selected Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc. for their extensive knowledge and expertise in online hospitality marketing. When AmericInn contracted with Blizzard, Jon Kennedy, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Franchise Development, said, “We have great expectations that Blizzard will take AmericInn to the next level of success, and we look forward to a productive partnership with Blizzard, realizing the positive impact they will bring to the AmericInn Lodging System.”

Goal
Blizzard’s goal for this Comprehensive Plan has been to drive traffic to the AmericInn home web site, www.americinn.com, for lodging related searches in each geographic area where AmericInn has an existing franchise. Ben Henderson, Blizzard Sales Executive, explains, “Our services are results-driven. Our intention has been to not only send more traffic to the client’s site, but also to increase the conversion rate of site visitors, turning them into real-time reservations. These principles set Blizzard leagues ahead of the average Internet marketing provider.”

In addition to promotion management, AmericInn has been utilizing the Blizzard Tracker, ROI Edition, which has allowed Blizzard to analyze the effectiveness of PPC campaigns, such as in Google AdWords, and to track conversions, including the dollar amount spent in online bookings.

Strategy
Senior Promotion Account Manager, Mindi Cabe, led the Promotion effort, assisted by two Promotion Specialists. The team provided personal account care and first-rate customer service through out the process, and continues to do so today. Blizzard’s work included extensive keyword analysis and web site optimization, localized competitor and market research, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign management, and proactive link building.

Results
Results have been excellent. AmericInn’s daily unique visitor average is has increased 168% in five months. Of course, we can attribute some of that increase to seasonal demands. Not only has the number of unique visitors increased, but we can see many visitors returning to the web site.

As a result of Blizzard’s proactive link building campaign, AmericInn’s web site has seen a rise in link popularity of 235%; a score of 8,450 has improved to 28,507. Additionally, through the use of Blizzard Tracker ROI Edition, we are able to measure their revenue statistics. Taking into consideration AmericInn’s expenditures on Blizzard’s fees and online marketing fees (PPC, directory listings, etc…), we can clearly see a return on investment (ad spend) of over 400%.

Conclusion
Blizzard’s years of experience, expert knowledge, and Comprehensive Plan services, combined with indisputable statistics from Blizzard Tracker, have provided AmericInn with the necessary marketing plan to dramatically improve all aspects of their online presence. Jon Kennedy, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Franchise Development for AmericInn, recently said, “We have been very happy with Blizzard’s efforts and the results achieved. We realize that six months is a relatively short timeframe to judge the effectiveness of some of the efforts and, given the success we have had in the last six months, we are very optimistic and excited to see where the rest of 2005 takes us.”

Heather Austin - Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.