Utilizing Integrated Online Marketing to Increase ROI

Blizzard Associate | 10 October 2005 |

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Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), most with a strong and varied member base, have great potential for online marketing success. Not only do they generally have the funds to carry-out an exceptional marketing campaign, their members offer the DMOs website high quality, incredibly relevant content that is rewarded by search engines when presented properly.
While many approach various aspects of online marketing effectively, rarely are any able to fully integrate their efforts into one complete package. Integrated Online Marketing offers a system that uses a wide range of proven techniques to attract visitors to, and keep them on, a website. To start bringing the pieces of this comprehensive approach together, consider the following:

Recognize the value of content
Understand of niche marketing
Use advanced analytics to guide decision making
Foster multiple "touches" with consumers
Establish a marketing budget to fund the purchase of online ads in search engines, niche resources, travel newsletters, etc.
Make the website the hub of all efforts.

This article will outline the most important steps to take to establish an Integrated Online Marketing plan; one that will bring more traffic to your website and increase the business generated by it for your members.

Bring the customer to the website

SEO - SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization, which is the effort to increase traffic from free search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo. This is typically done behind the scenes by a webmaster, and includes the following:

Website Optimization: Optimize various elements (text, photos, links) in order to improve results from free search engines.
Link Building: Increase the number of quality websites that link to yours; this is an important long-term strategy.
Content Building: Improve customer satisfaction and search engine results; a bigger content footprint will always produce more qualified traffic.

NICHE MARKETING – Niche marketing refers to all the efforts to target smaller groups of people with specific needs, such as those interested in skiing, wine, pet-friendly travel, wedding planning, etc. Niche marketing helps immensely with search engines. Visitors from niche resources typically offer higher conversion rates.

Niche Resources: Perhaps the best way to drive qualified traffic. Niche resources are typically less expensive than those geared towards a b broader audience, and are very effective. The niche might be geographic (colorado.com), activity-related (weddingtips.com), or pertaining to an interest (www.purpleroofs.com).
Online PR: Releasing PR to online resources is a good way to promote specials and niches. It creates immediate qualified traffic and improves long-term search engine results. It ties in well with e-mail, niches, specials and content.
Niche Content: Good content for each target niche is vital. It not only creates traffic in and of itself, but it also keeps that traffic on the website and eventually brings those people to your destination or business.

PPC MARKETING - PPC marketing refers to all efforts to purchase traffic on a pay-per-click basis. This is typically used on major search engine like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Some niche resources also use a PPC model.

Niche-driven: This is a good way to reach target markets with high ROI traffic. It offers excellent capability to “laser-target” specific groups.
Drive qualified traffic: Because you are choosing your terms and descriptions, the traffic is pre-qualified.
Easily scalable: Easy to raise and lower the budget with seasons or needs.
Easily trackable: Tracking solutions make ROI easy to evaluate… and appreciate.
Usually profitable: For a DMO, PPC marketing usually drives a significant amount of qualified traffic with a return that more than justifies the price.

E-MAIL MARKETING - Marketing via e-mail is an excellent way to share upcoming events with the travel market. Specials/Deals/Packages are an important aspect of e-mail marketing.

The size and quality of the e-mail database matters.
Use a professional service provider.
Track website traffic - good stats to measure ROI are available.

Keep Visitors on the Site and/or Bring Them Back

A visitor who returns multiple times is more likely to be converted to a customer.

Easy to use website keeps visitors longer. Real content keeps visitors longer – most DMOs have rich content to offer site visitors.
Specials and packages create conversions and give a reason to return later.
Quality niche content increases visit length, user satisfaction, and likelihood of a return visit.
E-mail marketing allows DMOs to reach out and cause a second visit. Focus on getting information from visitors in order to permission market in the future.

Convert Site Visitors to Guests/Clients

A visitor who returns multiple times is more likely to be converted to a customer.

Easy to use website keeps visitors longer. • Real content keeps visitors longer – most DMOs have rich content to offer site visitors.
Specials and packages create conversions and give a reason to return later.
Quality niche content increases visit length, user satisfaction, and likelihood of a return visit.
E-mail marketing allows DMOs to reach out and cause a second visit. Focus on getting information from visitors in order to permission market in the future. Conversion rates are an important focus point. For many websites seeking to improve, increasing conversion rate is less expensive and more effective than increasing overall traffic.

Remember that credibility and trust increase conversion. Letting past guests write honest reviews of their experiences will reap enormous rewards.

Present effective calls to action. Linking to your member websites is key: let their websites close the sale.
Offer online booking options with links to booking engines and options when available.
Focus on timely and professional management of phone and e-mail communication generated from the website.
Offer specials and packages. These will increase conversion.

Philosophies

Encourage "real" content and community.
Be an information portal, don’t try to own it all; provide links to member and other related websites.
Track what you do and measure the results.
Commit to providing relevant content.
Recognize the value of opinions and incorporate them into the website. Integrated Online Marketing should increase revenue generation for your DMO’s members directly and indirectly from the organization’s website. Remember that DMOs by nature have huge potential for online marketing success due to their budgets and membership bases. That collective power affords DMOs the ability to fully embrace the steps outlined in this article. Though bringing together all of the pieces of the online marketing puzzle will take time and money, your efforts should yield great rewards.