Sandia Travel Marketing

Evan Gerber had a great article yesterday at iMedia Connection that reviewed many of the considerations to look at before entering the mobile content game. Not surprisingly, the companies that he cites as doing well in this space, like Epicurious, have created dedicated web applications, with a twist on their regular content, that speaks directly to the mobile user.

Many business owners, unfortunately, are asking their marketers the wrong questions about this exciting technology. Instead of asking “Why can’t our customers view our site on their mobile device?”, they should be asking “What service can we provide our customers who use mobile  devices?”.  Until and unless you can come up with a clear value-added answer to this question, you are not ready to take your web site mobile.

That may be a painful reality for business owners and marketers alike who are eager to ride the cutting edge wave. But successful entry into the mobile content arena requires more than creating a version of your web site that is viewable on a mobile device. So take your time, do some research and find out what information or service your mobile-enabled customers wish they could get from you on the fly. When you can deliver that in an efficient and effective fashion, your customers will reward your patience.

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Travel Mole had an interesting article today pointing out that, according to unnamed research, while 70% of trips are taken by non-families, that the trips families do take are changing in their make up. Stays of 6 nights or less are gaining ground, while the traditional 14-night trip seems to be losing ground.

Another interesting fact, they cite that 40% of family trips are being taken by groups that include 5 or more people. That’s especially interesting to me, since just this past week my husband’s cousin was complaining that all family travel packages and deals seem to be geared toward a family of four. She said that makes it difficult for her family of 5 to plan a holiday and take advantage of any of the great offers she sees because after they absorb the extra charges for the additional child, the savings disappear.

It’s easy to assume that the market will adjust to the changing realities of the length of stay, but does this market of families of 5+ represent a large enough group to push change in that area as well?

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iMedia Connection had a great posting today looking at online web analytics benchmarks. To make a long story short, they make a strong case for the fact that the only reliable benchmark at this point is looking at your own historical activity. Are you improving? Are you seeing hiccups in the recent trends?

The need to benchmark against industry standards and market sector indicators runs into a simple, but effective roadblock - there are no standard measures. Performance indicators published for a large online commercial retailer like Amazon.com have little or no relevance to small, independent boutique boutique hotels. There is no industry standard for defining, much less tracking, what a “conversion” is.

So what’s a web analytics junkie to do? Establish your own parameters, monitor them and measure your success based on your own growth and improvement.

read the full article here

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Neil Salerno at Hotelmarketing.com gets to be my favorite person for the week, and not just because he’s essentially validating our marketing plan. In his posting Hoteliers, don’t be fooled by the Web 2.0 hype he very clearly and directly reviews why we don’t need to rush off to add Facebook to our marketing campaigns.

Afraid you’re missing the boat?

My problem with these Web 2.0 articles is that they are being touted as an essential marketing opportunity for hotels. First-off, the only social media relevant to our industry are travel-related sites. This narrows all the social media down to only a handful of sites. The first and foremost of these is Expedia’s TripAdvisor. It’s extremely well managed and has a reputation for being equitable to both consumers and hotels.

…

Another problem I am having with some of the articles written about social media is that they are raising expectations and concern without providing any relevant action for hoteliers. In my opinion, most hoteliers have difficulty finding enough time to work and implement necessary sales and marketing tasks which will have a much greater positive impact on their business. To add social media to this task list amounts to a huge distraction from the many more important, more necessary, marketing responsibilities.

Here’s what he thinks is relevant for hotels now.

Smart hoteliers are now incorporating a guest comment feed-back section directly on their web sites. I think this is far more relevant and useful for hotels than hand-wringing over comments made randomly on some social media site. Other than the handful of travel-related sites, most comments will have little impact, positive or negative, on any individual hotel, with the possible exception of large well-known world-class hotels.

Sound familiar?

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Hotelmarketing.com published a great article this week looking at what business travelers really want. On the hotel side, here’s what the results had to say:

Seventy-two percent of hotel-bound business travelers cited that the “basic condition of rooms” frustrated them most followed by uncomfortable beds (64 percent) and rooms that are were not ready following a late arrival (64 percent). “Requesting a non-smoking room and not getting it” and “miscellaneous surcharges” each frustrated 61 percent of survey respondents.

More than half of the respondents (53 percent) said they are more frustrated by a non-working television in their hotel room than by waiting in line to check in and out (47 percent). More than 50 percent of respondents cited a hotel brand’s “global presence” as a contributing factor when selecting a hotel loyalty/frequent guest program.

So what makes them really happy?

The most popular hotel perk was a room upgrade (59 percent), followed by the availability of free Internet service (56 percent) and an exceptionally comfortable bed (50 percent).

How does your property measure up?

Read the complete article

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Marketing Sherpa posted an interesting article listing their “Top 7 Video Posting Strategies”. There are some basic tips on how to go about the process, but the most telling of all is “Tip #2. Make videos with high production values”. This is the “Stop. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200″ of Social Media implementation, and the reason that many small businesses are not ready to enter this arena. The article refers specifically to B2B sales & marketing efforts, but I think it applies every bit as much to B2C efforts, especially when the product you are marketing is a high-end lifestyle product like a modern boutique hotel. While amateur video is fine when it is truly user-generated content, if a hotel is going to wade into the pool with its own submissions, the quality has to be there or everything that comes after will be damage control.

Read the full article here

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Here was a good, simple explanation of how Google sees Flash posted at the Google Webmaster Central Blog. Basically, it says what we know: use Flash sparingly because Google can’t see what’s inside of it.

Read the full article here

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We all know that getting inbound links from other sites relevant to the travel industry can give us a boost in Google rankings. Apparently Google wants to have a bigger say in how that happens. A recently released tool in Google’s webmaster area allows webmasters to report sites that are accepting payment for links. Google appears to be categorizing paid links as negative links, working under the assumption that webmasters who pay for links to their sites are trying to circumvent Google’s ranking algorithms.

In the case of links purchased from so-called “link farms” or sites that obviously exist for no other reason than to provide links to sites willing to pay, I can’t say I disagree. But what about a site that pays an industry organization an added fee for an expanded listing in their industry directory to get that link back to their web site? Surely Google can’t be targeting these kinds of legitimate paid interactions.

A hotel paying the local CVB for an expanded listing that includes a link to its web site is not trying to trick Google. The hotel is trying to make sure that potential clients that visit the CVB site can be directed to their property. The CVB is not trying to make a profit by tricking Google either, these are just the same kind of basic advertising opportunities that have supported these organizations since well before Google and the Internet.

Let’s hope that Google implements this new policy judiciously.

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We’ve had many interesting discussions of the dos and don’ts of entering the Social Media realm, but no topic has gotten more air time than “fake identities”, where company executives pretend to be something they’re not in an effort to further the marketing agenda of their company. In some cases it’s posting supposedly consumer-generated content to generate buzz around a new product launch.  In others, it’s creating a supposedly neutral online persona who is an advocate and fan of the company’s product / service.

While old-fashioned, low-tech common sense may tell us that this is not such a great idea, and likely destined to backfire, it seems that no one is immune to the lure of the anonymity of the Internet - forget that it’s an illusion. The most recent company to fall victim to dodgy Social Media practices is Whole Foods, whose CEO was using an online identity to bash competitors and praise his company. Even, I kid you not, going so far as to compliment his own haircut.

This great New York Times article reviews some of the dangers, both legal and to corporate brand image, of these practices. They also point out that there is a time, a place and a format for company’s to take advantage of Social Media, citing Marriott’s blog as a good example of how to do things right.

Read the complete article here

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A colleague forwarded an email today from one of his competitors. It was an eye-catching graphic piece and all I could think was “wow”! And by “wow” I mean how could they put so much effort in to getting my attention and do nothing to follow up on it?

I had images turned off in my email program, so the only text I saw was a note offering to link me to view the offer online, or to forward the unseen ad to a friend. I turned the images on and saw the ad; many of your target audience will not take the time to do that, especially when there is nothing enticing them to do so.

My colleague suggested that I sign up to receive these offers to see what the competition is doing, but even though this email had a “Forward to a Friend” link, which my colleague did, there was no link for me to subscribe. I diligently pushed onward and clicked through on the ad, was directed to a booking landing page and made a couple of more clicks to find my way to their actual site. After all of that work, I never found a place for me to sign up to their mailing list. Maybe it is by invitation only?

We’ve discussed this before, but when creating an effective marketing piece you have to make certain that your audience is going to be able to meet the goals you set.

• Graphics-only emails are nice to look at, but you run the risk of not getting your message through.
• If you’re going to use the Forward to a Friend link, you really should have a Subscribe link in your email so that you can capture those people your subscribers think would be interested in your message.

You put a lot of time into your e-marketing efforts; make sure they’re going to pay off for you.

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