eMarketing in 2010Rob Stokes

This is not about football

But a realisation that the internet is here to stay

…. and like it or not, tourism starts online

In the UK, the internet is now the biggest marketing channel in terms of spend

The average UK tourism company is spending well over 50% of it’s marketing budget online

Are we giving eMarketing the respect it deserves?

How it all fits together

eMarketing is NOT just a list of tactics

It achieves its true potential when these tactics work together

The tactics need each other

They feed off each other

They are substantially less effective without each other

At the centre of your eMarketing universe is your website

A hub to drive traffic to

A medium through which you can communicate and build a relationship with your audience

But it can’t just be any old website

You MUST add value to your user’s experience. Before, during and after their visit

Websites are no longer just brochures

They should be built to attract, convert and retain customers – or they shouldn’t exist at all

The average tourism website has 11 seconds to capture a user before they get bored and go elsewhere

Travelmole

Is your website THAT good?

Our web development priorities

Monitoring your website’s performance

Top stats to keep an eye on

Goal metrics above all else: conversion rates!

Unique users (not HITS)

Traffic Sources (and their conversion rates)

Engagement Metrics

Bounce rate

Repeat users

Pages per user

Time spent on site

A quick word on mobile sites

Get one

Bringing traffic to your website

Search Engines!

1 Billion searches each day

Lots of volume, but why is this important?

Searchers are looking for what your are offering

They WANT to find you!

And if they don’t find you, they WILL find your competitor

Over 40% of online bookings started with a search

Major considerations in 2010:

Organic search – keyword rich links are everything, build a site that offers so much value that it attracts them naturally

Universal search: make sure your images, videos and maps are optimised to take advantage of all the SERP real estate

Mobile search: location aware users in a highly goal driven mode

Expect paid search prices to rise heavily next year

Make sure your organic and paid search campaigns are learning from each other

Always be optimising your response paths

Search marketing will bring a lot of traffic to your site, but you can’t stop there…

You should be looking to build communities around your business

Social Media can play a big part in this

A few social media channels:

The most important one…

A few tips to take it to the next level

Be strategy lead.

The medium is not the message

How will social media deliver on your business goals?

Push for critical mass quickly

Discover and target influential individuals and communities

Identify and fill content holes – don’t echo

Write with your keyword strategy at your side

Consider the impact of social media on your other eMarketing tactics

Create a social media culture internally, it will reflect externally

Let’s look at a few specific examples…

Online Video: YouTube

Second largest search engine!

60% market share

100+ million viewers a night

‘The overnight success’ thing

Encourage your customers to build content on your behalf

300+ Million active users

And many ways to communicate with them:

•Groups and Pages

•Applications

•Ads

•Facebook Connect

Of the travellers who use Twitter...

•52% Tweeted between 4 and Ten times per day•25% Tweeted 10 updates or more per day•60% Used Twitter to connect with hotels and transport•28% Made a reservation following an initial contact on Twitter

But the Buzz isn’t always good...

11 million people search for “Ryanair” each month.

A Ryanair employee comments on a blog…

Followed by the official response

Then the online community got hold of it

Then the newspapers got hold of it

These powerful sites often linked to this site…

And we know how important good links are…

Why is your online reputation important?

Because peers are the most trusted source of recommendation

Edelman Trust Barometer 2008

Consumer Generated Content influences over $10 Billion per year in online travel

Compete.com

Tripadvisor.co.uk is the favourite website for UK users for holiday inspiration.

European Travel Commission

88% of Trip Advisor Visitors are influenced by the content the read on the site

European Travel Commission

People are talking, are you listening?

Are you truly engaging with them?

Monitoring your online reputation helps you…

… avoid a reputation crisis by informing you quickly… discover quick and effective new marketing opportunities… improve customer service through engagement … understand your customers’ needs and wants better … identify powerful influencers to target with WOM campaigns

A final word on email marketing

Do it and do it properly. It will serve you well.

In conclusion: eMarketing fundamentals

•Get your website right, make it remarkable!

•Drive qualified traffic to it.

•Optimise the conversion of that traffic.

•Build a relationship with your audience.

•Test, test, test.

Thank Youwww.quirk.biz/etourism