Targeting and Measured Results is the 2014 Online Marketing Matra

How we interconnect our website + mobile + targeting + frequent analysis and reporting is how to succeed in 2014.

(1) Your website must be a visual user experience with less reading and more doing
(2) More than 40% of Google searches come from a mobile device
(3) How you reach mobile consumers is a combination of social networking and advertising
(4) Google+. PPC, Facebook, Twitter and most major marketing channels provide targeting
(5) A weekly or at a minimum a monthly analysis is a good strategy but how you apply these results is critical

Whether your market is B2B or B2C a clear targeted strategy is critical.  Here is an interesting interview that addresses the various sources and the elements that are necessary.  A combination of targeted search and social marketing can benefit all segments of our economy and your business whether you are a small B&B, a small brand or independent hotel, restaurants or anew B2B service or product. Here is an interesting video that discusses some of the variables that require consideration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t9ul50t7T2o

Google Panda and Penquin

If you have your own hotel website, managing your search engine optimization (SEO) is critical.  To be successful you need to stay current on Google, Bing and Yahoo algorithm changes.  These constant updates affect how you are ranked on the major search engines.  Obviously, your position on the search engine affects your business.

You can secure search presence and rankings in a variety of ways, it may be your website, website internal pages, blog and social pages.  Successful SEO is a result of the amount of time you commit and the quality of that time.  For example, time analyzing your results and updating your site content.

Where is Google going with its algorithm updates?  Clearly their focus is on mobile usage, in 2013 40% of Google traffic is coming from mobile phones.  In some countries mobile has passed desktop usage.  Google is still struggling gain more market share in social.  The question is do Facebook likes and +1 influence your search rankings?  The answer is not yet, but it is progressing rapidly as an influence based on volume.

The main factor related to Google Penguin, in my opinion, changes how accurate your Google Analytics are, unless you are analyzing pay per click.  Under the pretense of security, Google is limiting some of the analytic details.



BLOG is a clear asset to your SEO

Link Building is important to your SEO  

The key to total online sales is your ability to connect the dots >  SEO + PPC + Mobile + Social.  Then, be sure to analyze all possible measures to justify your results and to improve your results.
SEO is still an important and critical part of online marketing no matter what the so called experts tell you.  What is happening is that Google search is constantly refined to control black hot practices and other unprofessional and negative methods being applied to SEO. 

Content Marketing

More about what you say online and how you should say it!  Content marketing is taking marketing to a new level.  Consumers are spending less time watching TV commercials, reading sign boards or magazine articles.

Marketing today is about relationships and engaging consumers online about things that interest them or appeal to them.  Reviews, even though 20% are fraudulent, can attract interest and help close a buyer's decision.

 



Thank you to our friends at MarketingCharts.com, here is a perspective on the lack of understanding behind today's B2B marketing.  These are companies that offer products and services to other companies, hopefully to help them deliver better services and products or to help attract buyers.  Clearly, there is a problem about how the companies in this survey apply, measure and perceive content marketing.

Content marketing has been described many ways, but a simple explanation of this valuable marketing technique is as follows ....

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

The key to this definitions in this description are, "relevant and valuable content".  The days of just pushing the quality or value of what you are selling are gone!  Today with mobile content, online content, audio content and email and more, marketing its about knowing your objective and how to focus your text, pics and videos on that while you target the right prospects. 

As you push your content into the various digital marketing channels, you will know quickly if you are reaching your prospects and is your content resonating with them.  Measure results as you add or change content and shift your dialogue and what are the demographics and psychographics of those who respond.  Build your customer profiles and create content that fits your online market.    

Not what you say, but How you say it

For effective hotel and restaurant online marketing, you need to consider how you present your message, even more than what you say.  This is because the majority of website visitors find you as a result of a search and search ranking results are what capture the searcher.  Chances are the shopper does not know your brand name, unless of course, you are a franchise and then you have the issue of competing with the same brand in your local market.

Most search terms today are in a phrase or a question of 5 to 7 words.  Shopper keywords focus primarily on location, price, product/service and personal interests.  The greatest challenge to achieving the best search rankings and a productive presence is "change".  The objective of a search engine is to present the websites and blogs on page one that are have the most activity both on the site and in online social activities.  So how the content on your website changes and the frequency of change, plus the volume of social presence and engagement are key to reaching new consumers.

How do you achieve the volume and presence you need to win business online?  The answer is to commit the time and/or the cost to have the right people develop and apply optimized content, post photos, post videos and engage with customers and potential customers on an active scheduled basis. 

You need to be consistent, timely, current, brief and present real value in each message or response!  But, with all of this in your messages, you have to be social, sensitive and convincing.  Its all about how you say it.  How many times have you sent an email that was misunderstood? Same situation when conveying your business message or responses. 

So if you want to be found, you need to connect the dots and make some noise.

Successful Online Marketing is all About Connecting the Dots

We have worked with large and small hotels, franchise brand hotels and independent hotels for fifteen years.  What does our work include?  Well, our goal is to generate new business and more online sales for our clients.

As online and mobile sales continue their growth and soon the dominance of sales for hotels, we are growing with it.  From a detailed analysis of your businesses location, guest profiles, seasonality, local attractions and competitive advantages we develop your online and mobile marketing strategy and the services that are needed to make it succeed.

The dots for effective marketing are a combination of web and mobile presence, consumer access, online reputation, social push and pull engagement, website content and closure/sales.  Our methods paint a clear picture of the strategy that is needed, the implementation of the process and of course the return on your investment.

As the number of effective options increase so does the risk of success or failure.  This can only be determined with detailed ongoing analysis over a pre-determined timeline.  We provide ongoing analysis and we can pull the plug as needed and redirect your investment to new opportunities and methods.

From someone who knew about connecting the dots, Steve Jobs once put it this way .....

The Newest Hotel Marketing Channel

It only makes sense that TripAdvisor with their million of followers and customer service reviews is now moving to a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) advertising platform.  They are not taking the unpopular Online Travel Agent (OTA) route, but rather the Facebook and Google CPC path.  There are still ads on their pages to take consumers to the OTA booking engines, but this opens the door for an average hotel or a luxury property to coordinate their budgets for Google CPC, Facebook CPC, Twitter CPC and now TripConnect CPC and allocate expenses where they are getting the best Return on Invrestments.

Their new advertising platform is branded TripConnect!

HERE ARE SOME DETAILS ABOUT TRIPADVISOR > THANKS TO WIKIPEDIA ...

TripAdvisor Media Group operates seventeen travel brands including TripAdvisor, Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Cruise Critic, Family Vacation Critic, FlipKey, Holiday Lettings, Holiday Watchdog, Independent Traveler, OneTime, SeatGuru, SmarterTravel, Tingo, SniqueAway, Travel Library, TravelPod, VirtualTourist and Kuxun.cn. TripAdvisor operates websites internationally, including in the U.S., the U.K., France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, The Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Turkey, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Greece, Indonesia, and in China under the brand daodao.com and kuxun.cn.

TripAdvisor is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.^[1] According to its website,^[3] TripAdvisor claims to be the most popular and largest travel community in the world, with more than 32 million members and over 100 million reviews and opinions of hotels, restaurants, attractions and other travel-related businesses. 

If you need some professional assistance managing the Web Marketing Channels?
Give us a ring at 01 678-769-4334

Hospitality Marketing Priorities

Customer satisfaction has always been a priority for the hospitality and dining industries.  As the impact on your business by social media engagement Tweets, Likes and G+ along with TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews continues to grow, the demand for time and social expertise is even more important.  How you promote your business effectively is no longer just a question which directory listings or how much is your ad budget.

How you optimize your review responses, tag photos, generate social dialogue and how fast you respond will affect your business.  Marketing methods are evolving and this is demanding a different set of rules and clearly a different set of marketing skills.  These skills go beyond the usual copy writing, trend analysis or advertising techniques.  Your marketing must take a Community Manager approach and build your own brand networks, followers and online fans.

More than half of all travel and hospitality sales are directly affected by your search rankings and your online reputation and social chatter is a dominant factor in forming the right reputation. Having a good ranking or star rating is a good start, but in the months ahead online shoppers and generation Y buyers will demand more information and easy access to online comments from past guests.

We recommend you set a clear marketing path with the right priorities.  Whether your hotel or restaurant is a small independent or a large franchise service, you need daily direct communications with potential guests online.  To allocate the right amount of time you need to know your marketing priorities and you need to measure your progress in a variety of ways.  A true measure is not just the number of Likes or tweets, nor is it the volume of room sales from a deeply discounted OTA website.

You marketing priorities are: (1) a current website whether you are an independent or brand service or not (2) consistent page one search rankings for relevant terms other than your name (3) a current and active social presence on Facebook, Titter, Google Plus, Pinterest and Wikipedia (4) a compatible mobile website not just your Internet site (5) A way to capture your guest's email address and opt-in for specials.  Let us know if we can help?  Consider integrating a package booking element for your website.  Add air reservations, car rental, limo services, dining reservations or other services to deliver a total solution for the online shoppers and enable a secondary revenue source.