Online Toolbox Session

#ETEA14

An Online Toolbox

eMarketing Strategy

Take it Seriously

• Online has ceased to be an interesting extra activity for a business

• It needs to be a central strategic tool for your business on two fronts:

• Marketing

• Management

• These two need to work together

Know what you are selling

• How do your define your product?

• What is the experience you offer?

• What choice do you offer?

• What makes you unique?

• What is your value?

Key Messages

• These definitions will help you:

• Structure your content

• Create messages to communicate

• Identify terms your potential customers will be searching for online

• Identify conversation about similar content in social media groups that you can join and engage with

REMOTE

wilderness

luxury

FAMILY FRIENDLY

spa

RELAXING

healthROMANTIC

ADVENTURE

extreme

active

all inclusive

Know who you are selling to...

• Can you describe and profile your typical client- or the one you’d like to have?

• Are you selling to more than one type of client?

• Are you using a single marketing technique to sell to all types of clients?

Profiling

• Where do they live?

• What is their family like?

• Where do they work?

• How do they have fun?

• What media do they consume?

• What are they likely to be searching for or talking about and how do they express it?

Conversion Points

Bringing them together

3 Means of Conversion

(A) BOOKING

(B) ENQUIRY

(C) FAN/FOLLOW

Sample Strategy• We are a family friendly safari camp in our

area with luxury tented accommodation and frequent wild dog sightings and we will target families from Europe before their school vacation period by promoting a special family offer that includes free kids ranger activities and a camp spa package, which we will be promoting through a video testimonial from a family who recently stayed with us. This will be posted on our YouTube channel, Tweeted and embedded on affiliate websites and Facebook, combined with Facebook ads and some key word ads for family breaks in our region, all of which will drive traffic to a special landing page we have created for bookings.

WEBSITES THAT WORK

Tourism Websites have 6 seconds to capture their customers or risk them

getting bored and going elsewhere

-Travelmole 2013

A Site that Works

• Gives the user what they want

• Doesn’t send them to a dead end

• Never frustrates the user

• Converts to sales

• Socially Integrated

Content Management

• Dynamic Websites are driven by Content Management Systems (CMS) which run on top of database repositories

• They provide easy to use and intuitive tools to help you manage your own website

• CMS systems let you update your website reliably and quickly

• They provide ‘Room for Growth’ – as your organization grows, your website can be easily expanded to cater to new requirements, services and needs

• Most use a simple WYSIWYG system

Word Press

• WordPress has gone from a blogging system to the most popular Web CMS in use now

• Estimated 60% of working websites

• Extremely easy to use

• Template driven with thousands of themes

• Responsive designs for mobile

• Cost per widget and feature from a free base

• Easily transferrable to new developers

Management

• Traditionally IT departments managed websites – but they don’t know your product or have business, marketing or PR skills- why are they managing it?

• A CMS can involve marketing personnel in the whole website management loop

• A CMS can delegate and manage responsibility

Sourcing Content

• Outsource Professionally

• Gather from trade partners

• Use the Media

• Use Syndicated content

• Use content from your clients

• Product knowledge is essential

Live Content

• Incorporate a blog into your site

• Create and seed fresh dynamic content

• Share across platforms

• Host the blog externally (depending on your CMS)

HELPING TO GUIDE THEM

EASY TO UNDERSTAND OPTIONS

CHANGING THEIR MIND

EDUCATION THROUGH OPTIONS

ASKING FOR HELP

Visitor Experience

Site Map

Copy Writing• People read differently online

• Make the key message for each page very clear

• Use Bold to highlight those messages

• Break the Blocks

• Bulleted Lists

• Hyperlink to more info to cut the waffle

Accuracy• Check your content for spelling, grammar and

appropriate language

• Make sure you check every part of the page

Context

Test Drive

• Never Edit your own work

• Find a native speaker

• Ask someone to ‘test drive’

• Don’t rely on automation

• Never automate Translations

Use Google Analytics

SEO- Popular Myths & Unpopular Realities

Search Matters

• Search drives the internet

• Search drives commerce

• 50% of all online purchases originate from Search and 99% from a search process

• BOBOs still search

• SEO is vital

SEARCH IS COMPLEX AND EVER

CHANGING

67%

30%

Meet the Spider

• He’s looking for:

• Text Matches

• Relevance

• Recent Updates

• Popularity

• Inbound Links

URLs are Important

• The Spider has no idea what this is:

• www.acmehotels.com/667hyt.htm

• But he likes this:

• www.acmehotels.com/luxury_rooms

IMG_345.jpg elephants.jpg

Spider Can’t Read Pictures

!

Key Messages• Remember Your Key

words and Key messages

• Blend 2 or 3 carefully chosen key phrases into a minimum of 250 words on each page

• Meta tags

• Title tag

• Headings

• Alt tags

• Internal and inbound links

• Include the words inside the link

Inbound Links are Critical

You need a good website that people visit

and link to...

Building Links

• Reciprocal link requests

• Directory/Portal Submissions

• Article writing

• WebPR Submissions

• Blog Links

• Social Media Links

Be Worth Linking to

• Have great social media content

• Embed Social Content into your site

• Have Repositories of Content

• Downloads, E-Books, Media

• Videos to Watch

Worthy Content

• Try to keep the link building activity related to your business and target audience

• “name” the activity around your targeted keywords

• Ensure that the copy is communicating your targeted keywords

there are excellent fishing charter services in Mozambique

Create Your Own

Paying for It

What are your clients searching for?

How Do They Express It?

Organising our Holiday

Organizing our Vacation

victoria falls zimbabwezambiasouth africa

If Key words are of sufficient value to you in

a competitive market then you may consider

paying for them

Cost per Click- you pay for Conversions

Send Them to the Right Place

• Don’t send them to your home pages

• Create Promotion specific landing pages

• Match the call to action in the ad to the product page you deliver them to

Paid can strengthen your presence but natural will

sustain and build your business

Social Media- Links, Content & Traffic

A Social Media Toolbox

Choose your Tools

Try and Test

Face Book & Tourism

Would You Market Your Destination to a Country with a

population of over One Billion?

Well, that’s Facebook

A Fan Page is now an essential business

resource

LIKE OBESSION

AN AVERAGE NUMBER OF ENGAGED FANS IS

BETTER THAN A MASSIVE NUMBER OF

UNENGAGED FANS

HOW PEOPLE USE FACEBOOK

WHO SEES YOUR STUFF

YOU HAVE TO ENCOURAGE

ENGAGEMENT

IMPROVING ENGAGEMENT

NOT JUST THE LIKE

ENGAGEMENT

•SHARE

•COMMENT

•LIKE

POSTING

FIVE GOLDEN RULES

(1)Short and to the Point

(2)Show your Knowledge

(3)Engage

(4)Be Human

(5)Be Current

But do not overdo it...

HOW OFTEN?

WHEN?

• Consider your target audience

• Look at overlapping time zones

• Consider lifestyles

• Find your optimum times

Have conversations- don’t give lectures

Be Timely...

Create Interest beyond the Usual...

Play with Them...

Answer Comments with their NAME

so they are notified of your reply...

Thanks Matilda for your kind words, rest assured we will pass on

our compliments to the chef...

Ask Questions to get answers...

Thinking of changing our menu- what would you like to

see?

CROWDSOURCE

Don’t Like your own posts...

PHOTOS

POSTING LINKS

BEWARE OF NEGATIVE

ENGAGEMENT

CLAIM YOUR PLACE

The Value of a Checkin

#

#

• Hashtags are a means of categorizing subjects and speeding up search

• They create more realtime access to multiple sources of information

• #Country #Topic #Content

PAY FOR ENGAGEMENT

Insights...

Twitter for Tourism

A Media Tool• Twitter is unlikely to win you a first time

customer

• More than anything it is amedia channel

• Keep past customers loyal

• Use it as a Press Release Tool

• Often used a ‘wire service’

• Great for B2B networking

#spiritualsunday#musicmonday

#traveltuesday#weddingwednesday#throwbackthursday

#followfriday#socialsaturday

MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

Get Tweeting

• It’s easy to do and very addictive

• Excellent realtime promotional tool

• Get direct realtime feedback

• Get new ideas, products and meet new people

Ensure You Follow

• Your local/regional tourism office

• Travel Media

• Complimentary tourism products in your destination or region

• Travel publications or blogs

• Local Media

Post:

• Photos and Video

• Links to new content and blog posts

• Latest Reviews

• Commentary of Current Events

• Appropriate #hashtags

Don’t Post:

• Politics, Religion, Sex

• Negative content about your competition

• Uncredited Retweets or links

• Excessive #hashtags

• DMs to new followers

Don’t Pester People

Too Many to Follow?• Use HootSuite

• Tweet from multiple accounts

• Schedule your tweets

• Keep a tally of questions answered, customer problems resolved and positive exchanges held

• Embed twitter widgets in your website

• Track your tweet statistics

• …and much more… for free!

How can a business use Instagram?

Doing Business Online

Groups, Discussions, Questions

94% Female

Being Mobile Ready

Your Site on Mobile

• A mobile version of your website as a separate entity can confuse and stratify your search results

• A responsive designed website will reformat itself regardless of platform

• Keeps a professional look across mobile and tablet

Mobile Ready

• Ensure your own site is mobile accessible and ready

• Take advantage of local layers and mapping

• Work with intermediaries to ensure your inventory is available via apps

Mobile Management

WhatsApp

• Management

• Group Communication

• Event coordination

• Live Chat & Service

Social Media Management

• Who is going to manage it all?

• Try and have everyone contribute

• Create a basic social media policy- sticking to key messages, who says what etc

• Bring in some young people- students, interns etc

Make the Change

• Begin to shift business online- increasing allocations to online bookings

• Begin a progressive marketing shift with 25% of budgets, human resource and time

• As you grow- appoint a social media and marketing manager

10 Steps to Success

1. Strategize for Change:

-Develop an eMarketing strategy-Start reallocating traditional budgets

-Reinvest 25% in online at first-Set realistic time goals

2. Build Internal Resources

-Read, learn and join communities-Don’t be scared off by geeks and gurus

-Bring in some Interns or hire some students

3. Re-Develop your website

-Plan it strategically-Focus on room for growth

-Make it social driven

4. Go Social

-Use Social Media in all you do-Make it part of standard procedure

-Update, Update, Update-Build relationships and links

5. Be Content Driven

-Focus on Content-Your own and users

-Publish, gather and share-Strive for Quality and Quantity

6. Engage

-Talk to your users-Interact, ask and discuss

-Don’t deny, challenge or fight them-Ask them to collaborate as you grow

7. Have Fun

-Social Media is still “infotainment”-Be yourself

-Be personal and personable-Encourage sharing

8. Don’t Forget to make Money

-Don’t get carried away with the fun-Focus on conversion

-Invest in promotions/ SEO where needed

9. Keep Changing

-Use new technology and innovation-Be visual and use multimedia

-React and respond to trends, feedback and data

10. Keep an Open Mind

-The Future may not be what you or I think-Keep retraining, studying and engaging

-Stay social and keep talking

WILD SEMINARSdamian@e-tourismfrontiers.com

Presentations atwww.slideshare.net/

DCookEFT/

#ETEA14

SEE YOU AT OUR NEXT #ETEA