Travel and tourism marketing: 6 resources to help you improve your online review rankings

February 16, 2012

If guests like you, ask them to share that love with other travelers.

How to ask for reviews, get more and better reviews, improve your rankings on review sites, and more

Last week I wrote about the importance of paying attention to your rankings in online review sites.

This week I’ve assembled some of my favorite content explaining the value of online reviews, how they work and how to improve yours. Here goes…

1. Why hotels should encourage guests to leave more online reviews

Anil Aggarwal, CEO, Milestone Internet Marketing explains the importance of online reviews to a hotel property’s success, and how to use online reviews to benchmark how you’re doing versus competitors.

2. Five Basic Guidelines for managing your hotel’s online reputation

This post in Hotelier is one of the most succinct overviews of the subject of online reviews, and offers some good suggestions for developing a systematic approach to responding to online reviews.

3. How to respond to online reviews

Explains the dos and don’ts of responding to online reviews, is comprehensive in its approach, and provides some unconventional ideas on how you can respond to negative reviews.

4. How to improve your hotel rankings in TripAdvisor

If you want a good explanation of how TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index works, and how you can affect your Popularity Index scores, read this post.

5. Increasing direct hotel bookings with social media

Joshua McKenzie from ReviewPro focuses on how online reviews can help your search rankings and increasing sales conversion rates by increasing consumer confidence.

In particular, Joshua offers a number of novel suggestions for using online reviews to keep people on your website longer.

6. How hotels can increase the volume of their reviews

If you’ve always wondered how and when to ask guests for reviews, read this ReviewPro report.

It also offers excellent case studies on how hotels have successfully increased their reviews using some of the recommended techniques.

What have you learned about online review sites, and how to manage your online reputation? Share your experience with us.

Leave a Comment » | Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Review Sites, Travel and Tourism Marketing | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

A closer look at why Expedia introduced verified reviews after spinning off TripAdvisor

February 8, 2012

Reports of widespread use of fake reviews has hurt TripAdvisor's image.

Is Expedia’s latest move an attempt to combat the negative image of its former brand?

As complaints about fake reviews rise, Expedia tries to distance itself from the problem.

As travelers are doing more and more of their research online, hotels and resorts are relying on online reviews to entice new guests to stay at their properties.

In the process, critics have complained that an entire cottage industry of paid reviewers has sprung up, calling into question the validity of reviews found on booking sites like Orbitz, Travelocity and Hotels.com.

Review site TripAdvisor has received its share of those complaints.

The New York Times reported recently that the average review on TripAdvisor receives 3.7 stars, thanks no doubt in part to the rise in fake reviews on the site.

According to the New York Times, a team of researchers from Cornell University has developed an algorithm for identifying fake reviews.

As Expedia spins off TripAdvisor, it has also announced a new service to combat this growing problem.

They call it Expedia Verified Reviews.  And only guests who stay at the property will be able to submit a review, using a form emailed to the guest after he or she has completed their trip.

Expedia says consumers in Australia and New Zealand are already using the new feedback loop and it’s expected they will launch the program in more markets soon.

Although Expedia has spun off TripAdvisor, its users will still be able to click on the TripAdvisor logo and be directed to the corresponding hotel page on TripAdvisor.

Certainly, the concept of verified reviews is not new. But the announcement does seem timely.

The travel blog Tnooz found it interesting that Expedia would announce this new service shortly after it had spun off TripAdvisor, which is receiving a lot of complaints about the number of false reviews on its sites.

What do you think? Is Expedia trying to distance itself from TripAdvisor? What do you recommend the industry do to combat the problem of fake reviews? Share your thoughts with us.

1 Comment | Online Marketing, Online Review Sites, Travel and Tourism Marketing | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

Travel and tourism marketing: New research confirms importance of online reviews

February 1, 2012

6 in 10 travelers now rely on online reviews to help make their travel decisions.

More and more Americans are factoring in other travelers’ online reviews, and the more money they make the more they pay attention.

According to the third annual Access America Vacation Confidence Index recently released by Mondial Assistance USA,  6 in 10 travelers now factor in other traveler’s online reviews when deciding where to book a vacation.

With vacation spending expected to be up in the coming year, the Index predicts traffic at popular travel review and social media websites will be up as well.

So it’s important you stay on top of what people are saying about your travel and tourism brand online. And to work to influence what people write about you online. Here are the survey results:

8 in 10 people with HH incomes of $75K+ are influenced by online reviews

  • Travelers under 35 are most likely to say that online travel reviews influence their travel plans (74 percent) while those 55 and over are least likely to be influenced by reviews (44 percent).
  • Nearly 79 percent of respondents with a household income of $75,000 or more factor other travelers’ reviews into their own plans, while less than half of those with an income of under $25,000 do so (46 percent).

2 in 3 people trust other travelers’ reviews

  • Nearly two thirds of respondents (63 percent) find other travelers’ reviews to be trustworthy, while 29 percent are less trusting.
    • Travelers under 35 are more likely than those who are older to trust the travel reviews they read (70 percent vs. 54 percent).
    • Over three quarters of respondents with a household income of $75,000 or more (77 percent) find travel reviews to be trustworthy compared to just half of those with an income of under $25,000 (50 percent).

1 in 5 share their travel experiences on social networks

  • Among travelers who share reviews of their travel experiences online (24 percent of respondents), social networking sites such as Facebook are most popular.
  • Nearly one in five (18 percent) say that they share their travel experiences on social networks, more than double the proportion of those who post on travel review sites (eight percent).

The younger and wealthier you are, the more you share on social sites

  • Adults under 35 are more likely than those who are 35+ to share their travel experiences online (35 percent vs. 20 percent), particularly on social media sites (29 percent vs. six percent).
  • More affluent adults are also more likely to share about their travels.  More than a third of those with a household income of $75,000 or more (36 percent) share their travel reviews online
  • Compare that to 15 percent of those with a household income of less than $25,000, and they are twice as likely to use social networks to do so (24 percent vs. 12 percent).

Next week, I’ll post my top 10 favorite articles on how to improve the volume and quality of your online reviews.

In the meantime, tell us how these findings match up with your experience.

Leave a Comment » | Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Review Sites | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

Travel and leisure marketing to the post-recession traveler.

October 31, 2011

Frugal travelers are looking for new ways to get off the ground.

If your travel brand is targeted to the leisure traveler, several reports have come out recently that identify trends and tips for marketing to consumers in the post-recession economy.

A report from E-Marketer identifies six trends that will dictate the winners and losers in the post-recession economy.

  1. Value is now the mantra of the day. Many travelers are cutting back, and are seeking a better balance between quality and price.
  2. Social media is creating new ways of sharing information. Online reviews and user-generated content are being connected to social networking,and increasing their influence on travel-buying decisions.
  3. Mobile devices are allowing more travel planning on the go. Many travelers are using mobile phones to plan and book trips and to access location-specific content.
  4. Personalized micro-niche travel is taking off. A growing dissatisfaction with one-size-fits-all travel is driving demand for customized offerings.
  5. Online travel is reaching in new directions. The growth in online booking is shifting overseas, while US travelers who book online are looking for more international options.
  6. Sustainable travel is growing in popularity. Consumers are favoring travel suppliers who deploy green practices.

You can order the report here.

The latest edition of PhoCusWright’s  Consumer Travel Report identifies five key findings:

  1. 11% fewer people traveled last year and they spent 15% less than the year before.
  2. Although people took fewer trips, their trips were longer.  6 in 10 trips were of 4 or more nights.
  3. the recovery this year will be restrained, as the number of travelers will remain flat.
  4. Travelers 45 or older pulled back on travel sooner, and were less likely to travel.
  5. Travelers under 35 had a significantly higher incidence of travel, but showed larger year over year declines in travel.

Carol Rheem, Director of Research at PhoCusWright, offers some interesting insights in this video.

Carol talks about what we can expect from various travel demographics this year and beyond.

You can order the full report at PhoCusWright’s website.

What trends are you seeing among your customers?  What are you doing to appeal to this new kind of traveler? Share with us your successes and learning experiences in this post-recession economy.

1 Comment | Leisure Services, Online Marketing, Travel and Tourism, Trends | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

Travel and hospitality marketing: Do you know how internet users are searching for your restaurant?

October 14, 2011


Every month people do millions of searches for the perfect restaurant.

Information  about your location, quality and type of food you serve will drive customers to your website. And restaurant.

As an expert in travel and hospitality marketing, it’s my job to understand how people choose one brand over another.

Today many of those decisions are now being made with the help of search engines.

Take restaurants, for instance.

According to SEO expert Mark Sprague,  in one recent month alone Google reported 23 million searches for specific information on restaurants.

The top three categories after general informational searches? Location, quality and type. As in “Where are the best Italian restaurants in Denver?”

Together, those three categories account for 3 out of every 10 searches. The first keyword, “location”, alone accounted for 13.5 million or over 50% of those searches.

When searching for quality, people put the word “best” in their query 1.2 million times, and the word “top” 345,000 times.

If they’re searching for a type of restaurant, people search by nationality (Chinese, Italian, etc), food (seafood, burgers,etc), style (family, romantic, buffet, etc…) or delivery.

When searching for content, the top 3 requests are for reviews, guides and menus.

Recommendations on how to optimize your website for search engines:

1.  Weave the themes of location, quality and type into your website copy.

2. By a 3-1 margin, consumers are more interested in quality than value. So stress quality over value in your website.

3. When consumers search by brand, they already know you. But if they’re searching for new restaurants, they focus on quality and look for positive reviews. So make sure you are encouraging happy customers to review your concept in Yelp and other online directories.

4. Since  location is so important, add your business to the local search service databases of Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Top 10 types of searches people are doing for restaurants:

  1. Informational – 65,650,450 searches
  2. Location based – 13,577,700 searches
  3. Type of restaurant – 4,261,540 searches
  4. Quality of restaurant – 1,835,520 searches
  5. Restaurant business – 1,299,270 searches
  6. Restaurant by brand – 1,236,530 searches
  7. Request for content – 850,020 searches
  8. Value – 500,660 searches
  9. Industry events – 376,600 searches
  10. Restaurant directory – 218,000 searches

If you’d like to go deeper into this subject, Mark Sprague wrote an excellent post that recently appeared on Search Engine Land on restaurant searches.


3 Comments | Online Marketing, Restaurant Marketing, SEO | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

A travel marketer’s guide to organic vs. paid search

September 23, 2011

 

Organic search rankings take longer to build, but last longer.

New research sheds some light on the effectiveness of organic versus paid search.  But there are good reasons to use both.

Search engine optimization has become a key weapon in every travel & leisure marketer’s marketing arsenal.

But  many travel marketers are asking the same questions: “What are benefits of paid versus organic search? And what’s more effective?”

There are at least 4 reasons to consider organic search:

  1. If you’ve got the time and staff hours to create quality content, you don’t pay extra for your search rankings.
  2. Organic listings generate more click-throughs because they offer unbiased information.
  3. Organic results tend to last longer. Your rankings can last for weeks or months.
  4. Organic search can offer a better ROI because of the limited expenses associated with it.

There are at least 5 major benefits of paid search:

  1. The search engines don’t charge you a fee to place or run your ad.  So you only pay for users who click through on your ad.
  2. Pay per click ads can level the playing field for small businesses because your ad can run alongside a much bigger brands’.
  3. You can set up and run a pay-per-click campaign in a few days. By comparison, it can take months to raise your organic search rankings.
  4. Advanced metrics allow you to alter your campaign in real-time to respond to either good or bad performing ads.
  5. Pay-per-click campaigns utilize geo-targeting, effective keyword research and demographic site selection allow you to target your viewing audience much more precisely.

User experience research firm User Centricrecently released a study that sheds new light on the effectiveness of organic versus paid search:

  • Organic search results were viewed 100% of the time.
  • Participants spent an average of 14.7 seconds on Google
  • They spent an average of 10.7 seconds looking at organic search results on Bing.

But when it came to paid search ads, fewer people looked at them:

  • 91% looked at center paid search ads for Google, and 90% looked at center ads on Bing.
  • Only 28% looked at right-side ads on Google, and  21% looked at right-side ads on Bing.
  • Only 17% looked at upper left side ads on Google, while 18% looked at them on Bing.
  • Users spent less than a second look at center paid search ads for both Google and Bing.

Hitwise’s latest numbers also shed some light on success rates:

  • Google may do more searches, but Bing’s success rate is 16% higher.
  • 81% of all Bing and Yahoo searches resulted in a click.
  • 66% of Google searches resulted in a search.

When travel & leisure marketers should use paid versus organic search:

  • If you’ve got the time and staff to write quality, relevant content for your blog and social sites, organic search works great.
  • If you’ve got to deliver results immediately, and can invest the time to test and adjust paid search may be your best bet.
  • Bottom Line:  organic search takes a lot of time and effort to build, but lasts longer.
  • Paid search has more hard costs associated with it, but you can get it up and running faster and it can deliver a quicker ROI.

How are you using search?

What kinds of results are you getting?  What have you learned? Talk to us.

Leave a Comment » | Leisure Services, Online Marketing, SEO | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

Travel and hospitality marketing: Is Groupon a good deal for your brand?

August 17, 2011

Groupon is good for deal lovers. But is it good for business?

A new study found that  almost 7 in 10 businesses made money on their Groupon promotions. But only 6 in 10 said they would do it again.

My wife and I love daily deal websites like Groupon, Living Social and Eversave. But I’ve often wondered if these sites are really good for my clients’ travel and hospitality brands.

A recent study by Rice University found a mixed bag of results for businesses considering partnering with Groupon.

Your success depends on the industry you’re in and if you can avoid cannibalizing on current sales.

  • Among service businesses, salons and spas reported the highest number of successful promotions.
  • Restaurants reported the highest percentage of unprofitable promotions.
  • Businesses in which the promotion did not cannibalize sales to existing customers reported more successes.

1 in 3 businesses reported the promotion was not profitable. And 4 in 10 said they wouldn’t do it again.

  • 66% of businesses surveyed were profitable, 34% were not.
  • More than 40% said they would not run this kind of promotion again.
  • Satisfied employees were the most important factor in determining the success of the promotion.
  • The percentage of discount offered, number of Groupons sold, or percentage of Groupon users who purchased beyond the deal did not predict the deal’s profitability.

If you’re new to Groupon promotions follow these 3 guiding principles in developing your deal:

  • Do the math before you offer your deal.  Figure out your costs, including the additional labor. The rule of thumb is to discount your lowest-cost, highest-margin products and services first.
  • Make sure you prepare your staff, and yourself, for the influx of new and different customers.
  • Remember that Groupon shoppers are discount and value hunters. So be sure to display other products and services that appeal to them, so they’ll come back.
  • Develop a conversion strategy (like a bounce back offer) along with your Groupon offer, to encourage your Groupon customers to return.

Have you used Groupon for your travel or hospitality brand? If so, what did you learn from the experience?  If you decided against Groupon, why?

5 Comments | Leisure Services, Online Marketing, Online Retailing, Retail marketing, Social Media, Travel and Tourism Marketing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

Leisure marketing: Are you losing millions to shopping cart abandonment?

February 28, 2011

Abandoned shopping carts can cost online retailers $1 million a day in lost sales.

Implementing a simple email recovery program could save your company millions of dollars a year in online sales.

If your online store has annual revenues of $200 million, you could be losing as much as $1.2 million a day to shopping cart abandonment.

That’s according to recovery services provider SeeWhy. To combat this problem, 15% of retailers are now using what’s called recovery emails. Here’s how it works:

When a customer abandons their online shopping cart at checkout, they receive a series of automated emails offering incentives to help them complete their transaction.

A new survey by Silverpop found that 8 in 10 companies are considering using recovery emails to help recover lost sales due to this practice by the end of the year.

Silverpop offers the following advice for companies seeking to recoup some of their lost sales:

  • Act fast.  Research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimates that 90% of ecommerce leads go cold within an hour.
  • Offer to complete their transaction through other channels like live chat or your call center.
  • Consider using incentives to close the deal like free shipping, a percentage off, or a combination of other incentives.
  • An emerging best practice is not to offer an incentive in the first email, a modest incentive in the second, and the most aggressive offer in the final email.

Sellers beware: Buyers are fast learners.

If you do offer an incentive, be aware that savvy customers will soon figure out that if they wait longer the incentives will come,  which could cost you some full-price sales.

Here’s a simple, three-stage recovery email program that’s easy to implement:

  1. Send an email in the first half hour inviting them to complete their transaction through live chat or by phone.
  2. Send a second email a half hour later offering them free shipping if they complete the transactions within the next hour.
  3. Send a third email that next day offering 10% off plus free shipping if they complete their transaction in the next 4 hours.

How are you dealing with shopping cart abandonment?  What have you learned from your successes, and failures?

Leave a Comment » | E-mail marketing, Leisure Services, Online Marketing, Trends | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

Leisure marketing: 6 internet pioneers make their predictions about the future.

January 19, 2011

Internet gurus predict a more intuitive, integrated, and inobtrusive internet experience.

Instead of asking you to look into my crystal ball, here’s what the people who invented today’s internet are predicting.

It’s the start of a new year, and leisure marketing specialists like me have begun making predictions about what the future of the internet holds for our industry.

It turns out that Mashable writer Sarah Kessler has done the same thing, only she has let some of America’s greatest internet gurus make the predictions.

As I compared their statements, I was surprised at the similarity in their beliefs.

1. Jeremy Stoppleman, Founder of Yelp

“Over time, as the Internet matures, it will become something that is completely inter-woven [into] the fabric of our lives and… is just always presenting information to us…

Whenever we have a question, the answer is just sort of presented to us and it’s done so in a way that is very unobtrusive.

And some of the early things we’ve seen [with augmented reality], for instance with our Yelp Monocle Feature, you hold up a phone and see what businesses are ahead of you down the street.”

2. Barry Glick, Founder of MapQuest

“Right now the Internet has been very computer oriented. There’s been this association, like you need a computer to be connected, and I think that’s rapidly, of course, going away.

You need a handheld device, and in the future you need a home entertainment system, TV, all connected to the Internet.

So I think the Internet is going to be the invisible present power supply, and the boundary between some things that have boundaries today, like telephones, will go away. Television will go away.

It will be the Internet, and there will be different display devices and different user interface or interaction devices, but that’s kind of how I see it.”

3. Dryes Buytaert, Drupal Founder

“I think the future is much more integrated, where social is part of everything you do, every website.”

4. Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Founder

“If I were to wish for two things, they would be as much bandwidth as possible and ridiculously fast browser engines.”

5. Ryan Ozimek, President of Open Source Matters (Joomla)

“Where I see the future of the Internet going is more mobile, more focused on the cloud, and more about building really easy-to-use platforms that people can use to build the next generation of software.”

6. Steve Case, Founder of AOL

“I think the coming decade will be about…how do you not just create Internet businesses, but create businesses that can impact every aspect of people’s lives using the Internet as a tool.”

You can find the full text of their predictions in Sarah’s post. on Mashable.

Where do you think the internet is going?

How will that impact leisure marketing in the future? Tell us about it.

2 Comments | Digital Marketing, Leisure Services, Online Marketing, Trends | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding

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