Today, let's focus on our old pal the email campaign.
Regardless of your industry or size, email marketing should still be playing important roles in your overall marketing strategy. When embracing Facebook and Twitter, let us not forget our friend the monthly email newsletter.
While some social networking sites come and go, email shows no signs of slowing down or becoming obsolete. Email is not a fad. Email, dare I say it, could be here to stay.
What makes email so appealing?
Well if you use a company like Constant Contact or another email manager software then email is completely trackable. You can find out how many of your emails were opened, who clicked on which links, and other useful information.
Email is thusly more accountable then social media.
Consumers more and more are relying on their emails. Even the older generation have emails to keep in touch with Grandchildren who are living at a distance. For the user, it's fairly easy to learn and manage.
Email vendors (such as Constant Contact) are getting better and their software options and tracking are improving. It's low cost, based either on the size of your list, or the number of emails you will be sending in a 30 day period.
Email software programs can personalize your email, Dear Beth Ashton.
You can include basic html and logos
And always include a call to action.
To get you started check out the free version of MailChimp. Upto 300 email addresses, and send up to 10 emails per month.
Email - don't start marketing without it.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
What's new with me
Today's post is all about how blogging can be seen as simply talking to friends about what's new in your life.
For some tourism operators in Atlantic Canada, what's new in your life IS what's new in your business.
Take myself in this example... Have I been putting forward the best blogging content over the past two months? Not really and here's the inside scoop. While during the Day I work tirelessly on tourism issues and technologies, at Night I become the Volunteer Director in charge of putting together all the details for the Fredericton edition of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. The event is the first Sunday in October and gets more time consuming as it gets closer to event date.
Day and Night become blurred, technology posts slide, what I think is more critical work comes first.
Dilemmas? Most certainly.
Should I have been upfront with my followers (all three of you) ?
Should I have even confessed to it today?
My exact situation is a little different from yours... my Day and Night job areas were quite far apart. However if I was organizing the "Giant Tourism Festival", then I should definitely have been blogging about every little detail !! That would be an ideal condition for making time to blog.
But I was doing something unrelated to Tourism. My dilemma being, if I mention upfront that posts are going to be sparser, does that incline you to stop coming by? (oops now down to two followers) Or do you take the break for what it is, a break, and take one yourself?
On the other hand, if I just start posting lame content without any rationale, some might think that I've run out of material and stop following me because they have learned all I have to teach (now down to a single follower, and I think that's my mom...)
Something to think about, and there's no right answer. You have to do what's best for you and your blog.
On a work related note, the Tourism Technology.com program just got it's renewal so I'll be here until 2012 doling out that personal advice. So drop me a line and let me know what technology questions you want to see featured here. beth @@tianb.com
Acutally by 2012 blogs will be so 2009 and we'll just have our memories of these bits and bytes.
For some tourism operators in Atlantic Canada, what's new in your life IS what's new in your business.
Take myself in this example... Have I been putting forward the best blogging content over the past two months? Not really and here's the inside scoop. While during the Day I work tirelessly on tourism issues and technologies, at Night I become the Volunteer Director in charge of putting together all the details for the Fredericton edition of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. The event is the first Sunday in October and gets more time consuming as it gets closer to event date.
Day and Night become blurred, technology posts slide, what I think is more critical work comes first.
Dilemmas? Most certainly.
Should I have been upfront with my followers (all three of you) ?
Should I have even confessed to it today?
My exact situation is a little different from yours... my Day and Night job areas were quite far apart. However if I was organizing the "Giant Tourism Festival", then I should definitely have been blogging about every little detail !! That would be an ideal condition for making time to blog.
But I was doing something unrelated to Tourism. My dilemma being, if I mention upfront that posts are going to be sparser, does that incline you to stop coming by? (oops now down to two followers) Or do you take the break for what it is, a break, and take one yourself?
On the other hand, if I just start posting lame content without any rationale, some might think that I've run out of material and stop following me because they have learned all I have to teach (now down to a single follower, and I think that's my mom...)
Something to think about, and there's no right answer. You have to do what's best for you and your blog.
On a work related note, the Tourism Technology.com program just got it's renewal so I'll be here until 2012 doling out that personal advice. So drop me a line and let me know what technology questions you want to see featured here. beth @@tianb.com
Acutally by 2012 blogs will be so 2009 and we'll just have our memories of these bits and bytes.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Brand properties, Digital spending
Good heavens has it been a month since my last post? Where does the time go?
Today I have a couple of random thoughts for you...
First for the Brand hotel property managers - Internet sales will be key in 2010, and every day your property is being sold on Brand sites and others like travelocity etc. It is YOUR responsibility to check your part of the Brand site. Check it for key words, relevence, images, and attractions. If your brand site says you're next to the Skydome - you're actually next to the Rogers Center - keep your details updated.
Most Brand sites don't allow for a lot of editing but do what you can with the tools you have and make your voice heard at the Corporate level about those changes you can't make on your own.
Second, according to eMarketer, Digital spending is expected to be 17% of total US Ad spending in 2010 creating a tempting slice of pie for Traditional Ad Agencies.
In addtion to these figures, a compelling study is just announced - Internet overtakes television to become the biggest advertising sector in the UK. A record 1.75 billions pounds online spend makes UK the first major economy to spend more on web ads then on TV
Death bells are tolling for traditional media...
Some random thoughts to mull over this Thanksgiving weekend.
Today I have a couple of random thoughts for you...
First for the Brand hotel property managers - Internet sales will be key in 2010, and every day your property is being sold on Brand sites and others like travelocity etc. It is YOUR responsibility to check your part of the Brand site. Check it for key words, relevence, images, and attractions. If your brand site says you're next to the Skydome - you're actually next to the Rogers Center - keep your details updated.
Most Brand sites don't allow for a lot of editing but do what you can with the tools you have and make your voice heard at the Corporate level about those changes you can't make on your own.
Second, according to eMarketer, Digital spending is expected to be 17% of total US Ad spending in 2010 creating a tempting slice of pie for Traditional Ad Agencies.
In addtion to these figures, a compelling study is just announced - Internet overtakes television to become the biggest advertising sector in the UK. A record 1.75 billions pounds online spend makes UK the first major economy to spend more on web ads then on TV
Death bells are tolling for traditional media...
Some random thoughts to mull over this Thanksgiving weekend.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Proof is in the numbers
Content stolen/borrowed from http://tourismvc.wordpress.com/ but I don't think Tom will mind :)
Two of Cape Breton’s favorite fall festivals are Hike the Highlands, Sept. 11-20 and Celtic Colours – October 9-17. What makes them unique is they are the forefront with Online marketing and social media. They are starting small and learning along the way..
Dan Coffin, Marketing Co-ordinator, for Celtic Colours, has seen a change in demographics and found social media, e-mail newletter and new media have helped increased visits (20% plus) this year to their website.
Celtic Colours now has over 400 twitter followers, 1100 plus fans on facebook, a promotional video on youtube, a great venue google map and an e-mail marketing newsletter with a goal of 1,500 subscribers.
Coffin states online tickets sales are at 58%, up 4% from last year.
Last year, Hike the Highlands Festival had over 40% of hikers register online and expects this number will increase in 2009.
Facebook ads, Google adwords and e-mail newsletter along with online press releases & regular posts on our blog have keep us busy with new content on the web and attracting hikers to this annual September hiking festival.
“Our website visits in August are up 29% from last year,” says Tom Wilson, Chair, Hike the Highlands Festival. Wilson states we have hikers already registered from British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador and USA.
Both Wilson and Coffin agree that online marketing and social media has helped their festivals grow each year with more communication, online marketing, and user generated content.
Online booking and payment system has made it easier for people to purchase tickets and festival passes
Two of Cape Breton’s favorite fall festivals are Hike the Highlands, Sept. 11-20 and Celtic Colours – October 9-17. What makes them unique is they are the forefront with Online marketing and social media. They are starting small and learning along the way..
Dan Coffin, Marketing Co-ordinator, for Celtic Colours, has seen a change in demographics and found social media, e-mail newletter and new media have helped increased visits (20% plus) this year to their website.
Celtic Colours now has over 400 twitter followers, 1100 plus fans on facebook, a promotional video on youtube, a great venue google map and an e-mail marketing newsletter with a goal of 1,500 subscribers.
Coffin states online tickets sales are at 58%, up 4% from last year.
Last year, Hike the Highlands Festival had over 40% of hikers register online and expects this number will increase in 2009.
Facebook ads, Google adwords and e-mail newsletter along with online press releases & regular posts on our blog have keep us busy with new content on the web and attracting hikers to this annual September hiking festival.
“Our website visits in August are up 29% from last year,” says Tom Wilson, Chair, Hike the Highlands Festival. Wilson states we have hikers already registered from British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador and USA.
Both Wilson and Coffin agree that online marketing and social media has helped their festivals grow each year with more communication, online marketing, and user generated content.
Online booking and payment system has made it easier for people to purchase tickets and festival passes
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Linked IN
Are you on Link IN? If you are you should friend me, if you're not you should consider it. Linked IN has been around longer then Facebook (I think). It's the business version of Facebook. I've joined up with collegues from work, from past works, and from conferences. I've also joined in some tourism groups and social media groups. Each week Linked In emails me snippets of postings from each group I've joined and I can click to read more or save the email for later. I can also login direct and check out my groups, join new ones, find new business connections.
I recently came across this nice post from the Hotel & Technologies Software group in Linked IN, and thought I would share some of it with you today. If you're doing one new technology thing a month, consider joining Linked In as a business resource.
Later
Beth
Why do hotels have Standard Rooms?
I am surprised by the number of hotels that are still trying to market themselves selling standard rooms. What is so special about that ‘Standard Room’ that it will persuade potential guests to buy? How is one standard room different from a standard room in another hotel? Where has our creativity gone? Have we forgotten that we have to differentiate ourselves from the competition?
I am sure we all agree that asking someone to pay €100 to €200 for something ‘STANDARD’ is not very convincing. It is probably a legacy from hotel GDS systems we are dealing with. Room names are deviated from the GDS room type coding like C2T, B1D or D2C. And how about that double or triple room, doesn’t it sound exciting? How come we are putting occupancy into the name? Doesn’t this get filtered when you put the number of people into the hotel reservation system?
Funny enough hotel meeting and conference rooms have been give some more creative attention. The have been given names of painters like Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso or Rembrandt. Or city names like Amsterdam, Barcelona and Berlin are being used. But why oh why aren’t we trying to do a better job at positioning our hotel rooms? Don’t we want to sell them and put heads in beds?
You have 30 characters at your disposal in the GDS and about 40 on most hotel booking engines. Use this space! We have been preaching this issue at many of more than 200 hotel training courses over the last 3 years and are happy we have seen some results.
The Hotel de Roode Leeuw in Amsterdam has uses names like ‘Comfort Room and ‘Budget Room’. The Berns Hotel in Stockholm has the following original room types: extra small, small, medium, large, large with balcony and extra large. Qbic Hotels calls their rooms a ‘Cubi’ after their cubicle shape furniture unit.
Most chains start simply at Classic or Deluxe and go up from there. W Hotels uses creative names like ‘Cozy’, ‘Wonderful’, ‘Mega’, ‘Fabulous’, ‘Fantastic’, ‘Cool’, ‘Spectacular’, ‘Marvelous’, ‘Wow’, and ‘Extreme’. I would like to sleep in one for those rooms...
It seems design hotels and boutique hotels have been much more original. Maybe other hotels should simply follow their example. Be different, be daring. Sell experience! A great word by the way. Why not call a room for a hotel in London the Chelsea or Piccadilly Experience? Simple, right? And why not call multiple occupancy rooms, Family Room? In the end that is the target market, right? Remember if you stand out, you will more likely to be chosen.
Differentiate yourself, not only on your hotel website, but also on OTA’s and GDS. Hopefully in a few weeks we will see those standard rooms replaced by some more appetizing and exciting names.
For more ideas and tips from Xotels visit our blog: http://www.xotels.com/en/blog
Cheers, Patrick Landman - Xotels
I recently came across this nice post from the Hotel & Technologies Software group in Linked IN, and thought I would share some of it with you today. If you're doing one new technology thing a month, consider joining Linked In as a business resource.
Later
Beth
Why do hotels have Standard Rooms?
I am surprised by the number of hotels that are still trying to market themselves selling standard rooms. What is so special about that ‘Standard Room’ that it will persuade potential guests to buy? How is one standard room different from a standard room in another hotel? Where has our creativity gone? Have we forgotten that we have to differentiate ourselves from the competition?
I am sure we all agree that asking someone to pay €100 to €200 for something ‘STANDARD’ is not very convincing. It is probably a legacy from hotel GDS systems we are dealing with. Room names are deviated from the GDS room type coding like C2T, B1D or D2C. And how about that double or triple room, doesn’t it sound exciting? How come we are putting occupancy into the name? Doesn’t this get filtered when you put the number of people into the hotel reservation system?
Funny enough hotel meeting and conference rooms have been give some more creative attention. The have been given names of painters like Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso or Rembrandt. Or city names like Amsterdam, Barcelona and Berlin are being used. But why oh why aren’t we trying to do a better job at positioning our hotel rooms? Don’t we want to sell them and put heads in beds?
You have 30 characters at your disposal in the GDS and about 40 on most hotel booking engines. Use this space! We have been preaching this issue at many of more than 200 hotel training courses over the last 3 years and are happy we have seen some results.
The Hotel de Roode Leeuw in Amsterdam has uses names like ‘Comfort Room and ‘Budget Room’. The Berns Hotel in Stockholm has the following original room types: extra small, small, medium, large, large with balcony and extra large. Qbic Hotels calls their rooms a ‘Cubi’ after their cubicle shape furniture unit.
Most chains start simply at Classic or Deluxe and go up from there. W Hotels uses creative names like ‘Cozy’, ‘Wonderful’, ‘Mega’, ‘Fabulous’, ‘Fantastic’, ‘Cool’, ‘Spectacular’, ‘Marvelous’, ‘Wow’, and ‘Extreme’. I would like to sleep in one for those rooms...
It seems design hotels and boutique hotels have been much more original. Maybe other hotels should simply follow their example. Be different, be daring. Sell experience! A great word by the way. Why not call a room for a hotel in London the Chelsea or Piccadilly Experience? Simple, right? And why not call multiple occupancy rooms, Family Room? In the end that is the target market, right? Remember if you stand out, you will more likely to be chosen.
Differentiate yourself, not only on your hotel website, but also on OTA’s and GDS. Hopefully in a few weeks we will see those standard rooms replaced by some more appetizing and exciting names.
For more ideas and tips from Xotels visit our blog: http://www.xotels.com/en/blog
Cheers, Patrick Landman - Xotels
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Top Tourism Websites
Today we provide you with a link to Vandelay Designs, and what they consider the top travel websites.
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/travel/
Some are government, some are hotels, but they are all excellent examples of what a travel/tourism site should look like.
You'll notice about halfway through, Signature Attractions, Explore the best of Atlantic Canada!
Congrats guys on making the list.
Another Tourism Technology mentoring success story.
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/travel/
Some are government, some are hotels, but they are all excellent examples of what a travel/tourism site should look like.
You'll notice about halfway through, Signature Attractions, Explore the best of Atlantic Canada!
Congrats guys on making the list.
Another Tourism Technology mentoring success story.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Being proactive about vacancies
I read this article, link below, and it struck me as being very proactive about vacancy rates.
High-end hotels are going wireless -- latimes.com
Posted using ShareThis
Of course I was attracted to the title as I searched for something to blog about, but the content of the article was what I really found intriguing.
According to the article, high end hotels are taking advantage of low occupancy rates to renovate their rooms. In this particular case it's with new technologies.
Of course, I understand that we're not all high volume hotels with access to big budgets and the latest gadgets but the principles are the same. We could repaint. Put up new pictures. Recarpet.
And we could, make that SHOULD, revamp our website and start using AdWords so that when the economy does turn around, we are READY. Because it will turn around, and the Internet will be more popular then ever when it does. If one thing is certain in this world, it is that technology is here to stay.
Now is the time to prep for the upswing with fabulous images, online reservation ability, short videos, creative and engaging content.
Beth
High-end hotels are going wireless -- latimes.com
Posted using ShareThis
Of course I was attracted to the title as I searched for something to blog about, but the content of the article was what I really found intriguing.
According to the article, high end hotels are taking advantage of low occupancy rates to renovate their rooms. In this particular case it's with new technologies.
Of course, I understand that we're not all high volume hotels with access to big budgets and the latest gadgets but the principles are the same. We could repaint. Put up new pictures. Recarpet.
And we could, make that SHOULD, revamp our website and start using AdWords so that when the economy does turn around, we are READY. Because it will turn around, and the Internet will be more popular then ever when it does. If one thing is certain in this world, it is that technology is here to stay.
Now is the time to prep for the upswing with fabulous images, online reservation ability, short videos, creative and engaging content.
- You NEED to be top five in Google, and Bing searches.
- You NEED excellent online reviews and testimonials.
- You NEED to show them via the web that your spot is the best place in the world.
Beth
Friday, August 14, 2009
What to blog...
August is a weird time of the year for tourism. The summer numbers are not in, the spring numbers don't reveal much. You're wondering whether to change up your approach, while maintaining the guests you have. A lot depends on the weather...If July was rainy, many more feel the urge to "get somewhere" in August before the summer is over. So there's a lot of potential for walk ins and last minute reservations.
And this is all assuming that your operation is mainly a summer seasonal business. For those who are year round operations, this is just one of the weird times of the year.
Can you tell that I'm grasping at straws for material?
Good.
Point made.
Here's where we sit down at our computer and face that question
Frankly it's been a weird week for me at work, there are several things going on, none of which are blog worthy. I've been reading newsletters and tourism websites looking for something and not able to find items.
I've been distracted by other tasks, and really just not inspired.
What are steps I could have taken to prevent having to post such lame content?
1. Write a few posts all at once and save them for later
2. Have a guest blogger, assign it to another staff member
3. Assign a specific time of the week to blogging and stick to it, no distractions
4. Relax, I guess one missed week isn't so bad
5. Others ...
And so in conclusion, there are no strict conclusions in the Internet. Honesty and truthfulness will come through as authentic. Collect and use feedback. Try it and see if it flies.
Sincerely lacking inspiration today,
Beth
And this is all assuming that your operation is mainly a summer seasonal business. For those who are year round operations, this is just one of the weird times of the year.
Can you tell that I'm grasping at straws for material?
Good.
Point made.
Here's where we sit down at our computer and face that question
Which is more detrimental - Blogging about nothing or not blogging at all?
Frankly it's been a weird week for me at work, there are several things going on, none of which are blog worthy. I've been reading newsletters and tourism websites looking for something and not able to find items.
I've been distracted by other tasks, and really just not inspired.
What are steps I could have taken to prevent having to post such lame content?
1. Write a few posts all at once and save them for later
2. Have a guest blogger, assign it to another staff member
3. Assign a specific time of the week to blogging and stick to it, no distractions
4. Relax, I guess one missed week isn't so bad
5. Others ...
And so in conclusion, there are no strict conclusions in the Internet. Honesty and truthfulness will come through as authentic. Collect and use feedback. Try it and see if it flies.
Sincerely lacking inspiration today,
Beth
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Labels - the ultimate online organizer
I've starting something new on my blog today. Can you spot the change?
It's relatively subtle...
But it should lead to increased traffic on previous posts.
Ta-Da ~ I've labelled all my posts !
In total I have 43 posts, I took a quick look at the headlines for all of them and came up with a few common threads.
Then I added the labels gadget. Which I didn't have before. See how I'm learning as I go and incorporating more tech as I get more comfortable. See. See how I'm doing that.
Then I started from the first post and went through to the last one, opening each one, adding a label and resaving.
Took about 30 minutes in total and now if you're interested in reading just all my "how to" posts you can find them all in one easy click!
My labels are:
About TT.com - those are the posts where I boast about the great one on one website mentoring session that I provide to Tourism Operators for the low price of $125
How To - those are the posts where I give more explicit instruction, like this post
Informational - those are the posts where I publish stories that may interest tourism operators or items like what conferences I'll be attending
Successes - those are the posts that highlight great tourism successes online, and frankly there aren't nearly enough of those kinds of posts !
The great thing is I can add more labels if the need arises.
Til next time,
Beth
It's relatively subtle...
But it should lead to increased traffic on previous posts.
Ta-Da ~ I've labelled all my posts !
In total I have 43 posts, I took a quick look at the headlines for all of them and came up with a few common threads.
Then I added the labels gadget. Which I didn't have before. See how I'm learning as I go and incorporating more tech as I get more comfortable. See. See how I'm doing that.
Then I started from the first post and went through to the last one, opening each one, adding a label and resaving.
Took about 30 minutes in total and now if you're interested in reading just all my "how to" posts you can find them all in one easy click!
My labels are:
About TT.com - those are the posts where I boast about the great one on one website mentoring session that I provide to Tourism Operators for the low price of $125
How To - those are the posts where I give more explicit instruction, like this post
Informational - those are the posts where I publish stories that may interest tourism operators or items like what conferences I'll be attending
Successes - those are the posts that highlight great tourism successes online, and frankly there aren't nearly enough of those kinds of posts !
The great thing is I can add more labels if the need arises.
Til next time,
Beth
Monday, July 27, 2009
The piece of string
Here's a useful analogy that I'm borrowing from a book called "Gut Feeling", by Peter Urs Bender...
Take a 3 inch piece of string, lay it out on a table in front of you. Then PULL it along the table by one end. You can make it go anywhere and it will follow you. Now try PUSHING it. The string piles up on itself and nothing happens.
The same can be said for a website. You cannot push a person into a vacation, but you can pull them along a journey with great photos and narrative. You can influence them into wanting to take the same journey by outlining the whole thing from start to finish.
Flashing red buttons that say "Come Here, Come Here" simply aren't going to work. Putting your brochure (verbatium) on your site isn't going to work.
A steady tempting of what awaits them in your little corner of the world is a much better approach.
Nudge, encourage, listen and empathize.
Underperforming web tools (like your website or blog) are a reflection of the organizational objectives rather then the tools or technologies them selves. It really is about the organizational culture and the approach.
Later gators,
Beth
Take a 3 inch piece of string, lay it out on a table in front of you. Then PULL it along the table by one end. You can make it go anywhere and it will follow you. Now try PUSHING it. The string piles up on itself and nothing happens.
The same can be said for a website. You cannot push a person into a vacation, but you can pull them along a journey with great photos and narrative. You can influence them into wanting to take the same journey by outlining the whole thing from start to finish.
Flashing red buttons that say "Come Here, Come Here" simply aren't going to work. Putting your brochure (verbatium) on your site isn't going to work.
A steady tempting of what awaits them in your little corner of the world is a much better approach.
Nudge, encourage, listen and empathize.
Underperforming web tools (like your website or blog) are a reflection of the organizational objectives rather then the tools or technologies them selves. It really is about the organizational culture and the approach.
Later gators,
Beth
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)