BookingCounts http://www.bookingcounts.com Get More Visitors to Book Now (and Later) Wed, 15 May 2013 19:01:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Title Tag Optimization for Travel SEO and Book Later Bookmarking http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/Gvf6cgnuzqI/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/tourism-website-optimization/title-tag-optimization-for-travel-seo-bookmarking/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:11:26 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) https://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1673 The all-important html page “Title Tag” is often mentioned as one of the first SEO areas for tour, hotel and vacation package websites.  It’s original purpose is to name each unique web page, similar to the subject line in an email message.  The title tags get shown in the tabs of your web browser (hover over with your mouse if it is truncated) and often on the list of open windows (e.g. the status bar) for a minimized browser.

More importantly nowadays, it is a basic element to being discovered on search engines.  Optimizing the booking-friendly title across a travel site takes only a minimum amount of effort to maximize your result. A second benefit that is often overlooked is for web browser bookmarking purposes. When people planning a trip online want to bookmark your site, the title tag is typically the default name of the bookmark.

Title Tag in Travel Search Results

The search engine results page (SERP) is where your website will appear when a user conducts a trip related search on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and the other search engines. The title tag is the first and best indicator of the purpose and content of every page of your website. It typically appears word-for-word on the results page and therefore will influence people to click on your results listing to learn more. While you cannot fool the search engines by making false or misleading statements in your title tag, you can maximize it to your advantage.

Travel Search Results Title Tag Example

Giving the search engine hints as to the content of each of your lodging, tour, or vacation activity pages is the first step towards a better ranking. Often web designers will paste the same name on every new page as a starting point and forget to customize them later. Or the name of the travel business or tourism brand name will be listed as the title with no descriptive details.  The title is your first impression to set expectations of the type of travel bookings and trip possibilities contained on each page plus a visible reminder to open a hidden browser window.

Rules for Title Tag Optimization for Hotels, Tours, and Travel Agencies

Having a high search ranking signifies that your tourism business has a quality online reputation. Once a trip planner reaches your site, ensure that the title tag matches the content they are expecting to find. As it is very easy for consumers to click on your search results link, it is also very easy for them to click the back button if your title tag does not match up with your actual travel offer. Write effective and honest title tags to optimize your site for search engines and live visitor traffic. This will result in more organic hits, longer visits, and more bookings.

Regardless of which web design and hosting platform your booking site employs, every page will have a <title> element in the <head> section and every browser will leverage it accordingly. The best practices to adhere to are:

  • Never leave your title tag blank (a rookie mistake that damages trust)
  • Make each page’s title tag unique (to match each traveler’s search query with your offering)
  • Repeat your brand or company name (to build your reputation for direct bookings)
  • Include your targeted travel search keywords (for search engine optimization)
  • Give visitors a reason to visit your site (while viewing a search results page)
  • Optimize for memorable bookmark names (so visitors know why to click to return to book later)

Bookmarking Travel Site Title Tag

To gain a better understanding of the web browser bookmarking process, try it out for yourself in Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, the Safari browser plus their mobile equivalents. Visit a room details page for your hotel or a detailed tour itinerary or activity page that offers a “Book Now” button. Click the bookmark button or menu item in your browser to pretend that you just found a wonderful travel opportunity and want to continue planning your trip at a later date.

Bookmark travel website in Chrome browser  Bookmark travel website in Firefox browser   Bookmark travel website in Internet Explorer browser

Does the default name of the bookmark clearly and succinctly describe your site and the current page? How fast is it for the consumer to edit the bookmark name to exclude extraneous information? Just like the subject line for an email message, the customer may only be able to see the first few words. Are they enough to remind your visitor about your hotel, tour, or activity site and why they are considering booking later?

As you verify that each page has a unique and descriptive title tag, think about ways to compromise on SEO and travel bookmarking optimization goals. SEO is more important as without getting found your site cannot get bookmarked. Take both best practices into account and your visitors will find your site, bookmark it, and remember to come back to book later.

External Title Tag Resources

So much excellent material has already been written about optimizing the title tag for general SEO improvements. The following articles are excellent introductions to the title tag as it relates to any website, not just travel and tourism industry sites. Whether your knowledge of the title tag is minimal or you are looking for advance and up to date tips, review the expertise offered below.

Title Tag – Best Practices for Seach Engine Optimization (SEOmoz)

Nine Best Practices For Optimized <title> Tags

How to Write Title Tags For Search Engine Optimization

BookingCounts Lesson Summary

As it has been said, the title tag is a simple and effective way to improve your search ranking and get more quality travel search traffic. Many visitors will choose to bookmark your site to visit later since it is highly unlikely they will click “Book Now” on their first visit. Since the title is also used as the default name of a browser bookmark, make sure it includes instant cues to remind visitors to return. Use the title tag to get found and make it as easy as possible for people to return and book when they are ready.

For more ideas on how to encourage more repeat traffic and direct bookings later, read about Social Media Bookmarking Widgets for Travel Remarketing.

 

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/tourism-website-optimization/title-tag-optimization-for-travel-seo-bookmarking/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/tourism-website-optimization/title-tag-optimization-for-travel-seo-bookmarking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=title-tag-optimization-for-travel-seo-bookmarking What to Include in a Hotel Email Newsletter http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/ySn7lWIoeu0/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/what-to-include-hotel-email-newsletter/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:16:35 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) http://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1658 Hotel Email Newsletter ContentPublishing an email newsletter for your hotel, inn, B&B, or specialty lodging is a smart idea to acquire new customers and encourage repeat business. The easy part is to sign up with an email list service like MailChimp or Constant Contact (see a previous post about selecting an email service provider for travel). The challenging part is figuring out what to include in each hotel newsletter. It must be fresh and appealing to both past guests and potential future guests.

Visitors that sign up to your hotel email list have already expressed a strong interest in staying at your property. Your goal is to write, edit, and publish travel content that will lead to more emails opened, more links clicked, and more new and repeat reservations. Including not just information about your hotel but also the destination and travel opportunities in the area is essential.

Goals for a Hotel Email Newsletter

It pays to remember the difference between the goal for your hotel newsletter and the purpose your subscribers have when signing up. As a hotel marketer your goal is only one thing – to get more bookings. How you accomplish this is the purpose of this hotel email marketing article. To find the answer to the second question you must first consider your target market’s point of view.

Your subscribers will have a variety of reasons for requesting your hotel newsletter. However many small and independent hotel marketers can only find the time to write and send one newsletter for all subscribers.

For that reason you must cater to the most popular expectations in each email blast. Consider the following list of reasons why people click your “Subscribe to Our Hotel Newsletter” button:

  • Find out about hotel deals, packages, and discounted offers
  • Remember to book a stay for an upcoming vacation or business trip
  • Be informed about booking for a major festival or event in your area
  • Learn more about the hotel and its evolving amenities and services
  • Receive advice and ideas for vacation activities in your destination
  • Relive a positive hotel stay experience after returning from a trip

First think about which ones apply to your past customers and their desire to stay in touch. Next consider the reasons people that have never stayed with you before would be willing to share their email address. They are not ready to book now at your hotel, resort, B&B, or specialty lodging, but at the same time they hope to gain something important by subscribing.

In order to retain subscribers and get recipients to open and read your lodging newsletter, you must cater to past guests and likely future hotel guests.

Ideas for Hotel Newsletter Content

If this is what led you to the Get More Bookings blog at BookingCounts.com, you’ve reached the best part. Here is our list of the top email newsletter content ideas for a hotel, B&B, spa, resort, or any other unique place to book a room.

General Hotel Information
What’s new and happening at your property (since the last newsletter)
Historical information about your hotel
A welcome message from the owners and staff
What makes your hotel unique and special including its style and philosophy
New testimonials from past guests and posted reviews
Location and convenience to the reason for visiting your area
Logos of awards and acclaim recently won
Quotes and links to mentions in the local or national press
Hotel statistics such as average length of stay or accommodation milestones

 

Rooms to Stay
Luxury room and suite experiences
Recently completed room upgrades
Business traveler in-room features such as work desks, high-speed and free WiFi, and laptop-size safe.
In-room services such as dining, massage, and entertainment
Features that make your rooms extra special such as sleeping comfort, bath products, and what’s included in the room rate

 

Property Amenities and Services
Dining options and menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Lobby and indoor areas to spend time
Pools, spa, beauty, and new wellness options
Fitness facilities including equipment and scheduled classes
Child and family friendly, or not as may be the case
Outdoor features such as gardens and running paths
Examples of concierge organized travel experiences
Business center equipment and complete list of services

 

Location Destination Attractions
Top 10 (or more) tourist attractions in the area
Local restaurant reviews and café culture
Arts, culture, theater, and performance spaces
Museums and historic attractions for all types
Sports, adventure, and fun all around your location
Happenings at night at the hotel and in your city

 

Reasons to Stay
Family, couple, or solo vacation holiday
Birthday, stag/hen party, honeymoon, anniversary, or any important gathering
Romantic weekend
Visit to a nearby tourist attraction, beach, nature park, historic place, or theme park
For rest and relaxation away from the stress of work and home
Special menus and dining opportunities at your restaurant

 

Area Events
Upcoming major festivals and events (including when to book)
Local event and activity calendar for the month
Links to the official tourism bureau and destination marketing websites
Links to the best local event guide and “What’s On” websites

 

Day Tours and Tourism Possibilities
Tourist attractions including opening hours and how to get there
Companies that offer tours that pick up from your hotel
Itinerary examples that include a stay
Markets and shopping destinations
Walking or public transport distance to popular attractions

 

Special Deals and Packages
Discounts for past customers
Last minute offers for unsold rooms
Off-season specials (reminder of when in-season rates apply)
Group discounts
Packages that include rooms, meals, and activities
Free gift upon arrival
Discounts for long stays, room upgrades, and other specials
Insider deals and offers for readers of the hotel newsletter

 

Miscellaneous Tidbits
When the property is closed for the off-season
Whether you are pet friendly
Links to recommended blogs, properties, restaurants, attractions, and things to do
Eco or Green certifications and other stamps of approval
Guaranteed best rates when booking direct (if true of course)
Ways that you cater to special needs such as disabilities, allergies, and special requests.

 

What About Hotel Email Newsletter Style?

A future article will cover hotel email newsletter style and formatting so subscribe to the Get More Bookings newsletter today. In general make sure your newsletter has a similar look and feel to your website in regards to font, color, and writing style. Your recipients should instantly recognize your hotel by name and photo or logo at the top and from the email address (never “noreply”) and informative subject line.

Also keep in mind that hotel e-newsletter content includes not just text copy but also photos and links back to your website. Insert a few small photos into your email newsletter to showcase something new and enter alt-text that describes the photo. This little trick encourages readers to turn on images in their email software which helps track open rates more accurately. The smaller hotel photos should be hyperlinked to larger photos and more detail at your website to encourage click-throughs and bookings.

Hotel Email Newsletter Summary

Publishing an email newsletter for your independent hotel, B&B, or boutique place to stay can be rewarding for both hotel marketer and subscriber. Your readers benefit from valuable information about a place they expressed interest in staying. Your lodging benefits from an effective way to remarket to past guests while encouraging new customers to make a booking.

Following these guidelines means that each newsletter will maximize the click through rate, reduce the unsubscribe rate, and promote your hotel as a trustworthy source of travel information. More bookings will naturally result as well as more satisfied guests who will tell their network of friends and social media connections.  Your hotel newsletter should also include quick links to share on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and forward to a friend.

Have another tip for hotel email newsletter content to add to the list? Post your comment below along with the name of your hotel and a link to your newsletter subscription form.

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/what-to-include-hotel-email-newsletter/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/what-to-include-hotel-email-newsletter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-to-include-hotel-email-newsletter Be a Travel Remarketer with the Book Later Button Early Adopter Beta http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/vzIGkJYyh44/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/travel-remarketer-with-book-later-button-beta/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 19:21:44 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) http://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1526 Your “Book Now” button has a new partner – the “Book Later” button from BookingCounts. It makes it possible to capture your typical visitor who is interested but “Not Ready” to click the Book Now button. By asking for their email address it can automatically send them a reminder to return at a later date.

Now you can leverage both paid and search traffic to get a second chance to convince people to make a booking in the future.  The travel email remarketing widget + app from BookingCounts delivers this and more. Do you engage in online marketing for a hotel, B&B, tour company, or holiday travel site? Read on to learn what is email remarketing for travel sites and take advantage of the exclusive beta program for the Book Later Button.

What does “Book Later” mean to my travel and tourism business?

Never before have travel websites been able to capture booking leads for an email remarketing campaign. The only conversion path was to get a booking (close a sale) or ask visitors to share their contact information. People who arrive at your home and landing pages need time to get to become familiar with your tourism business. Most consumers will only spend a few minutes at your site while researching the possibilities for an upcoming trip. Interested travel consumers are not likely to book on the first visit nor or they likely to give out their personal information at this early stage.

With the trusty Book Later Button installed on your site, visitors can safely request a one-time private email reminder.

Planning trips on the Internet is both thrilling and daunting to the average consumer. Up until now you have done everything possible to direct them to your hotel, tour, or travel agency website. Perfecting your SEO, online advertising campaign, and social media effort means that visitors reach your site day and night. However other than repeat customers and low-cost or last-minute travel bookings, travel bookers want to compare pricing, options, dates, recommendations, and talk with others before moving forward with a booking.

When thinking about the online booking conversion process, separate leads into two categories – hot and warm. Hot leads are in a position to make a booking decision and if you do everything right, you will get their business.

Book Now Hot and Warm Leads

Warm leads (and sometimes even cold leads) are in the early research phase. They are unlikely to make a booking decision during their first or even second visit to your site. They both  found your tourism site and become excited about your hotel, B&B, tour, vacation package. Before they go back to the search results page or browse elsewhere, make certain they “bookmark” your website.

As a reminder, here are some real reasons why a visitor is not likely to make a booking after hitting your site from an online ad, search result, or external link:

  • They are in the visionary stage of travel planning and haven’t even decided on where and when they are going
  • They are viewing several options for lodging, tours, packages, and the like, and haven’t narrowed down their choices yet
  • They need to talk about it with their spouse, travel partner, or family before making any travel decisions
  • They discovered your tour or activity by chance but wish to book other aspects of their trip first
  • They believe the price may go down so they choose to wait until a later date to book
  • They found your site while doing something else and don’t have the time to take action now
  • They are at work, on the go, or currently traveling and would rather book later on their home computer
  • They do not have their credit card in hand and cannot make a secure reservation right away

I thought the best advice was to ask for the sale now, and not defer it to later. What’s changed?

When customers become convinced to make a booking, whether by viewing your inspirational travel photos, reading your glowing reviews, or hearing about your memorable travel experience from their social network, it is essential to get them to book right away. A lost opportunity to make a sale may not come again regardless of what industry you are in. Therefore you must optimize the booking experience to make it as effortless and secure as possible. However that only works for travelers that are ready to close.

On the other hand when visitors are not ready to book now, what options do you offer? Are you telling visitors to bookmark your site, share it on social media, or make a mental or electronic note to come back later?

BookingCounts has taken online marketing assumptions in a new direction by taking advantage of the opportunity to book travel later.

Now you can offer two call-to-action buttons on your tourism website, “Book Now” and “Book Later” to convert hot leads and capture warm leads. Remarketing to warm leads means you are controlling the reminder method and the reminder message. Sending your visitors a scheduled email reminder to return and book later is the direct way to convert more bookings.

Online Travel Remarketing Flowchart

How can I get more bookings when a visitor is simply “Not Ready To Book”?

Out of sight, out of mind is an apt saying for how visitors can quickly forget the name or URL for your travel business. One moment they are reading about your travel services and viewing photos, the next moment they are checking their email, scanning the news stories, or viewing flight times for example. Before they close their browser tab or navigate to another site, it is critical that you offer the easiest way possible to put their booking on hold.

Capture visitors before they click Back and Browse elsewhere

By capturing their email address in an optimized fill-in-the-box form that is embedded on your tourism website, visitors can be reminded to continue the booking process when they say they will be ready. Today they might write down or bookmark your website or copy the details into a document. How likely is it they will remember not just to consult their travel bookmarks but to also revisit later? Or find that slip of paper with your URL. And how likely is the visitor to remember why they bookmarked your hotel or tour site in the first place?

Is this simply Social Media Sharing or something new?

Social Media Buttons for Travel are Not EnoughAdding all those social media widgets to your site is a smart technique to get visitors to tell others about your extraordinary place to stay or holiday tour package. For websites that sell travel and tourism products, asking your visitors to “share” isn’t necessarily going to lead to more bookings. Of course some people love to share and will pass along your vacation and destination content to friends and family. In those situations your potential customer is someone else and there is no way to get their contact information.

The “Book Later” button is something entirely new. It is a way for a consumer to share travel opportunities and vacation possibilities with oneself. People search for hotels, things to do, tours, and travel deals all the time. They do it at home on their computer or tablet, at work on their PC, while on the go via a smart phone and often at a hotel’s free internet access point. How are they going to remember to include your tour, lodging, or activity in their trip itinerary?

Not only is the Book Later Button a way for visitors to bookmark your site via an automated email reminder. It is also a powerful email remarketing campaign which sends your unique travel message directly to people that requested it. Leading people back to your hotel or tour site to resume their travel planning is the smart way to resume the sales conversion process.

While those social sharing widgets do serve an important purpose, they are not designed solely for the travel industry. In addition they make it complex to track leads and impossible to include your personal email marketing message. Only the Book Later widget is optimized for the independent online travel planner that needs a nudge (a reminder) to book travel when they are ready.

As a tourism business what do you get in return?

The Book Later Button was developed specifically for travel and tourism marketers whether you run a B&B, boutique hotel, package tour, local activity, or online travel agency. No other widget is designed for booking button optimization so you can increase repeat traffic and your look-to-book ratio. Since the benefits of “Book Later” are packaged in an html widget, it is fast to add the code snippet to your web pages and go live.

By signing up during the Beta period your independent tourism business will be in an exclusive group of early adopters. As a beta release customer you will receive first access to the software including feature enhancements as they are introduced. With already low cost annual license fees cut in half during the beta period, you will save now and later. All we ask in return is to send us your honest feedback so we can tweak compatibility, enhance the design, and add those travel remarketing features most in demand.

Book Later Button Beta and Future Releases

Not ready for the Beta program? No problem – simply sign up for our Get More Bookings email newsletter instead. You will receive notifications of new blog posts on travel marketing including published advice on hotel and tour email marketing. In addition you will get special offers on Book Later Button products as they become available. We promise never to share your information with anyone.

How do I qualify for the Book Later Beta program?

Only businesses in the travel and tourism industry are eligible to participate in the beta program. Your website must offer a booking capability in the form of a “Book Now” or similarly worded button or hyperlink. Visitors must be able to book travel direct, but it does not matter whether your reservations system is automated (third party booking engine) or manual (web form, email, chat, or telephone).

Book Later Button for Hotels, Tours, Travel Agency Websites

The Book Now button works on most website design and hosting platforms. You or someone on your IT staff must be able to insert the HTML code snippet gotten from the Book Later Button widget designer onto your travel information and booking pages. In some cases this will be a desktop html editor and uploaded to your server. In other cases you will edit your site online to add a component or widget area where the HTML code is pasted into a box.

I’m convinced! How do I get the Book Later Button (beta)?

To buy a Standard or Premium annual license at 50% off using coupon code BETA, simply follow the link to our e-commerce vendor and purchase today. Your license choice depends upon the average traffic to your site and the number of email messages you expect to be sent to your “not ready to book now” visitors on a monthly basis. Since this is a risk free offer with a 60-day money back guarantee, you have nothing to lose and only savings to gain.

BookingCounts also offers a complimentary license option (free during beta, normally $20) if you prefer to get a taste of what the Book Later Button offers. This Basic option does not offer the customization features and limits the number of email reminders that can be queued to be sent each month. While you can add the Book Later Button widget to your site and try out the remarketing web app, you will not be able to customize the travel email template including subject line, welcome text, and targeted offer information.  See the Book Later Button edition page for complete details.

Get the Book Later Button for free – Basic License Offer Sign-Up*
*expires June 30, 2013

 

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/travel-remarketer-with-book-later-button-beta/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/travel-remarketer-with-book-later-button-beta/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=travel-remarketer-with-book-later-button-beta Email Auto-Responders for Hotel and Tour Customer Service http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/qs1TyaY0VuY/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/hotel-tour-email-auto-reply-responders/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:49:58 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) http://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1495 Your hotel contact and reservation requests arrive from all over the world and throughout the day to your inbox. For the independent hotel, B&B, and tour operator, it is simply not possible to respond to email requests immediately. And there is no reason to if you set up an automated response message for when you are not at the reservation answer desk. So is turning on the auto-responder message a smart idea for your hotel or tour contact email address?

Yahoo! Mail Auto Responder

Why Set Up an Auto-Responder for your Hotel or Tour Booking Website

There are many reasons why someone who reaches your tourism website fills out the contact form, booking inquiry (or enquiry) form, or sends you an email message. It makes no difference why they contacted you, only that you have an obligation to respond promptly. Doing so will demonstrate your responsiveness and encourage their booking.

Key Concept: The purpose of the auto-responder message is to instantly email back to confirm receipt of a message and communicate response times.

Telling visitors that you got their message and promise to reply promptly is a professional gesture. It reflects positively on your hotel or tour company and the way your business operates. Your automated effort is appreciated only if it is done right. When your auto-response (also called auto-reply or out-of-office message) to a tour question or room reservation request is poorly implemented, you risk turning away potential customers. Use this opportunity to create a positive first impression and set your tourism business on a path to earning their booking.

What to Say in your Hotel or Tour Auto-Responder Email

You can include anything in an (out-of-office) auto-reply email, but it helps to follow a few basic rules of hotel and tour email marketing. Remember that an auto-responder isn’t meant to be an email newsletter. Nor should it overwhelm the recipient with information that is likely to be irrelevant. Once again the primary goal is to tell people that you received their message and a representative will personally respond soon.

In addition to the general welcome and thank you message, include a selection of the following items in your email body.

  • Hours of operation and when representatives are able to respond to email, social media, and phone calls.
  • Link to your booking or reservation system online in case the person wants to go ahead and book travel right away.
  • A copy of their message (if your auto-responder system offers this feature) as a reminder of why the visitor was getting in touch.
  • An anti-spam statement explaining that the message is in response to their request and the recipient was not added to any mailing lists.
  • Full contact information for your travel business, again to remind visitors who they contacted and that you are trustworthy.
  • Other contact information such as phone numbers (local and international), Facebook page, Twitter stream, Skype handle, and chat information.
  • A brief statement about why booking direct offers the best price and travel booking service.
  • A signature that includes the names of the people that run a B&B or independent tour company to showcase your personal touch.

Once you are done make sure to spell check and have someone else review the wording and grammar of both subject and body text. When your message contains spelling errors, potential bookers may assume your travel services lack the same attention to detail.

Guidelines for Effective Booking Auto-Responder Messages

Booking Email Auto-Response

You want to avoid spam filters and have your booking inquiry response make it to the inbox successfully. So the first rule is to avoid those keywords that suggest that your message is salesy, not expected, or not welcome. That means avoiding terms like “free” and “act now” or using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and including too many hyperlinks. There is no foolproof solution so search Google for ways to avoid the spam folder using proven guidelines.

Most recipients will look at the name of the sender (the FROM email address and display name), the subject line, and possibly the preview text to determine whether to open, mark as spam, or delete your message immediately. Make sure you use a recognizable name that appears as the sender and not “noreply” or the name of a staff member who would not be known to your potential customers.  If you do use the name of a staff member, always include the name of your company as part of the display name such as “Laura at Travel Company XYZ.”

It is a good idea to use a combination of the subject line and first sentence or two (what appears as the inbox preview text) to remind people that the email was auto-generated. For example you can use “Travel Company XYZ received your message” or “Auto-response from Travel Company XYZ” as the subject line. The preview text can thank the recipient for contacting them and serve as a reminder of their recent visit to your travel site.

You may feel tempted to respond back with a list of all your special booking deals and load up the message with the answer to every possible question. This is a common tactic used to avoid getting back to your visitors with a personal message, but it is less useful when you run an independent hotel or tour business. You want to encourage visitors to contact you to ask travel and booking questions. Since you have no idea what they might be asking, sending the answers to every possible question appears lazy and impersonal.

Setting Up an Auto-Responder in your Email Software

Before you turn on the auto-responder message that was crafted using the advice above, make a list of every email address that is promoted by your tourism business. Designate one or two email accounts as the ones that accept booking inquiries and requests for hotel or tour information. You do not want the automated response to be sent to everybody nor do you want it to be sent out to the same person more than once. Use one email address for all incoming inquiries from your site (contact form and email hyperlink) and turn on the auto-responder just for that inbox.

Outlook Out Of Office Assistant

However when you respond back to people that contacted you, use a separate address that has no auto-responder. The reason is that once you are emailing back and forth with a potential customer, the auto-responder feature is no longer necessary or relevant. Of course you must examine the booking contact patterns to decide if sending automatic email replies are helpful in every contact situation or just the first time. Some auto-responder systems offer advanced options that limit or prevent multiple sends so consult with your IT vendor for help.

To find out how to edit the auto-reply message and turn it on, read your email software user guide. All email clients such as Microsoft Outlook (Exchange), Google’s Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and web-based mail from most major domain hosts have this feature as standard. This feature may be referred to as the “Out of Office Assistant” or “Vacation Responder” message.  Search online if you are having trouble finding where in the inbox or email settings the automated response feature is located.

Gmail Vacation Responder

Once configured and turned on make sure to test it by sending yourself a booking email and completing your own contact form. Make sure the formatting as well as the sender header and subject line are appearing as expected.  Conduct these tests and review the appearance of the reply email  in several popular email clients including smart phones and mobile devices.

Summary

It should be evident that the email auto-reply or vacation response feature is a powerful tool in the online travel marketing toolbox. Follow these guidelines to let potential customers know that you run an independent hotel or tour company which responds promptly and professionally. Travelers have different expectations when researching and booking travel online. When you can’t get back to someone planning a trip right away, configure and turn on the auto-responder. This marketing technique will make it more likely visitors to your site will wait for your return email before looking and booking at your competition.

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/hotel-tour-email-auto-reply-responders/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/hotel-tour-email-auto-reply-responders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hotel-tour-email-auto-reply-responders Review of Email Newsletter Providers for Travel Marketing http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/9NEaQ_IZezQ/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/review-of-email-newsletter-providers-for-travel-marketing/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:41:03 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) https://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1446 Email NewsletterEmail marketing is one of the oldest forms of Internet marketing. And it is still one of the most effective despite the popularity of sharing on social media networks. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are great ways to push out travel content and encourage sharing but does it really increase booking rates?  Sending an email newsletter is the optimal way to remind past visitors to come back to your site to resume trip planning activities.

So you are already convinced that publishing an email newsletter is an essential part of your travel marketing strategy.  Now it is time to review a few of the top email service providers with an eye toward getting more bookings.  You will learn what are the most important features to consider, how to try before you buy, and think about usability and security.  Let’s get started so you can compare features and decide which email marketing service will work best for your B&B, small hotel, tour company, travel agency, or tourist attraction.

Email Service Providers

With so many email marketing companies to choose from where do you start? All the providers mentioned in this article are good for any type of business, not just travel and tourism operators. That means you have to evaluate the options against the needs of your travel business and target leisure or business traveler (customer).

To get you started, here is a list of the email vendors that BookingCounts evaluated for this study.  Many others can be found by searching online, asking your industry peers for referrals, talking to your travel marketing or web hosting firm, and checking to see if your hotel/tour operator association has a preferred vendor.

  • ConstantContact – The 100lb gorilla of the bunch, they are one of the oldest and most widely-known in the small business email marketing category. Their content management tools are mature plus their capable support staff offers timely service and multiple training options. In addition their SafeUnsubscribe™ brand is well recognized to comply with email marketing unsubscribe rules. While it is easy to get started, they may lack the cutting edge features and coolness factor of some of the more recent upstarts.
  • GetResponse – A solid choice with a clear commitment to educating and sharing email marketing best practices with its customers. They offer both phone and chat support in addition to a useful inbox (compatibility) preview feature and an emailing marketing app for Android and mobile devices. Their subscribe html form builder took a bit getting used to on first try and there were several areas of customization that were not supported.
  • AWeber – With a strong following among bloggers, their time-zone scheduling, geo-tracking, and reporting tools offer a wide range of international email marketing flexibility. With trust being so important, it is disappointing to see their lack of a TRUSTe Seal or US-EU Safe Harbor compliance.
  • MailChimp – Who doesn’t like their playful monkey themed user interface (if you don’t you can turn it off)? They have gained a huge number of customers across all industries due to their free entry-level pricing tier (up to 500 subscribers) and commitment to a customer focused development cycle. A lack of phone support might be a showstopper for some clients while luxury travel businesses might not choose to engage with an all too playful brand.
  • Campaign Monitor – Since a major focus is on white-labeling of email marketing technology, tourism businesses that work with an outside marketing firm may in fact be a customer of one of their reseller firms. Built with graphic designers in mind, their email template design tools are excellent and support many integration, analytics, and management tools. While any business can sign up on their own, their pricing model is higher than most, does not include telephone or chat support, and it is unclear how this Australia-based company complies with U.S. data privacy laws.

Most Important Travel Email Marketing Features

Email Newsletter Evaluation for Travel - Ring the BellWhen comparing email service providers for travel email marketing, first decide which features are a must have and check all the boxes. The following is the BookingCounts travel conversion order of importance, but your ordered list will vary.

Your priorities are likely based upon whether you market locally or internationally, target luxury or price-sensitive travelers, and employ basic travel marketing strategies or run sophisticated cross-channel campaigns.

  1. Price – While price comes first, it is only used to narrow down the list of email marketing vendors to consider. If your budget is almost non-existent and you expect it to stay that way, only consider free or the lowest cost options. Have a bit more flexibility? Review the rest of this list and add up the full cost of your ideal travel email marketing program and compare it with your desired budget.
  2. Reputation – since you cannot make your choice of email marketing firm invisible to your recipients, it is essential to choose one with a solid reputation among your customers. This includes their country of residency, email device preferences, and level of internet savvy.
  3. Email Newsletter Editor – the ability to design, write, edit, and send out email newsletters is the most important management feature to compare. Make sure the vendor you choose offers the kind of pre-made templates, editing tools, and style customization that your staff can learn to use with minimal training.
  4. Automation Tools – every tourism operator is busy running their business so efficiency is key. The more functions you can automate, the less time you’ll spend managing your email marketing campaign.  That time is better spent handling bookings and delivering travel services.
  5. Customization Options – The ability to control every aspect of your email newsletter with your name, image, and style is critical since it is an extension of your travel brand. Some of the areas that demand customization include the subscribe form or widget, the email message header, the subscribe confirmation page and email, and the message content layout and style options.
  6. Customer Support – Chances are that you will need to contact support for help with getting started as well as the advanced automation, reporting, integration, and customization later on. Do you prefer phone, email, or chat options? Make sure your preference is included in the base price and during your hours of operation.
  7. Export Subscriber List – There is no guarantee that you’ll stay with the same email marketing firm forever, so check how easy it is to download and backup all your data and reuse it with a different vendor. It should be simple to get a spreadsheet or similar file of your subscribers on demand and with all data fields included.
  8. Google Analytics Integration – You are already optimizing booking conversions and performing search engine optimization (SEO) for your website.  The next step is to optimize your email outreach campaign with the goal to improve booking rates.  How easy will it be to track clicks from email to website to booking engine and report on the results over time?
  9. Time-Zone Scheduling – Travel businesses are located across the globe, so your email marketer should be able to take in account the time zone of your subscribers. Widely publicized statistics demonstrate that time of day makes a difference for both open and click-through rates.  Being able to automatically adjust the sending of your emails to match wherever your customers are in the world may be worth the price.
  10. Integration with Third Party Tools – This feature is entirely dependent on what other technology you are using for content, customer, and booking management.  Do you need to integrate with a blogging or content management platform, landing page technology, or online booking systems and electronic reservation software? Find out what you may want to integrate with in the future and be sure to ask the right questions up front.

Free Versus Monthly Subscription

Every email provider listed has monthly subscription pricing, but which ones offer a completely free option? Free is a hard to resist choice for many types of tourism businesses such as:

  • Bed & Breakfast inns, guest houses, and specialty lodging with a limited online marketing budget
  • Independent tour guides and small tour operators, especially ones that are not well established
  • Niche travel businesses that expect their subscriber list size to be small for a long time
  • Home based travel agencies that need an effective way to communicate deals to their customer list

Why Free Travel Email Marketing

At this time MailChimp is the only vendor listed that offers a truly free and usable option which is not limited by time. You can start using MailChimp right away and until your subscriber list grows above 2,000 people or you require advanced features, it won’t cost a penny.  The other options covered only offer a free time-based trial, so you need to supply a credit card up front or at the time the trial ends or when you want to email your newsletter to subscribers.

Newsletter Templates for Travel Sellers

Once you acquire subscribers, your main activity is to craft newsletters with destination advice, travel promotions, and reminders to plan that next trip.  It is up to you and the expectations of your target market how often to send email newsletters.  Every month or once per season may be plenty so as not to overwhelm and lose subscribers (tell them so in the about newsletter description).

The first step is to select a newsletter template that most closely matches the look and feel of your website and brand.  Even if your email provider offers travel agency or hotel themed email templates, it is highly unlikely they will be perfect without at least some customization.  If you sign up for a free trial take the opportunity to test the template editor.  How easy can you modify a template’s header, colors, fonts, logos, and overall layout.  Once your template is complete your only task should be to add travel promotional and destination content.  For each newsletter you will craft promotional text including dates, prices, photos, and a “Book Now” button.

For the ultimate in template customization consider contracting with your web design or marketing firm to edit the HTML and CSS stylesheet directly.  Be aware that many email providers do not allow you go beyond the visual editor nor allow you to insert third party scripts and widgets.

Usability and Privacy with Tourism Email Marketing

Privacy Email MarketingWhat do your visitors want from an email newsletter?  First the sign-up process must be familiar and simple.  Second is the newsletter itself which must reach them as often as expected, not be treated as spam, and be readable on their computer or mobile device.

All the email vendors offer a “subscribe to newsletter” script that gets inserted onto your website template, added as a widget, or pasted into a content section.  It could appear as an embedded form on your site, whereby it is filled and submitted.  Or it may be a link to the newsletter sign-up page and form hosted by your email vendor.  Either way the goal is to encourage and allow visitors to subscribe in as few clicks as possible.  Including too many information fields and asking too many questions (whether required or optional) turns away busy but interested people. The optimal solution is to only ask for an email address and optionally one or two additional “must-have” pieces of data.

Double opt-in is still the industry standard best practice for ensuring that someone who signs up intended to do so and entered the correct email address. After a sign up form is submitted the email service provider will send an automated message for confirmation. It should be optional whether you want to send a thank you email after the subscriber is double opt-in confirmed, but it can be an effective way to communicate a special offer right away.

To promote privacy and security you must have a way to communicate that subscribing is a safe process. Tell visitors that you will never share their email address and always honor an unsubscribe request promptly. This puts their mind at ease, promotes your travel business as trustworthy, and encourages more instant sign-ups.

Try Travel Email Marketing Apps Before You Buy

Depending on your situation you may decide to take the plunge and sign-up for your chosen email vendor right away. If you have the time it is always better to try your top 2 choices before you decide which fits best with your tourism company and marketing goals. Making a decision solely by reading a comparison matrix and flashy marketing materials can sometimes lead to a suboptimal solution.

You need to feel confident the features work as described at a high level of usability, reliability, and customizability. Plus trying gives you an opportunity to find out about customer support options and response times.  It is also smart to scan the internal help forums to learn what problems other customers are experiencing (and the turn around time to address those issues).

Summary

It is a wonderful time to be a seller of hospitality, tour, and vacation products and services.  There are so many easy and low cost ways to grow your business and market travel online. Publishing a travel promotions newsletter is the preferred way to get in touch with so many of your past customers and future prospects.  You only must decide what percentage of your travel marketing time and budget to spend on email versus social media, online advertising, and direct marketing efforts.

This article focused on the importance of email marketing for travel sellers and how to evaluate and select the best vendor for your business.  There is no one email vendor to recommend above all others, and it would be a disservice to BookingCounts readers to suggest otherwise. The opinions expressed here are only of this website and its owners. So be sure to review several vendor offerings, document the features that you must have, consult your available budget, and try 2 or 3 before you buy and go live.

Post your experience in the comments section below so other tourism businesses can benefit from your insight.  As with all online software services, features and pricing change regularly so this article covered what is available today.

Disclaimer: The email marketing companies and brands mentioned are all trademark of their respective owners.

 

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/review-of-email-newsletter-providers-for-travel-marketing/feed/ 1 http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/review-of-email-newsletter-providers-for-travel-marketing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=review-of-email-newsletter-providers-for-travel-marketing Social Bookmarking Widgets for Travel Marketing http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/3GubZzZl6rM/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/social-bookmarking-widgets-for-travel-sites/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:17:33 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) https://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1341 BookmarkingOffering visitors an easy way to share a web page, article, news story, update, or deal is now a familiar standard online. For sellers of travel this is an equally important action to add to every page of your site.  (Article FTPKSRWG9EX5)

Bookmarking and sharing leads to more engaged visitors, increased repeat traffic, and additional opportunities to convert lookers to bookers.

What do trip-planning consumers want to bookmark and share?

  • Room options at your hotel, spa, resort, B&B, inn, or other unique place to stay
  • A specific tour like an adventure tour, safari, bus tour, guided trek, or day trip
  • Special offers for vacation packages and limited time travel discounts
  • A link to a travel booking site as a reminder to self and family to browse later
  • Your insight about a destination, local event, ideas on what to do, and travel trips
  • A photo of a travel experience they want to suggest to friends and family

How Social Bookmarking Helps Travel Sites Get More Hits

Social Bookmarking Travel ContentThe first priority is to have a website chock full of information and useful content about the travel opportunities you are selling. This is one of the most important steps for SEO. Quality travel content will naturally improve your search result rankings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo! too.

Content means sales text and articles as well as so much more.  Consider realistic photos (that can be added to Pinterest), activity and amenity lists (to share with a travel partner on Google+), day-by-day trip itineraries (to get feedback on Facebook), event calendars (to tweet on Twitter), customer testimonials (to capture in EverNote), and limited time booking offers (to send via email).

The next step is to add one of the many social bookmarking widgets to each page of your site. The goal is to make it as easy and effortless as possible for visitors to tell friends, family, and their social networks that your travel business has something worth sharing. A link back to your site in any media format is a valuable opportunity to get more hits and acquire more bookings.

Search engines listings may provide the bulk of your inbound traffic today. Social media and bookmarking will grow in importance and effectiveness for years to come.

Popular Social Bookmarking Widgets for Travel Websites

Here is a roundup of social bookmarking widgets that hotel, tour, and travel booking sites can install to encourage social media sharing, travel remarketing, and viral marketing. The choices (not a comprehensive list) are quite similar and vary a bit in visual style and advanced features. What they share in common is they are all free to use on your website, even if free comes with the potential for advertising and tracking.

AddThis

One of the major social sharing widget companies, they claim to be installed on over 14 million websites. Impressive… absolutely, and they go beyond just social bookmarking widgets. You can get access to their Follow Buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Plus they offer a sleek Welcome Bar (appears at the top of your site) which is optimized for targeted social action messages.

Registering for an account gives you access to the widget code that you must copy and paste to your site template, header/footer, or individual pages. It also provides an array of sharing analytics so you can see what content is popular, trending, and where your visitors are coming from.

ShareThis

The sharing tools at ShareThis are well crafted and they allow you to get the customized and site specific code without registering for an account. Of course they encourage you to sign up in order to access insights and analytics which can help you visualize the results. They make it simple to get the code that is most compatible with your website platform including for such frameworks as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Blogger.

ShareThis also offers a popular sharing toolbar that people can install in their IE, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari browser as another way to promote your travel content. Therefore many of your visitors will already be familiar with the ShareThis extensions and set of buttons to share anytime and anywhere.

Sharaholic

A very popular choice with WordPress users, Sharaholic publisher tools includes Classic Bookmarks, Sexy Bookmarks, and Sassy Bookmarks. Each has their own look and feel, but they all accomplish the same goal of making it as easy as possible for your visitors to share content online. They support any website technology, not just WordPress, and give you access to the html plus JavaScript code even without signing up for an account.

The Sexy version has a cool animated icon look which is especially fun and appealing. BookingCounts uses SexyBookmarks because I found this set or horizontally displayed popup buttons to be the best design fit for our blog’s StudioPress template and theme (see after the bottom of this post).

Side note about WordPress: While WordPress may be associated with blogs, it is actually used by a huge number of tourism business websites. The source code is free, quick to deploy, easy for a non-techie to manage, and offers a plethora of plug-ins for social media and email marketing. Whether or not to use WordPress for a hotel or trip booking website will be covered in a separate BookingCounts article.

Email Bookmarking Widgets for Travel Sites

In addition to promoting your site via social sharing and bookmarking, consider adding email remarketing to the mix as another effective conversion tool. Visitors that are not ready to book travel right away (in other words most visitors) may want a reminder to return to book later.

With standard social bookmarking widgets, people can choose to share via email instead of on a social network. While these tools make it possible to email yourself, it is often awkward since they are designed for social media (not self) sharing. Sharing via email requires users to enter their email address and the email address of the recipient. So your top visitors will need to enter their email twice and only have the option to get an email right away, not when they will be ready to book travel.

Social Bookmarking Plus Email Remarketing for Travel Sites

Book Later Button

The only email bookmarking widget option built for travel sites is the Book Later Button™ from BookingCounts™, the host of this travel website optimization blog. The Book Later Button is an excellent addition to social bookmarking widgets since it serves a separate, unique, and targeted purpose. Travelers will be able to share with family, friends, and their social network if they choose (using AddThis, ShareThis, Shareaholic, and others) plus they will be able to schedule an email reminder for themselves (with the Book Later Button).

The Book Later Button has several advantages over general purpose social sharing widgets and online ad retargeting campaigns.

  1. It is designed and optimized for hotel, tour, vacation websites and those consumers actively researching a trip.
  2. It allows visitors to receive an email on a chosen date, when it is optimal for that person to book travel.
  3. It offers email message customization, so travel marketers can get a second chance to convert more lookers to bookers.
  4. It respects user privacy by sending one email by request and avoiding the public/private confusion around social media.

Summary

This travel conversion optimization post is a simple but useful reminder about the importance of social bookmarking to get more return visitors. Travel booking sites that are serious about increasing conversion rates must employ every tool they can to spread their message.

Every visitor to your site is a potential customer. It pays to capture their interest using social media, email messaging, and content bookmarking sites. Adding those sharing and reminder tools and technology to your site will increase engagement, increase hits (especially repeat traffic), and ultimately increase bookings.

Notice: All companies, brands, and logos mentioned in this article are copyright and trademark of their respective owners.

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/social-bookmarking-widgets-for-travel-sites/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/social-bookmarking-widgets-for-travel-sites/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-bookmarking-widgets-for-travel-sites Travel Remarketing with Email Reminder Messages http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/CytuqAAJSu4/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/travel-remarketing-with-email-reminder-messages/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:49:16 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) http://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1326 How to Use Email Reminders to Get More Bookings

Your travel website is open for business 24/7 and goal number one is to get visitors to click “Book Now” and become your customer. However since travelers are unlikely to make a booking on the first visit, you must find a way to get them to come back. That is what remarketing for travel is all about.

Reminder to Book Later (Travel Email)

One option is to hope that visitors will bookmark your site or copy down the details into a document or note. A more effective option is to offer interested visitors the ability to “bookmark” your site via email. How does this work?

You can ask for their email address and offer to send a friendly email reminder to revisit when they are ready. You can piece together this type of remarketing solution using email newsletter providers, custom web programming, or do it manually. Or you can get the Book Later Button to deploy a tested email reminder system that your visitors can click when they are not ready to book right away.

Ideas for Travel Remarketing “Now Is The Time To Book” Messages

The only requirement for sending out a travel marketing emails is a link back to your site to make a booking. Everything else is optional, but of course you want to do everything you can to convince them to return promptly. Here is a list of items to include not just in a booking reminder email, but any travel marketing message delivered by email (like in a travel newsletter):

  • A personal welcome message from the owners and staff of the tourism business
  • A guarantee of the best rates and lowest fees by booking direct
  • Special events happening in your destination in the coming months
  • A limited-time discount for booking directly on your website
  • A sense of urgency such as how quickly rooms, cabins, seats, or tours are filling up
  • Your philosophy that drives your effort to deliver a unique and special travel experience
  • Links to your social media profiles such as on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the like
  • A way to subscribe to your email newsletter for people that decided to delay booking until the future

How to Target Travel Consumers using Booking Reminders

The “Book Now” button is the most common wording for the “Buy Now” button on travel and tourism websites. Your visitors will find this button on your booking pages when they are ready to inquire about making a reservation. Regardless of how perfect your travel products and services are at first sight, people in the early stages of planning a trip will unlikely book right away. Clicking the “Book Now” button is too big a step to take for an overwhelming majority of your first-time visitors.

People that reach your site will be much more motivated to take the smaller step of expressing interest without obligation. They will quickly understand the benefit of requesting one email reminder. This form of travel remarketing is both safe and consumer-friendly since it is done via private email and is a one time (free) transaction.

Book Now Graphic Button
Not Ready to Book Now?

By adding a way to request a booking reminder via email, you will capture those visitors that are likely to book – just not immediately. It makes no difference if the reason to delay is because buying travel is a collaborative decision, they are on an insecure mobile device, or they are at work and prefer to book at home. It is far too common for visitors to have every intention to return but forget to for a variety of good reasons. Your goal is to convert them to book now or later, and a booking reminder is the perfect way to handle the more common “later” booking scenario.

The Book Later Button is the fastest way to add the booking email reminder capability to your site, but you can also build your own technology to retarget motivated travel consumers. Since email is effective, predictable, and familiar, your visitors will quickly understand the purpose, advantage, and benefit of receiving a reminder. They are used to receiving email reminders about checking in for upcoming flights and confirmations for lodging and local tours.

Now you can offer them an email confirmation before they book travel. This is especially helpful with people consumed by the demands of work and family. Seeing a requested email in their inbox is a welcome sight, especially when it is about planning a trip.  They are also much more likely to receive and open your message and act upon it than other forms of electronic communication.

Respecting Privacy When Marketing Travel Via Email

To make sure your booking email reminder campaign is successful you must consider the preferences of your visitors. Privacy is an important concern and you can promote trust in your tourism business by respecting privacy at every stage. Visitors are not likely to book travel if they do not trust your booking system (whether automated or manual). For the same reasons they are not likely to give out their email address without believing that you will respect their privacy.

When planning an email marketing campaign to either remind visitors to book later or to promote your travel offers, follow this list of best practices.

  • Tell visitors how many email messages you will send them and the timing and frequency if applicable (one time only for booking reminders).
  • Tell visitors whether you will share their email with any other business now or in the future (preferably you will never share it).
  • Tell visitors that every email message will contain an unsubscribe link (applicable for email newsletters as opposed to book later reminders).
  • Tell visitors that their email address is held in a safe place and their privacy is your top priority (make people feel safe and trust your tourism business).

Email Remarketing Next Steps

Once you have implemented a booking email reminder system, integrate it onto your booking web pages and track the results. Keep your travel remarketing program simple to optimize delivery, open rates, and click-through effectiveness.  Avoid overwhelming your visitors with too much information and multiple reminders.

In summary, the booking scenario that you want to increase conversions for is:

  1. Visitor finds your travel site through search, ad, social, blog, or word of mouth
  2. Visitors browses your travel products and services online using desktop, tablet, and mobile
  3. Visitor is interested but is not ready to book now, regardless of the exact reason
  4. Visitor clicks to schedule an email reminder to come back and (maybe) book later
  5. Visitor receives a booking reminder email at a later date and clicks the link
  6. Visitor continues their travel planning on your site and decides to make a booking

Future articles in the Travel Remarketing series will focus on other ways to customize and optimize your booking remarketing campaigns. It is critical that your site offer a way to remind visitors (warm leads) to book later regardless of whether that takes the form of an email reminder message or leverages social media widgets.

Add the Book Later Button to your tourism website and also hook up social media sharing widgets plus an email newsletter sign-up form today.

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/travel-remarketing-with-email-reminder-messages/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/travel-remarketing-with-email-reminder-messages/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=travel-remarketing-with-email-reminder-messages What is Travel Remarketing? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/ZjTieZceG7k/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/what-is-travel-remarketing/#comments Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:21:38 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) http://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1196 The term “remarketing” has appeared more frequently in online marketing circles after the recent Google announcement.  Their advertising platform now offers a remarketing feature which is already attracting tons of attention from the conversion optimization community.  A similar and mostly equivalent term is “retargeting” which tends to focus on the use of online (multi-device) advertising, while employing the same re-marketing principles.

From the Google Display Network perspective, remarketing means that your visitors can be targeted with an ad AFTER they have left your website.  When someone views a tagged lodging, tour, activity, or booking page, they can be added to a predefined remarketing list.  While the same person is browsing other websites later on and in future days, your interest targeted ad will appear to remind them to return.  This gives travel marketers a second qualified chance to convince visitors to make a booking.

Learn More: Using remarketing to reach people who visited your site (AdWords Help)

Here is a simple example of the look-to-book sales funnel with travel remarketing:

  1. Alice visits your tourism website in response to a Google search, regardless of whether she clicked on your search result listing or an AdWords advertisement.
  2. Alice browses your site and learns about your travel products and services (e.g. hotel, resort, tour package, adventure activity, or vacation deal).
  3. Alice decides that she is not ready to book now because it is too early in the purchasing cycle (see below for the most common reasons why)
  4. Later on Alice is browsing websites about travel or anything else during her normal day (let’s say she is reading a news site that displays Google ads).
  5. Google displays your remarketing targeted ad to Alice as a reminder to revisit your site to continue her previous session.
  6. Alice decides to click on your ad (triggered and tracked via cookies by your remarketing lists) and return to a travel site page.
  7. Alice decides the time is right to make a booking and clicks the “Book Now” button (your booking engine takes it from there).

Travel Site Remarketing Flow Diagram

In a general sense, remarketing as pictured in the diagram above is what I call “second chance marketing.” First time visitors to your tourism site will not make a booking 97% of the time.  Leveraging advertising and travel technology to remind them to come back and book later is essential for booking conversion optimization.  To accomplish this goal you must use a combination of online advertising remarketing, social media promotion, and email marketing tactics to retarget visitors when they are ready.

By showing interest in your travel products and services, you now have the ability to push online ads to these warm leads in an effort to convince them to revisit your site.  It is an extremely effective way to reach people that have showed interest by reading about your travel offerings, but were not ready to buy now, book now, join now, or take action on your offer.

While remarketing is a technique that can be employed for any online business, it is especially useful for the travel industry.  Booking travel is not typically an impulse purchase, therefore it is rare for people to book on their first visit.  They might love what you have to offer, but will never be convinced to book right away for the following reasons:

  • They want to talk to their spouse, partner, or family first
  • They want to check their work schedule and see when it is best to take time off
  • They want to research other travel options to make sure they pick the best company for their vacation needs
  • They think the price will decrease soon and want to wait and see
  • They simply need time to think it over before making a major purchasing decision

Therefore remarketing is an excellent way to take visitor booking behavior into account when crafting your context-sensitive travel marketing campaigns.  By targeting previous visitors and convincing them to return to your site when it is right for them, your online bookings will increase.

Remarketing with the Google Display Network is only one way to remind people that are familiar with your travel brand to come back to your tourism website.  Google is one of several vendors offering remarketing and retargeting platforms and based on your advertising budget you should investigate the best option.

Read more: Comparing the Top 4 Retargeting Companies (SEOmoz)

Another pathway to remarketing is via direct email targeting using the Book Later Button.  This travel technology tool empowers visitors to schedule an email reminder to book later (at their request only and with privacy maintained).  While remarketing without their permission works for certain type of travel buyers, opt-in email marketing is another proven technique to get a second chance to convince people to complete a booking.

Read more about the Book Later Button and sign-up now or later if you prefer.

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/what-is-travel-remarketing/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/travel-email-remarketing/what-is-travel-remarketing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-travel-remarketing 3 Tools to Design Book Now Buttons for Travel Conversion Optimization http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/11cHWwWNYa8/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/book-now-conversion/3-tools-to-design-custom-book-now-buttons/#comments Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:48:02 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) http://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1074 Your travel booking website must have a “Book Now” type button as the most important call-to-action (CTA). It does not matter whether you have a live booking engine or simply collect reservation request information in a contact form. Clicking the booking button is how you turn lookers into bookers.

Crafting a custom graphic button that stands out and is visually appealing makes it more likely to be clicked.  No one gets excited to book travel when they see a default grey HTML “Submit” button anymore?  Hiring a graphic designer to create a “Book Now” button to meet your specifications is one option. The lower cost and fast way to optimize your tourism website is to design your own make-a-booking button.

Here are 3 approaches to creating an awesome “Book Now” (or whatever action text you like) web button that is unique to your travel and tourism business. Two are free online tools and one is a software package you may already have installed on your PC.

1. Microsoft® PowerPoint®

The suite of software products that make up Microsoft Office® are indispensable for running a business, especially an independent tourism operator. For those of you that have purchased the full package that includes PowerPoint (or had it included with your Windows computer), you are in luck. PowerPoint is intended for making presentations and slideshows, but it can also create professional and fancy looking web buttons in just a few clicks.

  1. Add a blank slide to a presentation document using the “Add Slide” button.
  2. Using the “Insert Shapes” toolbar, select the shape object for your button. The most common options are:
    1. Rounded Rectangle Example Round Rectangle Book Now Button
    2. Oval (for a circle button) Example Circle Booking Button
    3. Pill-shaped (choose the “Flowchart : Terminator” shape) Example Pill-shape Reservations Button
  3. Draw the shape onto the slide using your mouse at the desired size (width and height dimensions). You can resize it later. To draw a perfect circle “Book Now” button, hold the control key when dragging an oval shape.
  4. Right click on the shape and select “Edit Text” to add the action text to the button face.
    Consider not just “Book Now” but also “Make A Booking”, “Book Your Trip”, “Make A Reservation”, “Book the Perfect Vacation” and “Send Us A Booking Inquiry” (or Enquiry depending upon your locality).
  5. While editing the text, use the popup toolbar to pick the desired font, size, and color.

    PowerPoint Edit Button Text Toolbar

  6. From the Design toolbar tab, either keep the default plain theme or choose another Theme that best represents your website style.

    PowerPoint Theme Toolbar for Button Design

  7. Change to the “Format” menu tab to select the button fill and border style from the built-in shape styles dropdown list. Mouse over any of the options to instantly preview the result.  Click on the preset choice when you have found the desired look and visual effect. PowerPoint Button Styles Toolbar (for Book Now buttons)
  8. These rest of the options on the Format toolbar let you change the color, 3-D button and shading effect, and border for your “Book Now” button. There are dozens of options and thousands of combinations to choose if you decide to go beyond the predefined shape styles.
    PowerPoint Edit Button Shape Style Toolbar
  9. When you are happy with every aspect of the button’s appearance, right-click on it and select “Save as Picture…” using the PNG image file format. PNG supports full color and button background transparency so you can have rounded corners.

    PowerPoint Button Shape Save As Book Now PNG

  10. Save the file to a name and location of your choosing so you can copy it to your website template folder. Don’t forget to save the PowerPoint file as well so you can come back to the original source of your button graphics.

2. Cool Text Graphics Generator

A fast, simple, and free option is the CoolText.com website which lets anyone design custom logos, buttons, and download fonts. The steps are easy to follow and you’ll have a cool-looking “Book Now” graphic button (with custom booking CTA text) in just a few minutes.

  1. CoolText Button Maker Style OptionsVisit the CoolText Button page of their website: http://cooltext.com/Buttons
  2. Select the button design from the list of choices. Pick whichever is closest in style as you can customize every aspect on the next screen. If you are not sure, select the “Plain” button to begin.
  3. On the “Design Your Button” page, enter the text for your button.
  4. Now the fun part. Use the following settings to completely customize the stylish look of your booking button:
    1. Font (over 1,200 choices to satisfy any design goal)
    2. Outline (both Thickness and Color)
    3. Shadow (make your Book Now button stand out)
    4. Offset (if you want the text off center to allow for an icon)
    5. Button Shape (all the common shapes included)
    6. Button Fill Color (including the all-important gradients)
    7. Button Outline Color and Thickness
    8. Shadow Effect (Type and Color)
    9. Mouse-Over button Effect
    10. Size (Width and Height)
  5. Click the “Render Button” when you are happy with the live preview at the top.
  6. Download the final image in PNG format or register at the site for further options.
  7. Upload your CoolText “Book Now” button to your tourism website and see the results.

3. Google® Docs Drawing

The third option to consider is Google Docs which is a free web app that many use in place of Microsoft Office. For those of you with a Google Account (such as Gmail for email) already, simply go to http://docs.google.com to begin. Otherwise you must sign up for a Google Account to use this approach.

  1. Create a new “Drawing” document and edit the name to something related to book now button design.

    Google Docs New Drawing (for Web Buttons)

  2. Similar to using PowerPoint, click the Insert->Shapes button on the menu bar.
  3. Select the button shape you wish, such as Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, and Pill (Flowchart:Terminator).
  4. Draw the shape on the canvas using mouse click, drag, and release to the desired size (you can resize it after).
  5. Right-click and select the “Edit Text” menu item.
  6. Type the button text such as “Book Now”, “Book A Tour”, or “Reserve A Room”.
  7. Customize the button color and style using the following toolbar menu options:

    Google Drawing Doc for Book Now Button Design

    1. Fill color (for the button background)
    2. Line color (for the button outline)
    3. Line weight (for the button outline width)
    4. Font (a limited set of choices built-in but you can Add more)
    5. Font size plus Bold, Italic, and Underline options
    6. Text color
  8. Right click on a blank space in the drawing and select the Background->Transparent menu item to support buttons with rounded corners.
  9. Once you are satisfied with the button look and size, resize the canvas to be slightly bigger than the button. Use the draggable area at the bottom right of the canvas window to resize the drawing.
  10. To save the button as a graphic on your computer, use the File->Download as… PNG image menu item.
  11. Once again, upload the Book Now button image to your web server or send it to your IT person or web designer to make it live on your site.

Booking Button Graphic Design Summary

There are many other ways to make web-friendly buttons using advanced (and expensive) tools such as Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, Visio, and Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro. These three options are probably the easiest and lowest cost way to build a better tourism website and improve your look-to-book ratio.

Do you have other buttons and travel marketing call-to-action buttons or text links on your website and social media pages? Use these tools to create custom web buttons for those as well. Your tourism marketing effort will look more professional and your visitors will be more likely to view your business as reputable, trustworthy, and secure.

Again your “Book Now” button is the most critical CTA on your travel website so don’t go with the standard grey rectangle button – make it stand out to get more bookings!

]]> http://www.bookingcounts.com/book-now-conversion/3-tools-to-design-custom-book-now-buttons/feed/ 0 http://www.bookingcounts.com/book-now-conversion/3-tools-to-design-custom-book-now-buttons/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3-tools-to-design-custom-book-now-buttons Does Your Travel and Tourism Businesses Need An Email Newsletter to Get More Bookings? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BookingCounts/~3/Pb70eX0Fap0/ http://www.bookingcounts.com/book-now-conversion/travel-businesses-need-an-email-newsletter/#comments Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:23:20 +0000 Scott (BookingCounts) http://www.bookingcounts.com/?p=1043 Despite the excitement and popularity of social media, email marketing is still one of the most effective online marketing tools. Deciding whether or not to publish an email newsletter for your tourism business is the question to be answered by this tourism marketing article.  First to learn more about email marketing effectiveness, review these recent online publications:

Through effective travel SEO, online ad campaigns, and social media outreach, visitors are reaching your site in large numbers.  However convincing them to click the “Book Now” button on the first visit is not a realisitic goal.  Booking a vacation involves more complex research and decision making than typical consumer products.  That is why gathering leads via email is a smart way way to get repeat visitors and keep the booking conversion conversation moving forward.

Are your visitors ready to Book Now button for travel websitesOR Travel Email Newsletter Subscribe Now Form

Some Visitors Are Not Ready To Book Now

People researching travel on the Web may browse to your website during any stage of their overall trip planning process. They may have just started thinking about a trip, are in the middle of booking segments of their itinerary, or they may be adding the final touches to the perfect trip plan. The best scenario is when a person is ready to decide to book right away. They are excited about your travel products and services, convinced by your tourism marketing copy, and are quick to action.

However making a fast booking decision is the exception for most travel providers and not the rule. When it comes to getting new bookings many potential customers go through several stages of decision making. They must in a booking state of mind while they are browsing your website. The trouble occurs when they decide to make a booking the next day or the next week. Unless they have a reminder to book at a later date, they may book elsewhere or change their mind.

Capturing Warm Traveler Leads

Woman deciding whether to Book Travel Now or LaterFor visitors that are in the first two stages of planning their trip (early and middle), being reminded to visit your website again at a later stage is essential. Offering an email newsletter is the perfect opportunity to capture these leads and nurture them to book later (when they are ready). Instead of encouraging visitors to bookmark your website or make a note of it using their favorite online or paper-based travel planner, ask them to sign up for your exclusive email list.

Most conversion optimization articles out there make you believe that getting the booking is the only successful outcome on your website. That may be true for simpler products such as requesting a free e-book or signing up for a free trial of a software app. As for booking hotels, tours, activities, and other travel services, a lot more is needed beyond an optimized call-to-action page. Travel planners are being asked to make a decision to spend their hard-earned money and use their limited time-off from work.

Clicking “Book Now” is not something the average traveler does instantly and without further contemplation.

Why Visitors Want to Book Later

Most travel booking websites are designed to sell travel from the moment a visitor arrives on the home or ad landing page. Your photos, content and navigation are crafted to lead people to “learn more” then “book now.” But what about travelers who are nowhere ready to book now regardless of how perfect your travel offering is at first sight?

Here are common situations where a visitor is excited by your hotel, tour, vacation package, or activity but can only be convinced to book later?

  • The Traditional Traveler: They just started researching an upcoming trip and wish to verify dates and book transportation first
  • The Social Traveler: They wish to think it over and discuss it with family and friends before making a
    booking decision
  • The Budget Traveler: They believe the prices may come down as the date of travel approaches and are willing to wait
  • The Organized Traveler: They are actively deciding between two or more top travel opportunities and need more time to decide
  • The On-The-Go Traveler: They are browsing travel at work, on a mobile device, or at a place where they cannot securely complete a booking
  • The Novice Traveler: They are not confident booking travel online and require assistance from others to proceed.

What Types of Travel Operators Need an Email Newsletter?

Booking Travel Online Thought Process

I would like to say that every travel and tourism company can benefit from offering an email newsletter, but that is not true in the view of BookingCounts. Your tourism business needs to have something to say on a regular basis in order to make this effort worthy of the investment (ROI). Ask yourself these questions to determine whether an email newsletter is right for your type of travel business:

  • Do you offer seasonal promotions, packages, and special rates?
  • Are you located in a destination with major events, festivals, and happenings that attract travelers?
  • Does your accommodation, restaurant, tour, or activity change throughout the year?
  • Is your travel company the type that is likely to get repeat business?
  • Do people book travel with you only after an extensive research and planning phase?
  • Does someone on your staff have the time to maintain the website, social media, online marketing, plus an email newsletter?

Answering “Yes” to two or more of the above questions means it is likely that sending out a tourism marketing email newsletter will lead to increased bookings. As you can see it doesn’t matter whether you run a B&B, adventure trek, cruise tour, or local museum. Every type of tourism business can enjoy greater booking success if they have something to offer subscribers at regular intervals throughout the year.

Top Resources: Learn more about Tourism Industry Email Marketing

How Email Sign-Up Forms Capture Travel Leads

Email Newsletter for Tourism Signup Form (Widget)The email newsletter sign-up form is the simple and effective way to allow visitors to express their strong interest in your place to stay, tourist attraction, guided tour, or vacation activity. Many websites have a “Like” or “Share” button or similar feature to post and send content to others. However what if a visitor wants to share the details with themselves?

Instead of offering your visitors a plethora of social media sharing widgets, why not place a simple one-field (email address only) sign-up form? Place this widget on all your travel product information pages so visitors can enter their email address and click the “Subscribe” or “Sign-Up” button.  The call-to-action is to get people that are likely to book travel added to your email marketing list before they browse to another travel site.

An email sign-up form is an effective way to let visitors share their contact information with you and let you know there is a good or better chance they will book with your tourism business later. Resist the urge to add loads of information gathering fields to your sign-up form.  That will only discourage visitors that are just barely convinced. As there are so many best practices for running an email newsletter marketing program (such as using a friendly FROM address), those will be covered in a separate article.

Next Steps for Tourism Email Marketing

Once you have decided to offer an email newsletter on your travel site, the next step is to select the right email marketing service provider. There are numerous options available at an extremely low cost and with a wide variety of features. For example some will let you sign up for free for a trial period or until you reach a large number of subscribers. All offer a Web widget builder so you can quickly design and add an email sign-up form to your site without HTML coding knowledge.

An overview with recommendations for email marketing vendors will be given in a separate article, so sign up for the BookingCounts newsletter (see below) to be the first to know when it is made available to readers.

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