Dot Tourism - Tourism Marketing Blog

Digital Travel Marketing News: May 21, 2013

2013-05-21T14:02:36+00:00

We're only the second week in and it's turning bi-weekly! Here are our favourite digital marketing reads since we last posted.

Content Marketing DOs and DON’Ts

First up this good piece from the Distilled crew on best and worst practices for content marketing. It’s sometimes a battle to steer the case for content marketing and so the advice regarding detailed persona development and running a content and technical audit is apt.

Is Google’s love affair with content marketing usurping SEO?

I haven’t got the answer on how the objectivity of algorithms can accurately rank the quality of content but Jonathan’s article highlights how big brands with quality links are going to do well with their content marketing. As Google’s process continues to evolve and always will it does further emphasise the need to work on your community – ensuring the right content is reaching out to the right audience wherever they may be!

The Resonance Report 2013: U.S. Affluent Travel and Leisure

Good stuff. Resonance are also responsible for leading the Vancouver Tourism Master Plan. Nice to see a decent supporting site for such a plan. Not seen many.

Mobile is eating the world Lovely deck from Benedict Evans - how is your mobile strategy going?! I read 'Content Strategy for Mobile' recently - highly recommended.

3 Examples of Great Content Marketing in Competitive Verticals Great examples and no surprise it includes one from the travel sector. Lovely piece of evergreen content for Swissotel.

Digital Travel Marketing News: May 15, 2013

2013-05-14T19:50:36+00:00

Welcome to our first weekly catch up on what's happening in travel digital marketing. We'll be curating interesting articles along with our own posts and any must reads to improve your inbound marketing.

1. Travel content marketing across the funnel: Moving from IF to HOW

We're clearly big fans of content marketing and here Matthew Barker pulls together thoughts on how content specifically can be used to inform and drive the various digital channels. Very handy infographic too! Good comments incuding understandable concerns on how this applies to the travel industry.

2. A global snapshot of new and emerging trends in the luxury travel market (PDF)

30 page report commissioned for the International Luxury Travel Market Asia in December last year.

3. New Google Maps Sign-up Page Goes Live Briefly, Reveals All Sorts of New Details

Lots of new updates coming including a custom map that is seemingly suited to your likes. And revamped flight search sections.

4. The Best Free (or Cheap) Tools for Blogger and Influencer Outreach

Great resource list. We're big followers of FollowerWonk. We use SEOMoz as part of SEO armoury and Fresh Web Explorer is another recommended tool.

5. The Anatomy of a Perfect Web Page

In-depth reference for everything you need for the perfect web page. Lots of supporting imagery and acts as a great checklist.

Clearwater Website Traffic Up 125%

2013-04-26T15:31:31+00:00

We relaunched the Clearwater, Florida website early December last year.

We're very happy to share some visitor stats. For the analytics we've compared like for like periods from 04/12/2012 to 25/4/2013 (with 04/12/2011 to 25/4/2012)

Visits to the site have increased by 125%.

The percentage of new visitors has dropped by almost 20% - we're getting way more repeat visits.

We've also seen a leap in traffic from organic searches by 25%.

We've also noticed a very healthy spread of traffic sources. In the previous period, search traffic was accounting for 90% of traffic. Clearly it's not good to be too dependent on one source. For the period since launch this is nearer 55% with the remainder split almost evenly between direct and referral traffic. The number of referring sites is up by 50%.

Managing content on the old site was very cumbersome. We put a CMS in place that allows Clearwater site editors to easily update content. We worked closely with the wonderful team at Imagine Communications, who manage their marketing and public relations, and they have been able to quickly add competitions and launch mini campaign sites like Frenchy's Sugar Sand Festival.

Go check out the site or browse the case study.

Clearwater was recently voted Best Beach Town in Florida - you can see why!

Travel Brands making good use of YouTube

2013-03-18T16:18:43+00:00

Travel is a very visual medium. Promotions for destinations are normally accompanied by images that make you want to go there. A hotel with well lit room photography that almost invites you to dive in between the sheets will generate far more bookings than one with no pictures of the rooms at all.

So, if the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is true, what is video worth? With, say 30 frames per second that makes a 30 second video worth 900 pictures ... which is worth a lot of words! We look at why YouTube should definitely be part of your digital marketing strategy and share a few of our favourite examples.

YouTube – the numbers

It’s been over eight years since YouTube launched and it is now the second biggest search engine in the world. It’s bigger than Bing, Yahoo, Ask and AOL combined. With 4 billion hours of video viewed each month and 800 million monthly unique visitors it is clear that there is a huge consumer enthusiasm for watching video on the web ... and a potentially big audience for your brand.

Travel brands on YouTube

There are a number of ways that travel brands can use YouTube; inspirational, educational or just plain fun. Here are a few of our favourites.

STA Australia commissioned a video series entitled Move, Eat, Learn as part of their ‘I want to know‘ campaign. The three fantastic videos produced are definitely inspirational, creating a montage shot in 11 different countries. The videos spread like wildfire, 'Move' was number 1 on Reddit and has been shared by numerous high traffic websites including Oprah’s Blog, OK! Magazine and the Daily Mail not to mention thousands of shares via social media.

Air New Zealand have a fantastic YouTube channel. Amongst their many videos they share their in-flight safety films which have become popular thanks to their originality. The most recent offering, An Unexpected Briefing, has received over 10,500,000 views. Based on the film The Hobbit, the four minute video stars the popular character Gollum and film director Sir Peter Jackson.

For a new brand, generating trust and educating your audience about your offering are vital. Airbnb released a professional and appealing video explaining about how their business model works. With over 1.5 million views it is easy for potential customers to understand exactly what the brand is all about.

If you are an accommodation provider or hotel then share a guided tour of your facilities. We created a YouTube channel for Mahindra Homestays doing just this, receiving over 100,000 video views.

If you are an attraction then it can be great to give potential visitors a preview of what they might see. Undercover Tourist, a supplier of online discount tickets to Orlando, Florida based attractions features videos taken on rides at Disney World shot from the riders’ point of view. Visitors who have already visited the park will enjoy reliving the memories (and most importantly share with their friends) while potential visitors can see what is on offer.

You don’t need an expensive video produced to get started, you could crowdsource for video content. Brands have used big prized competitions with video entry to reach and engage users. Video shot on modern smart phones is a great starting point. The main requirement is just a bit of imagination to get your brand visible on YouTube.

If you would like more advice about getting your travel brand on YouTube please don't hesitate to drop us an email or give us a shout on Twitter.

Planning and preparing your travel blog posts: Publishing your post

2013-02-22T10:00:02+00:00

This post is part of a series on preparing your travel blog posts. In part one we looked at planning your travel blog content while part two looked at refining your post theme and choosing a title. We then covered writing and presenting your content. Today in the final part of the series we look at on-page optimisation and publishing your post.

On Page Optimisation

The technical aspects of publishing your blog post will depend on the blogging platform you are using to power it and isn’t something we are covering in the scope of this series. However if you do have a technical question about setting up and publishing blog posts then please drop us an email and we will do our best to give you some advice relevant to what you are using.

Regardless of how your are publishing your content you will need to ensure that you optimise it to best make those carefully selected keywords work for you. This definitely borders into search engine optimisation territory (and you’ll find numerous specific posts about that on this blog) but the following should be adhered to as a very general rule:

Make sure your content is linkable. Don’t lose all the great content you’ve prepared hidden in flash content or embedded in images
Include your keywords in the Title Tag and URL of the blog post
Include your keywords in the body of the text. Don’t overdo it, it is important that your copy reads naturally and you avoid keyword stuffing at all costs but make sure your text content does actually include those important words (which it should naturally if the post is about the subject!).
Include the keywords within the image alt text. Use a full sentence and describe the image, which should be related to the subject of your blog post, again making it natural to include your keywords.

When to publish your post

Deciding when to hit the publish button depends on the subject matter and your audience and their browsing habits.

Timing is very important for news-focused content that might relate to a specific activity or festival taking place within your destination. If you are writing, for example, about where to stay in a particular destination during a big festival you might want to publish it a month in advance before everywhere gets booked up. If you are writing about the best places to view the said festival from you might want to publish it the day beforehand. Think about when the content will be relevant to readers and time it accordingly.

With regards to your audience and timing make sure you consider timezones and look at peak traffic times on your website. If you know you get a huge hit of traffic around lunchtime then time your publication accordingly.

How to promote your new blog post

Once your post is published you’ll want to promote it. Make sure you plan a little time for helping to get your content out in front of as many people as possible. While this subheading is worthy of an entire blog post in its own right (watch this space!) here are a few tips to get you started:

Share each post on social media. This really should be your first step for promotion. You should be including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+ on your social sharing rounds.
You should have an RSS feed set up on your blog to automatically push new content out to those who follow it.
Submit and share your post through bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious.
Share your new content through your contacts. You might want to add your latest blog post into your email newsletters or can even email a link directly to key contacts and influencers asking for their feedback and opinion.
Visit other relevant blogs, forums and community sites and comment including a link to your blog post (even if they are a no follow link this can still help build traffic).

This concludes our series on planning and preparing your content for a travel blog. If you missed part of it please check out the previous entries:

Planning your travel blog content
Refining your post theme and choosing a title
Writing and presenting your content
Publishing and promoting your post (this post!)

If you would like more advice or would like us to develop a content plan and strategy for your own travel blog please don't hesitate to drop us an email or give us a shout on Twitter.

Planning and preparing your travel blog posts: Writing and presenting your content

2013-02-21T10:00:15+00:00

This post is part of a series on preparing your travel blog posts. In part one we looked at planning your travel blog content while part two looked at refining your post theme and choosing a title. Today we tackle arguably the most important aspect of your blog, writing and presenting your content.

Writing your travel blog content

As we’ve already said, your content is the most important part of your travel blog and it goes without saying that the most vital aspect to get right is the writing. You might have a fantastic topic with a well thought out keyword strategy but if the article itself doesn’t meet the mark in terms of quality then you won’t be able to establish a regular readership, good engagement and community around the blog.

The following are all essential:

Get the tone of your writing right. Don’t patronise your readers or turn your prose into lengthy boring tomes of text. Keep it light; after all, this is travel we are exploring. It should be fun and enjoyable. At the same time be mindful of your specific area of travel. If you are writing about high end safari trips you will want to adopt a different tone to a blog looking at US Spring Break party destinations. Your content shouldn’t read like it’s been written by a marketing specialist, it should read as if it is written by somebody enthusiastic and knowledgeable on the subject matter.
Make sure your posts are well researched and informative. Consider at the end whether there is content worth sharing. Ask yourself if a friend was considering heading to the destination you were blogging about is there something of use to them within the content that would make you send them the link. You are looking to inspire!
Make sure there are no grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. If your blog is being published in English and this is not your native language then make sure you find a native speaker to proof read the article for you.
Don’t be afraid to crowd source for ideas. If you are compiling a list of 100 best things to do in ... then ask the people who have been there what their favourite thing to do was. Crowd Sourcing is a great way to engage your social media community and if you offer credits on the blog for contributions people are more likely to read the article when it is published and share it with their friends.
Be different! Try to be original so that your post stands out from the crowd.

Presentation

It's important that all this great content is well presented. This doesn't mean the design and layout of your blog which is another (equally important) topic in itself but instead refers to how your content appears to your audience.

As a rule don't give readers very long pages of text. Keep your content well segmented in paragraphs with sub headings that are easy to scan read. Consider using bulleted lists where the content lends itself. The exception to this rule for travel blogs is personal accounts and trip reports which, when written in a friendly conversational style can often get away with being longer blocks of texts, as long as they remain engaging and the writer builds a relationship with their readers.
Make good use of images; travel bloggers are lucky that their subject matter is so visual. Even if you don’t have your own image inventory to cover a topic there are plenty of images you can find under a Creative Commons licence.
Look at different ways to present your content, for example does it lend itself to a top tips post, or a best of collection. Blog posts consisting of long lists are often popular and well shared on social media.

For more advice on writing copy for your blog or website don’t forget to check out our recent post 10 top tips for writing copy for your travel website.

Now your copy is ready to go tomorrow we will look at the final part of this series; On-page optimisation and publishing your post. Make sure you follow us on Twitter to get an alert when the last part of this series is published.

Planning and preparing your travel blog posts: Refining your post theme and choosing a title

2013-02-20T10:00:22+00:00

This post is part of a series on planning and preparing your travel blog posts. In part one we looked at planning your travel blog content. With your content plan in place it is time to turn to keyword research to refine your ideas and establish the title and keywords you will use within your blog post.

Your first step is to look at what words people might use to find the content you have planned. You'll need to so some research so use the tools available, such as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, to look at what volume of searches are being done on search engines for the themes you have come up with. You’ll be using this information to refine the title and content of your potential blog posts.

When you have a list of potential keywords for your post you'll need to take into consideration how competitive they will be to rank for. For this you will need to consider they the keyword difficulty. There are a number of resources to help you score this such as the SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty tool. Do some research for your proposed key phrases to choose one for your post that you know people are searching for, balanced out with how competitive it would be to rank for that title. At this stage you can write your blog post title along with optimisation notes for the writer, entering all this on your content plan.

Looking at an example of this process in action: For The India Travel Blog we wanted to do a blog post on the hill station of Ooty where new property inventory had become available. We looked at the sort of questions people were asking on travel forums and “areas around Ooty” and “what to see in Ooty” were common queries so within our blog plan we decided to do a post on this theme.

With the topic in mind we looked at potential keywords and found that “Places in Ooty” was a common search term and not overly competitive and thus this became the keyphrase for the post. This post now generates on average over 500 organic visits to the blog a month from search engines.

It’s important to add a note that your content is of primary importance. It is no use to select an article on the basis that the keyword/phrase generates a lot of traffic and isn’t competitive when the topic isn’t relevant. If you only remember one thing from this blog series it’s the old adage; content is king!

Tomorrow we will be looking at writing and presenting your content. Follow us on Twitter so you don't miss the next post in this series.

Planning and preparing your travel blog posts: Planning your content

2013-02-19T10:00:51+00:00

This post is the first in a series on preparing your travel blog posts. In part one we look at planning your travel blog content.

Your blog is a powerful marketing asset and planning your content in advance is essential to its success. Personal travel blogs or diaries, which are very popular and can generate a lot of traffic don’t require planning in this way as content tends to be driven by personal experience at the time of writing. However it is a mistake to approach a professional blog attached to your company in the same way.

Without a well thought out plan it is easy to miss content opportunities, allow long periods of time to elapse between posts when you are busy and for the blog as a whole to lack adhesive and relevant content. As part of our blog startegy or managament we prepare a full, detailed content plan for clients. The following offer an insight into how we approach this.

The first issue to address is the type of content you are going to cover. It is important that it doesn’t conflict with your main website offering but instead allows you to explore complementary themes and topics.

For example, if you are a tour operator with a number of tours in Argentina you won’t want to feature on your blog an information page about the same tour you have a page dedicated to on your website, putting your blog in competition with the website. Instead look at different ways of exploring the same theme. The blog could look at a personal trip account of a previous client or develop themes around the tour. For example, the best ways to eat steak in Argentina, learning to tango in Argentina, meet the horses you will ride on your Argentinian tour. You get the idea.

Brainstorm the sort of content you could cover. Think about the sort of questions your clients ask or what their key interests might be. Visit travel forums such as Lonely Planet Thorn Tree to look at the type of questions travellers are asking about your destination. Look at sites such as Pinterest and Flickr to see what images and themes seem to represent your destination to your potential audience.

Armed with this information it is time to power up Excel and start planning out your content. Consider how frequently you want to post. We recommend that for a travel blog you try and publish content at least once a week, although more frequent publishing will help only help build up your traffic. Remember that quality is always more important than quantity though and don’t attempt to build volume without the resources to ensure that every post is worthwhile.

Consider seasonality while planning. For The India Travel blog we covered areas during their peak seasons, when content was most likely to be shared. For example if you spotted a new article on Kerala when a friend was heading there in a few weeks time you would be more likely to send a link and share the post.

Equally during the off season it is a good time to post about planning your trip for the forthcoming season or looking at the advantages of off season travel. This post on Goa during the monsoons proved very popular on Facebook in particular with many people agreeing or expressing surprise at the off season opportunities.

Also consider topical events or festivals relevant and make sure you plan to cover them just before they take place or review them afterwards, perhaps as a photo essay.

We recommend planning around six months content at a time with spaces in your schedule to allow for guest blog posting or news on special offers, competition or company news. You don’t have to plan content to the day (although this can help if you are preparing posts in advance and scheduling them) but you should have an idea of what content you will be featuring each week.

When you have finished you should have a lovely big document featuring all the themes and topics you want to cover. Your next step is refining the keywords you will use for each of these articles to maximise their traffic potential.

Come back tomorrow and read about refining your post theme and choosing a title. Make sure you subscribe to our blog or sign up to our newsletter so you don't miss out!

Planning and preparing your travel blog posts

2013-02-18T14:16:49+00:00

Many companies are realising the value that a blog can bring to their online presence. We recently looked at how you can place a value on your blog traffic to help you make informed comparisons about how it performs against your other marketing campaigns and it's been shown that a popular blog can drive a great volume of high quality visitors to your site and really boost brand awareness.

There are some fantastic travel blogs out there, run both by travel companies and individuals providing inspiration and advice in equal measure. If your blog is part of your company’s digital marketing campaign then you will want to maximise its potential. Over the course of this week we will be sharing some of our top tips for planning and preparing your blog posts offering an insight into what we do in terms of blog management for some of our clients.

Make sure you subscribe to our blog or sign up to our newsletter so you don't miss out!

Tuesday: Planning your travel blog content
Wednesday: Refining your post theme and choosing a title
Thursday: Writing and presenting your content
Friday: Publishing and promoting your post

Facebook cover photo updates for January 2013

2013-01-09T16:33:18+00:00

Facebook has changed its policy relating to text overlay used on images. Now your pages’ cover photos and news feed pictures will have to limit text so that any typography is no more than 20 percent of an images total area.

This change from 15th January 2013 is because Facebook wants to prevent advertisers filling their newsfeed with images that look like adverts. The image below (courtesy of InsideFacebook.com) shows the type of image that the new regulations will no longer allow.

It is important to remember that text within logos will count towards this 20 percent limit.

Under the new rules:

Your cover images or images in adverts and sponsored stories for News Feeds must not include:

images with more than 20% text
price or purchase information
contact information
references to Facebook features (such as “Like”)
calls to action

A new tool will allow Facebook to detect images which break these guidelines and will be available for advertisers to use so that they can check their own images.

What sort of images should you use?

We recommend that travel brands make good use of destination photography on their Facebook page as fans traditionally will respond well to this sort of content. A good example is the Jetsetter Facebook page which has some great aspirational images posted on their News Feed.

Read our advice on the best ways to engage your Facebook audience.

If you want to have a chat about how you can engage better with your audience then feel free to say hello on Twitter for a chat, or if you prefer drop us an email.

New website launch for Clearwater, Florida

2013-01-04T14:18:48+00:00

Just before Christmas we were delighted to launch a new website for Clearwater, Florida. Working with Imagine Global Communications we designed and built the new website for this popular destination.

A key criteria for the new build was that the website was visually appealing and made good use of the available photography. With this in mind we incorporated full screen photographic backgrounds and large headers throughout the site to show off the beautiful sites of Clearwater.

You can read the full case study to find out more about the project or take a look at the Visit Clearwater, Flordia website and take a look for yourself!

Placing a value on your organic website traffic

2012-12-17T11:19:11+00:00

When you are looking at your website statistics and planning your marketing spend it is a useful exercise to place a value on your content and organic traffic. A great way to do this is to calculate the media value of your organic traffic as if you had paid for each click. This allows you to make comparisons on your return from SEO campaigns against paid search campaigns.

As an example we will look at The India Travel blog which we set up for client Mahindra Homestays. The objective behind developing the blog was to create a content rich site that enables us to target a wide range of India travel related keywords, providing a great travel resource to visitors and delivering a steady stream of referral traffic to the main booking portal. The blog has also become a community place where people can ask questions, post their own travel stories and make enquiries about booking a holiday.

The India Travel Blog has proven to be a great success and you can read more about its development in our case study. It now attracts over 15,000 non-paid visits a month and ranks on the first page of Google for numerous, competitive targeted keywords.

To place a value on this organic traffic we compare with what it would cost to achieve this in a pay per click campaign. First we look at the analytics for the website and export spreadsheets for the top 100 organic keywords in three visitor categories, India, UK and rest of the world. You will want to split your visitor categories depending on your target audience and visitor demographic as the PPC cost will vary between regions.

After extracting this information it is time to turn to Google where you can use the keyword tool to give you an approximate CPC search value for each of your keywords. For example, running a campaign targeting UK visitors with the term “things to do in delhi” will cost an estimated £0.47 per click.

In Excel create a spreadsheet with columns for your keyword, demographic, the estimated CPC for the keyword / demographic combination and finally your site visits per month for that term. Multiply your visits by the estimated CPC to give a media value for that particular keyword.

For the India Travel Blog we used the top 500 keywords for India, 100 keywords for UK and 100 keywords for rest of the world to give us a good baseline relevant to the targeted audience groups.

As with most SEO campaigns a lot of the traffic we have built up comes from long tail keyword searches so to calculate an overall media spend valuation we have to use an average CPC of organic visits for the rest of the traffic outside the top keywords. This we calculate using an average of the estimated CPC looking at all 700 keywords we have already run data for.

The results for The India Travel Blog are great. Since its launch it has generated organic search engine traffic worth over £55,000 had that traffic been part of a CPC advertising campaign. It continues to generate over £3,000 worth of CPC traffic every month.

By creating this sort of comparison and looking at the media value of your organic traffic it is possible to get some really great insights into the value of your campaigns and drive forward your content strategies. From a search engine optimisation perspective it can help you determine which pages are your most valuable and what your top-performing content is, giving you a good indication where further optimisation is required.

If you would like to discuss the development of a travel blog or your search engine optimisation please get in touch.

Top 5 ways to engage your Facebook audience

2012-06-22T16:15:33+00:00

Building page likes for your Facebook page is one aspect of your social media strategy but engaging with those fans once you’ve acquired them is even more important. While you can utilise sponsored posts or adverts effectively there are a number of tricks you should also be using. Here are our top five ways to engage your Facebook audience.

1. A picture is worth a thousand words

Look at the type of content you are posting on your timeline and analyse what gets the most likes, shares and comments. The chances are you will see that photos often get more attention than links or text comments as they stand out better on people’s feeds.

This is great new for travel brands where good destination or brand photography is already an essential part of your marketing toolkit.

A great example of using photo posts to engage fans can be seen from two recent posts we published on client Mahindra Homestays timeline. Promoting a weekly competition to win a holiday, we posted a link to contest one week which while attracting a lot of entries only achieved four likes.

For the contest the following week we posted a photo and included a link to the competition in the description. Within 48 hours this post had 308 likes and 39 shares.

Similar patterns of increase likes can also be seen with normal blog posts we promote, with posts shared via a photo upload (and blog link in the description) attracting a higher number of likes than those which are shared via a link and thumbnail.

There is too much of a good thing so don’t only use photos to promote content. While they do stand out more you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with daily photo posts; use other types of updates mixed in with them to keep a balance.

2. Imagine you are having a conversation

Then you engage your audience imagine that you are having a conversation with them. It is very hard to build a rapport with somebody when you are just talking to and not with them.

One of the easiest ways to start a conversation is to ask a question relevant to the content you are promoting. For example, ask your audience what their favourite attraction within a particular destination is, see if they have any tips of things to do in a particular location, find out what their favourite travel experiences are. You can even go for a simple yes or no answer or use a post as an opportunity to get opinion on things relevant to your business.

3. Include a call to action

In a similar vein to asking a question, if you want to engage your audience then tell them what you want them to do.

For example, it can be very effective to ask people to “Like” this if you …

Keep it very simple and don’t overuse asking your audience to like something, but time it right with something emotive and you can generate a lot of activity for your page.

4. Run a competition

Running a competition is a great way to offer your fans something while allowing you to build valuable brand engagement.

It’s important that any competition you run through Facebook falls within their regulations for running a contest, which means primarily that you must administer the competition outside of Facebook (primarily they can’t enter by way of a comment or like and you can’t use Facebook to contact the winner so will need to collect their data via a separate entry form).

You can make it a requirement that people have to like your page to enter and the best way to do this is to set up a fan-gated entry form.

With a contest set up you can link to the entry form and start a conversation about it on your timeline. Again you can use questions to create a conversation, for example if you are offering a holiday ask people who they would take.

5. Timing your posts

You might have something fantastic to share but it won’t be seen by the majority of your audience if you choose the wrong time to post it.

The majority of Facebook users will check their updates before work, lunchtime and after work making these ideal times to post an update. Of course for travel brands you might have to take into account multiple timezones so check your fanbase demographic and plan accordingly.

For example, client Mahindra Homestays have a large number of fans in India with smaller but still significant numbers in the UK and US. Looking at the best times to reach this audience it’s possible to reach the US audience before work, the UK audience on their lunch breaks and the Indian audience after work all at the same time.

While you can schedule your Facebook posts within Facebook to appear on a certain day there are limitations if you want to pick a particular time for your post to appear on your timeline. However, a number of third party applications are able to help with this. Hootsuite will allow you to schedule posts at a time of your choosing, but won’t allow you to schedule photo posts with wall pictures. Buffer is another popular option that will select a post from a pool you create and publish them between certain times of the day.

If you want to have a chat about how you can engage better with your audience then feel free to say hello on Twitter for a chat, or if you prefer drop us an email.

Find out more about our work with Mahindra Homestays social media campaigns.

10 top tips for writing copy for your travel website

2012-05-21T11:01:03+00:00

For any travel brand your website is likely to be your most important marketing asset. The copy on your website needs to connect with visitors, engage them to stay on your page, provide them with the information they need and convert them to your brand.

Here are some key points you should adhere to when writing copy for your site.

1. Keep it short

Keep your copy concise and make sure you stay focused. Remember that the majority of visitors to your site will only scan read, looking at sub-headings and lists before deciding if they want to read the copy.

This is important for ‘product’ or ‘sales’ pages but within the travel sector there is one exception; your travel blog. Feel free to wax lyrical about your destination in a little more depth in this instance - as long as the article is engaging and follows the remaining guidelines.

2. Divide it Up

Keep your copy organised. Break it into short paragraphs that can be consumed individually by readers scanning the page quickly.

When in doubt if you can put the information into a list, either bulleted or numbered, you should do.
Structure is welcomed, and whether you are using numbers in your headline or in a list it’s been shown that they engage the mathematical part of the brain, making content more appealing.

3. Focus on headlines

Headlines and subheadings will draw your readers in. Headline formulas such as “who-what-why” work for a good reason; they have been tried and tested to engage readers.

A good rule of thumb is that no block of copy should be longer than 300 words without its own subheading to explain exactly what the reader is getting into.

4. Be informative

Your readers have visited your page to find specific information. Unlike the publishing world they aren’t flicking through a magazine or newspapers, meandering through articles they only have a moderate interest in over a morning coffee.

Ask yourself why they are on that page, and give them the information they are looking for. Do they want to know what facilities your hotel offers (give them a bulleted list). Perhaps you are a destination and they want to know the best way to reach you; offer clear instructions with a map.

5 Write for your readers

It’s not just about offering information, it is about tailoring it for your specific reader. Understand your typical visitors profile and what they are interested in. For example if you are a hotel and your primary clientele are individuals on business trips, talk about business facilities. If your clientele are senior citizens highlight your premises accessibility.

However, don’t patronise your target audience or try and write with a forced or false style you think they will identify with. However, do understand their key interests and online behaviours.

6. Choose your words carefully

Think about the wording you use in your copy and bear in mind the following recommendations:

Don’t use excessive descriptive words for informative copy (save them for your destination blog)
Use positive words (“we always have sunshine” instead of “we never have rain”)
Use short, common words (“we use” instead of “we utilize”)
Don’t use passive phrases, keep your copy active; use a lively voice
Avoid introductory phrases (instead of “due to the fact” … use “because”)

7. Be visual

For the travel industry, perhaps more than any other; a picture really can be worth a thousand words. Use visuals; incorporate photo and video to offer information.

8. Stand out

Create an emotional connection with your audience, don’t be afraid to let some of your brand's personality shine through.

9. Don’t forget SEO

You might have some killer copy you’ve written but it is no use unless it is visible on search engines. Make sure your copy is well optimised and your carefully researched keywords are used both in your headings and copy text.

At the same time remember there is nothing worse for a reader than an over optimised block of copywriting for travel websites. When you are copywriting for travel websites you’re writing for the reader, not the search engine so don’t overdo the keywords on your copywriting for travel websites.

As the last paragraph should illustrate, be mindful as to how your writing affects SEO, but don't let SEO affect your writing.

10. Have a clear call to action

You should have a goal in mind for each page of your site. It might simply be that your visitors heads to another page - so give them a clear link (perhaps a related article). You might want them to get in touch with you (send them to a contact form or give them an email). You might be steering them towards making a booking, printing out a voucher, signing up to an email database. Whatever your goal is, make sure there is a way they can accomplish it with a clear direction.

If you want to chat about the copy on your site then get in touch, either drop us an email or give us a shout on Twitter @dottourism. We can offer a copy review for your site or give you advice on creating new content.

Essential visual elements to update for the new Facebook timeline for pages

2012-03-14T14:15:16+00:00

At the end of this month all Facebook pages will be automatically be updated to use the new Timeline style design.

This brings in some fairly significant changes to the way that your page will look so it is vital to make the necessary updates before the 30 March 2012. We take you through the essential visual elements you will need to pay attention to.

1. Cover Image

The first thing you will need to do is add a cover image for your page. This is a great change and really allows you to make a visual impact. Your new image needs to be 850px x 315 px wide and should be a good representation of your brand.

There are a few rules that Facebook are enforcing, preventing brands from using this space as an advertising billboard. No price or purchase information, no contact information and no call to action. You can’t tell people to like or share the page with text embedded in your cover image.

For travel brands there is a great opportunity to use some inspirational destination photography in this space.

The old profile (above) changes to the new look (below).

2. Profile image size

Moving down the page the next element to attend to is the profile image. Many pages were previously making use of a skyscraper banner in this space. Now you will have a square that is 180px x 180px but it is important to note that it will be scaled down to 32px x 32px on posts. Best practice is to use your logo here.

3. About Description

The about section is now much more prominent, sitting neatly under your profile image on the left hand side. This now accepts up to 170 characters giving you a bit more space to push a promotional message or let people know how to reach you in a prominent spot on the page.

Note if your page is set up as a local business your local information will be shown in this space instead.

4. Tab or application icons

The good news is that your tab buttons are now much more visible, sitting on the right underneath your cover image. The bad news is that you can only have four on view at once and one of these has to be photos.

You can choose your own icon for these new tab or application icons, and at 107px x 70px these allow you to create a call to action.

5. Tabs within your page

If you have tabs set up within your page you will need to note that the width of these has been increased to 810 pixels. Unfortunately Facebook are no longer allowing (at the present time) for you to choose one of your tabs as the default landing page for visitors.

6. Your post / timeline layout

There are lots of changes to the page which affect how your posts, and others, will appear on the page. Updating your page frequently becomes far more important as it will be obvious to visitors if there have been no posts for a while.

There are the options to highlight posts which will expand them across both columns and you can choose to bump old posts back up to the top of your page by pinning them to the top.

Aside from the visual elements that the new timeline introduces, there are plenty of new admin options to get to grip with and exciting new features such as the ability for people to privately message your page. While your first task should be addressing the visual changes discussed in this post, make sure you read up on the other changes that this new update will introduce before the end of the month.

If you need help updating your Facebook visuals get in touch and we would be happy to help.

Do email list rentals work?

2012-02-23T12:16:43+00:00

One question we get asked quite frequently is whether email list rentals actually work. For companies or organisations with no database, or entering into a new market area, the idea of a list rental is very appealing. But many people perceive list rentals as not very effective, with a low ROI. We look at how you can make them work and share some excellent results achieved using them.

Roll back a decade and email list rental was very popular. For companies with no database of their own, list rentals offered a seemingly readymade solution to reach their audience. But as the volume of emails being sent and received each day increased, audiences turned off to what they saw as unsolicited spam and diminishing results have turned many marketers away from pursuing list rental options. However, despite having a bad name email list rentals can and do work.

We’ve found that for many clients email list rentals not only work, but can be an excellent first step in building up their own database. However, it’s essential that any list rental campaign is approached intelligently, backed by careful research with clear goals and expectations in mind.

Sourcing a list

Unfortunately there are far more “bad” lists than good ones out there. It’s critical that you work with reputable data houses who manage their data carefully. You need to ensure that any data you are using has been sourced responsibly and that recipients have opted in to receive emails from third parties. Ask how frequently the database is mailed to and check what their bounce policy is.

Targeting

Think carefully about your target audience and ensure you build up a targeting criterion for your mailing.

For example, for client Sun Country Airlines who were launching a new service from London Gatwick to Minneapolis, USA we came up with a number of criteria we felt needed to be met. Firstly we wanted consumers with an interest in travel to America and we combined this with a geographical preference of living in the South East UK, thus within a reasonable journey time to Gatwick.

For SriLankan Airlines we opted for similar preferences, looking at people interested in long haul / exotic travel destinations, living in the South of England but also earning over £30,000 per annum as we wanted to push their affordable business class fares.

Purpose and Design

It is vital that when you undertake a list rental that the mailing has a purpose. Don’t merely use the rental to send out your regular email. The design of your email should be short, clear with a strong call to action.
Your primary goal should be to convert people on the rental database to your own. Include a competition, free gift or any other incentivised call to action that encourages people to sign up to receive future mailings from you.

For example, our email list rental for SriLankan Airlines was focused around a competition to win an exotic, long-haul holiday. Recipients were quick to share their email address with us for the chance to enter.
For Sun Country Airlines we encouraged people to share their details by offering them the chance to be the first to receive exclusive fare deals and competition news. While not as strong as incentive, carefully designed landing pages which were split tested still encouraged a database sign up conversion rate of 8.62%.

Expectations

It’s important to have realistic expectations when doing a list rental. Your own database allows you to build up a relationship with recipients and we often see open rates of over 30% and click through rates of over 45% for some of the emails we manage.

This isn’t a realistic expectation for list rentals, where advised averages are 8-10% open rates and 1-2% click through rates. In our experience it is possible to achieve more with a strong creative, clear offer and optimised landing page (we’ve achieved open rates of 28% and a click through rates of 17% on list rentals).

Having your own, well managed list will always be the best form of email marketing. But when looking to increase your audience reach don’t be put off by the negativity surrounding email list rentals as they can, and do work very effectively when approached and managed well.

If you would like to find out more about our managed tourism and travel email list rentals then get in touch.

Guest blogging – building your online presence

2012-01-16T09:00:05+00:00

Two key elements of search engine optimisation is that firstly content is king, and secondly people need to link to your content. Developing a relationship with bloggers is mutually beneficial and can help you achieve both linking and content development goals.

The need for new content

It is vital to keep developing the content on your site, adding new, relevant material. At the start of November Google announced that they had released a new “freshness” update impacting around 35% of searches, prioritising recent and new content. Much of the content that gets prioritised revolves around news or events and it underlines the need to be current and up-to-date with fresh content on your site.

What is guest blogging?

Guest blogging offers the ideal opportunity to increase relevant content on your site. It is a mutually beneficial relationship whereby the publisher gains content and link referrals and the author gets prominence and back links from another site.

There are two main ways you can approach this:

Post exchange – You exchange posts with each other, so the blogger will send you an article, for example a personal account on a recent trip they have taken which relates to your destination and in return they will host on their blog an article by you, for example a travel guide to the destination you cover. Both articles credit the author and link back to each other’s site. You both get new content and links.
Content supply – You ask the guest blogger to provide you with some content relevant to your site, which you publish, credited to them. You may in exchange ask that they promote the content they have written on their blog and to their social media audience. In this instance you get some content and inbound link, and they get the promotion on your site.

The real benefits of guest blogging

Engaging and working with bloggers is a great thing to do on many levels. It can help you raise your profile and reputation amongst the community but the real benefit comes from the search engine optimisation bonus that can arise from a good, sustained guest blogging campaign.

Aside from the benefit of lots of lovely fresh content for your site, you will be developing a strong link profile, and the guest blogging back link is one of the best types to pursue.

Firstly, it will be highly relevant to what you do. If it is on a page with the content you have written then you can ensure that the page is highly relevant to the link you are benefitting from. As the page will most likely be a blog or news style page there are unlikely to be vast quantities of other links (as opposed to a link directory) giving higher relevance to your own important link.

As you do more post exchanges you will develop a good diversity of different domains linking from you, which will help you develop a really strong link profile.

How do I find blogs to exchange posts with?

Finding blogs to exchange with can be time consuming. The best way to start is to find blogs that post articles on topics which are related to what you do. So, for example for client Mahindra Homestays we approach travel bloggers who have been to or are based in India and regularly write about travel.

However, you can be creative and reach out to other audiences as well, as long as you can supply relevant content. So we might look at cookery blogs and offer a guest post exchange of Indian recipes.

Google is the best place to get started when it comes to identifying potential blogs. The following keyphrases give you an idea of the sort of searches that can be helpful:

[keyword] blog
intitle:[keyword] blog
[keyword] guest writer
[keyword] submit content
[keyword] guest blogger

Aside from searching for new blogs don’t forget to check your own RSS feed, you may already have a list of relevant sites to target.

Comments both on your own and other blogs can be a valuable source of finding potential new partners. The fact that they are commenting shows they have an active voice and interest in the community so join in the discussion and check out their links.

Building up relationships

Once you have found some potential blogs you would like to work with, you need to build up a relationship with the blogger behind the domain. Follow them on various social media channels and engage in conversation. Link to and share their content, comment on their posts and get to know them. This is a genuine relationship you are entering into so engage openly and broach the subject of guest blogging in a thoughtful way. Suggest a topic that would be relevant to you both and if they are happy to proceed you’ll soon have a guest blogger exchange and all the benefits that come with it.

If you are interested in having a guest blog post from us on your site, on the travel and tourism marketing subjects we cover, please drop us a line at hello@dottourism.com - we can't wait to start building a relationship with you!

Seven New Year Marketing Resolutions

2012-01-10T17:36:21+00:00

The start of a new year is always a good time to reflect on your overall marketing strategy and plan what you can. Here is a quick list of some marketing new year’s resolutions to adopt.

1. Get an SEO audit done for your site. Use this to establish priorities for improving your search ranking. An in-depth audit should look at your entire site in detail, weigh up your strengths and weaknesses and establish a strategy.

2. Make the most of your social media profile. If you spent recent years building up a following then make this year the one to really engage with them. Look at different benefits you can offer followers and establish (or build upon) your voice in the community.

3. Overhaul your database of contacts. If you have a large database and send our regular emails then make this year’s strategy all about targeting. Look at segmenting your lists based on users interests, find out what makes them tick and tailor your message towards individuals. It might be time consuming but you will see the results speak for themselves.

4. Establish an online presence. Look for guest blogging opportunities to talk about your area of expertise, do some online networking and raise your online presence in the process.

5. Embrace Google. If you have a location based business (like a tour company or hotel) make sure you are listed on Google places. If you haven’t already, it might be time to set up a Google + page for your company.

6. Think mobile. If you haven’t already, review your website on a mobile device. More and more travellers are making bookings, checking reservations and researching what to do while being on the go. Make sure that your information is optimised no matter how your visitors are accessing it.

7. Increase your content inventory. Review your current online content and then plan to increase it. Content remains king so don’t neglect it. Putting out fresh content will keep search engines happy and visitors engaged. It is worth investing in your content and planning for a detailed content strategy as part of your marketing plans.

Need help keeping you your resolutions or got some you think we should add to this list? Drop us a line at hello@dottourism.com.

Why People Are Leaving - Email Exit Surveys

2011-12-13T09:57:56+00:00

One of your most valuable marketing assets is your email database. The people on this database will generally fall into one of two categories; existing customers or people who have expressed an interest but have yet to act. Both of these groups are important for travel and tourism marketing.

Treat your database with care

Existing customers have the potential to become repeat bookers, especially in travel marketing where after a great trip many people choose to return to the same destination. They also have the potential to become ambassadors for your destination and recommendations from friends and family has been proven to rank high as a motivator for people when planning their next holiday. Those who have yet to convert but have expressed an interest may be in the process of planning a trip and are valuable leads for future conversion.

Minimise database loss

Having established the importance of your database it’s key that you maintain it, which means minimising any loss through email marketing. It is very easy to lose customers to the unsubscribe button on an email but essential that you manage this.

This doesn’t mean making it hard to unsubscribe! Following regulations means that every person you communicate with have to be given an easy option of opting out of receiving any further communication from you. However, understanding why people are leaving will help stop any mistakes you are making with your message and maintain the integrity of your database.

Setting up an exit survey

Setting up an exit survey which ties into the unsubscribe link on your email can give you valuable data about why people are choosing to opt out, allowing you to rethink and adjust your strategy and message if needed.

When a user clicks on the unsubscribe link, on the page where they normally just get a confirmation that they have successfully unsubscribed we can embed a short survey. The key here is to keep it short, friendly and something which the user can complete in just a few seconds.
At this point they have unsubscribed and we just want to find out why, we aren’t trying to convince them to stay.

What should I ask them?

The most common reasons people might opt out of your list is that they get too many emails, and not necessarily from you. People are getting choosier and only keeping the emails that interest them most. Other common reasons include repetitive and boring content, irrelevant messages, not remembering signing up in the first place and subscribing for a one time offer

With travel marketing people may choose to opt out after they have been to a destination if they don’t plan to return or their circumstances may have changed – that month long adventure trip to a remote location they were planning a few years ago may have turned into a family holiday with children.

Plan your questions carefully, in a way that will help you learn from the results. Are people no longer interested because they don’t plan to visit your destination or are they no longer interested because your emails are boring?

What you can learn from this

Exact Target published some findings earlier this year on why people unsubscribe. Overuse of email was the biggest reason with 54% of consumers opting out when emails come too frequently from a particular brand while 46% unsubscribe because they’re overwhelmed by email in general. If people are leaving because of the latter you need to ensure your content is more engaging and relevant than anything else in their inbox.

Image from the Exact Target Social Break Up Report

You may find that people are leaving because they no longer see the content as relevant. Exact Target found that 49% of people unsubscribe due to boring or repetitive content. It is important to look and see which stories generate the best response on your newsletter and to use this information to develop a content strategy to keep content fresh and varied.

It may be that your results lead you to split your database. The more targeted and relevant an email is, the better the response and engagement will be. Consider two versions where people who have already travelled with you / to your destination can engage in one way, for example inviting comments and advice based on their experiences, creating brand ambassadors. And those who have yet to convert get a different message leading them towards that all important booking.

Of course sometimes people leave as they are genuinely no longer interested in what you do, and in this case their departure simply makes your database more relevant and current.

It is more far more effective to reach out to your current database with offers than to market to the unknown so setting an exit survey could give you valuable insight into any mistakes you are making with your email marketing, allowing you to make changes and preserve your database.

If you would like to chat about the best ways to implement an exit survey say hi on Twitter @dottourism or drop us a line.

Hotmail changes inbox newsletter management

2011-10-07T12:36:53+00:00

This week Hotmail have announced changes in the way in which they will deal with email categorisation and are declaring war on “graymail”.

Graymail is a term being used to describe emails which people have subscribed to but don’t necessarily want to receive. While many recipients may mark this as spam, for others it is a message that they want to read. Unlike emails offering cheap medication or free money from Nigeria, these emails aren’t spam, despite the fact that 75% of Hotmail users are flagging them as such. The graph below shows a breakdown of what is in the average inbox.

Image credit: The Windows Blog

The main issue that Hotmail are looking to help users with, is that person to person email accounts for only 14% of a typical inbox with more than half the mail received being newsletters or deals. This makes it difficult for people to keep track of important messages they want to receive. To combat this Hotmail are introducing new features to help people manage their emails.

New newsletter categories

As the name implies emails which are identified as newsletters will be now be categorised as such. Previously they introduced new categories, such as social updates, allowing better filtering options for users.

What does this mean for your email newsletters? It is not a bad thing, many users will continue to check mail without filtering by categories and for those who do it may make your mailings easier to find.

One-click unsubscribe

Hotmail are aiming to make things easier to unsubscribe from mailings – with one click you can tell Hotmail to inform the sender you wish to unsubscribe, delete old newsletters and send any future mailings straight to the junk email. Again this isn’t overtly negative as you should be making it easy for somebody to unsubscribe anyway!

If you use unsubscribe exit surveys normally then users won’t get to see this which is one downfall, and of course there is a danger users can get click happy and work through their inbox unsubscribing when normally they wouldn’t have done.

Of course as long your email marketing messages are engaging and of interest then this feature shouldn’t impact too negatively on your list, and may serve to improve your email statistics as a whole, weeding out disinterested recipients and pushing future open and click through rates up.

Schedule Cleanup

Another new feature allows people to keep their inbox more organised by giving users clean up options which include only keeping the latest message from a sender or deleting newsletters after a period of time. For email marketers sending out regular offers this is a positive thing, making sure your most recent and up-to-date messages are the ones being seen.

You can check out a video of Schedule Cleanup in action along with other new features being introduced by Hotmail on their own blog post.

Meet us at the World Travel Market

2011-10-03T08:09:08+00:00

The World Travel Market is one of the most important events for the travel industry, last year over 47,000 industry participants attended and for us it is a great chance to catch up with clients and industry friends.

This year the event runs from 07 – 10 November at its usual home ExCeL in London.

Here are a few of our tips for surviving what is sure to be a hectic few days and making the best of your time:

1. Plan ahead!
It is always busy and frantic trying to catch people on their stands so making some appointments in advance can help cut down on wasted time and ensure you get to talk to all the people you need to.

2. Get contact mobile numbers
People run late or you might have trouble locating them. You need to get in touch but only have their office number ... Ask if it is okay to grab a mobile number for the event so if you do have any trouble you can get in touch easily.

3. Arm yourself with plenty of business cards
You will use these up at an astonishing rate so make sure you pack plenty!

4. Keep a pen handy
Meeting with so many people it can be hard to remember what you were discussing with who. Keep a pen handy to jot down a few notes on the back of their business card to make it easy to recall the conversation and any promised follow up actions afterwards.

5. Wear comfortable shoes
ExCeL is a big venue and you will cover a lot of ground. Make sure you have comfortable footwear otherwise you will feel every step of the 100,000 square metre floor space for weeks afterwards!

6. Stay healthy
With lots of rushing about it is easy to neglect your health. Make sure you are armed with water, paracetamol (or your drug of choice) and plenty of change for coffee and chocolate depending on which type of pick-me-up you need at various points of the day

If you are going to be at the WTM and would like to meet up please let us know. Whether you have a digital marketing project you would like some help with or just want to say hi we would love to have a chat. Our meeting diary does get full quite quickly so either drop us an email or fill out the form below so we can arrange a day and time to suit you.

Project Insight: Blog integration for Mahindra Homestays website

2011-09-26T09:46:52+00:00

The Indian Travel blog which we set up and manage for Mahindra Homestays has turned into a great resource for travellers with plenty of destination based advice and tips. With the launch of the new site we wanted to integrate this great blog content into the destination sections, giving visitors plenty of helpful trip planning information.

To ensure that visitors were seeing the most relevant information we created an individual feed for each destination and embedded this within the corresponding destination section on the new site.

With over 50 destinations covered on the main site, visitors will be able to see the blog posts which are relevant to their searches. The multiple feeds will ensure that the main site is constantly updated with the newest information automatically.

We chose to use Feedburner to set up and manage the large number of different feeds. This gave us flexibility to determine what aspects of the posts were being pulled onto the page, where the feeds were styled with their own CSS class to match the look and feel of the site.

The blog has also been integrated on the home page and within the footer. These do not use destination specific feeds but instead pull in the most recent posts. This keeps visitors to the site informed about all the other great blog content such as general travel tips, Indian culture and heritage and our regular photography competitions.

The blog delivers a steady stream of engaged and highly motivated visitors to the main portal, with plenty of opportunities within posts for visitors to link back to the relevant homestay booking pages, without being overly biased or commercial. Creating a better tie up between the two is great for visitors planning a trip and the integration has already seen increased referral traffic for both sites.

Read about the full case study.

Project Insight: Design for new Mahindra Homestays website

2011-09-19T08:00:43+00:00

After we had completed the wireframe for the Mahindra Homestays website re-development project (which you can read about here) we moved onto the actual design of the site. This is a really exciting phase of the website development as you start to get an idea of what the finished site will look like.

Prior to starting the design we take the time to write up a full design brief for the project. This helps everyone involved focus on important elements of the project which will have an impact on the ultimate look and feel of the site.

Our design brief normally includes a company profile to look at the positioning of the brand, analysis of their current market situation, details on brand charter or style guidelines, analysis of the target market and specific design notes relating to style, typography and colour.

It is also useful to do an inventory of assets at this point. In travel, imagery is of particular importance so taking stock of what the client has available and planning to commission or research stock photography to fill in any gaps is important. We catalogued over 500 images which were required for the site, as early image management saves time later on and we knew we would be using images in the design phase which would later be used on the site.

In many projects we take responsibility for the brand and logo development, in which case we will create our own brand guidelines which the client can then share with anybody involved in any design work in the future. For Mahindra Homestays this already existed and so careful reference to their brand charter was required, with specific guidelines to adhere to in terms of colour, font and logo usage.

The design brief enables us to look at the message that we want to get across on the site. For Mahindra it was essential that the new website was able to reassure visitors about the safety and integrity of the Mahindra brand, installing confidence to make an online booking.

With the wireframe giving us a clear direction on the layout and positioning of all the key site elements we started on the design of the homepage. We knew we wanted to incorporate strong imagery with the strong brand colours to highlight the all important accommodation search function on the site.

We carried on the same colour usage to the footer, adding textured details inspired by and simplified from traditional Indian design seen on elaborate fabrics and henna tattoos.

At each stage of the design process we were feeding pages back to the Mahindra Homestays marketing team giving them opportunity to provide feedback and to ensure they were happy we were keeping within brand guidelines.

There were several design elements that had to be tacked individually, such as the icons on the homestay detail pages to represent the available facilities.

With the wireframe to guide us we continued to work through the site, taking the plain page layout and creating the design using the strong brand colours and imagery. By the time the design phase was complete we had created over 60 pages as layered PSDs ready to be coded as page templates for the finished site.

Read about the full case study.

Getting your email campaigns opened

2011-09-14T16:34:34+00:00

There are several elements to a successful email marketing campaign, refresh your memory with some of our own top emarketing tips and don't forget to download our free infographic on email design.

However, you can get almost every element of your campaign perfectly optimised and primed for conversion but fail at the first hurdle; the subject line.

There are two vital aspects that must be right before the rest of your carefully crafted email is even seen:

Your subject line mustn't set off spam filters landing your message in the junk folder.
Your subject line needs to shout open me to your recipient so that your message doesn't end up in deleted items!

Beating the spam filter

Looking at the first aspect, spam filters are tricky things and the rules are always changing. Most importantly make sure you avoid words and phrases that will instantly flag your mailing as spam. Some of these are fairly obvious and hopefully you aren't planning to use words like viagra or cheap meds in your travel broadcast.

Some less obvious phrases also can set the spam filters on high alert, try to be creative and avoid terms such as huge deals, holiday savings and % off especially in conjunction with other flags for spam filters such as the use of dollar symbols, exclamation points and over excitable language or excessive use of caps. "INCREDIBLE HOLIDAY DEALS $$$ OFF" will almost certainly see your message consigned to junk (and will most likely alienate any users who stumble across it there!).

Be creative with your subject line, think about the message you want to get across and be creative with the way that you say it.

Instead of:
INCREDIBLE HOLIDAY DEALS $$$ OFF

Try split tests along the following lines:
Great savings on unforgettable holidays
Amazing deals - holidays from £200
Huge savings on holidays

Of course getting past the spam filters is only half the battle. You need your recipients to open the email as well before your message is seen in all its glory.

Getting your email opened

Writing great subject lines is an art form but there are a few general rules you can follow:

Keep it short, less than 50 characters is the general advice
Personalise your subject line where possible, if you are promoting Italian holidays to an audience you know are interested in Italy make sure you get the country line in the subject line.
Make your information timely - if you are sending out information about late availability for October holidays at the end of September, mention the month in the subject line.
Make it sound useful. For example 10 top travel tips, India destination guides, travel photography tips ... if it sounds like something that contains information your recipients want to read they will open it. Don't use vague teasers, tell them what's inside.
Keep it fresh. Using the same killer subject line that got a great response time and time again will lead to a drop in open rates. By all means keep continuity (and your from line should establish this) but use a new subject line for each broadcast.

Keeping your booking system fast and simple

2011-09-14T14:59:01+00:00

For any travel brand with an online booking facility, it is vital that it is fast and easy to make a reservation. Complicated forms, fiddly calendars and unclear pricing will all deter customers, leading to a higher dropout rate through the booking funnel.
In our recent redesign for Mahindra Homestays we tightened up the booking process considerably, streamlining it into four quick reservation steps.

Since the launch of the new site we have seen a three-fold increase in the number of people who complete their reservation having started the first step, leading to a considerable increase in online bookings.

Taking the simple and quick reservation even further is Hotels.com. They have released a video to promote their new booking app which shows sportsman JT Holmes jumping out of a plane, making a reservation while falling from 15,000 feet and then landing at the hotel he has just booked!

Gary Arndt from Everything Everywhere was at Lake Tahoe to watch the filming and confirmed that the booking really was made while in freefall and the people seen on the video on the beach as he lands were genuine guests. The video has been very popular and Hotels.com state that its mobile apps have been downloaded over a million times.

Project Insight: Wireframe Development for new Mahindra Homestays website

2011-09-08T10:07:30+00:00

Following the research and discovery period of the Mahindra Homestays website re-development project (which you can read about here) we moved on to wireframing.

What is a wireframe?

A wireframe is essentially a visual, working representation of the website’s layout, a prototype for the finished development. It contains all the important elements such as page layout and the navigation structure. It doesn’t contain finished design elements but allows you to test the navigation, see how content will fit onto the page and establish the user experience.

A wireframe does:
-   Allow you to develop and test site navigation
-   Refine user interface elements such as forms
-   Lay content out onto the page and see how it will all fit together
-   Study the usability and visitor journey
-   Plan for the later programming requirements

A good wireframe makes for an efficient project

A wireframe is far easier to amend than a fully developed website and without design elements it helps to focus the attention on the all important layout and structure.

Even on very small projects we always plan for a wireframe phase as it allows clients to see the site objectively and make changes to the project at a stage when they will be quick to integrate, rather than later on in a development when it might be too late.

Wireframe for Mahindra Homestays

We started the project by looking at the most important visitor journeys through the site, identifying which pages would be key in moving from a search to a booking.

The current site homestay search functions could be frustrating for visitors so we wanted to develop a number of ways that visitors could homestays which matched their travel requirements and started on looking at the various search options.

The above screenshot shows the search by interest page at an early stage of the wireframe process. You can compare this to the finished page on the live site to see while the overall design looks very different, the basic structure is essentially the same.

We spent several months developing a full, interactive wireframe for the site, making several tweaks and changes as we gathered feedback from the client and used the prototype for usability testing.

We can look at a specific example of how the wireframe developed.

In this early version of the destination overview page we had a much larger image. We were keen that the site was image lead as India is a beautiful destination and good photography creates a very strong urge to visit factor in travel marketing. We wanted to avoid having an image which was too panoramic so as to limit the choice of shots, however, it became very apparent that the important content was being pushed below the page fold.

A second issue you see highlighted in the screenshot above was the alignment of the top sub-menu. Once a guest had logged in there was insufficient room to add the additional customer specific menu options without messily moving the whole menu across.

We solved these issues by reducing the image depth and moving the top menu to the left hand side, allowing space after the guest login section for additional menu options to open up into. On a wireframe these changes took minutes to implement, but at a later stage in the development could have wasted valuable project time.

You can see how these wireframe pages ended up on the finished site below.

A wireframe really does give the client the opportunity to provide plenty of feedback allowing issues to be addressed at an early stage.

Moving forward we knew that the technical site integration would be done by Mahindra Homestays own in house web team and a working prototype wireframe offered great guidance for the final site build.

Read about the full case study.

Project Insight: Research for new Mahindra Homestays website

2011-09-01T14:16:02+00:00

In a series of blog posts we will be taking a look at some of the different stages we work through in a website development project, using the recently completed Mahindra Homestays website as an example.

The new website development project for Mahindra Homestays started with a period of detailed research. While we were already familiar with the brand and aware of some of the limitations of the existing site it was important to look at all aspects that the new build needed to address.

We approached the research in a number of ways.

1.Online Survey

We set up an in-depth incentivised survey which all visitors to the website over a period of a month were invited to complete. Making considerable use of logic to direct people through the questions based on their responses we were able to build up a detailed audience profile. Understanding the target audience, their travel aspirations and booking motivations allowed us to see what content would be of most use to them.

We also took the opportunity to find out what they felt the current site was missing and opened discussions on how it could be improved. We quickly received feedback that in some areas there wasn’t enough information to make them feel comfortable in making a booking. This included things such as being able to find the exact location of the homestays, or the ability to see the different facilities at a glance without having to read the long description.

2.Analytics study

We were able to use the Google Analytics tool to build up a detailed picture of how visitors were using the site. Studying navigation paths we were able to see where people were dropping out of the site. We determined that the long registration was off-putting to users and from starting the registration process to completing a booking we were able to see that a large proportion of visitors were dropping out of the site. The results of the online survey backed this up with respondents telling us that they were put off by some of the information they were being asked to supply to register on the site.

3. In depth visitor journey

In addition to Google Analytics we use other tools to allow us to accurately follow individual visitors through the site. This allows us to see how long they spend on individual pages and how they are reaching them. We are able to see how they move back and forwards through information pages, and how long they spend on them. Visitors are tagged so we can see repeat visitors and how they use the site differently, allowing us to build up different behavioural profiles. Prior to making a booking visitors spend considerable time on the site, looking at the destination and homestay information, often visiting and reading the same pages multiple times. We felt that this information could be better presented, for example more information on the individual homestays, attractions and activities they offer, larger good quality photography and the ability to see prices and facilities at a glance.

Research is vital

When planning a new website development it is essential to understand the users and to study the user experience. If the new site is to replace an existing site then looking at user activity helps you understand how people interact with your site and optimise the new build based on your findings.

There are plenty of research methods available to help you understand how people are using your website. If you are already familiar with a website it can be harder to view it without prejudice and it is harder to pinpoint difficulties that visitors may encounter in accessing information. A period of research and discovery should be a crucial part of any website re-development project.

Next up we will look ar the wireframe development for the project. Subscribe to the RSS feed of our blog to make sure you don't miss it.

Read about the full case study.

Improving the effectiveness of your email marketing

2011-07-19T13:53:21+00:00

Email marketing has evolved considerably as a marketers' tool over the last decade. Consumers are faced with hundreds of emails making them quick to delete or mark as spam anything which does not instantly appear relevant, interesting and readable.

Amongst the millions of emails being sent out every day is it still possible to make this marketing medium work? Most definitely.

In the 2011 Email Marketing Industry Census, published by Adestra and Econsultancy, 72% of companies rated email marketing as excellent or good in terms of return on investment. Apart from search engine optimisation (which just crept ahead with 73%), this is higher than any other marketing channel.

Email marketing can be very effective as we have seen in recent campaigns for clients. It just requires some careful thought and strategy to ensure that in a crowded inbox your message gets opened, read and acted upon. There are many ways to improve your email marketing, here are a few of our favourites that have helped us generate some great results recently.

Segmenting your lists

Segmenting your list so you can offer readers a more targeted email is a very effective way to generate results.

For example, on a recent email campaign for Mahindra Homestays we split the mailing database by location. We then sent out a series of emails promoting discounted accommodation in locations that were easily accessible to the recipients. For example, those living in the west of India received offers for popular holiday destinations on the west coast such as Goa or Kashid. This email had a great click through rate of 56% which lead to 116 booking enquires for the destinations featured on this particular email within five days of the mailing.

If your list currently has no segmentation then consider running a competition or doing a survey to your database to enable you to offer them more targeted emails in the future.

Working with social media channels

Many marketers see their social media and emarketing activity as two very separate channels, but they actually work well together with your social media platforms a great place to find new subscribers and your email database a resource of potential fans and followers.

We promote the Facebook and Twitter channels for Mahindra Homestays on their email campaigns, with an offer to encourage people to like or follow them. Monitoring the results shows some great success in integrating these channels. One mailing saw a 2000% increase in the normal daily likes to their Facebook page. The new fans were also seen to be very engaged, asking questions and conversing with each other about which destinations they should choose for their next trip.

Follower numbers on Twitter also saw an above average increase in the days following an email send, with new followers quick to ask for travel advice.

A/B Testing

One of the most important elements of your email is the subject line, it needs to motivate recipients to open it, and getting it wrong means your carefully crafted and highly targeted email doesn’t get seen at all.

There are a few golden rules when it comes to subject lines, keep them short and relevant, and don’t use terms that will cause the email to be flagged as spam being the essentials. When it comes to creating subject lines don’t leave it to chance or gut instinct when you can test what will work best for your list.

Split A/B testing on your subject line allows you to send out an advance email to say 10% of your mailing list. Of these 5% will receive subject line A while the remainder will receive subject line B. Comparing the results then allows you to see exactly which subject line has generated the higher open rate. We’ve used this technique very effectively on several campaigns, such as increasing the open rate on an email for Colorado Tourism by 194%.

Don’t forget you can run split tests on landing pages as well to boost conversion rates.

Design

A vital part of your email campaign is the design. Your email should look good regardless of the email client or access device your recipient is using so make sure you test it across multiple browsers. Depending on the mailing list we will typically test an email in up to 30 different browser / client combinations.

Email newsletter design itself will be covered in a blog post devoted just to this topic. Make sure you subscribe to our blog RSS feed so you don’t miss it!

A resource guide to Google +

2011-07-08T15:46:19+00:00

[Update 14.07.11 - We'll be updating this post as we find additional resources to add]

The launch of Google+ a new social network from Google has been the hot topic of much online discussion. Although access is by invitation only at the moment we couldn't wait to get our hands on it and have a play to find out if Google+ has the potential to make circles, sparks, hangouts, huddles and plus one into the same recognisable phrases as writing on a wall or liking a page.

The first impressions are positive. The ability to add people to "circles" and control easily who you are sharing with is great. This is one area where Google+ really wins over Facebook, where it is much more complicated to restrict who you share individual wall posts with.

There have already been lots of blog posts, guides and resources created for Google+ so we thought we would round up some of the best to help get you started. At this point I should note that if you only have time to look at one link then Google Plus - A Collaborative Guide is certainly the most substantial.

What is Google Plus?

What is Google+
Best place to get started if you want to find out what exactly is Google+.

The Google+ Project: A quick look
This 1m48s video offers a quick look at Google+ and shows how circles can be used.

Overview and tips for using Google Plus

The New Google Social Network – Google+
A great look at the features of Google+ plus the question posed about how this might affect SEO.

25 Google+ Tips to Enhance Your Google Plus Experience
Lots of short but really useful Google+ tips.

10 tips to make the most of Google Plus
Ten tips on customising your profile including creating a custom URL and a list of hotkeys to navigate your Google+ stream with ease.

How to use Google + a quick guide and thoughts on Google Plus
A crash course on the current features of Google + with tips and screenshots.

How to get started with Google+, Your Complete Guide
Learn all about Google+ with this handy guide and video.

Everything You Need to Know About Google+ (Including What The Heck It Is)
A quick breakdown of the different Google+ elements.

Google+ in 15 Minutes a Day
More excellence from SEOmoz and Dr.Pete as he endeavours to show you how to tame the Google+ beast each day.

Tutorials and guides for specific elements of Google+

How to invite friends to Google Plus
A quick run down on how to invite your friends to the Google+ network.

How to mention somebody in the Google Plus Network
Visual reference to mentioning people and have the status link to that persons profile.

Google+ Resources

Google+ Apps & Icons
A Google+ depository for icon packs and other resources.

Google+ for marketing and brands

Here Come Google+ Pages for Brands: What You Need to Know
A look at the different strategies between Google+ and Facebook and what this might mean for brand pages.

The PR and marketing implications of Google+
What Google+ means for communicators, marketers and PR practitioners.

The Google +1 button

What is Google +1 and What Should I Know
What the new +1 button you are seeing all over the web means. Don't forget to +1 this post!

Comparisons with Facebook

5 things Google Plus Have Over Facebook - Plus One
A look at the strengths of Google+ compared to Facebook.

Google Plus's Real Goal is Not to Kill Facebook, but to Force it to Open
An article looking at how Facebook may have to change.

The post-Google+ world: A Facebook Developer’s Perspective
Opinion piece about how Google+ changes things.

User opinions

10 Top Google+ Users Weigh In on the Web's Newset Social Network
Mashable collate the thoughts as shared on Twitter and blogs by some of the top Google+ users.

Google+ Comes up Short
A more negative article about how Google+ doesn't really offer anything new or innovative.

Like it or Not
A Wave developer takes a look at Google+.

Further thoughts

The Google+ 50
Finally here are 50 thoughts on Google+ covering lots of different possibilities of where it could head.

Growth of Google+
How Google+ probably has more than 4.5 million users already.

Not got an invite yet and want to try out Google+ for yourself? Drop us a line and we can send you an invite.

If you think we've missed out a good resource or interesting link then leave us a comment to let us know.

Split Testing Landing Pages to Boost Conversions

2011-06-17T09:53:02+00:00

A lot of time and energy might be spent on writing the perfect advertising copy, designing a great email newsletter and profiling the target audience to get them to your site. However, you can execute all these elements perfectly but the campaign still might not achieve the results you are looking for.

Optimising conversion rates is key for any online marketing activity that you are doing and ensuring that your landing page is converting those hard won clicks into the qualified leads you need.

Running split tests on campaign landing pages is an important way to test and optimise conversions.

What should I use as my landing page?

Your landing page is the page that your visitors are first arriving on. Ideally it should be customised for the marketing activity that you are undertaking, with consistent style elements and key messages to reinforce the message that brought the visitor to the page in the first place.

Ideally you should never use a page like your homepage, instead using one which focuses on the point of conversion, whether this is a newsletter sign up or product. Having too many navigation options will lead the visitor away from your goal (although by all means direct them there once they have converted).

How do split tests work?

Running a split test on the landing page allows you to use the same page, but with a couple of different elements to determine which is the most effective. The way this works is that you set up variants of the page and then, for example, send half the traffic to page A, and half to page B. Whichever had the higher conversion rate you can then start testing against a new variant of the page (the challenger), constantly refining and optimising for maximum conversions.

Case study

We recently ran an email marketing campaign for Sun Country Airlines and used split testing on the landing page to build a database of people interested in purchasing flights to America. We ran a number of split tests on the landing page to push sign ups.

On one page in this test we ran starred elements below the sign up box to reinforce what they would receive. This had been tested with a number of variants and was achieving a conversion to visitor rate of 6.84%. However, sometimes less is more and we tested it against a variant that contained a simple strap line with a phone number instead. The second page in this version proved more effective with an 8.62% conversion rate.

Although the call to action may be a sign up, sometimes having other contact details, such as a phone number can reassure visitors. We then ran a new test against our champion page to include the phone number in the main copy.

This time the challenger did not improve on the conversion rate, converting at 5.84% and so we were able to establish that keeping a strap line with the phone number across the bottom but not including it elsewhere on the page was the most effective approach – allowing us to then try changing other variants on the page.

What to optimise

You can look at optimising almost any element on the page, from the copy to the colours. The key is to make small changes at a time, keeping other elements a constant to enable you to see exactly what is working and causing a change in conversion rates. Here are a few of our favourites for testing.

Data requirements
Long forms could be affecting your conversion rate. Ask whether you really need and use all the data you are collecting and test different forms to balance the amount of data you collect against the conversion rate. It’s better to request just a name and email over nothing at all, and you can always contact these subscribers at a later stage to request additional information.

Headings
Try different variants of the key headings on the landing page to find out which messages your audience respond to best.

Call to Action Points
Try out your pages with a couple of different call to action points. Use directional cues such as arrows and coloured buttons to guide visitors through to the point of conversion. Test how different colours affect the conversion rate.

Video and Images
Test your pages using different images to find out which has conversion appeal. Research by Eyeviewdigital has shown that adding a video to a landing page can boost conversion rates so experiment with video and images to see which works for your audience.

When to use split tested landing pages

Split testing your landing pages is effective for almost any online marketing campaign. It works particularly well on PPC and email marketing activity. If it is something you would like to try on your own campaigns drop us a line for a chat to see how we could help.

Newsletter redesign

2011-05-27T06:29:41+00:00

We've redesigned our newsletter. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Since relaunching our website last November it's been on the to do list and we're pleased to have broadcast the first one earlier this week.

As well as maintaining the brand consistency we've taken the opportunity to make layout changes. We felt that with the previous two column layout and the amount of content / links it was too heavy. We've gone for a shorter, more punchy one column layout. Hopefully this means that the valuable bits of information, be it blog posts or project features will be easier to scan.

The newsletter is monthly - do sign up if you'd like to receive the next issue.

Where to start with Search Engine Optimisation? Top five tips!

2011-05-25T16:37:58+00:00

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is vital for any travel or tourism business wanting to utilise their website as a marketing tool.

A Nielsen survey last year looked into the customer journey in the travel sector and revealed there are over 28.7 million people in the UK online travel market of which, 22 million use search engines when making travel purchases. Capturing a share of this valuable search traffic should be a key factor in most travel businesses long term marketing plan.

SEO Basics

But where to start? There are so many elements to SEO that it is time consuming but as it can provide a significant boost to your business it is time well spent. There are numerous resources online which can guide you in detail on every element of optimising your site, but if you haven't done any SEO before just the sheer volume of information can be daunting. However here are our top five tips to get started.

1. Plan your keyword strategy.

The "best" keywords to target may not be the most obvious ones. It's important to come up with a keyword strategy where you will be able to get the best results and to identify which keywords might offer the biggest revenue potential. For example the keyword "luxury holiday" is highly competitive whereas the keyword "luxury honeymoon" is moderately competitive so might be a better option if you are a hotel or tour operator targeting the high-end market.

2. Make sure your site is search engine friendly

Make sure your site is well structured, easy to navigate and that you have covered all the basic things such as ensuring you have unique, accurate page titles for each page and that you are using simple to understand URLs that convey content information easily. Ensure your key content is accessible within validated HTML and not integrated into images, flash or JavaScript.

3. Ensure all your content is reachable

Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. A simple site map page with links to all of the pages or the most important pages on your site can be useful. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps ensure that search engines discover the pages on your site.

4. Optimise your content

Creating compelling and useful content is key. Ensure that your content is unique and that you include your keywords in all the right places on the page - but don't over do it. Keyword stuffing comes with penalties and diminishes your site appeal to users.

5. Promote your website in a responsible way

Building up incoming links is an essential part of the SEO strategy - but should be done in a responsible way. Creating good content that users want to share through blog posts, social media and forums is a great start. Building up relationships is key to getting your content linked to so reach out to bloggers and writers and look at naturally generating links.

Remember - these tips are just the basics! If you want to have a chat about your SEO strategy don't hesitate to drop us a line.

Get a Free Audit

Dot Tourism are offering a free summary SEO audit for travel and tourism websites. It will give you an overview of how your site is performaing, ranked against key SEO criteria and highlight the areas that you should work on first. This is just a limited offer for the first 25 requests, so if you would like us to take a look at your site please sign up.

Great use of full screen images in hotel website design

2011-04-19T16:58:25+00:00

We’ve recently just finished sourcing over 400 images for a new website for Mahindra Homestays which will be launching soon. With their selection of 300 beautiful Homestays offering an alternative to boutique hotels across India, images form an essential part of the website design, selling not just the destinations but the properties themselves.

For many guests a hotel’s website provides the first impression and it is the perfect opportunity to reflect the ambiance and atmosphere of the property. In a competitive marketplace having a well designed and easy to use website can really boost bookings.

There are many factors which contribute to a great hotel website but in this post I’m going to focus on the use of imagery. For some guests the appearance of the room and property will be the motivating factor as to whether they make that all important reservation. People like to see what they are booking and feel reassured that it will live up to their expectations.

Here are some great examples of hotel website design making strong use of imagery with full screen photography dominating the design.

Hotel Missoni

This website really stands out and ties in the colours of the images with the navigation. While I can’t overlook my pet peeve of sound playing on load the whole website feels fresh and innovative tying together good use of video with stylish navigation.

Sanderson London

With a quirky and eye catching image dominating the homepage as you explore the hotel you are treated to get more full screen images. The photography is excellent and really put to good use. In addition this hotel has one of the clearest booking systems I’ve seen. Despite using a lot of Flash the site still looked good on my iPhone and was fast to load too – top marks!

Hard Rock Hotel

You would expect an eye catching and vibrant website from this hotel and it doesn’t disappoint. A strong colour theme and once again the use of full sized images dominating the site creates a real impact, although the numbered navigation over the top of the images is sometimes hard to see.

Four Seasons – Bora Bora

With a location as stunning as Bora Bora it’s not surprising that destination shots dominate this luxury resort website. The background slide show seems to cycle with endless images with the main site navigation running unusually along the bottom of the screen.

Faena Hotel and Universe

The text on this site is a little small and I struggled to read it but strong images which pick up on the red and dark website tones ensure it is eye catching and will stand out to potential guests.

Hoxten Hotel

The fantastic Hoxten Hotel website not only makes use of beautifully shot full screen images, it makes them part of discovering more about the hotel and accommodation. Roll over hot spots on the images to find out all about what you can expect from a stay, from mattress details to breakfast this is a really innovative way to show off a hotel. Hoxten, I might never get lucky with your famous £1 room sales but I still love you anyway.

Have you got a travel related website you would like to see featured in our blog? We will be doing regular reviews and critiques of websites and featuring collections of our favourites so sign up to our newsletter to find out how yours can be included. Have a hotel website design project? Let us know as we would love to help!

Google Panda in the UK - Travel Winners and Losers

2011-04-14T10:37:41+00:00

Anyone working in the UK SEO industry would have anxiously been awaiting Google's rollout of its Panda / Farmer update. That day came last Monday and you can read more about the announcement on the Google Webmaster Central blog.

Google's aim was to tweak the algorithms to help searchers find better quality sites. Searchmetrics have taken a look at the winners and losers and I've pulled out the travel brands.

The research indicates that many are suffering massive drops in visibility and in some cases as much as 90%.

Only one travel winner with laterooms.com registering a visibility increase of 18.25%. (Worth noting that there are sites in the winners list that do have have travel sections).

A few more in the negatively affected category.

airfaresflights.co.uk : -95.44%
justtheflight.co.uk : -95.08%
worldtravelguide.net : -86.97%
flightmapping.com : -72.62%
londontown.com : -75.12%
aboutbritain.com : -91.37%

With the release only a few days old it's too early to draw any solid conclusions. It would be good to hear from any of these brands to get their thoughts.

Read the full analysis and how they calculate visibility at the Searchmetrics blog.

Three Great Travel Videos

2011-04-13T05:24:06+00:00

Here's a few videos that caught my eye over the last few weeks.

Let me know of others you've seen and liked. Enjoy!

1. Stunning Syria (via @matthewteller)

5 minutes of Syria from Ruslan Fedotow on Vimeo.

2. Excellent travel tilt-shift video of Thailand (via @peterfabricius)

Toy Thailand from joerg daiber on Vimeo.

A tilt-shift video by Joerg Daiber.
Shot in Bangkok, Phuket, Tonsai and Railay with Lumix GH2, Gorillapod, 14-140mm and 7-14mm Lenses. Post with Final Cut Pro and After Effects on Macbook Air.
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach - Air on the G String, perfomed by the USAF Strings

Watch full screen!

3. Virgin Atlantic New Livery Time-Lapse (via @MarkRoweDesign)

Virgin Atlantic New Livery Time-Lapse from Vivid Photo Visual on Vimeo.

We were commissioned by Virgin Atlantic to produce a time-lapse of the stripping and rebranding of their new livery on 'Mustang Sally' one of their 747-400 aircraft. Filmed over 15 days, from multiple camera angles. Approx 50,000 frames were taken and then edited down to create this Time-Lapse.

Five examples of great travel email newsletter designs

2011-04-11T16:21:05+00:00

Email newsletters are still one of the most popular marketing and communication tools for travel companies. It’s a great opportunity to engage with users, promote special offers and drive visitors to your website.

However, email marketing isn’t new and users are saturated by broadcasts, becoming jaded to all but the best campaigns. It’s vital to get it right if you want your newsletter to be read and actioned upon, otherwise you will find it is very quickly deleted, or even worse see your database dwindling as users unsubscribe.

We will be making this a regular feature to analyse email newsletters in the travel and tourism sector, looking at what makes them great (or how they could be improved). If you would like us to include your email newsletter on the blog sign up for our newsletter to find out how you can be featured.

This month I’ve picked out a few of my favourites (and just to be unbiased I’ve not included any of ours, although you can check out our most recent one for airline Sun Country here which got an excellent conversion rate).

1. STA Travel

The STA travel newsletters are an excellent example of emails done well. At the very top of the email is a line of text which highlights the content. Even if users don’t scroll down at all they will see exactly what this email is about. This sits on top of an attractive and modern design making good use of vibrant colour. Limited text and clear call to action points encourage users to click through.

2. Air New Zealand

The use of a limited colour palette works really well with the distinctive New Zealand icons of the fern and kiwi to ensure the email is distinctive and recognisable. The design is fresh and modern and call to action points are clear.

3. Discover the World

In an inbox flooded with travel related newsletters this one stood out with the quirky “At a glance” panel. Good use of images and interesting lead in text encourages users to click through to the website. Although the email is quite long and I doubt most people would read the full copy, it is at least well segmented.

4. Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet do a couple of different newsletters but I’ve chosen their Seize the Days email for its eye catching design and easy to absorb information. The well presented content is interesting and leads nicely into the guides they happen to be promoting.

5. Easy Jet

The distinct orange keeps the newsletter well branded and the key message is very clear. They resist the temptation to cram in lots of offers (a crime many airlines seem to be guilty of) and keep the content simple – in just a glance you can see exactly what the offer is and be on the site making your booking. In fact I made one myself following this very email!

Thoughts on Wired Tourism event in Brighton

2011-03-31T10:25:31+00:00

Yesterday evening Kate and I attended Wired For Tourism, an event organised by Wired Sussex and supported by the South East Innovation & Growth team. In the audience were 100+ organisations, either SMEs serving the visitor economy or digital marketing organisations with something to offer the tourism sector. As Phil Jones (MD of Wired Sussex and chairing) said, Brighton is renowned for these two industries and the aim of the night was to connect the two.

We're close to Brighton and so it was great to soak up the energy from this hotbed of digital activity and tourism enterprise!

The event was also chaired by John Carmichael (Marketing Manager, Visit Brighton) and he highlighted how quickly the landscape has changed, citing a piece in the Telegraph just five years ago that talked about the introduction of online mapping, podscrolls and podcasts. Things have moved on pretty fast!

I thought I'd highlight a few points that stuck out on the four talks.

Talk 1 - Helen Wilkinson, Metro-Deco

MetroDeco is a dog friendly 1930s Parisian-style tea shop in Brighton that opened in 2009. Armed with a tiny marketing budget and a low footfall Helen looked to her social media savvy partner to help promote the business after the initial press interest had died down. As is often the case Helen has found evaluating the social media efforts difficult to quantify but was passionate about the benefits it has brought to her business.

As well as establishing a two way conversation with her customers through Twitter (she emphasised the value of maintaining communication with her customers outside of the shop) she was able to see how her business was being positively discussed amongst her customers. Just looking at their Twitter feed this morning shows how well they are using it.

They're also trying other online tactics - including a YouTube video (+2500 views in the last two years) and rewarding FourSquare check-ins with free food and drink.

Talk 2 - Paul Munton, Snooze Brighton & Stephen James, DMDC

Paul from Snooze (a boutique guesthouse) and Stephen (web designer frin DMDC) talked about their approach to building their site. From the start Paul saw the need to stand out from the crowd (understandable given Brighton's diverse accommodation options!) and wanted the site to closely match the unique experience being developed at their guesthouse.

They highlighted the one page design which was refreshing and certainly has its benefits. It meant they could focus on showing visitors the experience without getting lost in reams of text - they did this by using large slideshows in the header with lovely shots of each room. As Stephen pointed out - something they could achieve without Flash and through the use of AJAX. Here's an example of a one page site from web design agency Headscape.

Paul said 70% of their bookings come via the website and the remaining 30% that pick up the phone have mostly already visited the site. Paul's focus on social media is on Twitter and finds it a great way to softly promote their experience and what's going on in Brighton. They did try a Facebook page but were put off with having to fit their brand into Facebook's template fan pages. Perhaps a good thing as it has meant his efforts have been more focused.

Talk 3 - Rich Crosby, Brightec

Rich Crosby and colleagues from Brightec demonstrated their excellent iPhone app developed for the Brighton Marathon. I wonder whether there is scope for them to package this up as a product for other organisers - something I'm sure they've looked into.

There was a brief Q&A afterwards regarding the dilemna of developing native apps over a mobile friendly site that can work across numerous devices. Rick pointed out that it depends on the aims of a project but I think there are risks to be considered developing a native app for one platform with the marketplace changing rapidly. There's an interesting discussion on why 37Signals chose a mobile web app over native ones. More thoughts on this from a recent blog post on Tnooz.

Talk 4 - Peter Biggs, BozBoz

Peter Biggs from BozBoz discussed the benefits of ecommerce and content management by running through a few sites that they have developed. Obviously I was already a convert to much of this but was impressed by the return on investment they had achieved and the design and content management of their sites including one for venue Concorde 2.

After the talks we had a chance to mingle with local tourism businesses and meet colleagues working in the industry. Thanks to the organisers - we really enjoyed it, the venue was very good and the canapes delicious and plentiful!

The benefit of email overlays

2011-03-29T16:10:09+00:00

I've recently been looking at redesigning our newsletter. Two reasons really. Firstly, we wish to make the newsletter a more valuable resource. Whether it's bringing to the fore blog posts we feel are important to our readers or highlighting industry news. With this in mind we need to look at establishing set sections and improving consistency. Secondly, we've undergone a site overhaul and it's natural we want to maintain this message across all forms of communication.

Even with the emphasis on social media channels email is still a very powerful form of communication. It can be a great way to establish a bond with your readers over a period of time.

In this post I wanted to highlight one of the ways I've been evaluating how past newsletters have been viewed - by using an overlay that shows exactly where people are clicking. It's a tool that should be available through most email marketing software.

I've included a screenshot excerpt of the report below. It's great for instantly seeing how an email design is performing and which links receive the lion's share of the clicks. One thing that did stand out was the relatively consistent percentage spread across the design from 1.32% to 7.89%. One objective will be not to include quite so many links - this will help focus the message.

In certain cases we may have more than one instance of the same link. A sum figure gives a good idea how popular the link is as a whole but with this overlay we can see which instance of the link is more popular. The example above shows that the large (linked) screenshot of the Within Warwickshire site attracts 1/3 of the links that the text link generates. This reinforces that a text link is more a direct call to action whereas an image doesn't look like a link. Although it looks good to have a full page screenshot we'll have to rethink its effectiveness, particularly as it makes the email length a lot longer.

Setting up your Facebook page photo strip

2011-03-24T16:10:19+00:00

Having recently uploaded images running across the top of the page isn't anything new for Facebook users as personal pages were changed to incorporate this last year. Now Facebook pages have been updated to look the same, although there are a few important differences to take note of. With a bit of creative thinking you can make the most of this prime page real estate.

Setting up your Facebook photo strip

The strip will always feature the last five images uploaded. To get the ones you want into the Facebook page photo strip all you need to do is create an album and upload the five images you wish to display, you don't have to publish the album.

The strip will always display the last five images uploaded to the page by a page administrator so bear this in mind if you are posting images to the wall as part of a new feed. These will overwrite the ones in your gallery but you can easily stop them from showing without removing the picture by just clicking the X on the top right of the image. This will remove it from the gallery strip, but not the page.

You can still encourage fans to share their pictures with you as these aren’t included in the photo strip. This is good news for pages as it prevents competitors from uploading their logo or images and having them featured in a prominent spot on your page.

It really is as easy as that, but that isn't all you need to know to make the most of the photo strip.

Image size

The first thing you might notice is that the thumbnail of your image seems to be cropped. When displayed in the photo strip the images you see are 97px wide by 68px tall but you can't upload them at this size as when clicked Facebook opens the full image in a picture viewer which won't work with tiny thumbnails.

Unfortunately when Facebook scales down the large image it doesn’t do it from the centre, which is why the thumbnail appears to have been cropped. However you can work round this by knowing exactly which part of your image Facebook will use for the thumbnail.

As you can see the overall image size is 720px by 720px and the area that will be displayed as the thumbnail is clearly marked. You can use these dimensions to create custom images. For example for the Facebook page Countryside 2011 we wanted to get the dates of the event clearly visible and the photo strip was an ideal place to reinforce this. In order to generate a thumbnail with the dates in the right area the following image was created and uploaded to Facebook:

You will also see there is a good opportunity to add a bit of information about the image when you've uploaded it. You can comment to leave a website link and provide more information for anyone who clicks on the image in the photo strip.

The image is then resized to the thumbnail size with the information that we wanted displayed (the dates) perfectly displayed in the photo strip.

Using the photo strip as a banner

With personal profiles you can determine the order of the pictures, allowing you to be creative adding banners or the popular “reverse mosaic” effect. With Facebook pages though they randomise the five images so you are unable to create this sort of banner, visitors will see them in a different order everytime they refresh the page.

There are ways to get around this though by creating a banner where the images don’t have to be displayed in a particular order. For example, how about a city skyline effect?

Jet Blue have made nice use of their photo gallery strip continuing the branding representing a queue of customers which continues on from their profile picture:

Why the photo strip is great for travel brands

In travel marketing there has always been an emphasis on using strong imagery to sell a destination so there should be no shortage of attractive images. Now brands have the change to use this new space on their Facebook pages to give their page visual appeal.

At present it seems that a lot of brands aren't using the space creatively yet. Many of the Facebook pages I see feature either images which appear badly cropped due to Facebooks scaling, or shots of people which when scaled down are indistinguishable. Hopefully it won't be long before we see some really good examples of ways to use this photo strip space on Facebook pages - we'll do a round up of the best when we come across some good ones!

Our digital marketing services in PDF format

2011-03-17T16:28:01+00:00

A short post to let you know about a new page on our site that contains a selection of downloadable PDFs covering our main services.

We're regularly asked by prospects and clients to send on a list of services that we offer. Hopefully these short and focused one page PDFs will be useful. By monitoring downloads it should also give us useful information on what website visitors are interested in. They'll also be handy for meetings and any conferences we attend. Feedback as always much appreciated.

Take a look - here's a screenshot of our profile PDF:

Making the most of your Facebook page profile picture

2011-03-15T16:34:59+00:00

One of the recent changes to Facebook pages was the reduction of the maximum Facebook profile picture from 200 x 600px to 180 x 540px. However a lot of pages are still using a relatively small profile picture and not making the most of the opportunity that a large profile image can offer.

This is especially important for travel and tourism brands where the strong use of imagery is particularly important for destination based marketing.

Incorporate copy that used to be in the information box

One of the changes implemented last week was the removal of the information box on the left hand side of the page, underneath the Facebook profile picture. If you were using this for important information you might want to consider incorporating it into your profile picture.

On client Mahindra Homestays page the information box was used to let Facebook fans know about a special discount they could receive for being a member of the page. This has now been incorporated into the main profile image.

Create a strong impact for visitors and tie into other branding

Comparing the profile image area for The Countryside page you can see for the 2010 campaign we were using a logo with the old information box below it. For the 2011 campaign we are using the large style profile image, again incorporating the information lost from the box below. We’ve also used a collage of countryside related images to tie in with the Twitter branding we developed and to create a strong impact for visitors to the page.

Using a mosaic section of images can be applied for many brands, such as a hotel showing images of rooms and facilities. Larger images can also be very effective for destination marketing. The Colorado Facebook page makes good use of their profile picture space.

Setting the thumbnail version

You do have the option to set the page thumbnail image version, choosing from part of the larger profile. This is the small logo you see used around the site, such as alongside your name when making a post.

It is a good idea to ensure that your large profile picture has an element that can easily be selected to work well as a thumbnail version. For example we used the Countryside logo with a white border on the main image allowing us to isolate this easily to use as the thumbnail version.

This is especially important if you wish to comment as your page on other pages where visitors will only see the thumbnail version of your picture.

If you want help with the design of your Facebook page please get in touch with us, we would love to help!

Quick reference guide to Facebook page changes March 2011

2011-03-15T14:21:05+00:00

At the end of last week Facebook changed the layout of pages. The changes were fairly well documented and page administrators will have had the opportunity to change over to the new page format before now. However, if you if haven’t made any changes to your page, or you aren’t sure what is new then over the next couple of blog posts we will be taking a more detailed look at the key changes and how to use them to your advantage.

Here is a quick summary of ten changes to take note of:

1. Your page now has photos across the top. These will be taken from your last five photo uploads.

2. The profile image maximum size has been reduced from 200 x 600 px to 180 x 540 px.

3. Tabs have been removed and navigation is now listed in the left column below the profile picture.

4. Your page can now like other pages! The left column will display which pages you have liked.

5. You can now use Facebook as a page – meaning that you can now leave comments on other pages.

6. The information panel has been removed from below the profile picture.

7. There has been a lot written about the fact that wall posts are no longer chronological and instead having the most popular posts listed first. This has been changed giving you a choice how you wish to view your posts. Underneath the photo strip you can set your wall preferences to either most recent or top posts.

8. The static FBML app is no longer available. This has always been the main way to create custom tabs utilising HTML. Instead you will now have to use iFrames for your Facebook customisation. Existing installs of the application and custom tabs will continue to be supported at present.

9. The location for the page settings has changed and you will now find an Edit page button in the top left.

10. Admins are now shown on the page, this is visible to other administrators only.

See the image below for a summary of all these changes:

Dot Tourism gives guest lecture on tourism website development

2011-03-14T17:34:27+00:00

Dot Tourism was approached by Brighton University to give a guest lecture on issues in website design and development for the travel and tourism industry.

I presented the two hour lecture to 55 final year students studying an e-tourism module as part of their Travel Marketing, Travel Management and Tourism Management BA(Hons) degrees. The lecture gave an overview of developing websites for the travel and tourism industry and I discussed some of the industry specific issues that are faced when designing sites for this sector. Recent work by Dot Tourism offered case studies to use as examples.

Graham Shepherd, Senior Lecturer in Travel and the Travel and Tourism Undergraduate Course Leader told us, “It is immensely important, I feel that that they [students] both hear from and understand what is happening in the contemporary industry sectors today.”

“Web design and management has progressed and continues to progress so fast that the only realistic option is to bring in somebody who ‘knows what they are talking about.’”

As well as a discussion into the website development process the lecture also covered an overview of online marketing including search engine optimisation and pay per click, services that we manage for several clients.

It was a really enjoyable experience and great to meet so much enthusiasm for the subject.

You can view the slides used as the basis for the discussion below.

Issues of web design and structure

View more presentations from DotTourism

Project Insight - WithWarwickshire - Website

2011-03-08T14:30:58+00:00

Last week we launched WithinWarwickshire, an excellent resource promoting the best of rural Warwickshire. If you're interested to find out how we approached the identity process check out this blog post or view the case study.

In this post I'd like to take a closer look at two features and then an insight into how the content is managed.

Accommodation and Attractions

We needed to find a way to display tourism product information covering accommodation and attractions. Rather than create a separate content management system to house this information we proposed to integrate a white label solution on offer from National Tourism Open Platform (formerly known as England Net).

The benefit is to be able to tap into the national database with comprehensive, high quality product data. With this information already in place it made little sense to recreate and manage it.

The white label characteristic meant that we could maintain a consistent brand experience for the visitor.

The result is that the visitor can browse hundreds of places to stay, attractions or events and in the case of accommodation book directly through a number of partners.

We designed a three tab search widget that is displayed across the site.

We worked closely with Visit Britain and partners and found the integration to be smooth and would certainly recommend this option to organisations as an alternative to managing their own DMS. In addition to the white label solution an API solution is available - likely to add more development time but allowing additional control.

Interactive Map

With the focus on promoting rural tourism the majority of the content (expertly crafted by project partners Blue Sail) was split across the following areas:

Food & Drink
Historic Houses & Gardens
Market Towns & Villages
Walking Trails
Cycling Trails
Spotlight Events

As an alternative to browsing these on listing (i.e. for Spotlight Events) or detail pages (i.e. for Market Towns) we also wanted to include an easy-to-use interactive map.

Although we've used the impressive OpenSpace (from Ordnance Survey) in the past (Kent Guided Walks or Countryside 2010) we opted for Google Maps on this occasion.

View the interactive map.

We've kept this as simple as possible. Market Towns & Villages are a focus on the site (as they are a focus point for those visiting) and by default the map pinpoints these towns and villages. The visitor can then select a number of other checkboxes to view their proximity. The pop ups on the map provide additional information before the user can opt to view further details.

Content Management

We've made the site updatable via a content management system and in this case we opted for Expression Engine, a system we thoroughly recommend.

Let's have a closer look at how one particular content channel (Market Towns) is managed by the site administrators. We'll use the picturesque riverside village of Bidford-on-Avon as the example. All the content for this record is stored on the same edit screen - let's take a look at three of the data fields.

Images

This easy to use interface allows admins to upload as many images as required. Each image is stored at three different sizes :

Small - cropped and shown as a thumbnail on the detail page.

Medium - resized and displayed on the listing page.

Large - resized and displayed on the lightbox / pop up window.

We also keep a copy of the original source image. This means if we should ever need to change the sizes of these images we easily can. You'll also notice fields related to the description and credits. We've also included guidance instructions to assist the content administrators. The image row marked yellow signifies the cover image i.e. the one used on the listing page.

Related Entries

Each Market Town & Village page also pulls in relevant information from other parts of the site. We make it simple for the administrators to denote which activities are associated with each market town.

Google Mapping

Adding a place to our interactive map is very straightforward. Simply entering the postcode adds a marker within the admin area - this allows the content administrator to check its position without leaving the page.

Project Insight - WithinWarwickshire - Identity

2011-02-24T11:36:59+00:00

We just launched our latest project - WithinWarwickshire provides inspiration for days out and short breaks in rural Warwickshire.

Please take a look and let us know what you think - we think it’s a fantastic resource. We were fortunate to team up with destination experts Blue Sail who provided the content for the site.

Let’s take a closer look at the project and start with the identity. In the next post I’ll look at the site design and content management.

Draft 1

We opted for a serif typeface in the W’s to reflect an elegant look and feel. We modified this typeface to include the design on the second ‘W’. Initially intended to signify rural elements the shape can also represent a quill. We then combined this with a more contemporary sans serif font. The palette alongside gives us an idea on the possible site colour scheme.

Draft 2

On reflection it was also felt that the quill/green trail should be dropped and that the images and copy would sufficiently reflect the rural nature of the project. The next step was to look at a more contemporary design that could be used across multiple campaigns, not specifically rural projects.

Draft 3

With a design now chosen we then looked at colour variations. We felt that the red/orange versions were a little overpowering. The greens are subtler and reflect the rural and fresh look we were after.

Final version

Vist WithinWarwickshire.co.uk.

This project was delivered for Warwickshire County Council, working on behalf of the Coventry & Warwickshire Destination Management Partnership and part of their RDPE - Welcome to the Countryside project. RDPE is part of the European Agricultural Programme. It is jointly funded by the European Union and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and this project is contracted via Advantage West Midlands.

Optimising your title tag for search engines

2011-02-04T11:30:44+00:00

Arguably one of the most important ways to improve your search engine marketing is to optimise your title tags. These short titles are one of the most important areas on your site to consider and getting it right can significantly increase traffic.

What is a title tag?
The title tag is a concise description of a page’s content. It can be seen in a number of ways, but most significantly your title tag will be seen in search engine results. Essentially it is a one line advert for your site for the millions of people who are searching the internet.

Your title tag is also displayed in the web browser and can be seen on other sites, such as social media sites like Delicious.

Creating a good, well optimised title tag

With this short line of text being so important for your search engine marketing it is vital to get it right. You need to ensure it is well optimised for search engines but is also appealing for your target audience. Aspects to consider are:

Include your keywords
The title tag is considered the most important place on your site to use keywords to achieve high search engine rankings. Ensure the keywords you are targetting for each page are included in it’s title tag as one of your first on page optimisation steps.

An additional benefit is that keywords used in searches will be highlighted or appear in bold text within search engine results listings indicating high relevance to users. However a word of caution. It’s important to include your keywords in a natural way or your title tag will look like spam, putting off the visitors you are working hard to attract.

Keep it short
Search engines will only display 70 characters so keep your titles concise otherwise you will find that the end has been cut off.

Make your titles relevant and readable.
Your title tag should be unique to your page and accurately describe the content. Based on your title tag users will arrive on your page with expectations as to what they will find there and it’s important that their first impression of your site is positive and not one of disappointment.

When writing your title tags remember that they will be viewed by human readers, so ensure that your copy is compelling – imagine you were writing an advert. If you run Pay Per Click advertising this can be a good place to do some quick testing to find out what might make a good title tag for a page. You can study the click through rates of adverts, doing some split testing on the headlines. Create a few variations of the headline and see which performs better for both the CTR and conversions.

Structure your title tag
Research shows that having your keywords at the front of your title tag performs better for search engine rankings and also increases the likelihood that users will click on your listing.

Using your brand name
A common question we get asked is about the use of a brand name in title tags. There is no definitive answer for this but as a general rule you should consider placing it at the end, after your keywords, or not including it at all. Consider the space you have available and the message you want to get across and if you can’t fit your company name in at all then don’t be afraid to drop it.

However, if your brand name happens to include one of your keywords or is a very well established and instantly recognisable brand then placing this at the front can still be a good strategy, particularly if your analytics supports that the brand name is frequently used as a search term.

In the example below you can see if somebody was to search for Kenya Safari the first advert, with the brand name wouldn’t perform as strongly as the second advert which has been optimised for the keywords.

If you follow these guidelines and get creative with optimising your title tags you will certainly see the benefits. Get in touch if you would like some friendly advice on how to improve your site optimisation.

Don’t overlook images when optimising your website

2011-01-21T15:38:47+00:00

For the travel sector imagery has long been an important aspect of tourism promotion and with over 22 million people within the UK using search engines during their holiday planning* optimising your images should be part of your SEO strategy.

When searching on Google users now get results returned to them in an increasing number of formats. Depending on your search term and location you may see images, video or maps returned above or amongst the organic search listings.

The Google image service gets over one billion page views a day and using the image search to look at pictures of a destination is a good way for browsers to plan their next trip. Hovering over the images in a Google image search reveals a larger picture along with a description pulled from copy located close to the image on the page. Clicking the image will provide the visitor with a lightbox style effect with your site (where the image is located) shown in the background. The image pop up can be closed, leaving them to view your website.

While optimising your images won’t necessarily see your web traffic soar it should be an important part of your strategy for travel sector websites where imagery can play a large part in consumers decisions such as choosing travel related services or looking for their next holiday destination. The good news is that it is fairly easy to do.

Here are the essential steps to optimise your images:

1. File name
Give your images search engine friendly file names. Don’t use names which are automatically generated, for example opt for colva-beach.jpg rather than IMG2706.jpg. You should also always use a hyphen (-) rather than an underscore (_) to separate words. This is the most search engine friendly way to represent a space when labelling images.

2. Alt tag
It’s vital to ensure that you include a descriptive alt tag for your images to ensure your site is accessible to the visually impaired. It also will give you the opportunity to provide some more keywords to describe your image. Keep your alt tag descriptive and avoid the temptation to cram in too many keywords, making it look like spam.

3. Related content
Make sure your image is close to content that is relevant and preferably contains the keywords you are targeting. You should provide good context for your image and where possible provide good, descriptive titles and captions for your images.

4. Unique images
Google will try not to return multiple copies of the same image, so if you are using stock photography make sure you resize the image specific to your site and use a new file name. You will want the search engines to count your image as unique!

* Source: The Customer Journey: Travel. Survey conducted by Nielsen

Making sure your URLs are user and SEO friendly

2010-11-26T12:26:52+00:00

A URL is more than just the the location of your website and doesn’t just provide the navigation around your pages. A well thought out URL structure can bring with it search engine optimisation benefits as well as offering benefits to your users.

Anatomy of a URL

Before diving into what makes a good URL it’s important that you understand how they are made up.

The image above illustrates the different parts of your URL. It is worth spending the time when launching a new site to plan the URL structure as getting it right will have a positive effect on your online presence.

What makes a good URL

Keep it clear and descriptive
Ideally the URL should describe the content of the page. If a user can look at a URL in isolation of it’s page and know accurately what the content might include, you know you have a good URL. Keep your URL descriptive and try to avoid using numbers or generic descriptions such as page1.html. URLs that contain words relevant to your site’s content are far more user friendly.

Keep it short
While you can have URLs up to 2000 characters in length, in reality you shouldn’t reach anything near this. A short URL is far more usable and is more likely to be written down and shared. Avoid the use of unnecessary folders when planning your site structure; it’s important to avoid deep nesting of subdirectories. Search engines won’t crawl pages that are buried deep in your site as frequently.

You also should avoid having too many words in your URL. Aside from making them look like spam to human visitors it is generally recognised that search engines will give less weight to individual words when they are part of a whole string within a URL.

Use your keywords
You probably take every advantage to use keywords where you can and in your URL is no exception. The URL to your page is shown in search results and words within the URL will appear in bold if they also appear in the user’s search query. Another benefit is that when users share your URL, for example pasting it into forums, you will gain good incoming links with your keyword in the link text. However avoid over use of keywords - you don’t want your URL to look like spam to potential visitors.

Separate with hyphens not underscores
Make sure to separate words with hyphens. Although search engines won’t penalise underscores dashes are preferable as each hyphened word is seen as an individual. Using punctuation also makes the URL a lot easier for your human visitors to read and understand.

Use lower case
As URLs are case sensitive don’t ever use uppercase letters in your structure. Users will normally stick to lowercase and adding in capitals can lead to confusion.

Avoid excessive dynamic parameters
Ideally you should use static URLs which are preferable for both users and search engines. Dynamic URLs containing multiple parameters can cause a problems for search engines and you may find that your site isn’t fully indexed. Whenever possible trim unnecessary parameters and avoid the use of things such as the use of session IDs in URLs.

Avoid subdomains
Subdomains which will often create unnecessarily lengthy and complex URLs which users don’t always trust. You may also find that subdomains have the potential to be treated separately from the primary domain when it comes to passing link value. While this isn’t always the case advice tends to steer on the path of caution and recommend against their use.

The importance of Meta Descriptions in your SEO arsenal

2010-11-11T15:03:56+00:00

Investing time in writing carefully crafted Meta Descriptions might not have an impact on your search engine ranking but will almost certainly have a considerable impact on making the most of your position. A good Meta Description tag will significantly increase organic visitor traffic and should be considered an essential part of your digital marketing strategy.

It’s common myth that people base their clicks solely on search rankings, but in reality most people will glance through the top results and select the one which appears most appropriate to their search. A great Meta Description tag plays a critical part in making your website stand out on search listings.

How your Meta tag relates to your search engine listing

When you view a search engine results page the short description you see is pulled from your Meta page description tags.

As you can see from the example above our Meta Description for this page is:

Beautiful India Homestay accommodation. Experience the comfort and distinction of a boutique hotel with warm hospitality and local knowledge. Book online.

Your page description Meta tags form the front line advertising message for all your organic listings in search engine results pages. The copy should be informative and accurate, compelling the user to click through to your site. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in sentence format as it can be a useful place to include structured data about your page:

Using keywords in your Meta Description

The use of keywords won’t benefit you for ranking purposes but appear in bold within the listings to searchers so it is important to include them as this has a huge impact on the visibility of your listing. Target specific keywords that are relevant to on-page content and use them near the start of the description:

Equally it is important and of no benefit to overuse keywords in your descriptions which will make your listing appear full of spam, leading visitors to assume your site may be the same:

How long should a Meta Description tag be?

Different search engines will show varying amounts of descriptive text in their search listings. Google as the most important search engine will show up to 160 characters (including spaces) but to be sure that carefully crafted copy isn’t truncated just at the call to action point it is best practice to keep your Meta Description tags to 150 characters or less.

Make them unique

It’s important to make sure each page has a unique Meta Description. Using identical or descriptions on every page of a site isn’t very helpful when individual pages appear in the search engine listings. You will want users to see a description that is page specific. Study your Google analytics data to determine your most important entry pages for incoming organic traffic.

In summary

It’s important to consider your Meta Descriptions as part of an evolving search engine optimisation strategy. The following rules will help you write Meta Descriptions to boost traffic:
• Use target keywords but write naturally. A description that looks like spam will be off putting to potential visitors
• Create unique descriptions for all the important pages on your site
• Be mindful of character limits and ensure your description isn’t cut short
• Consider your Meta Description as an advert for your page and write your copy accordingly

Case study at IndiaSocial™ - Social Media Marketing for Mahindra Homestays

2010-07-20T06:53:36+00:00

Our work for Mahindra Homestays has kindly been featured by IndiaSocial™, a showcase for the social media landscape and opportunities in India.

It covers our approach, impact and learnings. I thought I’d share our six guiding principles:

Be honest – we act responsibly and truthfully when representing our brand in social media

Be interesting – we ensure we communicate worthwhile, engaging messages that people enjoy

Be open – we communicate in an open, collaborative and sharing way with the people who engage with us

Be dynamic – we strive to demonstrate innovation, originality, enthusiasm and a clear sense of purpose in communications

Be committed – we are dedicated to keeping our activity regular, timely and relevant

Be strategic – we plan and execute communications intelligently for maximum results

Be honest – we act responsibly and truthfully when representing our brand in social media
Be interesting – we ensure we communicate worthwhile, engaging messages that people enjoy
Be open – we communicate in an open, collaborative and sharing way with the people who engage with us
Be dynamic – we strive to demonstrate innovation, originality, enthusiasm and a clear sense of purpose in communications
Be committed – we are dedicated to keeping our activity regular, timely and relevant
Be strategic – we plan and execute communications intelligently for maximum results

daytripfinder.co.uk - things to do reviewed by you

2010-06-22T08:32:07+00:00

We recently launched daytripfinder.co.uk to help tourists, travellers and daytrippers find great days out.

We felt the current options do not provide good user experiences or do not focus on the visitor attraction sector.

You can find out more about the site and background or take the tour. We’re starting with the South East and have added over 600 attractions and plan to roll out other regions. Focusing on one region will allow us to act quickly on feedback.

Reviews will be an important part of the site. Here is an example of a page for De Le Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.

We have a dedicated special offers page that we’ll be looking to develop.

Attractions are able to manage their listing for free. They simply need to register and then claim their listing. So far over 50 attractions are updating their listing. As well as providing a way for attractions to reach new customers we think this will help keep the attraction information up-to-date and accurate.

Tips for running online competitions

2010-05-12T14:01:25+00:00

Kate Waite is Dot Tourism’s newest recruit and takes on the position of Digital Project manager. Passionate about travel she brings nine years marketing experience to the role with particular expertise in email and search marketing.

If you are looking for an effective way to market your brand, product or destination, running an online competition can offer a great way to bring a flood of new visitors to your site. The notion that it “could be you” is a strong motive for consumers to sign up to your newsletter, become a follower on twitter or even generate content for your site.

Keep it simple

When running a competition the best advice is also the most obvious; keep it simple. This means both for you and the participants. Your audience needs to be able to enter quickly and you will want to be able to administer the competition relatively easily.

There are of course exceptions to this. If your prize has a high value or is unusual then it will attract a higher level of interest and participants will be prepared to work harder for their opportunity to win. Perhaps harder to achieve, making the competition entry method particularly fun or innovative is more likely to engage visitors and remain memorable.

Prizes of caretaker jobs on paradise islands don’t come along too often, it’s important to get the balance right with what you have to work with.

Entry methods

Effective simple methods for entry include becoming a follower on Twitter, commenting on a blog post or entering details onto a short form. You will want to ensure that you can pick and get in touch with the eventual winner easily.

Facebook is an effective platform for running competitions, however under their regulations you must receive permission to do so and the terms of entry must abide by their rules. You aren’t allowed to administer your competition through Facebook (for example select or contact winners) but should use a third party application to gather data. You can however make it a condition of entry to become a fan of your group or page.

We are currently running six weekly competitions through Facebook as part of an online marketing campaign for Countryside 2010 whose website we recently launched. Setting up a tab to administer the competition through, we’ve built the fan base up quickly with only 3% opting to hide news feed updates and over 2,000 page views in the first three weeks.

It’s essential to look at the long term view of using a Facebook page. Posting regular meaningful content will retain fans, while poorly planned or low-quality material will lose fans and subscribers. A good indication of this will be the fan interaction with your posts through likes and comments.

Seeding the competition

There are several dedicated sites and forums which exist as competition portals and will send high volumes of eager entrants to your site. It’s free to submit competition details and links to these sites, they just ask that you respect their community guidelines and provide a reciprocal link when possible.

Quality of traffic

With entrants coming from competition portals there is some question over the quality of traffic being delivered with many entrants having little or no interest in the brand. An opt in for a newsletter on an entry form allows you to filter out interested visitors for future marketing campaigns while building your database at the same time.

Adding the option to recommend a friend in return for an extra entry can also help reach a more targeted audience as entrants are more likely to recommend somebody with a genuine interest in your brand offering.

Other examples

We run a monthly photo competition on the Mahindra Homestays blog. Entrants can enter via the blog, Twitter, Facebook or Flickr. This has proved very popular with the February competition generating 750 votes.

Capital Region USA – A competition played a key part in the success of an online campaign we ran for Capital Region USA partnership. Read the case study

If you are thinking of running a competition but aren’t sure where to start get in touch and we will be happy to offer you some advice.

Blog for Mahindra Homestays

2010-05-12T13:32:42+00:00

We’ve launched a blog for Mahindra Homestays, offering high quality Indian Homestays.

The blog is all about celebrating and discovering India - encouraging travellers to experience something different.

Let us know what you think - we’d love the feedback.

Highlights include:

Series of Things To Do articles. Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Wayanad, Cochin, Kewzing and Udaipur.
Monthly photo competition
Video tours of the Homestays
Special offers
Previews of the latest homestays

Along with the design and development we’re also helping with content creation and blog promotion.

Design Will Save The World And Luxury Hotel Web Design

2009-10-12T12:18:53+00:00

Ever since a Ukrainian designer friend of mine mentioned them I’ve always had a fascination with Art Lebedev Studio, a design company based out of Moscow.

Whether it’s their consitution, the impressive Optimus Maximus Keyboard or their diversity of work there is always something inspiring to browse at on their site.

Their less than common approach (“The only principle we follow is just two words: No bullshit.”) has not prevented them from being Russia’s leading design studio. With a team of over 200 they work with some of the country’s largest corporates (Yandex (big search engine) and Gazprom (energy giant)

Ever since a Ukrainian friend mentioned them I regularly drop in on the website of Art Lebedev Studio, Russia’s leading design studio.

Whether it’s their constitution, product design (see Optimus Maximus Keyboard, GLONASS Satnav) or their diversity of work there is always something inspiring to browse. Of particular interest is the process section that accompanies each project.

Their less than common approach (“The only principle we follow is just two words: No bullshit.”) has not hindered success or size. A team of +200 work with the country’s largest corporates including Yandex (largest portal and most popular search engine) and Gazprom (largest company in Russia).

Both sites proudly display Art Lebedev’s logo and link at the bottom of their pages. I like the way these projects sit equally alongside fridge magnets or an identity for a baby club in their portfolio.

The studio founder has clearly succeeded in passing down and maintaining his design ideals and approach to running a company. I’d like to know how they juggle their approach with client’s differing views on online marketing. The only interview I could find points to a negative attitude to SEO and marketing.

Most recently I was drawn to a website design for a luxury hotel, the Felix Zawojski. The site has been crafted with wonderful attention to detail. Take a look at these sketches and renderings, view panoramas or watch footage of The Great Train Robbery in every room.

The identity creation points to guests feeling as though they belong to a royal family - the website design certainly serves up a luxurious experience. However, you won’t find an online booking facility, e-newsletter sign up or special offers.

Perhaps that lends itself to the exclusivity. Although, with such care taken to educate and pamper the visitor, surely these features would further help retain and convert site prospects?

(“Design Will Save the World” is the studio’s motto)

A/B testing for email marketing

2009-09-28T18:28:14+00:00

We manage numerous email marketing campaigns for our travel clients, either directly or working closely with PR and marketing agencies.

These include a number of B2B campaigns reaching out to the media and trade.

It’s not the purpose of this post to discuss how to present a story to generate interest. Suffice to say the media and trade receive a deluge of press releases many of our clients have found a simple design with a few images stand them apart. Of course recipients also receive a text version if preferred.

I’ve talked briefly before about the importance of a subject line in achieving the first step of a recipient actually opening the email.

Something we’ve been advising and implementing more lately is A/B testing for subject lines. Two subject lines are created - a subset of the subscriber list receives Subject Line A, another subset receives Subject Line B.

The open rates of both are then monitored for a period of time. The subject line that leads to the most opens is selected as the winner and all remaining recipients receive this subject line.

It’s a simple and quick way to improve your content a

Is Content King in Travel and Tourism?

2009-07-01T11:26:38+00:00

The topic of “content” comes up time and time again in discussions about online presence. I’m not sure who coined the phrase “content is king,” but I have customers continuing to ask the question: Is Content King in Travel and Tourism?

The answer is, without a doubt, yes - especially for smaller outfits and organisations with limited online presence. Sure, there is plenty of free content out there – and judging by the traffic numbers of sites like Wikitravel and the forums on Lonely Planet, free content is here to stay. But the content on your site is your vehicle to present your message and portray your brand. And if you offer the ability to book online or at least direct customers to contact info, the content might be the last stand between you and a booking. Consider:

a frustrated mother can’t decipher if your tour offering is suitable for children will decide to book something else. Worse, if it is clearer on your competitor’s site, they might get the sale instead of you.
a last minute client who doesn’t see your contact information cannot call to see if there is space for an extra booking.
a referral customer visits your photo gallery and decides not to book because the images don’t reflect the experience his friend described.

The worst part about each of these scenarios is two-fold: 1) you’ll never know that it happened, and 2) the problems were easy to fix.

Here are some easy questions you can ask while browsing your content. Do you like the answers you get back?

Is it easy to find all the available mediums for contacting you (phone, email, post)?
Is it easy to see the types of services available, the details on the offering, and availability/cost?
Are images or video professional and reflect the reality of your offering (In this case, less is more.)
Do you display important certification information?

The European online travel market alone is expected to reach EUR 67 billion in 2009 (source: eMarketer.com) , never mind the exploding success in the US. Is your online presence sending the message it should? Content is king in travel and tourism, so I hope the answer is yes.

Photo courtesy of jenlight.

Andy Hayes is a professional travel writer and photographer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He helps small businesses in travel & tourism embrace online technologies. To learn more, visit his website, Sharing Experiences where you can download a free copy of his recent eBook, Preparing for Takeoff: 7 Common Mistakes Businesses Make when Going Online.

Links 07.11.08 & WTM

2008-11-07T08:35:32+00:00

It’s here again! I’ll be at the World Travel Market next week - drop me a line if you’d like to meet up.

Will also be attending the Travel BlogCamp on Tuesday evening.

SEO terms and rich content - can they ever be friends? http://tinyurl.com/5mf85c with a travel writing focus
50+ Must Read Web Design for ROI, Usability and SEO Articles http://tinyurl.com/64qvqx
Kayak received 62% of the vote for best travel site for cheap tickets over at the recent Lifehacker poll http://tinyurl.com/6kfu2q
Not really surprising given ROI tracking of PPC & SEM - From the IAB “SEO top priority for travel sector” http://tinyurl.com/6nay8j
Apps for LinkedIn launched - TripIt seems to be the first travel one http://tinyurl.com/5aux88
Community shout out for the best travel web sites on Lifehacker http://tinyurl.com/6kq3as
Of interest to UK’ers - Google Testing Post Code Search Boxes http://tinyurl.com/6jgfen
Just had a go with Google Earth for the iPhone, very impressive http://tinyurl.com/62x3ek
Neville compares the communication approach of JetBlue and BA and their respective terminal openings. http://tinyurl.com/67llrr

News and Links 24.10.08

2008-10-24T09:59:16+00:00

More commentary and links taken from our Twitter - excuse the lack of blog posts, we’re experiencing a large client workload at the moment. Knee deep in SEO audits and PPC campaigns. But it’s all good!

Check out Alex’s blog or browse the new Travolution site and blog for recent online travel insights.

Good tips and advice on internal site searches http://tinyurl.com/44oxt8
Neat categorisation of five Social Media spheres http://tinyurl.com/49j9cx
‘Adding social links to emails: what and where?’ http://tinyurl.com/6q5rz3
I was aware of a significant difference in PPC vs SEO spend but didn’t realise the gulf was so great http://tinyurl.com/56udo7
Joy! Big Google Analytics upgrade - get the lowdown at TechCrunch http://tinyurl.com/5v8vu4
It’s time for travel content 2.0 http://tinyurl.com/6xhedr
Great tips from Kevin ‘Travel SEO – How to Target Searchers at the Right Stage of the Buying Cycle’ http://tinyurl.com/6frzoj

New Dot Tourism site and methods for site evaluation

2008-10-22T14:09:09+00:00

The recent bad weather has presented us with a few rain filled evenings to develop and expand the Dot Tourism business site.

We’ll regularly be making improvements and adding new content, and would greatly appreciate feedback. Our aim for the site is to educate, persuade and motivate its visitors to take action.
We want it to demonstrate our passion for the tourism industry and our focus on creative graphic and interactive design. We hope the web site reflects this.

Crazy Egg and ClickTale

These two applications provide information on how users are interacting with your site. Tools like Google Analytics are great but they only tell you so much.

Crazy Egg tracks what links users click on when they view the pages on your site. They present this information in many ways and to demonstrate how it works I’ve inserted two images below.

The first shows a screenshot of the site home page. Each circle with a plus designates a user click. The differences in colour represent the popularity of the click. For example, red shows a more active link and in this case I’ve clicked the one alongside ‘Work’ and this shows that for this time period the link has been clicked 7 times. One of the advantages of this site is the ability to run a number of different tests with small changes and see how they affect the user’s navigation through a page and site. Important for any site but even more so for web applications or for sites with large numbers of visitors.

Click Tale

Links 15.10.08

2008-10-15T09:05:01+00:00

Top 21 email marketing information sources http://tinyurl.com/39ngzw
Ten Hot Tips for Successful Online Travel Marketing - Part 1 http://tinyurl.com/4f6vt4 Part 2 http://tinyurl.com/3hnlqv
Travel PPC: 10 Ways to Improve Your Campaign. http://tinyurl.com/3jjo4x
Google adds more ads http://tinyurl.com/49vcb2
Hotel service by iPhone or iPod Touch http://tinyurl.com/3wkuqm
Social media supremo Chris Brogan posts ‘Tourism Bureaus and Bloggers’ http://tinyurl.com/4tsofy

Links 06.10.08

2008-10-06T10:23:50+00:00

Whole Travel launches eco-friendly rating system for hotels http://tinyurl.com/3ln93e
Online travel booking: What influences consumers? http://tinyurl.com/43abuv
The wonderful world of multilingual SEO http://tinyurl.com/47svg3
Just joined this Ning powered network - ‘A Tourism 2.0 Professional Networking Group’ http://tourism2point0.ning.com/
Holidaymakers do not trust user generated content

Links 25.09.08

2008-09-25T14:42:39+00:00

Good Q&As with Skyscanner CEO http://tinyurl.com/3jequd
Long overdue - www.thetrainline.com has been redesigned (UK train ticket retailer)
Online PR’ers - Yotify, Google alerts replacement? http://tinyurl.com/4v6de5
Handy forum for those involved in travel related affiliate marketing http://tinyurl.com/45f782
Good idea - New Zealand hotel puts scans of guest book online http://tinyurl.com/4p2cs2
How to put your website on Google News - http://tinyurl.com/4yl96x
Great example of triggered email (welcome messages or signup confirmations) from moo.com http://tinyurl.com/4wz685
Holiday industry’s blues from Marketing Week http://tinyurl.com/4j4qfd
Google Maps Mobile Adds Street View, Walking Directions http://tinyurl.com/4dqztn

Links 15.09.08 Google Advertisers Quick to bid on “XL Airways”, top 10 email clients + 5 others

2008-09-15T13:28:17+00:00

I’m tending to post these types of links first on Twitter.

Google Advertisers Quick to bid on “XL Airways” - with brand bidding in place, the competition are quick to the mark.
Similar to http://woot.com but for travel deals: http://Fourtraveldeals.com - Nice idea, looks to be all Expedia (via 37s blog)
Top 10 email clients used by business & consumer recipients - didn’t expect Hotmail to be so high on b2b
Travel start up at Techcrunch50 (were there any others?) GoPlanit for generating itineraries
Missed this, list of 75+ online travel resources from Mashable (2007)
Delving into the problems with www.italia.it at http://tinyurl.com/5zngoo - dot post about the logo last year http://tinyurl.com/5p37g9
SkyScanner site review http://tinyurl.com/6rykgr

Three online reputation monitoring services + hotel brand management

2008-09-05T08:46:06+00:00

Thought I’d share a few links on some brand monitoring services.

These are tools to help monitor who is saying what about your brand.

And opportunities to monitor product/destination keywords and then provide information/feedback to those networks and online communities.

For some background, read this article for an introduction to online reputation management.

And the three tools:

Google Alerts - free and will help you gain an idea on what level of paid tool suits you.
Online Reputation Monitor - three pricing levels starting from £5/month. Free trial.
trackur - One of the more feature full programs. Free trial available.

I’ve not tried these yet but here are two tools specifically aimed at hotels.

10 Reputations All Hotels, Resorts & Inns Should Monitor Online

Any others you’d recommend?

Introducing CountryBrands.org

2008-08-22T15:08:28+00:00

We’ve just launched CountryBrands.org which aims to be the definitive resource for logo identities.

It’s a little project we’ve wanted to do for a while and found the time in recent weeks.

We’ll build the database up over the coming month and each logo entry will include a downloadable file - we’ll try and find the best quality in each case.

We’re keen for feedback so please let us know what you think.

[UPDATE] Alex Bainbridge has posted a short review about CountryBrands.org on his blog

Links 21.08.08 - PR debates, dottourism on Twitter

2008-08-21T09:45:17+00:00

First a bit of blog housekeeping - we’ve added our latest Tweets in the right hand column. Or you can follow us at http://twitter.com/dottourism/

There has been another round of conversation regarding the changing face of PR in recent weeks.

Does the Thrill of the Chase Make PR Obsolete? from Steve Rubel, a high profile long time blogger and senior vice presient of Edelman Digital. He laments at the deluge of off base email pitches he receives in a changing PR landscape. He deletes 99.99% of them. I receive on average 10 a day - the vast majority are not relevant to the online area that this blog focuses on. It’s frustrating that the senders do not take the time to do a little bit more research. See also Hotel Blogs rants about PR

Mike Arrington writes more (from a tech startup angle) on the subject at The PR Roadblock On The Road To Blissful Blogging and the 150+ comments provides views from all sides. He comments that the people writing about startups is much more varied now but the approach to engage them is wide of the mark.

From a travel PR perspective Neil MacLean has written a guest post on the Travolution Blog. We work both with private and public sector organisations directly and with PR agencies. In our experience, only a very small minority market and carry out services that Neil rightly comments a modern PR agency should; online copywriting, web monitoring, search engine marketing, analytics and basic web development.

An Econsultancy post this morning from Drama 2.0 Is PR broken?

Links - 04.08.08 Family Fun campaign, weather2flights.com, Google translator centre

2008-08-04T19:24:52+00:00

Following on from their Family Fun website, Enjoy England have launched a similar campaign at www.monsterfamilyfun.com/

UK based weather2flights.com lets visitors browse holiday destinations based on climate, routes and flight duration.
Google Translation Center, a New Human Translations Service in the Making

Links 24.07.08 iPhone travel apps, online marketing survey for hoteliers, reviews of travel.co.uk

2008-07-24T11:18:23+00:00

The blogosphere has been awash with iPhone 3G talk for the last few weeks. No doubt one of the most exciting things to keep an eye on will be the travel applications and GPS tie ups. To date there are 139 apps listed on the Apple site, although this should increase quite quickly as I’ve read there is a backlog of apps waiting to be cleared. Plenty of releases from the usual suspects with some suffering from poor reviews, perhaps as a result of rushing them out.

Tim at Maastricht Hotel School is carrying out academic research on how the hospitality industry is using online marketing. As well as finding out what techniques are being used, he is trying to determine the perceived benefits of the different methods. You can complete the survey at www.rshotels.com/survey.

As part of its regular series, E-consultancy reviewed Travel.co.uk, the recently launched package holiday comparison site. They followed up a few days later with an interview with the marketing manager. Alex at Musings also ran a detailed review ‘10 things about the travel.co.uk website’.

How do you search online for travel? video

2008-07-07T13:52:14+00:00

Oban Multilingual dropped me a line this morning about a short video they made.

They interviewed a number of overseas travellers in London to learn about their search habits. I’ve embedded the movie below.

The video focuses on the need to provide multilingual sites for international travellers.

Oban (who specialise in multilingual SEO and international SEM) are working with EyeforTravel researching online travel habits. Take part at www.faceofglobalsearch.com and win £250 of travel vouchers.

I’m going to be a tad critical on the quiz.

Oban has previewed in a blog post some of the results and indicated that so far, the three most popular sites for travel research are Google, TripAdvisor and Alibabuy. The question only presents these three sites to select from. Although there is a text field where the user can enter any site I’m not sure how often that would be used.

Perhaps a longer list or drop down of popular travel sites may lead to a more accurate cross section of preferred sites.

For the game itself I only got as far as Anchorage!

Links 02.07.08 - Thomas Cook redesign, Tripwolf updates, Links

2008-07-04T08:45:13+00:00

Thomas Cook redesign: Has it improved usability? from Econsultancy
Coverage of updated social travel site tripwolf at Techcrunch and Travolution
Should Links Open In New Windows? from Smashing Magazine

Five free analytics tools worth checking out

2008-06-18T08:07:09+00:00

Google Analytics - set up goals to measure conversion rates or use the Site Overlay tool to see a visual breakdown of visitor paths.
Woopra - new tool on the block and still in beta. Offers real time visitor analysis and built in chat tool, both of which are not present in Google Analytics.
Clicktale - more of a recording tool that allows you to record and playback what your site visitors do. Free version allows 100 recordings per week.
Crazyegg - allows you to see exactly where people click in the form of heatmaps and other visual indicators. A more advanced version of the Site Overlay tool in Google Analytics. Free version allows 4 pages to be tracked with 5,000 visitors per month.
Enquisite - Focuses on search traffic analysis and provides reports detailing both organic and paid search traffic. Includes in depth LongTail reports.

Links 09.06.08 - TravelMuse, Tourism Society Facebook group, 3D cities on Google Earth

2008-06-09T14:47:02+00:00

Came across online travel site TravelMuse today via a positive review on Techcrunch. From their about page - “TravelMuse combines original editorial content and destination city guides with powerful planning tools.” Try out their Inspiration Finder and read their stance on user generated content over professional content.
The Tourism Society has set up a Facebook group for discussion/networking.
The most inaccurate weather forecast in history
Cities in 3D Program spreads to Europe via Techcrunch UK - This programme now moves to Europe and invites local governments to share 3D data with the public by adding a model of their city to Google Earth. Be interesting to see how well this is taken up, plenty of tourism potential - skip to 2 min 45 secs to view an example of Hamburg and research possibilities for a visitor.

Recent work - Capital Region USA, Visit USA Association, Highland Safaris

2008-06-03T11:02:33+00:00

A roundup of projects we’ve recently worked on.

Website and online campaign - Capital Region USA
Emarketing and online survey - Visit USA Association (UK)
Website redesign - Highland Safaris

1. Website and online campaign - Capital Region USA
The Capital Region USA, Inc. (CRUSA), is a tourism coalition comprised of the the States of Virginia, Maryland and the city of Washington, DC. We created an online campaign to target the UK market and promote the Scenic Byways found throughout the region. We created a website that creates personalised road trips around the Capital Region, based on the visitor preferences. The site is also packed with exciting touring ideas and visitors can request a free Byways travel pack.

“Dot Tourism professionally managed the execution of the campaign from start to finish and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results.”

Matt Gaffney, President & CEO - Capital Region USA, Inc.

>> Read the case study

2. Emarketing and online survey - Visit USA Association (UK)
We helped the Visit USA Association and US Department of Commerce perform research following a TV campaign to help understand potential visitor’s holiday intentions. We designed a branded email and supporting online survey that led to excellent results. The email campaign with no incentive had an open rate of 40% and over 23% of all recipients went on to complete the survey.

“You handled the project very well and I have had very good comments on the quality and presentation back from the Department of Commerce in Washington.”

Alan Waddell, Chief Operating Officer, Visit USA Association (UK)

>> Read the case study

3. Website redesign - Highland Safaris
Highland Safaris take guests on a journey of discovery through Scotland’s breathtaking scenery. We were approached to manage their digital marketing strategy and the first stage has been to create two new web sites aimed at the corporate and leisure markets. Case study coming soon.

>> Visit the web site

Updated travel and tourism blog links

2008-05-08T09:22:31+00:00

It’s time to update the links on the ‘Travel & Tourism blogs’ section.

Updated

Back in January Jens set up a new Wordpress powered blog and it now resides at http://tourisminternetmarketing.com/

Tourism tide has moved away from Blogger.com to Wordpress on a new domain at http://tourismtide.com/ - Similar move for ‘Travel & Tourism technology trends’ which is now at http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com/

New

Albert Barra’s blog covering Hospitality Marketing, Social Media, Revenue Management, CCRM, and Online Distribution.

Ed Whiting’s remarks on the travel eCommerce and technology industry.

Great blog from Karin Schmollgruber at FastenYourSeatbelts.at - most of the blog is German but I’ve linked to the posts in English.

Added a link to wiwihblogs that lists and links the most recent posts from the wiwih community.

Isaac Mizrachi’s ‘E-Tourism is Here’ blog covering travel websites, web usability and tourism brochures.

I’ve also removed those not updated in the past three months.

Any more to add?

[UPDATE 13.05.08]

I’m a regular visitor at the Highland Business Research blog written by Vicky Brock& Stephen Budd

Links 15.04.08 - More travel social sites TripSay, Driftr, HereOrThere, YowTrip, Uptake

2008-04-16T11:52:36+00:00

http://www.planeteye.com

http://www.flagr.com/

http://www.troovy.com/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/tripsay-lets-you-discover-the-world-with-a-little-help-from-your-friends-beta-invites/

http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/nanaimo-the-capital-of-google-earth/

Links 08.04.08 - Great Email newsletter example, email marketing case studies from the hotel and tra

2008-04-08T12:49:44+00:00

A super overview of a great email newsletter example from Kayak. Justin from aweber.com highlights the building a relationship approach over the hard sell so often seen. Kayak also uses basic segmentation and personalisation very well.

Email marketing case studies from the Hotel and travel industry from Email marketing reports.

Links 26.03.08 - ‘What is digital marketing’ event, Nomao - share your favourite places, travel netw

2008-03-26T09:29:00+00:00

The Tourism Society are hosting an event in Cardiff on the 18th April. Titled ‘What is Digital Marketing?’ three guest speakers will discuss digital marketing from the tourism practitioner’s perspective and its role in tourism. More details at the Tourism Society event calendar.

Nomao allows you to share your favourite places on a customised map (e.g. best restaurants, holiday spots) and for each you can add pictures/videos along with a widget to your blog.

A freelance journalist at the Guardian is spending the next three months putting a number of travel networking sites put to the test. She also includes a list of these sites towards the end of her article. I’ve included these below:

For meeting a local

couchsurfing.com
hospitalityclub.org
yoursafeplanet.co.uk
globalfreeloaders.com
stay4free.com
bewelcome.org
joomla.servas.org
lghei.org (gay and lesbian)

For meeting other travellers

wayn.com
addictedtotravel.com
doyoutravel.com
thelmaandlouise.com (female only)

For upmarket networking

asmallworld.net
yacht6.com
quintessentially.com

For tip sharing and advice

Ivebeenthere.co.uk
tripadvisor.com
43places.com
virtualtourist.com
lonelyplanet.com/thorntree

For older travellers

sagazone.co.uk

For meeting someone on a flight

Flight-club.org
triplife.com

For getting a date

Travelhotties.com

For practising languages

friendsabroad.com
voxswap.com

For letting people know where you are

twitter.com
facebook.com
dopplr.com

For community blogging

bootsnall.com
travelpod.com
globenotes.com
travelblog.com
realtravel.com
mytripjournal.com

For special interest

warmshowers.org (cyclists)
tejo.org (Esperanto speakers)

For creating your own social network

ning.com
crowdvine.com

Links 17.03.08 - Culture 08 microsite, Top 5 Travel & Tourism Technology Trends for 2008

2008-03-17T16:11:42+00:00

Enjoy England have launched a new microsite to support the year-long Culture 08 campaign. This celebrates England’s best cultural attractions.

Travelmole reports online travel experiences company Isango has attracted $8M funding

Stephen Joyce’s Top 5 Travel & Tourism Technology Trends for 2008

Enjoyed this Texas Designer’s Map of the World from Pentagram

Links 12.03.08 - Travel: TV and Web work hand in hand, Travel sector PPC ‘more expensive but more e

2008-03-12T09:29:51+00:00

E-consultancy blog takes a look at how the travel industry is using TV and web to drive sales.

Travel sector PPC ‘more expensive but more effective’ from Internet Search Metrics

Second Life - Life for Tourism? from ‘Tips from the T-List blog at ITB’ - A look at Costa Crociere’s Second Life adventures.

Zicasso - Trip planning made easy?

2008-03-07T09:30:30+00:00

Zicasso aims to save time and remove the hassle when researching and planning a trip. The site is not live until the 10th March but a preview at Techcrunch has more details on how it works and the problems it aims to solve.

A traveler sends an outline of what they plan to do and where. Zicasso distributes this basic info to 100 service providers and within two days, four proposed itineraries and costings land in your inbox. Zicasso offers this service for free and takes a cut from the agents and operators. The service will appeal to those planning more complex trips or simply at those who do not have the time searching multiple travel agencies and search engines.

How would you feel about receiving bids from agents you don’t know?

There is a more in depth review at Profy who believe Zicasso has a model that could define the future of online travel booking - Zicasso: The Potential Future of Online Travel Planning

Links 07.03.08 - “Twitter for Location”, Best Geek Hotels in the World 2.0, Simple translation tool

2008-03-07T06:13:50+00:00

“Twitter for Location” from Yahoo’s Brickhouse - Fire Eagle. “Fire Eagle is the secure and stylish way to share your location with sites and services online while giving you unprecedented control over your data and privacy. We’re here to make the whole web respond to your location and help you to discover more about the world around you.”

Follow Techcrunch coverage
Dopplr post announcing integration

Limited functionality but aimed at developers to start building applications before a full launch.

Best Geek Hotels in the World 2.0 from Hotel Chatter

Simple translation tool - Jesse Gardner posted this tip on how to offer your site in many languages. The translation is automatically done by Google Translation and is by no means a replacement for human translation. But it may be useful to those with little budget as a way to give international visitors a basic understanding of the site content.

South African Tourism microsite - Are You experienced?

2008-03-06T15:50:54+00:00

The South African Tourist board has launched a microsite in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph. Site visitors are encouraged to share their experiences based around seven key themes. Each theme is accompanied by a video of a past visitor talking about their experiences. There is also a chance to win a five day holiday.

Each theme page is going to become quite long as more experiences are added. As these grow, perhaps the site could integrate a tag cloud (see below for a wiki definition or view Flickr’s popular photos tag cloud) onto each page to highlight the diversity of experiences along with their popularity.

For example, I’m a keen cricket fan and have read two related comments. I think it would be useful if i could click a ‘cricket’ link that would filter the relevant comments.

*A tag cloud is a visual depiction of user-generated tags used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color. Thus both finding a tag by alphabet and by popularity is possible. The tags are usually hyperlinks that lead to a collection of items that are associated with a tag.

You’ve seen the TV ad, now visit the website - DiscoverAmerica.com

2008-02-22T15:52:42+00:00

Keep an eye out for the launch of DiscoverAmerica.com in March. Branded as the official travel and tourism website for the US the site is funded with a £2m grant from the US Department of Commerce.

I’m not sure why the US hasn’t marketed itself before as a destination as opposed to just individual states or other entities. The tourism push will no doubt aim to improve the country’s image overseas and help stimulate the economy.

The site is little more than a holding page at the moment but I’m sure one that gains plenty of traffic. One of the key aims should be to collect emails, not necessarily for special offers as indicated in the sign up form, more for visitors to be notified of the launch. I think this should have been placed much higher up the page.

Here is a link to the TV ad by M&C Saatchi.

Links 01.02.08 - Dopplr Raumzeitgeist 2007, tripr.tv, Email Standards Project

2008-02-01T08:11:38+00:00

Where we went last year: Dopplr Raumzeitgeist 2007

Techcrunch lowdown on tripr.tv - hotel video guide where users are rewarded for their contributions.

“The Email Standards Project works with email client developers and the design community to improve web standards support and accessibility in email”.

For anyone involved in email marketing and the challenges in ensuring your creations render consistently across clients this initiative will be much appreciated and gladly supported.

Launched late last year the project is already working, with Yahoo promising to support all of their recommendations.

On another note, we recommend Litmus to painlessly test your designs - we use it every week for all our email marketing campaigns.

Oh, and the BBC is reporting this morning that Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for £22.4bn.

A look at TourismROI - global B2B networking and information service for tourism destinations

2008-01-16T14:24:47+00:00

TourismROI is a global B2B networking and information service for tourism destinations around the world.

I met up for a coffee with Richard Miller and Don Montague during the World Travel Market to find out more about the site.

Richard worked at the World Travel & Tourism Council for over 16 years culminating in a role as the Executive Vice President. In 2007 he joined MMG Worldwide, a NYC based firm specialising in marketing for the travel and hospitality sector and where Don is Chairman and CEO.

There is a holding page at www.TourismROI.com and downloadable brochure . They are beta testing the site at the moment with a number of destinations and plan to soft launch early this year. TourismROI has ambitious plans to be the world’s largest collection of tourism information and research for more than 6,200 destinations whilst providing a b2b networking platform that offers real value to destinations. The idea for the project was conceived early last year and was met with plenty of interest from investors and destinations. I’ve listed below a few of the problems that the site aims to solve and how they plan to do it.

Why TourismROI?

TourismROI aims to solve two main problems:

a) Network - Expensive and exhausting processes for destinations to find the right partners for investment and development and vice versa.

b) Information - Diverse and hard-to-find research sources covering latest trends, policies, statistics, incentives and forecasts.

TourismROI aims to provide this information and platform to connect suitable parties to speed up the business decision making process.

TourismROI features

1. Investment opportunities - worldwide visibility in a comprehensive and standardised framework. These range from opportunities from destinations, local and multinational corporations, business/hotel brokers.

2. Destination-specific tourism information - including strategy and master plans, research, facts and figures, reports and analysis.

3. Publications and research to buy or in the public domain - focusing on marketing/promotion, policy, economics, development and investment trends.

4. Visibility and access to investors - along with funding sources, buyers, partners and professional service providers.

5. Visibility for Travel & Tourism professional services, research and consulting firms.

6. A up-to-date network for events, investment conferences, requests for proposals and Travel & Tourism trade associations.

Site screenshots

1. Home

2. Destinations

3. Investment opportunities

4. Business opportunities

5. MyTourismROI

Dot Tourism news and World Travel Market

2007-11-09T15:12:49+00:00

The World Travel Market is almost upon us and we plan to be there Tuesday and Wednesday. Would be great to meet up with any readers so please drop me a line.

A quick post about recent projects we’ve enjoyed working on.

Identity and online campaign - Visit Britain
Visit Britain asked us to help promote a subscription service that provides legislative guidance for accommodation providers. We created a character, Mrs Pink, an online quiz and email newsletter. Read case study

Online training programme - Baden Württemberg (Southwest Germany)
We’re soon to launch an online training programme for the US travel trade aimed at promoting Southwest Germany. Fully customised and developed to maintain brand consistency with their main web site.

Branding and Website design - EDF Energy Rugby World Cup 2007
We were commissioned to design a proposed identity for an EDF Energy microsite, sponsor of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Read more about our projects and case studies

Don’t forget the subject line

2007-10-31T10:40:08+00:00

The importance of email subject lines

When a new email drops in your inbox how do you decide whether to open it?

Deciding factors usually include recognition and reputation. Do you know the sender and have you had a good experience with them?

Another is subject lines. Whatever the aim of your email marketing message, you won’t succeed if it isn’t opened. Yesterday evening I received an email from the ‘TravelMole Press Zone’ with the subject line ‘WTM 2007 Press Release’. Pretty dull.

A finely tuned subject line is perhaps the simplest short-term way to help improve your email marketing results but so often overlooked in preference for the copy within. In this case it was about developments in Dubai.

Why is it so important to get right? Along with the ‘From’ column it’s the only bit of information that users see when they scan their crammed inbox - even more so as WTM approaches!

There is no one best method, keep testing and adapting. Here are some links for writing successful subject lines.

- The Art of Writing E-Mail Subject Lines
- Optimizing Your Subject & From Lines for Email Clients
- Email Subject Lines that actually work

Links 31.10.07 - The state of online travel, Tourism Ireland in Second Life

2007-10-31T10:37:57+00:00

Travel Sales Still Growing, but Numbers of Customers Are Declining from the New York Times

Would you be a virtual tourist? - comments at Guardian blogs about Tourism Ireland’s excursion into the world of Second Life. Read the press release - Tourism Ireland plan to spend almost a quarter of their entire marketing budget on digital activity on 2008, currently at 14%.

Tourism & Web 2.0: Improve your Web 1.0 first at FastenYourSeatBelts.at

Links 11.10.07 - Lonely Planet and the BBC, social media’s influence on destination selection, NYC’s

2007-10-11T14:01:45+00:00

Lonely Planet Points The Way For the BBC on Blognation UK

How social media like Flickr and You Tube has become an influence on destination selection from the Tracking Tourism blog

Student survey on The Impact of Online Social Networks on Hotel Search and Referral Behavior

New York Times article on New York City’s first global advertising campaign - watch the video

Links 09.10.07 - Hotel videos, recommendations on the purchase process

2007-10-09T17:55:38+00:00

Webby’s to award best travel video

TvTrip is a video guide for hotels. With 145 to date, the plan to reach 1500 by the end of year will be hard work. Trivop, a competitor, has more than double but the quality varies greatly. Perhaps this is due to some videos being submitted by the hotels themselves as opposed to TvTrip videographers. It must have been a difficult choice deciding the number of cities to launch across. I read an interview today with the founder of welovelocal.com and he commented that one of the best decisions they made was to first launch in London. This has given them the chance to revise the site based on user feedback before expanding the local community site nationwide in the near future.

Online travel - recommendations on the purchase process

Social networking driving travel boom – TravelMole guest comment by Euromonitor

Links 18.09.07 - TripIt, TourismROI, Web 2.0 vs. Search Engines

2007-09-18T07:37:14+00:00

TripIt, an intelligent travel organiser launched yesterday at the TechCrunch40 conference in San Francisco. Initial thoughts at Lifehacker.

TourismROI aims to be the world’s premier Travel & Tourism management and investment resource. It plans to cover the full spectrum of information needs for destinations, developers and investors. More on this in a blog post soon. The venture is sponsored by the World Travel & Tourism Council and a launch is planned for later this year. Download the brochure.

Are Search Engines Becoming Obsolete in the Web 2.0 Frenzy? from HeBS.

Rohit Bhargava on VibeAgent, Travel Reviews and An Idea For TripCellar.com

Tourism Montreal, Lessno.com and UK Tourism 2007 Conference

2007-09-17T08:08:49+00:00

Tourism Montreal
Jean-Nicholas Lacoste got in touch about two websites Tourism Montreal have launched. www.play-montreal.com broadcasts a weekly podcast and www.ifoundmymontreal.com gives visitors the opportunity to share their experiences of the city and read/comment on what other visitors have said.

Lessno.com
Scott Ziber contacted me about the launch of Lessno.com, specialising in discount air fares for international travellers.

A quick surf around their site and blog this morning voice these brand values. The bright bold blog concentrates on personal and shared insights on the places to be, and a link on their home page profiling the world’s ugliest planes.

The home page is simple, concentrating on a large and clear fare search - the two other main links are to a blog post and survey on whether travel prices are fair. They are using a ‘Live chat’ feature, another excellent way to communicate with site visitors. I’d like to see a FAQs section and a predictive airport feature on the form.

Tourism 2007 Conference
Couple of things on this fast approaching conference that I mentioned in July. An email update on the conference shows a strong emphasis on using online marketing to drive sales. Of note they’ll be looking at integrating traditional and Web 2.0 campaigns, building brands with social media tools and making the most of new trends in search engine optimisation.

They also plan to keep the conference site updated with podcasts - hear a summary from Oliver,the conference organiser.

Links 06.09.07 - Five ways to make online travel sites better, The Long Tail in Travel, Effective Em

2007-09-06T11:57:44+00:00

A slow couple of weeks at blog central. Time to catch up!

Five ways to make online travel sites better - snippets from E-consultancy’s Travel Website Benchmarks Report

PhoCusWright’s Five Predictions About The Future of The Long Tail in Travel

Web 2.0 And Hotel Sales Strategies For 2008 from Hospitality.net

Effective Email Marketing for Hotels from Milestone Internet

Link roundup 14.08.07

2007-08-14T08:16:19+00:00

Uwishunu.com is a blog created and moderated by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation. It is an insider’s look at Philadelphia with the help of a number of local bloggers getting in on the act. Read more at Mediapost.

Good Design: Tourism Kamloops - Review of new city logo

Organic SEO tips from the SES Travel Conference

Link roundup 03.08.07

2007-08-03T06:44:10+00:00

‘WTM’s attempt to catch the online travel wave’ at HotelMarkeing.com

As firms battle on how to best use Facebook’s API here is a list of widgets do’s and dont’s

Social Media for Brands study by Tamar finds travel brands most at risk from user generated comments

Visit My Baltimore - explore the city through the eyes of its residents

2007-08-02T07:28:51+00:00

A new campaign by Baltimore Tourism gives residents the opportunity to describe their personal highlights of the city.

Site visitors are encouraged to upload videos of themselves in their favourite places at Visit My Baltimore.

My own perception, rightly or wrongly, is a large city in Maryland with high crime levels and an odd sounding baseball team. (A few years living in Chicago gave me an early love for the game) So quite a limited and imbalanced view then!

Personal experiences like this can help alter perceptions and the amateur video production adds to the authenticity. I think it’s a great idea. Stories create emotion and are easy to remember. People buy on emotion and stories are easier to relate to than copy on a DMO or related site.
For anyone who has used video sharing sites like YouTube the layout and functionality should be familiar.

Users create an account, upload a video and give it a description, category and assign it any number of tags. Below each video are links to some of the places mentioned for further reading.

Below that are thumbs of related videos. Site users can sort the 70 or so videos by rating or category. The one above from Steve is his own irreverent tour of the city with an emphasis on food spots. He also shows us where to park for over an hour for a quarter (or 15p!).

Link roundup 31.07.07

2007-07-31T16:00:51+00:00

E-Consultancy interview with Warner Breaks’ Mat Finch on silver surfers.

‘Marketing Travel Online is discussed on TalkShoe.com – some Highlights’ - Alicia Whalen’s podcast summary on brand building with social media.

Yahoo! launches Trip Planner in the UK

Two reviews of the recently launched widgets from STA Travel, Alex Bainbridge and Futurelab

Link roundup 30.07.07

2007-07-30T18:34:08+00:00

Two articles on how emerging technologies are changing the tourism landscape and in particular, the impact on supply and demand. Web 2.0 for the tourism industry part 1 and Web 2.0 for the tourism industry part 2

TravelMole Q&A with Brendan Crawford, from search engine marketing specialist Latitude Group.

Mashable have published an extensive list of 120 web development tools and resources.

Another Monday, another social community website comes along - FlagXO is a recently launched airport review site.

Hotels 2.0 – Examples in action

2007-07-29T11:25:49+00:00

I recently came across this June editorial from HOTELS magazine (Thanks to Jens).

“Travel 2.0 - As the Internet evolves, latest tactics and new rules change the way hotel marketers reach customers.”

It looks at a number of examples that demonstrate the importance of online experiences that add value to hotel web sites and build communities.

In this post I’ve pulled together some of these examples and a few others. Unfortunately the article does not link to the external sites mentioned.

For those interested to read more on hotel marketing, Travolution ran a series of articles in Issue 8 earlier this year.

For an introduction or a refresh, there are two whitepapers worth reading. They both look at web 2.0 for the travel and tourism industry.

1. Web 2.0 for the tourism & travel industry – from Reactive
2. Web 2.0 and the travel industry - from Ellion

Even with the improvement of hotel sites getting the basics right sometimes gets lost with the myriad of new technologies and buzzwords.

This should include:

> Easy navigation
> Searchable and accessible content
> Lots of excellent images
> Reassuring and simple booking engines
> Up to date offers

According to an emarketer.com survey earlier this year, only 17% of hoteliers believe emerging media (blogs, user generated content, video etc) result in a high return on investment.

Many of the examples below are from larger hotel groups. This may be explained by greater budgets or that certain approaches are more suitable to the type and scale of the business.

However, there are plenty of opportunities and benefits for the smaller hotels to adopt and experiment with their online strategies.

As the common bond of social media grows, more information arrives on the screens of viewing prospects. And with it many new ways to connect with customers, build strong communities and increase revenues.

Emerging technologies combined with the power of user generated content will help level the playing field and promote trustworthiness over marketing budget.

Blogs

> Starwood assembled a team of travel writers for The Lobby
> Active Hotels
> The Fowey Hotel in Cornwall
> Opus Hotel in Vancouver
> The Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusettes
> A day in the life of a Scottish Hotel - The Isle of Eriska

I’d like to see more blogs from smaller hotels. The ability for hoteliers to connect by way of more personal stories is a great advantage over bigger hotel groups. Blogs like the Hawthorne Hotel (updated daily) or The Fowey Hotel (updated more or less monthly).

People readily relate to a story and they create emotion. Not to mention the ability to enormously raise the hotel’s profile online due to the extremely search engine friendly nature of blogs.

RSS

> Superbreak
> Marriot eBreaks
> MGM

Podcasts

> JCasts by Jumeirah
> MGM
> Kimpton Hotels - An impressive series, unfortunately the links are not working for me at the moment.
> Red Carnation Hotels

Video

> MGM Grand Las Vegas - a very polished award winning video demonstrating the experience and facilities at the hotel.

User-generated content and social networking

> The Sheraton web site - encourages visitors to share stories, advice and photos relating to their travel experiences and favourite destinations.
> A different approach is taken by Affinia where they link directly to their TripAdvisor page.
> Joie de Vivre Hotels’ online community, California Connect. Travelers share travel tips, write blogs/reviews and upload photos.

Desktop

> Best Westerns KnockKnock desktop download to keep up to speed with the latest offers.
> Kimpton’s Hotels

Tourism Marketing Conference in Torquay

2007-07-27T07:18:49+00:00

The Tourism Marketing Conference is a three day event on 20-22 November. More details of the schedule and the lineup.

“The chance to mix with 165 other marketing and sales managers, tourism business owners, advertising agency creative directors and PR consultants and hear the latest ideas and creative thinking in marketing and filling the quiet periods in your tourism business.”

Deborah Meaden, widely known for her appearances as a dragon on Dragon’s Den will be speaking. More importantly she successfully built up her parent’s business, Weststar Holidays.

She sold it for £33 million and still has a 22% stake.