Tag Archives: analytics

Staying on track and ahead of the curve

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By Carrie Finley-Bajak
When it comes to social media strategy, it’s not OK to turn on cruise control: If a reset is in order, take one. Granting yourself a do-over can actually refresh stale campaigns and force you to break bad habits. Here are some ways to keep your social media marketing on track for success.
Stay focused on your goals

It’s easy to get caught up in the buzz when it comes to social media. While I enjoy learning about new trends in digital marketing, I have to remind myself to stay focused on growing my business.

Using Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and reports from social media analytics companies like Simply Measured helps me leverage data to identify opportunities and to optimize activities.

My overall goal is to use social media to get visitors to my website. Almost all of my social media updates and campaigns fit my keyword strategy, and if I am doing my job right, then promoting my brand yields a measurable increase in fans and followers and a rise in website traffic.

Besides building brand awareness and increasing a fan base, social media can be used as a tool for prospecting, lead qualification and customer service.

To get leads on social media, it takes time and a commitment to consistency. A steady stream of product announcements does not perform well on social networks. Instead, focus on showcasing expertise and experience. Use different types of content formats to capture attention.

Using supplier resources can be a time- saver and a way to get new ideas for what to post on social media.

Ken Muskat, executive vice president of sales, public relations and guest services at MSC Cruises USA and chairman of CLIA’s Trade Relations Committee, reports that MSC Cruises continues to provide the most updated promotional tools on its agent website.

Within the marketing tools section is a social media tab offering ready-made tweets and Facebook updates based on the cruise line’s latest news and promotions.

Grow with social media marketing

Social media messaging should include a robust mix of unique calls to action that drive visitors to click on links to your website, where visitors can subscribe to your mailing list or find a number to call for more information.

Make sure you have a system to monitor and track leads from social media.

Even social media-savvy agents with an established presence on social media need to keep abreast of current trends to remain relevant.

One of the key findings in the 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report published by Social Media Examiner was that marketers still value Facebook and even though a large number of respondents use Facebook, 68% want to learn more about it and 62% plan to increase Facebook activities.

If you are one of the estimated 40 million small businesses using Facebook to promote your brand and to connect with customers, fighting for attention is a constant challenge.

A lot of people are looking for creative ways to generate leads without paying for Facebook ads.

In an article posted on Forbes.com, social marketing consultant and writer Jayson DeMers wrote “50 Free Ways to Increase Your Facebook Page Likes.”

Some of the highlights from Jason’s article include the following tips:

  • Use images as a regular part of your Facebook content strategy.
  • Engage with other pages in your niche through leaving “thoughtful comments in response to other people’s posts.”
  • When leaving Facebook comments, post as your page rather than from your personal profile.

If your Facebook page has been on cruise control, go back and refresh the about section, and add relevant events and detailed descriptions to photos.

In Travel Weekly’s Focus on Social Media article, there was a great example of an agent’s Facebook page that can inspire you to revamp lackluster Facebook pages.

Jill LaBarre’s page, Jill’s Great Escapes, has incorporated all the elements that will increase the chance of getting leads. I am impressed by the “book now” call-to-action button that drives leads to her website as well as the use of custom tabs to get leads to “register to win a trip.” Jill also has leveraged the events tab to highlight her upcoming trips — three excellent examples of how to leverage Facebook.

Another Facebook feature that you might not know about is the ability to auto-schedule updates. This time-saver could be enormous help to agents who can set aside a few hours a week to schedule Facebook updates. Find out more at the Facebook Help Center.

Twitter is another social media platform that generates a lot of buzz. For travel sellers, Twitter is a good place to engage with suppliers, network with other agents and stay current on industry news.

There are ways to get leads on Twitter, but I would recommend getting comfortable with the platform before investing in Twitter ads.

I get that Twitter is not for everyone, but according to the Social Media Examiner survey, marketers indicated it as an area where survey responders planned to increase their use.

At a minimum, Twitter accounts should be established and a header image and description with a link to an agent’s website should be set up.

There are many ways to use Twitter. For example, Travel Weekly hosts a live Twitter chat every month about trending topics in travel. We use the #TWchats hashtag to promote and engage with industry insiders, including agents, suppliers and influencers.

I would suggest getting started and using the list feature to help create customized streams specific to your niche. For example, create a list of your preferred suppliers to quickly see their posts.

The advanced search feature enables users to create custom searches based on keywords and variables like location.

Best in show

These are my favorite tweets from June’s #TWchats about social media best practices within the travel industry:

Larry Pimentel admits to using social media to find “a unique luxe wellness lodge in #NewZealand called @SplitApple.” The CEO of Azamara Club Cruises added in his tweet, “Travelers loved the experience. So did I.”

Catherine Heeg: “I really like Pinterest as you can organize your photos and message boards and pins to clients.”

Seiche Wave: “A great social media campaign stimulates dialogue, attracts new followers and increases new visitors to all associated sites.”

Video

No conversation about social media marketing is complete without mention of video.

Whether an agent uses a smartphone, digital camera or expensive video recorders, we know that videos capture the attention of people on social media.

  • Anyone can set up a YouTube channel, and a lot of suppliers will give you permission to upload their content onto your agency’s branded channel.
  • Instagram has a video-sharing feature as well as Vine, which can be easily shared on Twitter.
  • Facebook allows users to directly upload video. Pinterest allows users to “pin” videos, and your website should have a blog where you can easily embed videos to leverage content.

Bright On Travel: Optimise to convert and keep your customers and Google happy

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Bright On Travel: Optimise to convert and keep your customers and Google happy

 

By Travolution
By Travolution

Optimising for conversion rather than driving traffic volume must be travel firms’ main priority to make their marketing budgets sweat.Paul Holdgate, the newly-recruited head of digital at Brighton-based agency CWTdigital told the first Bright On Travel event this week that travel has been too focused on last click.

The half-day conference was organised by CWTdigital to coincide with the annual month-long Brighton Digital Festival and supported by Travolution as media partner.

Holdgate said: “Google has made it absolutely clear through its two latest updates that will no longer tolerate any spammy links or content.

“What I propose is you stop chasing the algorithm and develop a consumer-centric approach.

“Take a step back and map out the customer journey – think about every stage from that first inspirational content point.

“Travel is so competitive we tend to focus on the last click, but what we need to do is sow the seed earlier.

“Your consumer wants content served to them through the right medium, the right platform and at the right time in their journey. Central to this approach is personalisation.”

Holdgate, who previously worked for Tui Travel’s specialist division, said websites should be respected in the same way by online retailers as shopfronts on the high street.

He suggested firms ban talking about offline versus online marketing and hone in on the targets and customers they need to be profitable.

At Tui, while driving traffic was important, optimising conversions was the key focus as marketing funds were tight and it was important to make them work hard.

“Rather than just focus on driving quality traffic, let’s get the percentage conversion right up and this will impact directly on your bottom line targets.

“Do not waste the opportunity, patch up the holes,” said Holdgate.

Delegates were advised to put user testing at the heart of their businesses, and apply analytics to understand what does and does not work.

“Back up findings from analytics and expert review and also expose the opportunities that you would never have thought about,” he said.

Companies should also continually involve product and marketing teams in a feedback loop to prioritise those products that drive most revenue, Holdgate added.

“Is conversion rate optimisation the new search engine optimisation? For me it’s the same thing. Have the right content and tone and you will have happy customers and please Google.”

– See more at: http://www.travolution.com/articles/2013/09/27/7124/bright-on-travel-optimise-to-convert-and-keep-your-customers-and-google-happy.html#sthash.tkQMFzjl.dpuf

Google remarketing and metasearch are Travolution board’s hot tips for 2014

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Google remarketing and metasearch are Travolution board’s hot tips for 2014

By Travolution

By Travolution

Google’s new Remarketing Lists for Search Ads is already starting to have an impact on marketing budgets, according to a leading agency working in travel.Speaking at last week’s Travolution editorial advisory board meeting, Nishma Robb, iProspect chief client officer, predicted this will be one of the key trends for 2014.

She said the agency is already seeing clients increase budgets for next year but are looking at how search is interwoven with display.

Robb said the remarketing capability currently being rolled out by Google was already seeing firms focus on optimisation.

“It’s encouraging businesses to get smarter about analytics and conversion. We will now be able to prove [the effectiveness of campaigns] through technology.”

This is what Google says about Remarketing Lists for Search Ads:

“[It] provides yet another opportunity to optimise your search campaigns by letting you tailor your keyword bids and ad text for your highest value prospects – people who have visited your website in the past – when they’re searching for what you sell.”

Google estimates that conversions online run at between 2% to 4% of visits, and in travel where customers visit in excess of 20 sites before committing that figure is usually a lot lower.

A Google Think Insights post said: “In standard search campaigns, your bids, ads and keywords are the same for every search and every searcher.

“But if you knew which searchers represented higher value prospects, you might want to bid higher, show on broader keywords or present different ads to these customers to improve your results.

“Remarketing lists for search ads lets you do just that. You can use your existing remarketing lists to more effectively reach past site visitors so you can get more conversions and potentially better ROI.”

Robin Frewer, Google director of travel and finance, said the functionality will enable travel advertisers to target certain customers according to particular insight into aspects of product they have shown an interest in.

He said Customer Parameters will be “really powerful for remarketing to customers with a specific interest in specific destinations, dates or product types” and will help travel firms increase the accuracy and therefore the profitability of their advertising.

Frewer predicted that there will be a shift to measurable, performance-based marketing activity and that this has already seen more focus on brand building online, which is becoming increasingly more accountable.

Another area the board picked out to dominate in 2014 was metasearch, with this sector expected to make big in-roads into the traditional beach market.

Kayak and, increasingly Tripadvisor, are expected to have a major impact in this area the former having already launched package price comparison and started offering its own packages under a deal with On Holiday Group.

Former Traveltainment UK managing director, Andrew Nicholson, said: “There is still a lot of brand equity in the meta play.

“Players in meta dominate flights, are very aggressive in hotels and beach will be the big market they tackle next. Definitely volumes are going through the roof.”

Ian Brooks, Puregenie managing director, said he could see travel metasearch sites coming to dominate as they do in other sectors like financial services.