Search Engine Marketing For Travel-Related Sites
Search Engine Marketing For Travel-Related Sites: "Search Engine Marketing For Travel-Related Sites"At this session of the Search Engine Strategies conference, expert panelists discussed issues and strategies for the travel industry...
Main stats:
Jupiter Research found "for each dollar generated online, travel companies recorded an additional $5 revenue from traditional channels as a direct result of research that consumers did online."
Cornell study that "by 2005, 20% of all hotel bookings will be made online: half directly with hotel companies and half from third-party intermediaries"
Study by Phocus Wright states "65% of hotel buyers check three sites before making a buying decision"
John Waddy, President of Travel eMarketing, LLC said "In researching travel, consumers typically know the destinations they are interested in... always provide enough content on your site about the destination for visitors to make a buying decision," he said. "If a site visitor has to go to some other site to find out information on your hotel or event, you're probably going to lose that visitor as a conversion and repeat visitor."
Multi Channel Campaign Recommended:
Jon Schepke, Vice President and Principal at Meandaur...Schepke uses a number of SEM strategies that include PPC advertising, paid inclusion, and natural search engine optimization.
Natural SEO: With plenty of keyword-rich content, search engine optimization can be a cost-effective means of marketing a travel Web site.
Search engine paid strategies pick best tool to track the campaign, the channel, the keyword,the tactic... put a conversion tag on conversion pages...that associates the revenue type, or revenue amount, with the actual campaign and the channel."
Schepke uses the Broad Match on Google and Overture plus search engine advertising at FindWhat, Kanoodle, and Enhance Interactive (formerly Ah-Ha)...specialized comparison search services, such as SideStep (travel) and NexTag (shopping). Also recommends these marketing channels for travel sites:
Hotel or branded sites (such as Hilton.com)
Destination/travel sites (such as Chamberofcommerce.com)
Third-party intermediaries (such as Expedia.com
The self-funding model
Market through a single channel:
Example: ""The client had $30K of seed money. The goal was to generate $200K for every $10K spent."
Reinvesting 7, 10, or 13 percent of revenue was part of the self-funding strategy. "Assuming the same gross revenue and reinvestment percentage, your campaigns can begin to grow monthly," said Pingel. Within one month, revenue jumped from $10K to $26K. ROI can be determined by gross revenue or bottom line profit.
The article ends with "Travel site tips" which mirror the plans for Totaltravel working with Summit Media.
posted by Jen @ 6:21 AM
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