Case Study: Hotel Social Marketing that Boosts Bookings

SocialIndexEngine Hotel Marketing Campaign Case Study

The Social Index Marketing campaign to promote St. Lucia’s Marigot Beach Hotel is less than 6 months old, but the results have been very encouraging. 

With our new SocialIndexEngine Travel Strategy, special offers and promotions were loaded into our travel publishing systems and blasted out to a vast network of travel sites. Content from the same systems are published to Facebook and to our own network.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p17knXD0o70

The Social Marketing is combined with the blogging, article marketing, SEO Mobile Marketing, Travel Blast and Videos. 

It is a complete, done-for-you social media management and brand marketing  that drives bookings directly to your website and builds sustainable brands.

Compared to the same time last year, the hotel has had a 200% increase in bookings. The page rank for their website, MarigotBeachClub.com, has increased from PR3 to PR4.

The campaign is a kick-start package. Following a successful kick-start, we will re-evaluate the position of the Brand and devise a strategy to build on new niches with consistent blogging, video distribution, mobile and social media management services providing information to build authority and give answers to travellers.

This success was a result of the new strategies and technology built by AXSES. About a year ago, we noted that traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) was not working. Getting links from other sites used to help us get top position in Google and other search results. Then the Engines like Google saw that a lot of this was paid-for links or reciprocal links (I link to you if you link to me). The result is that reciprocal links now don’t count and general links from directories etc have little or no SEO value.

>>>> More to get the full tutorial and whitepaper on the new SEO and Relationship Marketing sign up at http://SocialIndexEngine.com 

We used to comment on blogs; now Google looks to see who is commenting, what their history is and what their score is. Yes, SCORE! – Google actually rates advertisers and applies a Quality Score based on the merit of the work. This Quality Score was first used to weed out advertisers who were not contributing ads of good value; now it is one of the components of the social index that determines who you are, your authority, your influence and your value. Today it is used everywhere – But beware! Putting up a Squeeze page (a page that tries to grab an email and provides only promo material) will decrease your Quality Score. Have a slow-loading site and down goes the Quality Score.

Then there are articles. Article marketing was hot in 2010, but in 2011 a whole bunch of article sites got slapped by Google for populating duplicate content. This was Panda; many site just disappeared over night and articles with duplicates were ignored. Later in 2011, Google started assigning a negative score to website with non-original material. This hurt the e-commerce sites and particularly the affiliates who resold the product and copied the content of- like hotel room description, rates, etc. - from an OTA like Expedia.

All of this was unfortunate for bona fide distributors and travel marketers. The fact is that Google was not after the reputable marketers; it was clamping down on the absolute nonsense that affiliate marketers where putting on the net to game the system and sell their affiliate offers, like Teeth whiteners. The net had become proliferated with poorly written, low-value articles and a lot of trash. They had to do something, as search results were becoming irrelevant.

In marketing today, you cannot ignore Google. It is massive. ComScore reported in September 2011 that Google had almost 66% of all search traffic. So you absolutely must know what it is doing.

To be successful in today’s media, one has to know what Google is looking at, where it is looking, what it is looking for and what it does not want. Make a mistake and Google will slap you right out of the ring.  

To be successful in internet marketing today, you need to be where Goggle is looking

What I can tell you is that Google is looking at Social Media. It is looking at what you are doing on social media, social networking sites like Facebook, sharing sites like YouTube, bookmarking sites like Delicious, Wikipedia-type sites, and news sites like Twitter. It is very interested in mobile sites which are, in fact, the most social of all, and mobile is soon going to overtake OC as the main method of Search and Internet access!

We have noted that Google likes video and that consumers are searching for videos to evaluate a product or service and get answers to questions. Hence, we use a lot of video. They are informative videos; not too sales-oriented and definitely not glitzy. Videos that work in Social Media are local, personal stories and honest accounts, if they get too polished and too glib they loose appeal. Never put fancy effects and glitz into your videos.

Knowing all of this, our SocialIndexEngine is about building your social presence and making it work. It is not restricted to Social, but pretty soon there will be little else but Social. It really is the new way of marketing, permission-based, non-invasive and informative, supportive and engaging communications. 

Gone are the days of hype and spin. Mostly all of that has been the result of too many products in the market. It was not always like this, the cave man did not wonder around with a placard marketing his wares. In fact before commerce, man existed in agregrian communities bartering with neighbors. 

Now we have Pepsi reusing the word "Refresh" for its emotional appeal and Coke competing for emotional space with "Open Happiness". I think it is all rather ridiculous.  

The new marketing is going back to its roots in many respects. Friends, acquaintances, business partner and one's own circle or community are a growing factor in influencing what you people buy and where. The new technology is drastically changing the way we market. With so many consumers becoming vocal, publishing options, sharing views and insights: the traditional media of newspapers, radio and the broadcasters and finding themselves lost in a sea of voices and the new paradigm of participation. I talk about this in the preface to my book "How to Build your Business online by Ian R. Clayton"

>>> http://buildyourbusinessonlinebook.com

It's available in paperback on Amazon and Kindle, as easy read and full of helpful insights and how to's. Will share with you the process of publishing it in an upcoming blog - Keep Watching!

This new marketing is at the core of our approach to SEO. We have built an overall strategy that includes our e-commerce engine and our publishing machine. We even do magazines and all the usual brochures, but now always published on on-demand, available instantly, online with digital format for download to mobile devices and by regular mail. 

Everything is going online and you need to be there with the best you have in a format, message and engagement appropriate to your niche.

>>> Subscribe to SocialIndexEngine Free newsletter and tutorial to find out more

New Video blasts boost booking 200%

We have just published another video blast for Marigot Bay in St. Lucia for http://travel2exoticplaces.com/ . Unlike the previous video, which focused mainly on the Marigot Beach Hotel, this one is featuring the destination of St. Lucia.

We are publishing a separate blog that describes the success of this campaign, explains what we did and why and offers some insights as to why this technique we call SocialIndexEngine works.

It certainly did work. The hotel bookings increased by 200% over the previous year. Not only that, their Page Rank (PR) went up from 3 to 4. PR is a Google measure of the site’s relevance. The higher, the better. Barbados.org has a rank of 6. Expedia is 8 by comparison. Small hotel websites rarely get higher than 3 and to increase rank is very difficult.

More about the tecnology and marketing strategy see video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5MZWrz3OYY

The system we use is a new set of integrated technology and strategies that we have perfected in late 2011 and are launching now in 2012. It involves using our own e-commerce systems to blast out travel content and promos to social media and 100s of travel sites. We are building an elaborate array of our own sites such as Travel2ExoticPlaces.com and working with established travel portals, shopping sites and social media (posting offers and bookings to Facebook).

A large part of our success is now based on strategic use of social media, using it as a platform for marketing and also building sales funnels into services like Facebook. 

For more on this, please make sure that you subscribe to our blog at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/blogspot/kXYq

 – That way, you will be advised when the next blog is published.

The next blog is going to be very helpful. Not only will we tell you why this campaign succeeded, but we will also tell you why traditional SEO is dead. That’s right: SEO is DEAD. The old techniques do not work and we will document why.

Just subscribe to our blog at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/blogspot/kXYq to be sure you get this.

The video is being blasted out to video sites and it is featured on the video channel http://www.youtube.com/user/traveltheexotic . It is also being blasted out to the social networks and made available for the Marigot Beach Hotel to post on their own website.

The video promotes Marigot Bay as one of the most picturesque bays in the Caribbean and one of the most exotic coves in the world. It is nestled in the west, in a secluded section of St. Lucia that is surrounded on three sides by steep hills covered in tropical rainforest. This historic Bay has been a refuge to ships, pirates and adventurers for centuries.

To get to the Marigot Beach Club Hotel, you take a short ferry ride in local pirogue-style boat. It is a wonderful way to start a holiday: your first dip into the Caribbean Sea in a local boat as you drift across the bay to the soft white sand beach where you step off and into the Marigot Beach Club Hotel.

Guests staying in the Marigot Bay area will be delighted by the beautiful landscape, made complete by the variety of flora and fauna on the island. Travellers can book a tour with the hotel to see St. Lucia’s natural attractions. These include native animals - birds, reptiles and other creature that have made this exotic island their home.

Guests can also visit the many scenic places for on activity-based tours, such as hiking on rainforest trails, taking an off-road jeep ride, or sailing in the bay.

Sailing in the Marigot Bay is quite popular, as it is an exceptionally relaxing experience. It provides great photo opportunities, and you also get to rub shoulders with other international travellers who may just be in the night, or for the weekend, on their way to or from the other Caribbean islands.

Organized scuba diving trips, as well as scuba classes by certified professionals, also enhance the trip for those more active travellers.

For the full article, see our hub at http://irclay.hubpages.com/hub/Travel2Exotic-Marigit-Bay-Stlucia
 
Subscribe to our blog at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/blogspot/kXYq to get the latest news and research.

We can learn a lot from afiliate marketers

Jeff Johnson is probable the best Affiliate marketer ever. We use some of his techniques in our http://SocialIndexEngine.com.

He constantly wins competitions and out preforms in building traffic for his Brands.

Pay attention to his solution and to his warnings - Its easy to run afoul of Google.

 

 Here is his story and his warning:

http://www.salesautomator.com/app/?af=1407239&u=www.nonstoptrafficformula.com/sq/7867-140k

 

 

Helping Bolivia Cultural Tourism

In our research in building the marketing strategy for our client, we decided that Bolivia would be best promoted with appealing tours and packaged holidays. All will be locally managed with local experts who have an understanding at the grassroots level of the special places and popular attractions. It’s a huge country and travellers will need to visit several cities to see its many unique points of interest.

Today we have published a new Video on Bolivia. You may see this on the YouTube channel. 

It is also published with separate and unique blog posts on several other channels and, of course, here in TravelWatchNews.

In addition, there are several articles and several more videos planned to help promote Bolivia Hotels and Tours for our client.

We take pride in this work as Bolivia is a beautiful country with a culture and lifestyle that has existed almost unchanged for centuries. It is the home of the  Incas and the Tiwanaku before them and the ruins of their monuments, temples and building are scattered in the landscape.


Our client, Hostal de Su Merced, agreed and went to work on creating the tours and teaming up with other hotels to deliver a countrywide experience. There is much to explore in Bolivia, from the footprints of the dinosaurs to the floating island in Lake Titicaca as well as amazing landscapes and wildlife.

The program is in the early stages and we are implementing a basic Social Index campaign that has already shown results. This includes publishing several videos, articles and blogs. We have created a social network for Bolivian hotels including authority social bookmark, status sites and video sharing portals.

Stay tuned for more as we progress with this project and update our blogs. Enjoy the video and we hope that you learn something about this unique country. Perhaps you will visit Bolivia and stay at Hostal de Su Merced, or contact them to discuss their special 3-City tour.

For more information on the tours and hotels see http://BoliviaHotelSpecials.com

For more about this type of content and video marketing, keep tuned in to this channel. Coming up next, we will share with you a video and review of article blogging for Dominica. In this case study we share the successes and disappointments. What we have learned is put to good use in our new fully managed SocialIndexEngine and its marketing strategy.

Search as Media #4: Google's Hotel Finder

Today we look at Google’s Hotel Finder. This is still at the experimental stage. It's supposed to be open to the world but you can't find the Caribbean or any place in the Caribbean that are like their places. Google is targeting major destinations first.

It starts with an intelligent mapping system that allows you to define a catchment area for the hotels that you want to see. and they are displayed in the hotel listings.

You can change your dates, which would make a difference. If the date change causes a different price to be calculated, then they would be reflected in the results up here. But, as you can see, you’re getting star ratings and prices.

Right away, Google is treating hotels as somewhat of a commodity here; nothing on the features as yet, but that will probably come. The 'word on the street' is that Google is planning to do a lot more with regard to filters for hotels. When you click on a hotel, you get hotel details similar to an Expedia layout here or an OTA of any kind.

Note that there are hotel reviews by Google users; they’re quickly moving into the  TripAdvisor space. 

You can add a hotel to your shortlist, a comparison list similar to what we do with Barbados and the mapping systems. This allows you to select the points and add them to a list.

You can at any point go back to your shortlist, have a look at your shortlist on the top and remove an item from the shortlist or, in fact, book it on the shortlist. 

And you get the options to book with Expedia, Travelocity and the major Online Travel Agents or go to the owner's site!

The information is well presented and useful. This is a powerful solution for anyone that’s looking for the hotel in a particular destination, and you need to be in here. I don’t think you can not be in here. 

If you are not a Travelocity or a major brand, you are not automatically going to be on Google radar and thus not included in these listings.

How to get listed

The way to get on that radar is through search engine optimization, listing in authority information sites, and building your u,brand authority with social media and social indexing to create a presence that Google will take note of.   All this and more is done with the SocialIndexEngine.com marketing services.

It is time to start thinking about it because this is the next phase of Google as Media. It is going to be very easy for travelers to get to this service and to avoid having to wait through all of the other services that are in there, including the organic search results.

So that’s all we need to say for right now. Another reason to consider marketing yourself, another reason to consider making sure that you get on to Google’s radar and another reason to look at services such as SocialIndexEngine.com which will put you in the right place.

To get more information, go to http://SocialIndexEngine.com 

-  enter your email, first name and website address and we will get back to you immediately.   

Related links.
 The New Media

#1: Is search the new media
#2: Crowding out organic search
#3: How small hotels can compete in the new media

Get more details on SocialIndexEngine for Hotel & Tourism Marketing 

How Small Hotels & Tourism Co's can Compete in the New Media Landscape

Our last blog showed how search results are favoring advertisers, and how Google is offering eCommerce services, embedded in search results.

Advertising will be a necessity
We are going to see more advertisers and more Google results versus Organic. It’s going to become more important to advertise, more important to be a preferred supplier and more important to get Google’s attention so that you get into their Maps and get into their supply lists.

Shopping Services will be ubiquitous
There is going to be more eCommerce driving business to suppliers. I don’t think that Google is going to go into the transaction business; they’d be crazy to do that. There are enough eCommerce systems and services and those are their customers.,But it appears that Google might be very selective in who they choose as preferred supplies. Clearly Google will be offering more shopping services; this is to be expected as travelers want to know price and availability.

Enabling Participation
You’re going to see a lot more enabling processes like hangouts, chat, video sharing and GoToMeeting-type services. All of this is going to be there to help search users participate and help us find the right suppliers. But the question is: who are the right suppliers? That’s where we have to be very careful. Be aware also that these processes, social interaction and engagement will present a new layer of application and engagement at the point of decision and will affect where travelers go and which sites they visit. If you are not in the process, you are not in the game.

A single correct answer
Remember that Google is trying to deliver a single result to a single person for a single inquiry. What that means is that the result going to YOU will not necessarily be the result coming to ME for the same question. That means that everyone may have a very personal result based on their personal profile and current interest.

That means Social Media is really going to be increasingly important. This is why Google has made such an effort to develop and push Google Plus. Social Media is the source of who we are. Your reputation on sites like TripAdvisor and others are all going to play into Google's selection of who and what the authority for a particular result is.

The question is: What do we do about it?

We need to create our own authority status. Here is how you can do that:

1. Get Links from top sites. Sites with PR 6 and up; the higher the better. Linking from Barbados.org is a good example. It’s a highly relevant site and is considered an authority site. We have seen that people that link from that site will automatically get pulled up in the rank and pulled up in the Google results.
2. We need to publish. We can’t rely on other people to carry our message, because that’s going to undermine us totally. We can’t rely on Expedia carrying our brand - they won’t. We have to do more to brand ourselves in the travel industry. We must do that by publishing: comment on other sites, engage with social media, blog, create informative, educational and entertaining videos that are not totally self-serving messages. There are all sorts of ideas for video and YouTube is now the second largest search engine. Make sure you have a YouTube channel and add videos to it.
3. And finally, we will use Google Plus. I think that this is going to be very important because Google is looking at its Plus activity to gauge who we are. Google accounts for 70% of search now. If you are not on Google results you will miss out big time. The objective is to be on Page 1 for key phrases. You cannot do this on your own, but you can use services like http://SocialIndexEngine.com and you will have to.

Need to Take Charge of Brand Marketing
It's important that we see the implications of what is happening here and why it’s becoming so essential for you to take charge of your own marketing and your own brand. The market will not take care of this for you. The OTAs can bring you business but they do not build sustainable brands for hotels. You cannot abdicate this job.

Managing marketing, social media, publishing and content marketing is a lot of work. Hotels will increasingly have to subcontract the job out because they do not have the time or the inclination. And they should not; running a hotel and managing staff, looking after guests and maintaining the property, standards and service is a full-time job. Hotel managers do not have the skill sets or the understanding of the new media landscape.

AXSES can help. We have an arsenal of unique technology built to do the job. We have a team who understands the market and the resources and we are teaming with the very best Internet Marketers and Social Media professionals in the world. We answer the questions, like what you need to do and we can show you success.

If you would like to find out more, please visit http://SocialIndexEngine.com and fill in the "get more info" form.

Links

Previous article: Is search hurting independent hotels 

Is Search Depreciating Organic Search & Hurting Small Hotels?

There are big changes in the wind that are going to shake up travel shopping and eCommerce. This article is a must-read to understanding what is happening.

In a previous blog (Is search the new media), we talked about how Search is changing and become more like Media. We suggested that Search is the perfect example of the sort of platform and function we can expect in the new media of the future.

We saw that Google is upping the ante for organic search and featuring its own properties, as well as preferred suppliers and advertisers, in preference to organic search.

To illustrate the point, we have created a video here. You will notice Google advertisers are on top on the right and its own places now above organic results. Organic is way down the list on many result pages. Ads on the right, sponsors on the top, Places under that, leave organic off the screen and much depreciated.

Notice also that Google Search is now in the eCommerce business, offering rates by date and links to booking options. And Google is providing its own places' websites in several cases. It lists seven properties on top of the map; these are 7 they think are the most appropriate search results. The mechanics of choosing the top 7 is not clear at all.

The fact is that Google is becoming a full-service platform providing websites, hosting, technology and fulfillment. But it is not necessarily working with YOU! 


We note that Expedia is well represented in Google Places' results and we know that Expedia is a big advertiser. But we also notice that a small hotel who does not advertise (Dover Beach in Barbados) is on Places and when you click on the link, it takes you directly to Dover Beach Hotel's official website. This is encouraging, as we were instrumental in getting Dover Beach Placed. It shows that big advertisers do not necessarily dominate. They do things right, they are authority sites, and they get listed. But as a small hotel owner, You too can be listed and linked directly. And it is not always the big OTAs that are the preferred suppliers. In the case of Coconut Court Hotel a small OTA is listed, and that is likely a result of their work in listing the Place and marketing it.

When you examine the Map-Website that Google creates for properties, you will notice that it is getting its photos from Panorama. So Panorama is a good place to put your images. It's an authority site respected by Google. Be there and you increase your chances of the largest search engine in the world listing you.

Summary

Its clear that search is transforming into a much more encompassing media. It is becoming a full service solution, offering e-commerce and fulfillment. Its methods to evaluate ranking are favoring large companies who are the major advertisers and depreciating organic search results. It is already very difficult for small hotel and tourism operators to gain first page ranking for their target searches. Small companies do not have the collateral of the big companies, they don’t have the content, and are not woven into the web in the same way as the big companies. They don’t have the know how or the time and resources to compete.

The new changes appear to make it almost impossible for small travel companies to get into the first page of search results for generic terms other that their own name.

Coming Next

In our next Blog we will look at these issue in detail and suggest what  a small tourism company can do to market its brand and sustain its niche against these odds.

Be sure to read and watch the next video.

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