Hospitality and Search Marketing

By, Max Starkov and Jason Price

Search engine marketing is an essential component of the hotel direct online distribution strategy. According to Forrester research about 80% of overall website visits begin in a search engine or a directory service. Many other surveys also show that up to 85% of Internet users rely on search engines to locate relevant information on the Web (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc). Search marketing is an extremely dynamic field. Search algorithms change, new search techniques and formats introduced, new search services launched, new challenges emerge on a daily basis that keep search marketers busy. The implications of all this in hospitality are enormous and some highlighted in this article.

Background

In 2005, online travel sales will account for an estimated 30 percent of total travel sales- up from 25 percent last year and 21 percent in 2003, according to a recent report by Merrill Lynch. By 2007 online travel sales will represent 39 percent of all travel revenue, with growth from direct suppliers outpacing that of online travel intermediaries.

In hospitality, last year over 25% of all revenues will be generated from the Internet (20% in 2004, 15% in 2003) (HeBS, PhoCusWright). Another 25% of hotel bookings will be influenced by the Internet but transacted offline through call center, walk-ins, group bookings, and even via email inquires. Indeed the explosive growth in online hotel reservations was best illustrated when for the first time in mid 2004 Internet bookings surpassed GDS bookings.

The same Merrill Lynch analysis concluded that search engines are driving much of the increase in online bookings. This report estimates that travel search technology accounted for $600 million in direct bookings last year. What’s more, it predicts that search-related bookings will double each year through 2007.

Search Engines & Search Behavior

Search engines and search marketing has received much global attention. Search engines are as pervasive as the Internet. Google is now a public company with a market cap of $80 billion; MSN launched a new search engine; AOL announces the creation of its own search engine; and traditional marketing budgets are being rewritten for search marketing and the web.

Top Search Engines Ranked by Search Share, July 2006:

(2006 Nielson/NetRatings): Source Net Rating from SearchEngineWatch.com

• Google | 49.2%
• Yahoo! Search | 23.8%
• MSN Search | 9.6%
• AOL Search | 6.3%
• Ask Jeeves | 2.6%
• Others | 8.5%

In recent years research firms have begun studying the influence of search on consumer behavior, and its impact on the travel industry. They have identified online users as only somewhat satisfied with search results and are willing to switch from one search engine to another showing very little loyalty. Here are some more of their findings:

Search Behavior:

• 1 in 2 Internet users will use one or more search engines in a search
• 1 in 3 use a search engine tool bar installed on the web browser
• 17% use search engines for specific reason: Yahoo to search music; Google to search for a song
• Relevance is still the driver; sponsored results have to be relevant
• 3 out of 4 will start at the search engine when going to a website
• 22% are looking for a website they already have in mind

(Keynote Research)

Search engine loyalty is low:

• Searches on one search engine occurs on other search engines
• 58% of searches conducted on Google are then applied to Yahoo or MSN
• Loyalty cannot be taken for granted
• Loyalty is low b/c switching cost is low

(Nielson NetRating)

Search in Travel is Destination Focused

Unlike other e-commerce categories, Internet users search for travel and hospitality services and offerings within the context of the destination. Therefore the search engine strategy for travel and hotel websites is subject to a different methodology than what the generalist SEO (Search Engine Optimization) companies offer. Marketing a bank, eyeglass store, or dental office does not factor the characteristics or intensity of the destination. Nor do generalists differentiate travel search behaviors from general online consumers.

A destination-focused search engine strategy requires in-depth knowledge of the travel and hospitality industry, extensive destination research, destination target keyword analysis, and destination search behavior. Only a destination-focused search engine strategy can help the travel and hotel website leverage the popularity of the destination to its benefit.

Search in Travel (includes hospitality):

• 73% use search to find travel; 27% went directly to travel site
• Travel is top 4 category in use of search requests and some studies report in the top four types of searches
• Travel searches originating from a search engine tends to lead to travel being purchased two weeks out.

(Performics)

With such vast numbers of searches originating from search engines, clearly search engines are an essential component to the hotel’s direct online distribution strategy. Ranking high on the engines and consistently staying there along with matching the right budget to compete effectively are all major competitive issues with advertisers online.

Why Search Engine Ranking is Important - “The Golden Triangle”

The order in which the hotel appears on a search engine is of absolute importance. As far back as 2002, the Bear Stearns industry report Web Storm Rising stated, “Our research uncovered that being listed in the top five assures the highest level of bookings, and that after the fifth slot, bookings drop dramatically. Approximately 50% of people on the first page will go to the second page and so on.”

Over the last year or so, a new term, “Golden Triangle” has entered the search marketing vernacular. Novel research using beams of light that bounce off the eyeballs of online test users and onto a conditioned computer screen, captured certain patterns of online viewing behavior when on search engines. The highest concentration of visualizations appeared on the top three to four listings in the natural listings and top one to two in the sponsored listings. Basically a triangle began to form as more people tended to look in this top corner of the page now referred to in search marketing as the “Golden Triangle.”

Here are some other findings:

• Drop off begins after the 3rd natural listing
• First position in sponsored links drew 28% of visualizations
• Beyond the rank of 8 in the natural listings, there was a 50% drop off
• Bear Stearns 50-50 rule no longer stands; more like 80-20
• People who search below the fold are “more deliberate” seekers (may suggest have something already in mind to find)

So the conclusion drawn from above is that competing on the search engines by appearing as early and as often as possible is of increasing importance. How a website achieves top position is not a simply adjustment of the web page and the money starts to flow in but a concerted effort that requires time, expertise, and resources in website optimization and search marketing.

In hospitality, search marketing is part of your online distribution strategy. We have all become travel agents with our desktop, laptop, PDA, or other electronic devises and the strategy is to reach your specific customer segments when they are searching for you.

Lodging companies that do not have the marketing budget of the major intermediaries must rely even more on search engine referrals. Therefore good positioning of your hotel website on the major search engines is of critical importance and can directly affect your bottom line.

Note : The above article is based on collection various resources.

Concept of Database Marketing

There is a quote by "Thomas Prendergast"
"The Big guys know database and if you don't your lost!"

Database Marketing is a powerful and competitive weapon - especially on the Internet. The growth of database marketing is rooted in the small business philosophy of staying close to the customers, under-standing and meeting their needs and treating them well after the sale.

Corporate marketing is tied to BIG, general marketing or advertising campaigns with a single untargeted message. This message may be based on the companies Unique Selling Proposition (USP). However, customers have different needs and a single USP spelt out to the whole market is no longer enough.

Messages must be tailored to specific segments of the market and ultimately to the market segment of one, the individual customer. Computerizing the customer database makes it possible to address messages more specifically and market additional products to each customer.

The characteristics of fully fledged database marketing are ....

1. Each customer and prospect is identified as a record on the marketing database; markets and market segments are groups of individual customers.
2. Each customer and prospect record contains not only identification and access information but also a range of marketing information. It also includes information about past transactions and about campaign communications.
3. This information is accessible before, during and after the process of each interaction with the customer/prospect, to enable "you" to decide how to respond to the customer/prospect's needs.
4. The database is used to record customer/prospects responses to campaigns.
5. The information is available to marketing policy makers to enable them to decide such things as which target markets/segments are appropriate for each product/service etc.
6. Selling many products to each customer, the database is used to ensure that the approach to the customer is co-ordinated; and a consistent approach developed.
7. The database eventually replaces market research. Marketing campaigns are devised such that the response of customers to the campaign provides information, which the company is looking for.
8. Marketing Management automation is developed to handle the vast amount of information generated by DBM. This identifies opportunities and threats more or less automatically! This is fully fledged marketing automation. Very few companies have succeeded in doing this; but many have it as their goal.

DBM presents many challenges to management. It requires careful maintenance of great volumes of detailed customer data. Accessing the data, interpreting it, and using it to drive or support the marketing function requires a long-term marketing systems development policy.
It also requires computing and marketing people to work together, often educating each other. And, it may well require most people in the company to forget their traditional way of doing business.

DBM will only work if dealing with customers is viewed as an on-going process (Customer Contact Process).

The ladder of loyalty is a key concept in DBM.
1) No awareness of business or product/service.
2) Awareness of business
3) Awareness of product/service
4) Positive perception
5) Reognition of personal benefit
6) Enquiry
7) Objections overcome
8) Sale of product or service
9) Entry into continued relationship.

DBM is used to move customers up the ladder.

The essence of database marketing is communicating directly with the customers and asking them to respond in a tangible way. It provides the means for the customer or prospect to respond and is set up to measure and fulfill the response.

It sets up or reinforces a relationship with the customer, which is "fulfilled" when we follow up a customer's response to our communication. Fulfillment may be in many ways; a personalized email, a telephone conversation, sending literature (pdf), a sales visit, attendance at a web seminar, exhibition or store, or sending products to the customer.

So DBM is a broad discipline, not a separate marketing communications medium, but a way of using any medium to elicit the desired response.

Source :- Veretekk

Google Now Comes in Hindi

By MD Ansari
IF YOU are a person who is more comfortable with Hindi than English and are highly keen to translate some text, a web page, an issue or a query in Hindi as well as have results translated from English, don’t worry. Internet’s undisputed king when it comes to search engines - Google, is making your dream a reality by offering Hindi translation services. So it is a double bonanza for Indian Internet users, especially those who do not know English but are keen to enjoy the benefits of the Internet.

It is a well-versed fact that only 30 per cent of Indian population can read and write English and the remaining are at sea when it comes to the language. It means that about 700 million people are not taking advantage of the Internet. Keeping this in mind, Google Inc has introduced automated translation between Hindi and English. This is an audacious step to ensure that Hindi speaking people can also enjoy the Internet regardless of their unfamiliarity with the English language. There is no doubt that this ground-breaking step will certainly increase the number of users of Internet.

Google, the monster search engine for translator supporting Hindi language is the most advanced in a series of updates focussed at multi-lingual users not only in India but also in the world. Some of the multilingual features offered by Google include data entry, blogs and search. Internet users can type in Hindi using a regular keyboard - type the word as it sounds; like type ab apna sa laga using regular English characters, hit the space bar, and Google converts it to the corresponding Hindi words.

This feature is also available in one of the widely used social networking websites - Orkut. Now, its users proudly used Hindi translation service for sending scraps not just in Hindi but also in other Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
There is no denying the fact that Google has tried to attract Hindi speaking people who want to use the Internet to meet their demands. Before the advent of Google translation service, they were compelled to sit away from the Internet and consequently Google and other search engines were unable catch millions of Hindi speaking people of India and the world. Therefore, on behalf of all Hindi speaking people, I am congratulating Google from the bottom of my heart for making their dream come true.

According to Techtree Staff
The popular Google translation service now offers Hindi translation as well. So users can now get automated translation between Hindi and English. If you want to translate some text, a Web page, or issue a query in Hindi as well as have results translated from English, you can do it here. Of the total literate Indian population, only about 13 percent are English literate. This launch would ensure that Hindi speaking users can also enjoy the benefits of the Internet, regardless of their familiarity with the English language.

Google Translator supporting Hindi language is the latest in a series of updates focused at multi-lingual users in the country. Some of the multilingual features offered by Google include Data entry, blogs, and search. Users can type in Hindi using a regular keyboard -- type the word as it sounds. For example, type "mera" using regular English characters, hit the space bar, and Google converts it to the corresponding Hindi word. This feature is also available to Orkut users for sending scraps not just in Hindi but also in other Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.

Google AdSense Slow To Report

By David A. Utter -

Problem affecting AdSense publishers globally

Webmasters wonder why their earnings reports from AdSense aren't working, and so is Google.

Something's amiss with AdSense, as publishers told Google they have seen problems with the usual reports from the service. Numerous reports at the AdSense help forum cited lack of updates or wrong earnings in the information being provided from the program.

Google responded from their Inside AdSense blog about the issues. "Our engineers are currently investigating the issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible. Please be assured that your account data has still been tracked, so this issue will not affect your earnings or payments," they said.

To help webmasters keep up with Google progress on these problems, Google opened a new tracking page. The Known Issues page tracks AdSense issues, and Google's suggested workarounds when available.

No new updates about the reporting issue have made the page as yet. Complaints on the AdSense Help forum continue to roll in, as webmasters find discrepancies in their earnings as well as seeing clicks that apparently generated no page impressions or click-throughs.

Problems appeared to hit AdSense publishers in multiple regions. Complaints rolled in from the UK, Canada, India, and the Czech Republic as well as the US. Since Google has not updated the status of the investigation for over 12 hours, the issue could be much more serious than they revealed.

The two largest threads discussing the issues can be found at WebmasterWorld and Google Groups, but there are plenty of other threads throughout the forums with complaints.

Role of an SEO in Internet Marketing

Today search engines play a great role in providing information about every thing, whether you want information about any latest movies, songs, foods, hotels, any specific services every thing is provided by search engines.

But there is one question arises which information is helpful to user & which is not? This question is very common between the users who uses Google, Yahoo, MSN for finding services & other information, because in this corporate world every one wants that, their services will reach to the users & there is lot of competition for this & the result of this war of corporate world is suffered by the users.

So what should be the solution for providing right information to users. Yes now this is the right question. The popular search engines follows some strategies & the websites who follow these strategies will listed in SERP. The strategy of these are very simple, they says that, the websites are content rich & the content will be well presented. The search engines hates the flashy & heavy images.

Now the another question arises, how the websites are designed & developed according to search engines ? This is again a good question. To develop & designed websites according to them somebody have to do deep research of Google, Yahoo & MSN. But who will do this, a designer, a developer or someone specialist in search engines. Yes a specialist, a specialist who know all about Google, Yahoo & MSN, will optimize websites according to the them. From here the role of SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) comes who will do optimization for your websites.

A SEO assist in designing & developing the websites according to Google, Yahoo & MSN. But the work of SEO is not ends here, it has total responsibility to promote the website, so that more people can reach to websites & use the services, products & information. The SEO community is related to marketing industry, that's why it brings more focus on to the end-user. Due to this marketing background SEO's enables to find the targeted audience.

But how to find an effective SEO expert, who will bring you in front of their corporate world. All are proving that they are best, but the best is one who gave results. GateSix Technologies is specialist which offers SEO services of web site to build up your corporate identity, increasing your product presence across the world and make to stay ahead of your competition. If you are looking for leadership status or maintaining your leadership status, GateSix is the right choice for your search as a Search Engine Optimization Company. Gatesix is expertise in helping to strategically improve your search engine placement with desired keywords by using innovative and widely accepted search engine optimization technique and implement search engine marketing campaign to have the top ranking among your competitors.

So why are you standing behind in the crowd, & waiting for your turn, just try Internet Marketing Services of Gatesix.