Our first in this series is Search Powering Your Marketing Mix where we will show how search marketing can provide behavioral information on who is searching for lodging, restaurant, attraction and activity information in and around your destination, which messages resonate with them and what factors entice them to become visitors/customers.
Armed with this knowledge, destination and regional marketers can create effective messaging to drive consumer actions through all aspects of the marketing mix, both online and traditional channels.
In this webinar you will learn:
1. How Search & Social Intelligence Research can define your target audience(s) and provide knowledge needed to create an effective overall marketing campaign.
2. How to leverage this information across your online and traditional marketing mix.
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Destination Marketing Webinar Search Powering Your Marketing Mix
1. Destination Marketing Webinar: Search: Powering Your Marketing MixPresented by:Mike Rosenberg – Vice President New Business & StrategyEngineWorks, Inc. www.engineworks.com
Good morningeveryone.My name is Mike Rosenberg and I am Vice President of New Business & Strategy at EngineWorks a full service search marketing agency focused on the travel and hospitality industry. Today’s destination marketing webinar is:Search: Powering Your Marketing MixMy goal is to show you how to use search marketing research to drive all of your marketing efforts. This session promises to provide a strategy backbone that can be implemented by destinations of all sizes to enhance your marketing effortsFrom research, to strategy and planning, this informative and actionable presentation will provide a roadmap for success with specific case studies along the way.
Next month on April 12th, we’ll host our second webinar of the series, Social Media: Can It Deliver to Your Bottom Line where we’ll address how to go about tracking your social media efforts to see if all the effort is paying off.And in May we’ll go interactive and have Live SEO Site Assessments, we’ll have a couple determined ahead of time (let me know if you are interested) and we’ll take a few live from attendees during the webinar.
Knowledge in PowerSince the beginning of advertising, companies have spent untold fortunes on the creation of their marketing mix.The traditional approach to this process has been a ‘top-down’ strategyi.e.Messages were created to tout the attributes and benefits of company’s products or services (or a destinations top attractions and features)Followed by integration of messaging into each channel in the marketing mixThen, conventional marketing research would be employed to ascertain the effectiveness of the messages. (the old 50% of my marketing works, I just don’t know which 50%)Unfortunately, this traditional process often failed to hit its mark.The in-depth research and rigorous analysis of consumer actions, Coupled with instantaneous ROI tracking and measurement,Enables you to use the knowledge gained through professional search marketing toolsAs the foundation to actually create your marketing mixAnd, not just view search engine marketing as an ancillary channel within the mixRather than feed traditionally-created messaging into the search channel,SEM extracts the knowledge needed to create an effective overall marketing campaign.
We’ll focus on four main points today:Research & AnalysisHow Customers seek out destinationsDiscovering the best targeting and messagingAnd how to integrate it into all media channelsThroughthis process we can extract precise behavioral information pertaining to exactly who is searching for specific products and servicesWhich messages resonate with themWhat factors entice them to become customers.Armed with this knowledge, youCan create targeting and messaging to drive consumer actions Through all channels of the marketing mixBoth online and traditional channels.This will not be a linear presentation (notice the points are bulleted, not numbered) we’ll weave these four pieces into the entire presentation, with examples along the way.
Successful digital marketing focuses first on the three areas vital for success. Content, Search & Social:Content – what content do your customers desire? We’ll address this after searchSearch - SocialTo know were to begin with these three we to see how people actually act and function online. This is the opposite of how marketing was conducted for many years…come up with a marketing idea, throw it up and hope it sticks.
First you need to employ a systemic approach tohoning-in on the search phrases and marketing messages that resonate with your target audience. Our process looks like this:Direct consultation with the marketing and IT dept to fully ascertain the purpose for youronline presence, and define the goals of our engagementObtain anOriginal set of keywords from the client (current list, mined from their site & competitors sites, brain storm)Evaluate the importance of these initial keywordsExpand the list through popularity analysis and competitiveness analysisExtrapolate trends identified during this keyword expansionStructure an optimized list of relevant keywords into proper bucketsArrange accounts and integrate strategies into each campaign.
This is process is done through Keyword Research andRegardless the specific intent of the engagement, comprehensive research and analysis can identify the phrases that resonates with target audience.Once again, a sophisticated process extracts the top performing search terms, enabling the gain of valuable behavior data and targeting.Not only what keyword are people searching for, but what actually is converting (which is a great place to focus on for DMO…what is a conversion?)We’ve found especially with DMO clients that defining conversion can be difficult. With a resort it is easy…what is a DMO job, get people to a destination right….do you have a booking engine? If so, is that the best place for someone to book? What about your member/partners…they have booking engines, and often easier, more user friendly ones….exposure, traffic to the site, visitor guide requests, email newsletter sign-ups…
This approach enables you to hone-in on top producing search phrasesAnd extract messaging and targeting that cannot be obtained through anyother advertising medium.As we well know, through SEM, you can focus on very broad terms that arevery popular and highly competitiveBut, may not deliver many conversionsIdeal for branding campaignsOr we can drill down to very specific search phrases that may be highly focused with smaller audiences However drive a substantial number of conversions.Finding the right balance is crucial to success.
For search engine marketing you have to look at at least two types of competitors…Direct or ‘real world’ competitors and what we call your Search Landscape Competitors (or those that show up on the first page of search engines organically or through paid campaigns)Once you establish who your competitors are, then you evaluate them and determine how to competeWhy are they there?For marketing insight you are PROBABLY going to look at your direct competitors, but maybe you can get insight from folks that are doing search right for other marketing ideas…sign-up for their newsletters and see what you get…request the brochure….go through the booking process.We also identify target markets and specific audiences that our clients’ competitors are going after, through in-depth competitive analysisYou need to focus not only on your direct competitors, but also identify Search Landscape Competitors…All of this process is fairly straight forwardHowever, it’s the identification of clusters and trends that enable the us to turn the creation of the marketing mix on its head.
Of course these steps are for online success, but they can and should be considered for off-line activities as well as the following case study will highlight.You can use the knowledge gained from search engine marketing to drive your overall marketing campaign
March 2003 Study shows what people say by county. With proper keyword research you can understand how meeting planners, out-of-state travelers, or other groups search for your offerings. Event Venues vs Meeting RoomsSpa Hotels vs. Luxury ResortsFamily Fun vs. Things to do with Kids
In WC – a lot of people searched specific attractions.Cincinnati population is the target, and lots of people put cincinnati in their queryHeavy SM usage in this area, listen to the words they use
Here’s an example of how using search marketing knowledge can drive an overall marketing campaign,At the start of our engagement, this client put across initial set of keywordsFocused on current marketing phrases around the terms “gardens” and “butterflies”Through our comprehensive research and analysisWe were able to discover that the actual phrases that resonated with their target audience (the actual people traveling to and staying at this destination) were “Weddings”, “Golf”, and “Conferences” type termsNot only did we discover that these terms wereDriving almost 4 times the number of qualified visits (as shown here)But, once implemented, they also delivered three times the conversion rate.
Here’s an example of how using search marketing knowledge can drive an overall marketing campaign,At the start of our engagement, this client put across initial set of keywordsFocused on current marketing phrases around the terms “gardens” and “butterflies”Through our comprehensive research and analysisWe were able to discover that the actual phrases that resonated with their target audience (the actual people traveling to and staying at this destination) were “Weddings”, “Golf”, and “Conferences” type termsNot only did we discover that these terms wereDriving almost 4 times the number of qualified visits (as shown here)But, once implemented, they also delivered three times the conversion rate.
This is the messaging and imagery of their ad campaign prior to Gaining insight from our in-depth search phrase research and analysis.
After being provided with the evidence that the messaging that Actually resonating with their target audience, our client embraced an overall marketing campaign centered around ‘golf’, ‘weddings’ and ‘conventions’.This messaging is being used in all facets of their marketing mix, including e-mail, print, outdoor, and television.A tip if you are going to do this and give a report about it at a later date….save images/examples.
This messaging was of course used in SM as well…continue the messaging and focus.Still make sure to keep your enthusiasts happy…even though ‘gardens’ and ‘butterfly’ type terms did not have the volume we needed…that core audience is still very important and vital to success, so don’t neglect them…FLICKRFLICKR – Marketing Army
Before we move into the second part of the presentation, I wanted to provide some insight into the tools you can use to help…
We talked about the search data, and pointed out a few tools for social intelligence/listeningOnce you have the search + social intelligence, It is now a content marketing game…if you can’t tie your efforts together (on-line, off-line, social) you can’t do as wellWhat it really comes down to is the quality of the content & where that demand is.Search & Social data will:Identify customer vernacular help you understand the meaning of inquiries prioritize your content based on their demand package it for consumption Plan for the futureWhich takes us to why content is SO important
That’s a lot of content!!!!TONS OF CONTENT BEING PRODUCED EVERYDAYTruth is, the barrier to entry for creating content is low and getting lowerWeb 2.0 has been here for some time, and it’s all about user generated contentAnyone can setup a Posterous blog and be contributing in minutesAsk any journalist (Huffington Post)While wonderful (show all the useful sites), there are some drawbacks
For marketersProsCost efficient productionEasy to distributeConsLots of noise!!!Lots of noise!! DRAWBACK – LOTS OF CONTENT BEING CREATED EVERYDAY!With the amount of content being created, there’s a lot of noise and information to sift throughMost of this content will never be found, much less consumedWhat’s the point of that?
SO, WHAT REALLY MAKES CONTENT VALUABLE?Search people - Content that is found, and that those will link to (visible and noteworthy)UX - Content that those will induce the desired action (Actionable)Content Strategists – content is useful and usable (Quality) All are important. But when it comes down to it, relevant content, or content that best meets demand connecting the publice’s interest with the answers to the questions they have, will rise to the top and be visible, by being noteworthy, and usable by meeting demand, all by nature, and will therefore have the best chance to produce the desired result (actionable).Content is King – But Relevant Content Rules
So where do you start?First, get all the old research that’s been done, please do think that we don’t believe it is useful, it is….unfortunately we aren’t saying that this should replace everything that you have done or are currently doing…it does not. It is another layer, but typically much easier to get.We don’t have to get a bunch of folks in a room for a focus group….we have the largest ones available, in Google, Facebook and Twitter.Again – see what the search & social content demands look like.What is your competition doing? Tactically, yes, but more importantly what are they doing to approach the content demand question (or not doing) where is the opportunity to dominate?Then audit everything…the most value assets you have are earned & Owned media – we are not saying drop offline or mass media advertising because that creates demand…but there is demand that already exist out there that you need to capture first (or at least at the same time)…it’s like the shoe store that focuses all it’s marketing on getting people to drive over to there location, that folks walking down the street with holey shoes can’t find them…From here you can create a strategy based on opportunity…what do you need to do to dominate…find out where the opportunity is and where to put your money.
It’s all about understanding content demand & planning around it. - What do you currently have? - what types of content do your customers want? - what are they already consuming, where are they consuming it, what is missing…fill that gapImproved results – content impacts the results of other things – more search traffic, increased consumption, virility, and yes, eventually conversions!!!Where are those conversations taking place? Make sure you are there to have a better chance at being found & relevant
We took a deep dive into search demand…into everything ArizonaWhat we found was #1 demanded info is around Grand Canyon, followed by Sedona and then the cities…then activities associated with these attractions and cities..e.g. hiking in the Grand Canyon or where to eat in SedonaFrom there we audited their current content and found it was out of balance with demand…We mapped out to rearrange the current content based on demand to see where we lacked sufficient informationso when it is time to create new content…focus on the Grand Canyon…and the next time….focus on the Grand Canyon.We also found a lot of interest in pictures – so we did photo contests…which created a ton of photo content that customers demanded. – ATJ – content repositories & archives, where should it liveTake this information to what they are doing in their banner campaign…they had very ‘emotional’ flash and video banners … someone relaxing sitting cross legged … that performed horribly… nobody clicked on it (conversion was downloading or requesting a visitors guide). It looked cool, but it was not connected to what people wanted…information on how where to mountain bike.We made basic ads, simple with images of where to go/what to see and the metrics shot up…4X the conversion rate (they had a standard .02%) and a 30% conversion rate!It wasn’t just about search, but about everything…including offline which they changed as well…not only the messaging, but the marketing mix. Went from 15-20% of the budget online to 30-40%
For the City of Bothell, WA (a suburb of Seattle) the search and social intelligence played a key role in their various marketing activities.On a pretty basic/obvious level we found there is a lot more search volume for term like “Seattle Area Hotels” or cheap hotels near seattle, than Hotels in Bothell type terms…soWe developed a Paid Search campaign to focus on these terms (we did not think allocating the resources required to organically rank for these type of terms made sense) and we did create a specific (index-able) landing page for Seattle area hotels.Another key finding from our research was that ‘wine and winery’ keywords had a lot of volume and actually drove folks to their website without much ‘wine’ content…while there are technically no wineries in the city, there are quite a few in neighboring Woodinville. Woodinville happens to lack something Bothell does have though, hotels…This info lead “Wine” receiving its own section in the site redesign
Research also helped push the creation of a wine specific event that the city hosts to bring visitors in and spread the word that they are a wine community.The inaugural event (which was promoted only online and through WOF) sold out all 300 ticket the first day…and the second event sold out all 900 ticket fast as well and drove record numbers to their website and booking engine.
I think the best example of a DMO who is utilizing online marketing to drive strategy is Jackson Hole. In January, Jackson let us know they were starting to see inquiries on booking summer travel to the area (that DMO is also basically a travel agency as well, not just an informational bureau). They mentioned things like wildlife tours are very popular in the area, but we were unclear on how people were actually talking about these kinds of activities in the search engines. To get to the bottom of this, we utilized historical paid search data and analyzed search query reports to see what keywords we were capturing traffic for (not just the ones we were bidding on). We then mapped those keywords to site engagement in Analytics, to figure out what keywords resulted in valuable visits to the site. Once we had that data, we were able to get a nice picture not only about the types of words people were using to research these summer-related topics, but also see what site engagement resulted from those visits in order to determine whether that keyword drove valuable (likely to convert) traffic, thus making it a viable SEO target. Essentially, this strategy gave us the chance to get a preview of site interaction on the keyword level, and then structure the summer SEO campaign accordingly. The alternative would have been to make an educated guess on optimal search queries based on traffic estimates and content availability, then spend resources and time to get enough positive rankings before being able to determine whether the visits generated by those keywords were valuable.
You may be wondering why we didn’t call this Content: Powering Your Marketing Mix…mostly because like any other entity, you have to evolve to progress…EngineWorks was a search marketing agency and we used search primarily to further our clients objectives…we are not ethology and search marketing is a major component to what we do, but research and intelligence drive the bus…Don’t forget about our next two webinars in this series hosted by ethology:Social Media: Can It Deliver to Your Bottom Line April 12thAnd Live SEO Site Assessments May 3rdLastly, we’ll send a link to the presentation once we have it on our site too, for future reference.