Project papillon

Alan and Melissa

Introduction Social Marketing is marketing that seeks to raise the profile of our company by leveraging and creating networks of travel consumers. A recent study done by JupiterReasearch found that social network users are three times more likely to trust the opinions of fellow consumers over that of advertisers when making a major purchase decision. Social media sites are still picking up more and more users everyday. Montrose Travel can build trusting relationships with social media users. We will target people who are already interested in traveling by giv- ing them useful travel information through our blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media tactics. Montrose Travel will use social media as a valuable extension to our ongoing marketing program to drive travel bookings. “As long as embracing constant change is a part of a company’s culture, the competition will not be able to evolve as fast. To stay ahead of competition, you must continually change and keep them guessing. Social Media is maybe one of the biggest changes to happen in marketing in a long time so Project Papillon - Acquisition embracing it is essential to a modern company.” (JeffBullas.com) 2

http://www.realwire.com/writeitfiles/acquire-convert-retain.JPG Shift happens 3

http://www.optimusbt.com/Services/Pages/Total_Marketing_Solutions.aspx Goals 1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – using keywords, links, XML sitemap, ALT/TITLE attributes, reporting/analytics. • SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – campaign design/management, Project Papillon - Acquisition Google AdWords, Facebook ads, Yahoo! search marketing, Microsoft adCenter. • SMO (Social Media Optimization) – increase our linkability, make tagging and bookmarking easy, help our content spread to different people. 4

2. Networking Marketing & PCC (Pay Per Click) Campaigns – Use Face- book, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, PCC campaigns, & press releases to pull people into our site, where customers can start thinking about and researching their next vacation; i.e. become the “Zappos” in the travel industry. 3. Email Campaigns - Spread the word that we are on network sites and that we are the leader in travel. 4. Whitepaper & Case Study Syndication, Webinar Promotions – Dig deeper into what a vacation really means to people; e.g. is it about relax- ation, volunteer work, going green, etc. 5. Brochures, Logos, Booth Designs – Reaching out to our clients the traditional way, to ensure we do not lose our current clients who like traditional methods. 6. Website – Making sure we constantly keep an updated professional website that is user-friendly and clean from clutter. Shift happens 5

Audience The picture above depicts the typical search behavior of a travel customer in quarter one of 2009. When customers look to purchase a vacation it is typically like this: 1. Get Vacation Ideas – Initial stage of the vacation hunting - they are still looking for ideas by going to Google and typing in “summer vacation, beach vacation, lake vacation.” Project Papillon - Acquisition 2. Destination Research – By this time, they have a budget in mind. Now they want to identify the location and will type things in like “best Mediterranean beach vacations.” 3. Confirm Location – Now they will start a searching specific location, like “beach vacations in the South of France.” 6

4. Compare Packages & Transportation Options – They will determine the preferred mode of transportation by looking at flights, trains or driving options. To search, they will type in “cheap flight to Nice, Eurostar to Nice,” as well as look at vacation packages. 5. Select a Hotel – They have found the cheap flight, now they want the hotel or vacation package. They will search features/location and the most reasonable price. 6. Decision Time –This is the period of time where they will think things over, and maybe even call the travel agency to confirm their decision. 7. Revisit Website to Book – They are now ready to book definite dates and have confirmed that they have the time off from work to travel. This is where they will probably search best prices again. 8. Purchase – They have gone over their agenda several times and now are ready to purchase their vacation, either on the internet or over the phone. 9. After Sales – Following the sale, the buying cycle will continue with customer service/ support and hopefully the opportunity for repeat business in the future. We have to make sure that our brand has glow- ing reviews and the PR that we want them to find. Shift happens 7

We are living in a revolutionary time where people have the choice to find the best products for their needs and choose which companies to do business with. These days, almost everyone turns to Google and research- es what they are going to buy. We no longer pay attention to the ads on TV. Instead, we look at websites and look for great content. As long as we publish engaging material for people to read, people will be interested in what we have to offer. Inbound marketing is about getting found online, through search engines and on sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter – between all of these sites, hundreds of millions of people find the answers they need everyday. “On average, inbound marketing leads are 61% less expensive than outbound marketing leads” (Inboundmarketingbook.com). This means that marketing in the traditional sense is changing from outbound to more inbound marking techniques. We need to promote our website to our audience by increasing visibility on Google and other search engines. We must first use SEO tactics, pay per click campaigns, and social networking that work to grab our clients’ attention before we lose them to another travel Project Papillon - Acquisition site. 8

http://www.commarketing.com/images/online-marketing-pyramid.png Most travel customers do not listen to 3rd party information (sales reps, commercials, spam mail, etc.). A way to capture more travel customers is through building up social media sites and developing a strong SEO strategy. In addition, we can use effective keywords in our PPC advertis- ing for our internet marketing. We will use sites such as Market Samurai, Google Adwords, and Wordtracker to determine what keywords people are searching when looking for their next vacation. Shift happens 9

Based on what they are searching for, we will create inbound links to our website. To start, we will begin using some new web features, as well as enhancing the old ones, to help people find us. We will use Twitter, Facebook, Digg, online press releases, podcasting, videos, and a blog to our advantage. Experts say Social Media is here to stay… people want to keep connected to what is going on around them. We can be there when our clients want us and that is when it really counts. We will optimize Montrose Travel’s digital presence and drive inbound traffic to our website through the use of SEO optimized content. Project Papillon - Acquisition http://www.sumolabs.com/files/SEO_SME_SMO_venn_diagram.jpg 10

Shift to Inbound Marketing In today’s travel industry more and more people are booking their travel online, “55% of internet users book holidays online – only 7% book on the high street” (brick and morter) (http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/travelonline- consumer.html). Many clients research where they are going before they even think about booking their vacation. Having social media to connect with them to help people find relevant travel information will help us have the upper hand to give them the information they want when they want it. This shows our clients that we care about their travel experience which in turn helps us to build a trusting relationship with our clients. This brings us back to our ultimate goal which is having them book travel through us. In 2009, “$115.6 billion was spent by customers purchasing travel online” forresterresearch.com. This is a huge market share that we need to be apart of. It is also important to note that we will have links going from our sites to other websites and from other websites to our website. This will be key to obtaining more traffic to our site. A high quality link is viewed favorably by Google as a “vote” and or “endorsement” of our website. “Links to the internet are like dollar bills to the U.S. economy” Shift happens 11

It is crucial for Montrose Travel to turn our websites into a hub just like New York City. • New York City = Montrose website = Hub • Google = Ferries • Montrose Blog = Airports • Twitter = Bus stations • Facebook = Train stations Project Papillon - Acquisition • YouTube = Light Rail • Podcasts = Freeways • Online Press Releases = Subway 12

The more ways we can reach people through multiple social outlets the more people we will bring back to our hub. Top-ranked sites today have created communities where like-minded people can connect with each other. We have to create a hub for our website to be reached through. Eventually, the outside focus of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the Montrose blog will bring people back to our website. Example Let’s look at an example of a successful inbound marketing campaign. This campaign was done by our current president, Barack Obama. He took on the challenge to run against one of the most well-known Sena- tors in the United States, Hillary Clinton. Many people did not know who Barack was; however, he did not let this stop him from competing with a big competitor. Just like Barack, Montrose might not be that well-known now, but if we use proper social media sources to connect with the public, we too can reach people we have never reached before. By using Barack’s example, we can open up our direct channels of com- munication with our clients. We can utilize our e-mail, text messages, online networks to make clients feel more involved with our company. Just like Barack used networking technology, Montrose can also utilize the same technologies through our own websites: Barack used Facebook (5,800,000 friends and counting), Twitter (450,000 followers and counting), LinkedIn (13,000 members and counting), YouTube (21,000,000 views and counting). No matter what your political views are, Barack has given a powerful message that inbound marketing is something we cannot go without. Shift happens 13

Strategies 10 key strategies to make Montrose Travel an Inbound Online Marketing website. 1. Be ourselves – We are not an Expedia. We are a family-owned company that is trying to help customers build their dream vacations, one traveler at a time. 2. Be the Thought Leader & Teacher – We are not going to sell our products on our social media sites, we are going to teach our clients about the inside scope of travel. We will provide webcasts, YouTube videos, and how to’s for our clients to learn from. We will provide content in many different ways for people’s different learning styles: 1. Text 2. Video 3. Presentation 4. Podcasts 5. Webinars Project Papillon - Acquisition 6. Picture Slideshows 3. Plan and Write Content for our Travel Market (Luxury & Mass Market) The Montrose blog is for people who are searching for information, and our website is a way for them to book what they have researched. 14

We will give our clients a window into our company, industry, and des- tinations. As we get more involved with this project, we learn what our clients really want to hear from the feedback they give us. 4. Content Titles – We need to have catchy titles that will grab the reader’s attention in a couple of seconds. If they do not like the titles of our articles, they will probably not take the time to read what we have written. • How to plan a family getaway for all age groups • Little known ways to make a family vacation relaxing • Have it all on the ultimate spa, golf, and romance vacation • Fears of flying these days… we can help 5. Amplify Our Message Through the Top 4 Social Media Sites • Facebook (more than 250 million people are active on Facebook) • Twitter (more than 14 million registered users) • YouTube (more than 100 million viewers per month) • Blogs (more than 346 million people read blogs, more than 184 million people are bloggers themselves) We are going to produce content that can be done quickly and people can spread online, with the following methods: • Blog Articles – One page articles on topics related to travel. • White Papers – 5-7 page papers that educate our marketplace on industry trends, challenges, etc (these are not about products). • Videos – short 2- to 3-minute videos about our different travel products. Shift happens 15

• Webinars – Live online PowerPoint presentations on industry topics. • Podcasts – 10 to 20-minute audio programs or interviews with industry experts similar to radio shows. • Webcasts – Live video shows viewed online. Project Papillon - Acquisition http://www.mikekujawski.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/channels.jpg 16

6. Build Our Subscriber List RSS for Our Blog and E-mail Blasts – Offer various ways for people to subscribe at different locations on our website and blog, such as at the top (header) and bottom (footer) of the pages. 1. Subscribe via RSS 2. Subscribe via email 7. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – If people think we are important, so will Google. We need to get more people to link to us. The more inbound links we have, the higher our web pages rank on Google. 8. Have Our Blog and Website Developed with Search Engine Optimized Content. 1. On-site optimization. 2. Keyword phrases. 3. Search engines-friendly URLs. 4. Offer different media formats. 5. Off-site optimization. 6. Blog commenting. 7. Forums. 8. Press releases. 9. Design Website to Enhance Our Brand and Authority – We have to look more professional than our competitors. 10. Enhance Our Customer Relationships – We have to continue to write things that are interesting to make us look knowledgeable and to ensure our clients keep booking travel through us. Shift happens 17

http://www.seobook.com/images/keyword-value-pyramid.png Project Papillon - Acquisition 18

The great thing about content with lots of links to it is that they never go away. It just produces more qualified traffic, on top of the traffic you are getting on your older content. In addition, there is the marketing ripple effect. If one customer finds our sites useful, they will tell their friends, and their friends will tell their friends, and so on. Shift happens 19

Tactics SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Social Media will create more awareness for Montrose Travel as a credible travel partner. We need to consider both the conversion rates and the search volumes in order to estimate the overall value of referred con- verted sales. SEO will be a long-term process, so we need to put a lot of effort into evaluating the quality and cost-effectiveness of keywords via paid search. After we have determined our keywords, we will write more and more content on our web pages and social media sites. We will optimize and push towards achieving the high search rankings. “A recent study shows that Google’s first page captures over 89% of traffic, and most users will not look beyond the first page. Even within the first page, the traffic is not spread evenly – top-ranked result (#1 on the first page) captures about 42 percent of the traffic” (inboundmarketingbook.com). We will use key SEO words on our social media sites, and links to drive our site to be on the first page in Google. Project Papillon - Acquisition 20

http://images.marketingtechblog.com/uploads/2009/06/ripples1.png Shift happens 21

http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2009/08/seo-hierarchy-of-needs/ Blog There are 4 main reasons why Montrose Travel should start a blog: 1. A blog will establish our company as a leader in our market. 2. A blog will change our website from an online brochure to a living, breathing hub for our marketplace. Project Papillon - Acquisition 3. A blog gives our potential customers a way to engage with us vs. be- ing hit with a premature sales pitch. We will build trust over time. 4. A blog will dramatically improve our search engine rankings. It is a great way start creating more pages on our site. 22

PPC Reasons why Montrose Travel should dive deeper into PPC: 1. With PPC, we will drive targeted traffic to our websites. 2. Track key SEO words that we can target in our social media sites. http://www.olmblog.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/ cceda_4098148467_814a38f84c_o.jpg Shift happens 23

Twitter Reasons why Montrose Travel should dive deeper into Twitter: 1. There is a worldwide phenomenon with millions of current users and tens of thousand of new users joining everyday. 2. Create an open forum with clients where they can ask us questions about products and services, and customers can post reviews, which will build trust with our clients. YouTube Reasons why Montrose Travel should start a YouTube account: 1. In January 2009, 147 million U.S. internet users watched an average of 101 videos per person. 2. More than 100 million videos are viewed each day. 3. YouTube is the most popular video site on the internet. Google has 43 percent of the online video market and YouTube makes up 99 percent of that. Facebook Project Papillon - Acquisition Reasons why Montrose Travel should start a YouTube account: 1. Facebook has more than 200 million active users. 2. Over 100 million users log on at least once a day. 24

3. Facebook has the fastest growing demographic of people 35 years and older. LinkedIn Groups Reasons why Montrose Travel should start a LinkedIn Groups page: 1. There are over 250,000 different groups on LinkedIn. 2. Starting a group is quick, easy, and free. Digg/StumbleUpon Reasons why Montrose Travel should dive deeper into Digg: 1. Articles on Digg get over 25,000 views in a single day -- a level of web traffic that exceeds what many websites would get in an entire year. 2. Once an article hits the front page, it drives significant web traffic back to the site from which the article originated. 3. This is an exceptionally powerful way for us to spread our content (such as articles, pictures, and videos) to large masses of users. 4. The readers on this site are much more connected and influential than the average web user, and are often bloggers themselves. They can help spread our articles on other social media sites, generating even more traffic for our website(s). Shift happens 25

Metrics 1. We need to measure the number of subscribers we have to our RSS feed, email lists, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, blog, Digg and Delicious bookmarks. 2. We need to measure the number of links back to our website from other websites and the number of organic keywords that are producing traffic to our site on Google. (Web analytics software and online tools that measure inbound links website.grader.com) 3. We need to track the number of other web sites linking to our website. (Everytime someone links to our site, it’s a vote we are writing remark- able content.) 4. We need to track the number of times someone uses Delicious to bookmark our site. 5. We need to track the number of pages on our site that have been in- dexed by Google and are ready to be served on a moment’s notice to an eager searcher. 6. We need to track each individual article, along with the following di- mensions: Date, Author, Visitors, Comments, and Links. 7. We need to measure our monthly prospects, leads, opportunities, and customers per channel over time, as well as the ratios between the levels over time. Project Papillon - Acquisition 26

Conclusion Social Media is a great way for Montrose Travel to meet the needs of our clients. People have become more efficient at blocking marketing interruptions and turn instead to the web for their shopping needs. This new way of doing business will open many doors for our company to reach clients we could never reach before. It will give Montrose the opportunity to listen to the needs of our clients, and give us the chance to re- act to their needs. Learning inbound marketing will have a learning curve, but we need to start now before the competition passes us by, making it even more difficult for us to “catch up.” Social media will take some creativity and know-how, but the marketing and IT teams at Montrose Travel are ready to make that commitment to see our company grow and prosper. Sources used to create Project Papillon • The Social Media Marketing Book by Dan Zarrella • Inbound Marketing book by Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah • “Friends, fans, and followers” article by Travel Weekly • “The conversation era” article by Travel Age West • “The Travel Agent’s Guide to Social Marketing-Introduction” article by Travel Research Online. • “The Travel Agent Guide to Social Marketing-A Facebook Overview” article • “Creating Your social Media Plan” article by Outspokenmedia.com • Hubspot.com Shift happens 27

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Project papillon

by melissawitbeck on Sep 28, 2010

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