eMarketing Presentation by Rob Stokes from Quirk at the E-Tourism Africa Summit Johannesburg 2009

1. eMarketing in 2010 Rob Stokes

2. This is not about football

3. But a realisation that the internet is here to stay

4. … . and like it or not, tourism starts online

5. In the UK, the internet is now the biggest marketing channel in terms of spend

6. The average UK tourism company is spending well over 50% of it’s marketing budget online

7. Are we giving eMarketing the respect it deserves?

8. How it all fits together

10. eMarketing is NOT just a list of tactics

11. It achieves its true potential when these tactics work together

13. The tactics need each other

14. They feed off each other

15. They are substantially less effective without each other

16. At the centre of your eMarketing universe is your website

17. A hub to drive traffic to

18. A medium through which you can communicate and build a relationship with your audience

19. But it can’t just be any old website

20. You MUST add value to your user’s experience. Before, during and after their visit

21. Websites are no longer just brochures

22. They should be built to attract, convert and retain customers – or they shouldn’t exist at all

23. The average tourism website has 11 seconds to capture a user before they get bored and go elsewhere Travelmole

24. Is your website THAT good?

25. Our web development priorities

26. Monitoring your website’s performance

28. Top stats to keep an eye on

29. Goal metrics above all else: conversion rates!

30. Unique users (not HITS)

31. Traffic Sources (and their conversion rates)

32. Engagement Metrics

33. Bounce rate

34. Repeat users

35. Pages per user

36. Time spent on site

37. A quick word on mobile sites

38. Get one

39. Bringing traffic to your website

40. Search Engines!

41. 1 Billion searches each day

42. Lots of volume, but why is this important?

43. Searchers are looking for what your are offering

44. They WANT to find you!

45. And if they don’t find you, they WILL find your competitor

46. Over 40% of online bookings started with a search

47. Major considerations in 2010:

48. Organic search – keyword rich links are everything, build a site that offers so much value that it attracts them naturally

49. Universal search: make sure your images, videos and maps are optimised to take advantage of all the SERP real estate

51. Mobile search: location aware users in a highly goal driven mode

52. Expect paid search prices to rise heavily next year

53. Make sure your organic and paid search campaigns are learning from each other

54. Always be optimising your response paths

57. Search marketing will bring a lot of traffic to your site, but you can’t stop there…

58. You should be looking to build communities around your business

59. Social Media can play a big part in this

60. A few social media channels:

62. The most important one…

64. A few tips to take it to the next level

65. Be strategy lead. The medium is not the message

66. How will social media deliver on your business goals?

67. Push for critical mass quickly

68. Discover and target influential individuals and communities

69. Identify and fill content holes – don’t echo

70. Write with your keyword strategy at your side

71. Consider the impact of social media on your other eMarketing tactics

72. Create a social media culture internally, it will reflect externally

73. Let’s look at a few specific examples…

77. Encourage your customers to build content on your behalf

79. 300+ Million active users

83. But the Buzz isn’t always good...

84. 11 million people search for “Ryanair” each month.

85. A Ryanair employee comments on a blog…

87. Followed by the official response

89. Then the online community got hold of it

91. Then the newspapers got hold of it

94. These powerful sites often linked to this site…

96. And we know how important good links are…

98. Why is your online reputation important?

99. Because peers are the most trusted source of recommendation Edelman Trust Barometer 2008

100. Consumer Generated Content influences over $10 Billion per year in online travel Compete.com

101. Tripadvisor.co.uk is the favourite website for UK users for holiday inspiration. European Travel Commission

102. 88% of Trip Advisor Visitors are influenced by the content the read on the site European Travel Commission

104. People are talking, are you listening?

105. Are you truly engaging with them?

106. Monitoring your online reputation helps you… … avoid a reputation crisis by informing you quickly … discover quick and effective new marketing opportunities … improve customer service through engagement … understand your customers’ needs and wants better … identify powerful influencers to target with WOM campaigns

107. A final word on email marketing

108. Do it and do it properly. It will serve you well.

110. Thank You www.quirk.biz/etourism