Key Themes in Today's Online Travel World
1. Is the certainty of organic SEO declining? With so many well-established brands, and early adopters of SEO, is there any room for new entrants? However, most travel marketers agree that you must get SEO 100 percent right.
2. At what point does SEM become saturated in the travel vertical? Smart advertising is going to be your savior, and implementing strategic dayparting and re-targeting techniques will stretch your ad dollars even further. Greg Johnston, director of eCommerce at Hyatt Hotels, gave a particularly telling example of rising costs and competition: In 2005, Hyatt's average CPC was $0.25; in 2006, it rose to $0.35; in 2007, it jumped to $0.89; today, it's averaging $1.25.
3. How will brand marketing continue to affect SEM in this maturing industry? Branded searches are up 15 percent on the major search engines. How can smaller companies create an impact and compete in well established market segments? Narni Ilagan Yoder, a senior manager at Google, noted how setting the tone and expectations within the PPC medium will become more important, presumably in both conversions and in creating brand awareness and loyalty.
4. Customer service and retention crosses over from offline to online attitudes. Use your call center to help improve the quality of your Web site, and fill in the content gaps, said Steve Pinetti, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Kimpton Hotels.
5. Get smarter about social media marketing, get buy-in, budget, and make it profitable for your company. Cassanda Jeyaram, social marketing manager for InterContinental Hotels, gave the most practical advice for crafting social media programs, by employing Forrester Research's P.O.S.T. (people, objectives, strategy, technology) rather than just throwing anything up to see what sticks. You'll find that creating measurable social campaigns provide more long term value and cost savings when you consider these elements: exposure/PR, retention, and revenue.
Elisabeth Osmeloski is the Director of Online Media at Zonder.com, a vacation rentals search service that connects travelers and property owners in popular vacation destinations.
2. At what point does SEM become saturated in the travel vertical? Smart advertising is going to be your savior, and implementing strategic dayparting and re-targeting techniques will stretch your ad dollars even further. Greg Johnston, director of eCommerce at Hyatt Hotels, gave a particularly telling example of rising costs and competition: In 2005, Hyatt's average CPC was $0.25; in 2006, it rose to $0.35; in 2007, it jumped to $0.89; today, it's averaging $1.25.
3. How will brand marketing continue to affect SEM in this maturing industry? Branded searches are up 15 percent on the major search engines. How can smaller companies create an impact and compete in well established market segments? Narni Ilagan Yoder, a senior manager at Google, noted how setting the tone and expectations within the PPC medium will become more important, presumably in both conversions and in creating brand awareness and loyalty.
4. Customer service and retention crosses over from offline to online attitudes. Use your call center to help improve the quality of your Web site, and fill in the content gaps, said Steve Pinetti, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Kimpton Hotels.
5. Get smarter about social media marketing, get buy-in, budget, and make it profitable for your company. Cassanda Jeyaram, social marketing manager for InterContinental Hotels, gave the most practical advice for crafting social media programs, by employing Forrester Research's P.O.S.T. (people, objectives, strategy, technology) rather than just throwing anything up to see what sticks. You'll find that creating measurable social campaigns provide more long term value and cost savings when you consider these elements: exposure/PR, retention, and revenue.
Elisabeth Osmeloski is the Director of Online Media at Zonder.com, a vacation rentals search service that connects travelers and property owners in popular vacation destinations.
Labels: cpc, organic search, seo, travel, vertical search
posted by Donna Clayburn at 8:43 PM
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