Attendees at The eTourism Summit in San Francisco got some info direct from Google’s Travel Search Engineers.
Half of all Internet users visit travel websites and when planning a trip online they spend, on average, 6 – 7 weeks doing the research. The marketing funnel for travel companies in the travel space has become far more complicated with the addition of digital outlets.
Today your marketing message has to be
- Relevant
- Engaging
- Integrated across all media – offline and online
- Measurable
And these are five trends Google sees shaping digital marketing in 2008/9
- Search is a core behavior
- The need to be ‘always on’- It’s become a 24/7 wired world
- Offline events drive online behavior
- The change to ‘pull’ marketing. You have to be where consumers are finding their information. Give them the chance to choose you.
- Ideas come from everywhere – tap into the wisdom of crowds
Most companies preparing an online ad or content tend to follow this sequence: What is the search query (keyword research), Creative, Landing page, Conversion. Google suggests we have it backwards. We should be thinking about what we want them to do first. What is that revenue producing click we want them to make? Once you know that, build a landing page that would entice a person to make that click. Then work out what creative would draw them to that landing page. Now figure out the search query that is most likely to bring qualified traffic to your creative.
And include video on your landing pages. 1 in 7 people watch videos online. For travel particularly video has become an important part of your online content. Almost 60 percent of folk planning leisure and business travel say they are disappointed with the visuals available on travel sites.
Online PR must include digital assets in text, images and video. Optimize the assets for search. Add them to your website. Make it easy to save and share in social media sites. Syndicate it to reach new audiences.
