Presentation to 2009 Delaware Governor's Conference on Tourism, providing overview of ways/reasons for tourism bureaus and attractions to leverage the Internet, particularly mobile and social media channels.
2. Engage yourself first Engage your own five senses as you socialize, use the Net and travel Challenge, engage travelers in their places Use chance and imagination Share drama, mystery, comedy, discovery Build collaborations across time and space Use the social Web as a frame for rich media Prepare to see networks rise and fall
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4. Forrester: 28% of consumers may cancel a personal or leisure trip planned for 1H 2009
10. E-mail and search: still the two pillars of online marketing, but as pathway to contentâPeople want choice, convenience and control.â Ed Artzt, past Procter & Gamble CEO, 1994
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12. Couples, families and groups still want to share an experience, even if not âthe best of everythingâ
27. Share your brand Make your business part of your personal Web site, social network profiles and/or blog Urge your allies to do the same Add and house UGC (user-generated content) Add âshareâ buttons when you add marketing content, and use othersâ Link in your blog, site, allies, networks and UGC channels Create, tag and post photo albums, videos Set up a Flickr account, YouTube channel, etc. for swapping
38. Facebook is not the answer Jupiter research: only 8% of online travelers who are using SN sites plan travel there Instead, they view friendsâ travel photos or videos, post updates and photos while away Trusting strangersâ reviews requires a good selection Make sure you are represented on major review portals If youâre not there, get there (without shills)
40. Why e-mail? 48% of respondents who receive permission-based e-mail from a travel company report a direct impact on offline purchases 71% of recipients visit a travel portal as a direct result; 33% type or copy a URL into their browser and 14% contact a travel agent Source: Epsilon October 2008 survey
41. Keep it personal Donât skimp on the HTML e-mail shell -- be colorful, immersive, professional Utilize a third party e-mail provider if needed Capture opted-in contact info wherever you are Elicit your prospectsâ demography, their travel preferences and plans Then personalize promotions, including following up online visits Reward contact with special offers, promo codes, drawings, contests
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43. 25% plan to use their mobile phone or PDA (apart from voice) to make or change travel plans
44. A third have posted a travel review, and a fourth have in-car GPS
45. In January 2009, eight million people accessed a map from the mobile Internet, the second most popular application after search (14 million)Source: 2008 NEXTGEN Traveler⢠survey
54. Shared bookmarks or URLs (digg) Travel aggregators (Kayak) Blogs Friends, allies (people & groups) E-mail Colleagues You and your fans Booking engines (Expedia) YouTube (videos) Facebook Portals (Trip Advisor) Affinity groups (birders, golfers) IM Link in, learn more
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56. What, when, how, why, where are destinations, attractions, restaurants, lodging, transport, routing discussed?
59. Where do you end up? What do you find? Whatâs missing? Are you visible from the hits for your destination?
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61. Social & search go together Help users index, sort, filter, find â not just via Googleâs judgment, but friendsâ and peersâ Social equity (buzz) and organic (free) Google search results are earned, not bought, and drive each other Use the right vocabulary to be in the game As the âsemantic Webâ matures, natural-language search will be routine Write copy and tags accordingly, e.g. âlong weekendâ Google already offers semantic search help
62. Enable immersion Blog, comment and let staff represent Offer RSS feeds and rich media from your blog Integrate into your .com first See www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/ Create ties that bind, e.g. âbadgesâ for past visitors, fan networks, guides-in-training Mash up your site, blog and e-mail with Facebook, Twitter, travel portals, social bookmark sites Help both planners and âliving for todayâ
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64. Salt your content with audience variables, not just destination attributes