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Tag: Facebook

The Travel Marketer’s Guide to Capturing the Romance Market

With the right targeting and audience intelligence, it can be easy for travel marketers to sweep romantic travelers off their feet. Many businesses in key travel markets are missing the opportunity to market to romantic travelers. The latest data shows that romantic travel trends go beyond the obvious honeymooners and destination wedding travel, though those segments shouldn’t be ignored! According to the Travel Industry of America, romantic getaways are trips “with a spouse or other love interest without children to rekindle the romantic feelings in the relationship.” From outdoor adventure travel to “foodie” trips, today’s couples are doing things differently and travel marketers should take notice. Whether you market a destination city or you’re a business within a destination city, positioning carefully to appeal to romantic travelers is a good idea for 2018 and beyond. Read on for more details on the latest romantic travel trends all marketers need to know.

Top Romantic Travel Trends in 2018

Romantic travel is booming, and it’s more than just the honeymoon. According to statistics from TripSavvy, a quarter of all American weddings are destination weddings. On average, couples who plan destination weddings are a little older with more disposable income compared to other newlyweds. With travel to a beach or somewhere overseas, the average budget for a destination wedding is $28,000. The added expenses make for a shorter stack of invitations, but the guests who attend destination weddings also plan to spend more than $600 on average.

After the wedding, couples currently spend three times as much on honeymoons as they do on other vacations making honeymoons a$12 billion dollar industry. Other popular trends in romantic travel surfacing in 2018 include would-be grooms planning getaways around the proposal (thanks to social media for the increased pressure for the perfect proposal!). All kinds of couples enjoy “foodie” trips, choosing destinations with the best dining options as a top priority. Where entertainment and music drew travelers in earlier decades, cuisine is a top priority for today’s travelers.

Not Just for the Newlyweds: Who Are Today’s Romantic Travelers?

While family trips need to balance the different preferences of all the kids, couples traveling romantically tend to spend more on dining and activities when it’s just the two of them.

Marriage drives a high percentage of the travel in America, but households with children travel less often, shocking, right?! While single households were responsible for 21 percent of trips, married households took a whopping 61 percent of trips, according to the same research from TripSavvy. Couples without children have taken an average of 3.1 trips in the past year, compared to couples with children, who took 1.9 trips indicating the sweet spot for the travel market is married couples without children.

When planning a romantic getaway, a strong majority of those surveyed said that they traveled to a particular city for the local cuisine and entertainment. The next most popular getaway option was bodies of water, such as lakes or beaches. Other common, but significantly less popular plans centered around gambling, outdoor sports, and cruises. Romantic couples are interested in local attractions, but they also want a setting where they can enjoy each others company. By emphasizing a quiet, relaxing atmosphere, nearby nightlife, and quality restaurants, most cities have something to offer couples trying to unwind.

Romance For All: LGBTQ Travel Trends

Now more than ever, it pays to be inclusive. LGBTQ travelers are especially aware of the attitudes in different parts of the world. Just as some countries still require a marriage certificate to share a hotel room, many regions still have laws and prejudices against homosexuality and other lifestyles. Because some travel agents are unaware of those nuances in different regions, many LGBTQ travelers use agents who specialize in serving clients with similar priorities.

If there are festivals like Pride Parade in your area, think about whether your business can participate in some way. Decorating for the occasion, offering special discounts, and sponsoring a local non-profit are a few ways to show support. Make sure to share the ways in which your business shows support via your social media channels and look for ways to make your imagery more inclusive by default.

Most of these travelers want a safe place where they won’t be excluded on the basis of their orientation, identity, appearance, or anything else. That said, your employees have a big impact on the perception of your brand. Employees who bring prejudices into the workplace can be a complicated problem, especially in politically divisive times. While it’s impossible to satisfy every customer, a negative review that implies intolerance can be especially impactful. The best course of action is prevention, making sure that you create a safe and inclusive environment both for customers and employees. In the event you suffer a negative review from a customer, make sure to respond publicly stating that your company does not share the views of this individual though feedback is appreciated.

Not A Tropical Oasis? “Romantic” Doesn’t Have to Mean Bikinis

Commercials have marketed beaches as the “ultimate” romantic getaway, but there are loads of alternatives for landlocked businesses. = With employment up and cautious optimism about the economy, Americans are looking to travel frequently, and in smaller doses. Over the past 12 months, Google Trends has shown an increase in the search terms “weekend getaways” and “couples getaway near me,” Indicating growing demand for this information online. With the help of local SEO professionals, you can dominate the search results for travelers within driving distance.

All kinds of activities and attractions can be adapted for a romantic audience. Historic districts, museums, festivals, and even agriculture can be romantic. With a scenic overlook and the right photographer, your area’s cotton fields start to look as romantic as a vineyard or a country album cover.

In all, romantic travel is about a lot more than honeymooning couples. A growing number of adults are looking at travel as an investment in their relationship and their own quality of life. At Search Influence, we have everything you need to market to those couples and drive leads to your business. If you’re interested in honing your local SEO strategy, then request your marketing analysis today to get started.

Images:

Couple at a Scenic View

Couple Walking in Hand

September 18, 2018
Guide to Facebook’s Lead Generation Ads: What Can They Do for Your Business?
You’ve probably heard this a million times by now, at least a couple thousand from us—if you aren’t on Facebook, then you’re doing your digital marketing all wrong. There are more than 2 billion people around the world who actively use Facebook monthly, and on average those people spend about 35 minutes a day swiping through their feeds and engaging with content from friends, family, and brands.

Not only is Facebook’s audience large and engaged, Facebook offers an advertising tool that makes it easy for you to create advertising campaigns at a fraction of the price of traditional ad types. Our client Audubon Nature Institute generated $10,100 in total revenue while only investing $1,080 in ad spend on a Facebook Display campaign!

What Are Facebook Lead Ads?

Facebook Lead Ads are a type of Facebook ad that allows advertisers to collect information from prospective customers directly from the platform. Before Lead Ads, you would have to guide users to a landing page on your website to leave their contact information.

Facebook has made it simple for you to create ad campaigns in a few taps and for potential customers to contact you with ease. Users simply tap your ad and their information is sent directly to you.

Why Facebook Lead Generation Ads?
- Facebook forms are made for mobile and allow users to submit their contact information in a flash
- Because there is no need to click through to a landing page, there is potential for more conversions and less drop offs
- You can reach your target customer where they are with Facebook’s countless targeting options
- The Lead Generation forms are customizable, allowing you to build a form to ask the right questions
- It’s easy to connect your CRM to Facebook to get your leads immediately and take action sooner
- You can use Facebook Lead Generation Ads for quote and demo requests, sign-ups for your newsletter, event registration, access to gated content, and more
- Many businesses and brands large and small have seen significant increases in lead generation and a reduction in cost per lead
- Facebook advertising is cheaper than traditional ad types and can build more brand awareness
- It saves you time
Where Will My Leads Go?

All of the leads you collect by way of your Facebook Lead Generation campaign will be stored on Facebook and can be downloaded to a CSV file. To download your leads, visit your Facebook page and click “Publishing Tools,” and you’ll see “Forms Library” under the “Leads Ads Forms” label.

Pro Tip! Facebook also connects to popular CRMs like HubSpot and SugarCRM, enabling you to automate the process of pushing leads directly to your sales team. If you don’t take this step, you’ll have to download a CSV file regularly to see and take action on your new leads.

Creating Your First Lead Generation Ad

Before you begin building your campaign, you’ll need to make sure you have a Facebook Page for your business or brand. Building your campaign starts with visiting Facebook Ads Manager via business.facebook.com or accessing the drop-down menu on the top left of your screen. If you’ve never run ads before, you will need to create a Facebook Ads Manager account. You will be asked to link your business’s Facebook and Instagram page to your Facebook Ads Manager account.

Building a campaign is simple and can be done in a few steps.

1. Choosing Your Campaign Type

Once you’re all set up and ready to go, you’ll want to create a new campaign and select “Lead generation” under the “Consideration” marketing objectives. You’ll want to give your campaign a relevant name and click “Continue.”

2. Choosing Your Custom Audience & Budget

Move forward with setting up your ad account, creating your custom audience, and setting your budgets. But don’t worry! Facebook offers optimization tools to help you adjust your budget and targeting after the campaign is launched, and they are always adjustable. Facebook offers several targeting options, including targeting by demographics like location, age, gender, and language. You can also target by other demographics, interests, and behaviors like education levels, if someone is interested in yoga, and behaviors like how they utilize Facebook. You also have the option to build an audience from a lookalike version of your current customers and website visitors.

3. Creating Your Ad

After you have your custom audience and have set your budgets, you’re ready to create your ad. You’ll verify the pages you want your ads to be represented by and select your ad format. There are several ad formats to choose from. Carousel and video have been the most successful ad types in our experience. You’ll add in your ad text, display link, headline, news feed description, and a call to action.

4. Creating Your Lead Generation Form

Finally, the last step before you launch your campaign will be to create your lead generation form. Here you’ll introduce the product or service you’re promoting, add the questions you’d like to ask your audience, insert your privacy policy (it is mandatory to have one), and build your “Thank You” screen. Be sure to give your form a descriptive name so that you can identify it later when you need to download your leads.

5. Publishing Your Campaign and Launching

Congrats! You’ve launched your Lead Generation campaign. This is the part where you celebrate and wait for the leads to come pouring in.

You’ll want to monitor your ad’s performance by testing and checking on it regularly! Try changing out your ad copy and graphics, or trying different targeting options—narrow your targeting if you find you’re reaching too broad of an audience and thus receiving unqualified leads. You could also update your form to ask more specific questions.

Here at Search Influence, we’re invested in helping our clients grow their businesses through dynamic marketing strategies that drive qualified leads. If you’re interested in utilizing Facebook to bolster your lead acquisition efforts, request your marketing analysis today to get started.
September 11, 2018
8 Facebook & Instagram Features You Might Not Know About
Facebook is going cross-country with a free conference, bringing it to 30 cities, including New Orleans! This is part of Facebook’s mission to better educate businesses in using their platform. They state that… “By 2020, we’re committing to provide 1 million US workers and entrepreneurs the digital skills they need to compete in today’s workplace.”

My evaluation is that their goal of this effort is to increase and improve business use of Facebook (and ultimately advertising dollars) and try to make up for their data privacy blunders earlier this year.

Given that 2.07 billion people access FB monthly, and ¾ of those users come back daily, there’s an appropriate way for most businesses to engage with consumers.

I really enjoyed seeing traditional advertising promoting this free event as I drove around New Orleans, from downtown digital billboards to suburban bus stop ads. While it may seem ironic that Facebook would use out-of-home media to promote their conference, it is not that surprising since part of their strategy is likely to reach NEW businesses in addition to improving the skills of those already on the platform.

In case it’s not coming to a city near you, check out these tips from our team of Influencers who attended various sessions!

Build Creative for Mobile

Because 90% of time on Facebook is spent on mobile, businesses must get out their desktop-focused world and think about the screen size of their audience.

One key media type for mobile optimization is video—your typical rectangle, landscape video (16:9 aspect ratio) videos are suboptimal for mobile. Square is better, but the best is to create vertical, full-screen videos—think Snapchat, Instagram Stories, and Facebook Live style.

In addition to it being a more immersive and engaging experience, a key benefit is you aren’t sharing the screen with other content.

If you use Instagram, you may not be surprised to hear that ⅓ of the content that people are engaging with on Instagram is BRAND content!

Thanks to Alison Zeringue & Amanda Ball for this takeaway!

Mobile Creative Doesn’t Have to Be Hard or Expensive

All you need is a phone, lighting and a $20 Amazon tripod (for video) to make something look REALLY nice!

These 10 apps can enable you to enhance your photos and videos on your mobile device, on the fly.

Considering that by 2020, 75% of content on Facebook will be videos, it is time to put on your videographer hat!

Photo Enhancing Apps
1. Adobe Photoshop Express
2. Adobe Spark Post
3. PicLab
4. Plotaverse
5. RIPL
Video Enhancing Apps
1. Videoshop
2. Quik
3. Instagram Stories
4. Boomerang
5. Legend
See here for direct links to these Top 10 Creative Apps.

Remix

The apps above and others allow you to “remix.” Easily take images you already have and create gifs and videos to better engage your audience, including overlaying text (love the Living Proof example… ask me how many bottles of Living Proof I have stocked—major “life hack” for professionals on the go!).

Amanda Ball likes the Pop Up Plus example, which uses e-commerce product images and “remixes” them into fun videos with vibrant colors and movement. An app called Videoshop can help do this FOR FREE.

Shooting from Scratch

Facebook also provides tips on making great videos from scratch for ads and posts. Check out this savvy use of Boomerang to show a spiralizer in action. As Amanda Ball describes it, “Potential buyers are prompted to feel like they know how the product works, making them more on board to dig deeper into your brand and products.“

Thanks to Amanda Ball, Account Management Team Lead, for this tip!

Secret Boomerang Menu

Did you know Boomerang has a secret menu!? Learn how a four finger tap can bring up options on options to edit your video. You can smooth it out, speed it up, slow it down, and so much more.

Thanks to Alison Zeringue, Director of Account Management, for this tip!

Custom Contact Methods on Instagram Profile

On a standard Instagram profile, call, email, and directions are standard calls to action that you can add.

Through settings, you can hook up third-party apps like Open Table and Eventbrite.
1. Go to your profile
2. Click “Edit Profile”
3. Click “Contact Method”
4. Choose from the ever-growing list of action buttons that correspond with other apps and services you may already be using
Thanks to Alison Zeringue, Director of Account Management, for this tip!

Get a “Shop” Button on Your Instagram Profile

Those who sell products may wonder how to activate the “Shop” button of their Instagram profile. After you’ve created nine “shoppable” Instagram posts, a “Shop” button will appear on your profile. It will direct users to all of your shoppable posts, making it that much easier for users to buy your product on their phone.

Thanks to Ariel Tusa, Account Manager, for this takeaway!

Vying for “Swipe Up for More”?—What to Do in the Meantime

We're all vying for the "Swipe up for more" feature on Instastories, but, alas, you must have 10,000 followers for this feature to show up. In the meantime, use the "screen record" feature on your iPhone to create a video that guides users to important content. Then you can add that video to your Instastories.
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Thanks to Ariel Tusa, Account Manager, for this takeaway!

Donate Button on Facebook Live

Facebook has offered a selection of calls to action (CTAs) for your page and ads for some time. One way non-profits can use CTAs creatively is by using the “Donate” CTA button on a Facebook Live video. For example, you can “go live” at a fundraising event so those who aren’t in attendance can check out the action, and you can feature the “Donate” button on this post to capture their wallets while you are capturing their hearts. Bonus—giving a sneak peek into your event this year can create a buzz that translates to more attendees next year (as we talk about in our blog post with more tips to increase event attendance).

Requirements for Fundraising on Facebook:

In order to have access to features like the “Donate” button, you must be an approved non-profit.
- 501c3
- US-based
- Verified page
- Page meets community standards
- Application approved
Thanks to Ceallaigh Montgomery, Sales Executive & Digital Marketing Strategist, for this takeaway.

Audience Network

I find the Audience Network isn’t talked about nearly enough. By default, ads set up on Facebook will run on Instagram as well as the Audience Network, which is a collection of sites around the web. This idea is core to Google Display, which leverages the Google Content Network as the avenue for showing all ads. When people talk about Facebook ads, they take for granted this opportunity to be in front of people when they are “surfing the web”—not just browsing the “ ‘book.”

Thanks to Shawn Kelly, Sales Manager, for this takeaway!

Also, thanks to Shauntae Joseph, Account Manager, & Jenna Mire, Account Coordinator, for takeaways worked in throughout!

If you need help implementing these tactics, let’s start a conversation about how we can help you.
August 9, 2018
Zoos, Aquariums, and Non-profits: Here Are Three Top Tips to Fundraise Like a Pro

Based in a city known for its tourism and attractions, Search Influence is no stranger to digital marketing for zoos, museums, and other non-profits. We’re here today to pass on some of our knowledge to you! These three tips for fundraising through social media are sure to spark your creativity and help get donations flowing through the door.

1. Make Giving Easy

Even the most dedicated patron can get turned off if they have to fill out confusing forms or trudge to your office in person. Streamline the donation process by taking advantage of easy online giving platforms. Some user-friendly platforms and campaigns include:

FundRazr

MuseoBlogger points to the Boston Museum of Science’s success with FundRazr. This app is free to download and offers patrons a number of custom giving options. For example, they can either choose to contribute anonymously or to identify themselves via their Facebook profiles. Similarly, they can choose to give either by credit, debit, or PayPal. MuseoBlogger writes that FundRazr is “intuitive, convenient, and provides both instant gratification and recognition.” Maybe that’s why Boston Museum of Science raised over $1,200 from Facebook users alone—likely all donors who were not contributing via the traditional channels.

Text to Give

Colleen Dilenschneider, Chief Market Engagement Officer for IMPACTS Research & Development, highlights Cameron Park Zoo’s mobile giving campaign and Rosamond Gifford Zoo’s Adopt an Animal program as two nontraditional fundraising campaigns. As part of their mobile giving campaign, the zoo encouraged guests to donate $5 or $10 through a simple text message, making it easy for patrons to show support from home or say thanks after a great day at the zoo.

Adopt an Animal

The Adopt an Animal program at Rosamond Gifford Zoo is available to animal-loving patrons throughout the year, but in honor of National Adoption Day, the zoo ran a two-day promotion to spread awareness of the program. To reach a wider audience, they lowered the minimum donation requirement and created a smaller, custom donation package. This promotion generated an extra $350 and gave incentive to those who may not normally donate to the program.

It’s simple. The easier it is to give to your organization, the more likely people are to donate.

2. Establish a Brand

Having easy donation platforms is great—as long as people know about them! To make the most of any digital fundraising campaign, you first need a community of fans and followers. And the first step in building that community is establishing your own brand. This gives patrons a clear idea of who they’re engaging with and helps them feel a personal connection with your organization and its values. After all, no one wants to give away hard earned money to a stranger on the internet!

Complete branding should be an in-depth endeavor. It requires cohesion between your physical location, website, and social media platforms. If you’re looking for a place to start, think about visual branding: assure your color scheme, logos, fonts, and overall visual aesthetic remain consistent across all your on- and off-line locations. Or, you could start with brand values. Post clear causes or ideals that your organization believes in, and then provide evidence of those values through success stories and patron or employee spotlights. For an at-home example of establishing brand values, check out our About Us page and see how we communicate our dedication to optimizing business’ potential and the New Orleans community. Then, pop over to our pages about Success Stories and Company Culture to see those values demonstrated in action.

3. Get Inspired With Engagement Ideas

With your brand established and clearly communicating exactly who patrons support when they donate to you, it’s time to engage with the community! There are tons of great ideas out there, but here are some of our personal favorites.

First, make it very clear where donations will be going and how patrons will benefit by giving. Just like how people prefer to support trusted brands over internet strangers, patrons are more likely to donate if they know exactly what their money will achieve. Consider offering additional perks for high-dollar donors. For example, a newsletter with updates about their chosen animal or a plaque with their name by their sponsored exhibit.

Another popular engagement idea is live-streaming certain exhibits. Offer a night-stream that shows patrons what nocturnal creatures are up to when the zoo or aquarium is closed. Keep a 24/7 feed going on monkeys or other active and entertaining animals. Or, if one of your animals is expecting, consider broadcasting her pregnancy and birth, as well as her baby’s early growth. While this isn’t as directly tied to fundraising as animal adoption programs, it will nonetheless warm viewers’ hearts and get them engaged with and excited about your organization, building the meaningful connections that could turn into donations down the road.

Finally, appeal to photographers. Nothing gets people excited about zoos and aquariums like cute pictures of fuzzy animals, and encouraging visiting professionals to take photos means your organization gets all the exposure with a fraction of the cost and effort. Consider using your social media accounts to host fan photo contests, like the Shedd Aquarium, or repurpose the photos you already have with a caption contest. To go even further, consider hosting photographer-only after-hours events, like Aquarium of the Pacific. This offers amateurs and professionals alike the opportunity to take great pictures without the general public getting in the way. When they post their photos, it’s free advertising for your organization, and it’s a great opportunity to extend your network to include the photography communities.

Consult the Experts

We promised three fundraising tips, but here’s a bonus fourth! If you want to focus the majority of your time and energy on running your organization, Search Influence is here to help you with everything from content marketing to online advertising. Request your proposal online today.

Images:

Moneyball

Zootopia

Giraffe

June 26, 2018
Five Tips for Creating Customer Advocates for your Tourist Attraction

When your past customers talk to their friends and family about their vacation, are they likely to recommend your business? Word of mouth is critical for sustainable, long-term business growth, and social media has multiplied the number of connections between people sharing travel advice and reviews. In fact, a recent study from Nielsen found that 92 percent of consumers say they trust brand advocates, including recommendations from friends and family. Here are just a few of the ways to encourage customers to help promote your tourist attraction.

1. Attach Your Brand to a Real Person

People naturally connect better with human beings, and it’s even better if customers interact with the same face repeatedly. Do you have a secretary or hostess who can orient new customers to your services and their options? Family-run and personality-driven businesses have an easier time identifying their brand with friendly owners and managers, but any business can make itself more relatable by avoiding shortcuts that result in impersonal service.

Whenever possible, avoid using automated responses and impersonal emails. Over the phone, your business should be represented by a friendly voice. When electronic communication is necessary, try to use the same staff member so that customers have a chance to develop a rapport. By creating that dialogue, you’ll appeal to your audience’s emotional side, which neuroscientific research has linked directly to decision making in the brain. This genuine and friendly first impression is the first step toward creating a lasting customer who can, in turn, become an advocate for your brand among their peers.

2. Create Photo-Ready Shareable Experiences

If you know you’re creating a remarkable in-person experience for your guests, be sure you make it easy for them to translate that into photos, videos, and content online through their social channels. Tour guides and attraction managers know the best locations for group photos, and you can remind parties and couples of the optimal times to take out their cameras. Introverts may be reluctant to ask for someone else to take pictures, but waitresses and tour guides can start the conversation by suggesting a photo op. All of your customers’ friends will be curious to see where the picture was taken.

Whether it’s a funky statue that’s perfect for a photo op or a contest through your social media platform to get guests to share their best photos in exchange for a gift certificate or branded swag, make sharing fun and interactive. You can even offer free Wi-Fi at your location and post signage with your branded hashtag or social media handles to make it as easy as possible for your guests to share right away and include you in their posts.

3. Claim Your Online Presence & Stay in Touch Through Social Media

Speaking of social, don’t forget to continue to foster that relationship with your guests online, even long after they’ve left. One of the most important steps of building customer advocacy is claiming your online presence. Brand your social media platforms with your company logo and beautiful photos of your attraction so that guests will know right away that you’re legitimate. Rather than just trying to promote your business on social media, be sure you also provide helpful information, fun events in the community, and posts that showcase your brand “personality.” When your fans find your posts helpful and relevant, they’re much more likely to share them with their fanbase.

In addition to the usual social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, you need to claim your Google My Business page. Since the Google ratings and reviews appear alongside search results, it’s important that your listing is accurate, detailed, and looks professional. This includes checking your hours of operation and adding photos of your attraction so that guests know they’re looking at the right listing.

4. Collect Emails By Offering Promotions

Every business is offering membership discounts and promotions these days, and an email signup is an easier alternative to the sometimes cumbersome memberships. When advertising on social media and your website, encourage customers to sign up for future promotions. Potential customers who are still planning their vacation will be interested to see whether special discounts or offers coincide with the time of their planned visit. In the meantime, your well-crafted emails will make sure your attraction isn’t forgotten as they get closer to finalizing plans.

At the end of their visit, satisfied customers will be interested to see if you offer promotions they can share with friends. By giving email subscribers advanced notice about special events, you make them feel like they have inside information. When they feel like they have a special connection with your business, customers are more likely to advocate for your business. When their friends are visiting the same destination, they’re even more likely to recommend your business because you’ve continued to make a positive impression.

5. Ask Nicely

Just like Google My Business, it’s important to keep track of reviews on all social platforms. Depending on your industry, Yelp or TripAdvisor or another website may be more relevant. Many business owners forget to ask customers for reviews. Unfortunately, the customers who are self-motivated to write reviews are often the ones looking to vent about a negative experience. Happy and satisfied customers rarely feel the need to go through the necessary steps to write a review, but they’re more likely to take the time if someone at your company makes it clear how much their time would be appreciated.

Whether you’re running a Ferris wheel or a hole-in-the-wall gourmet donut shop, you need customers to spread the word and advocate for your business. Once you’re confident in the quality of your services and products, it becomes a matter of encouraging customers to share their excitement online. The good news is that most of the things that help build advocacy also improve your connection with customers. When you leverage that connection to further improve your business, you can join in the success of tourist attractions that are winning on social media.

Need help getting started? Learn more about our consulting services to help build a solid reputation for your attraction.

Images:

Spongebob

Camcorder Dad

Parks and Rec

April 13, 2018
Mobile Travelers: 4 Ways Mobile Search is Used in Vacation Planning

We’ve come a long way from lugging around heavy guidebooks and drawing out routes on paper maps. In fact, we’ve even come a long way from planning vacations on desktop computers. Google shares that a growing number of travelers are planning vacations on their mobile devices, with mobile’s share of travel visits growing 48 percent in 2016, and mobile web conversions for travel sites growing 88 percent that same year. As a result, it’s increasingly important for businesses in the tourism and travel industries to optimize their websites for mobile and make researching and booking trips easy for mobile customers. Here’s how!

“Micro-Moments”

According to the same source from Google, the key to a successful mobile travel site is leveraging micro-moments. These are moments of intent when someone acts on a need—for example, looking for a hotel once they’ve booked a flight to that city. Google names the core four micro-moments of planning a trip as I-want-to-get-away, Time-to-make-a-plan, Let’s-book-it, and Can’t-wait-to-explore. Different businesses in the travel industry will prioritize different micro-moments—for example, an influencer on Instagram might focus on I-want-to-get-away while a local tourism bureau might concentrate on Can’t-wait-to-explore. But, catering to customers across all four micro-moments certainly can’t hurt!

1. I-want-to-get-away

Also called Dreaming Moments, these are the times when people start thinking about their next vacations—and Dreaming Moments happen often. Again, according to Google, 37 percent of U.S. travelers think about planning vacations once a month, and 17 percent think about it once a week or more. In 2015, 38 percent of non-branded travel searches came from mobile devices. Today, that number is only increasing. So, how can travel and tourism businesses cater to this growing audience?

One option is using SEO services to help your website rank higher in search engine results for questions like, “What to do in [destination]?” and, “Where is [destination]?” These are two of the top travel questions people ask Google. Another great resource is YouTube. Google estimates that roughly 106 million of YouTube’s monthly unique visitors are travelers, and 64 percent of people who watched travel-related videos did so during Dreaming Moments. This means that learning to attract customers on YouTube is a must for businesses catering to I-want-to-get-away micro-moments.

2. Time-to-make-a-plan

Also called Organizing Moments, these are the times when travelers have decided to take a trip but are still considering different hotels and airlines with an open mind. During these moments, travelers are figuring out the logistical details of their journey—like how long flights will take or how much hotels will cost. And, they’re figuring out these logistical details on mobile. On Google, mobile flight-related searches are up 33 percent year over year, and mobile hotel searches are up 49 percent.

To reach customers during Time-to-make-a-plan Moments, consider online advertising campaigns, or Google services such as Hotel Ads and Google Flights. And, of course, make sure that your website is fully optimized for mobile!

3. Let’s-book-it

Booking Moments are incredibly important—not only because they’re the times when travelers start spending money, but also because these moments may have the most room for newcomers to make an impact. Going back to data from Google, 46 percent of travelers who do mobile travel research made their final booking decisions on mobile but did the actual booking itself on a desktop or laptop computer. This means that customers are likely not getting everything they need from mobile during Booking Moments. Businesses that improve their mobile booking have an opportunity to rise above the competition.

Google recommends Book on Google as a way to increase conversion rates for mobile Booking Moments. But, other ways to improve customers’ mobile booking experience include streamlining the check-out process to remove any unnecessary steps and making sure your site is secure. Customers will be more likely to book on-the-go if they trust that their information is safe and secure.

4. Can’t-wait-to-explore

Also called Experiencing Moments, data from Google proves that these are also areas of huge potential. Travelers are increasingly planning their vacation activities while they’re on the trip, with 85 percent of 2016 leisure travelers deciding on activities after arriving at their destinations. Here again, travelers are making these plans on mobile. In fact, mobile searches from hotels increased 30 percent in 2016. Companies who aren’t catering to this growing audience are missing out on potential business.

So, how can a travel industry business appeal to customers in Experiencing Moments? Provide travelers with information! The same source from Google found that 53 percent of leisure travelers are interested in visiting new places, compared to just 18 percent who want to return to previous destinations. This means that the majority of vacationers are somewhere they’ve never been before. Offer recommendations for restaurants or attractions, and make these recommendations location-aware—Google searches for “places to eat near me” more than doubled in 2016.

Travel is increasingly becoming a mobile-centric industry, and businesses have a lot to gain by targeting customers in these core travel micro-moments. Whether it’s improving YouTube reach to grab viewers during I-want-to-get-away Moments, or making sure a site is hosted on a secure server for Let’s-book-it Moments, Search Influence is here to help. Bon Voyage!

Images:

Take Me Away

Want to Get Away

Bon Voyage

March 26, 2018
5 Strategies to Get Guests Talking and Increase Event Attendance

With the right marketing strategy, your event will be the topic that everyone seems to be discussing. Potential attendees will feel compelled to join in the fun. Millennials have coined a term for this pervasive social anxiety: “FOMO,” for “fear of missing out.” This social enthusiasm is great at motivating that final step for a successful gathering: converting people who are merely aware of the event into participants who actually attend. Whether you’re still sending invitations or collecting RSVPs, every event planner needs to know how to make their big bash the talk of the town.

Email Marketing

You know the contact information for your most dedicated fans and colleagues. Give newsletter subscribers and loyal customers the inside scoop, and they’ll be happy to make plans in advance. Include links to any special promotions or contests leading up to the event to help encourage your fans to spread the word and invite friends through social media. And be sure to tease out the event over a few targeted emails, building excitement and revealing new surprises that your customers can’t get enough of.

Whether it is your regular newsletter or promotional messages for the big event, less is more, especially when it comes to emails. Flooded inboxes are a familiar experience, and many people cull through their incoming mail on a smartphone, further limiting the time and screen space allowed for each message to make its case. When you’re promoting an event, don’t send out too many emails to the same recipients, or you may turn potential attendees into unsubscribers.

Facebook Promotion

Facebook events allow you to track RSVPs and disseminate essential information. People need clear details about the time, location, and parking. Facebook makes key logistical information easily accessible, and it also provides a platform for easy promotion. With event marketing on Facebook, you can pay for promotion to get more views and attendees. Even without paying for advertising, you can design posts that encourage engagement. Produce exciting promotional infographics, and your fans will be happy to spread the word.

Schedule important posts for the early afternoon, preferably from Wednesday to Friday. Those times allow a larger number of active Facebook users to see your posts, and they can still share the news before the weekend. Social media also allows you to gauge enthusiasm and adjust your promotional strategy, depending on which posts get more engagement. Learn more about how social media management can help you find attendees for your big event on Facebook and other platforms.

Remarketing

Not everyone who clicks on your page will attend, but people who visit your website and event page have demonstrated interest. Target those undecided visitors with remarketing through Google Display or Facebook Display to remind them about the event and keep it top of mind. This is especially important if your event tickets typically sell closer to your event. As with other forms of targeted advertising, you can put your message in front of local viewers with relevant interests, and you can even filter by age groups and other demographic variables. Remarketing is special because it is tailored to potential guests who have demonstrated a very specific interest.

Not everyone checks Facebook more than five times a day, and it’s easy to forget about upcoming events. Online advertising provides reminders for converting interested viewers into actual attendees. Even users without a social media presence will still see advertising on search engines and other web page banners.

Influencer Marketing

Advertisements are great reminders for upcoming occasions, but trusted online personalities can have an even more profound influence on attendance. Make your gathering popular by getting relevant influencers on board. In some ways, the internet is still a lot like high school, and influencers are the popular kids with a lot of sway over which parties and trends are “cool.”

Reach out to the internet personalities relevant to your industry and audience, and they may be interested in helping to spread the word. Some influencers are content creators who rely on sponsorship. Others are bloggers who share reviews and news relevant to their followers. Influencers make great VIPs, and they may also be interested in giving away tickets, further spreading the word.

Snapchat and Instagram Stories

If you’re targeting a younger audience, you need to keep up with the latest trends. Snapchat and Instagram allow you to tell a compelling visual story. The week and day of the event, be sure to have someone on staff dedicated to updating your feed with behind-the-scenes videos, live updates, and reactions from attendees. You can even get your influencer to take over your social account during the event to stir more excitement. Publishing a lot of content during the event, and encouraging your guests to do the same, is the best way to jumpstart your marketing and attendance for the following year.

From underwater welders to teenaged musicians, a surprising range of communities are active on Instagram and Snapchat. If you aren’t sure about the best place to reach your audience, then it’s worth getting professional help. Consulting services can help you determine which outlets are most effective for your industry and target audience, while lead tracking and analytics will help you determine how best to elicit reactions from followers.

Event marketing is about more than spreading the word. Use your established branding to show how every attendee will have a great time. With the right impression and frequent reminders, your local community will be FOMO-ing all the way to your big day. Whether you’ve booked an exclusive venue or amazing guest speaker, promotion (through advertising or social media) is just a way to spread the exciting news. Once you’ve done the hard work of planning a gathering, FOMO is the natural reaction of people who understand what a great time you have pulled together.

Have a big event coming up but no time to promote it? Request a proposal to learn how Search Influence can help you succeed.

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Social Media Pendulum

March 15, 2018
Five Surefire Signs Your Online Reputation Needs Work

A bad reputation is terrible for business, and yet online reputations are difficult for many business owners to fully understand—much less control. When a customer is upset in your restaurant or store, it’s relatively easy for a manager to handle the situation in person. Problems with online branding can be harder to detect than an angry patron. A negative online review might feel less urgent than a disgruntled customer screaming at your employees, but that review may be seen by countless potential customers in the future. An unpopular social media presence is a missed opportunity for cost-effective community engagement, and unpopular websites appear lower in search rankings. Learn how to identify the signs of a reputation problem online and protect the future of your brand.

1. Your Bounce Rate Is High

We all do it. You visit a website, but it doesn’t have what you wanted, so you return to the search engine and try elsewhere. When your website has a high bounce rate, it means that people aren’t finding what they wanted. Bounce rate issues are insidious because they erode your online reputation with search engines, but they can be caused by a combination of overlapping factors. Low-quality content can drive up a bounce rate, but so can technical details about website formatting.

Websites that aren’t responsive or mobile-friendly have a high bounce rate because mobile users are unable to access the content. On the other hand, some sites are difficult to navigate on any device because of unclear menu options and poor organization. The text on a page should be clear and helpful, relevant to the topic at hand. If a link about a specific product directs to a landing page with information about the general industry, then users may decide to search elsewhere. The easiest way to address a high bounce rate is to work with a web designer and content creator to improve the user experience.

2. There’s an Increase in Negative Reviews

It’s impossible to please everyone, and some customers always seem to find a reason to be disappointed. Nevertheless, a streak of negative reviews can undermine any online reputation. When negative reviews appear, it is important to address the reviewer’s concern within your company. Accept the feedback as an opportunity to prevent a repeat of the same disappointment.

When the reviewer’s concerns are being addressed, it sometimes makes sense to reply to the review. Make it a brief and professional response to avoid getting entangled in an argument. As quickly as possible, move the discussion out of the public eye, preferably by providing an email address for further correspondence. Many people are more understanding and open to resolution in direct correspondence, but remember that anything you write in email can still be copied into a public forum. Ultimately, any response to negative reviews is an exercise in damage control. The best solution is prevention, providing such a high quality of service that the positive reviews outnumber negative ones.

3. Your Social Media Engagement Is Lacking

Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to interact with customers and build your brand awareness. An inactive Facebook page is a missed opportunity for advertising, and so is a mismanaged page. Excessively promotional posts don’t offer value to your audience and can give a negative impression. If none of your recent posts have any likes, shares, or comments, then your audience is not engaged with your message.

Rather than only promoting your business, use social media to share other kinds of content as well. Share informational posts about recent news and updates relevant to your industry or community. Include frequent posts that aim primarily to elicit engagement, whether they share a cute animal picture or joke. Depending on what’s appropriate for your industry, you can also post a poll asking for people to voice their preference between popular techniques or theories.

4. Your Website Is Not Authoritative

Authoritative websites rank higher on Google, but building authority takes time. One of the most reliable methods for building authority is inbound links. When important, trustworthy websites link to your website, it shows search engines that your content is a trustworthy authority on those subjects. In the early days of search engine optimization, you could improve your ranking by posting links to your website in random blog comments and basically spreading the links as many places as possible. Now, algorithms are smart enough to sort out what is authentic, and will not reward those who take shortcuts to improve their ranking.

To build authority, invest time into quality content that provides useful information to visitors. Accelerate the authority-building process by getting your business (and website) mentioned in newspapers and trade journals, resources that have already established themselves as reliable. Ultimately, a high quality and helpful website will be shared by people organically as a resource. Your authority will grow as visitors share your page with their friends.

5. Your Branding Is Inconsistent

Inconsistent branding isn’t always as obvious as it sounds. Some companies might change their name while keeping the same website, and then it’s obviously important to go through and eliminate all appearances of the old name. On the other hand, many businesses use a shortened version of their full name in casual conversation. It can be tempting to use the shorter name in website content, making the tone friendly and hospitable, but search engines don’t appreciate that your company’s nickname isn’t an altogether different name. If a search engine thinks your business can’t keep its own name straight, then that’s a sign that the content may not be reliable. Avoid using shortened versions of your name, and make sure to proofread when you’re publishing content and adding your business to online directories.

To protect and improve your online reputation, talk with a digital marketing consultant. The team at Search Influence has experience managing all the key aspects of your brand’s internet presence.

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Changing Identity

March 13, 2018
“Today in” Facebook feed highlights local news and events

Facebook has launched, in a small number of locations, a new “Today in [location]” feed.

“Today in” will algorithmically identify news and events from the users specified location. For now, the feature is only available in: New Orleans, La.; Little Rock, Ark.; Billings, Mont.; Peoria, Ill.; Olympia, Wash.; and Binghamton, N.Y. It is expected Facebook will roll it out further on successful test of the features.

Check out a roundup of the major articles I wrote on the LocalU blog.

January 11, 2018
Your Website Is Yours—Make Sure You Own It

Imagine you open your dream business with the perfect name, perfect location, great employees at every level, and a great building to host your perfect products. To finish off the grand opening, you hire an outside contractor to do some work for you and you give them all of your keys and tell them to hold on to them even after the work is done and you never ask for them back. This sounds like a silly mistake that is complete hyperbole that no business owner would ever commit. But sadly, this happens every single day when business owners don’t secure their credentials after outsourcing for website creation. Regardless of whether this action was malicious, careless, or just protocol, you stand to lose a lot and have a giant headache if you don’t have proper control of your website and online presence.

6 questions to ask your website provider

If your site has yet to launch and you’re reading this right now, you need to take proactive measures to ensure that you have complete control of your website. When a company creates a website for you, they like to use the companies and resources that they like to use. The glitz and glamor of a slick and pretty website can quickly make a business owner forget to ask for administrative access to their own property. Before signing a contract to have a website created for you, make sure you ask the right questions.

1. Who is hosting my site?

There are plenty of hosts across the internet, and knowing which one hosts your site is vital if you need to wrest control of your intellectual property. If you forget which one hosts your site, you can search Domaintools, a free domain lookup resource that can tell you which company hosts your domain, unless you opted to pay to have your information hidden. You should also ensure that your email has its own account and is the primary owner of the hosting service. Even if you pay the contractor to complete the necessary setup for you, there is a chance that they’ll add your site to their list of websites that they own. If your relationship fractures, you’re at their mercy. If the contractor chooses not to release your domain, you might have to find a new domain and site.

2. What is my server login information?

Though this may not be relevant to you directly, if you do decide to use a different company for implementing website content, there is a 100% chance that they will at least request this information. Our web developers here at Search Influence, such as myself, utilize this information to create a staging environment for your website. That way we can add all of our changes without altering the live site or disrupting the flow of your website while we work on it. If you don’t have this information but you are the primary owner of your domain and hosting service, you can contact them to receive this information or retrieve it from the backend.

3. What is my CMS login?

Please—I’m actually begging, please do not sign a contract to purchase a website and not have a login created for yourself where you are the primary owner. With ownership of the CMS, you can easily give another web developer the necessary permissions they need to make any edits to your website. Some website creators may be reluctant to hand this information out or give you the highest level of access since there is the potential to completely take a site down permanently if the user changes some files that are integral for the site to run. Your CMS login may also be called your WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Squarespace login.

4. Do I own my domain name?

With easy-to-use services such as Namecheap, it is easier than ever to own your own domain even if you don’t plan on building the website yourself. The purchaser of the domain can add it to any profile they so choose. If you don’t have ownership of whatever account the new domain name is attached to, you don’t own your website.

Knowing the potential of how much popular website names can go for, someone that owns your domain can take as much of your money as you’re willing to give them to get it back. Not only that, the likelihood of legal recourse being in your favor is close to none unless you can somehow find a loophole in the contract that is probably ironclad.

5. Do I own my social media profiles?

While this doesn’t relate directly to your website itself, this is still in the same vein. Most social media platforms will either have a way to add users as managers on your account, or the company that will handle your online reputation management will have a third party platform that they use to add content to your favorite social media platforms. Facebook, for example, will allow you to add managers to your business account, and managers can write and schedule posts in your steed. As far as social media management platforms are concerned, your social media company will be required to log in, but once will be sufficient unless you decide to change your password. This is very important because the process of re-claiming a social media profile is a very long and drawn out process requiring many different steps of verification. Not my idea of a good time if you ask me.

6. What about my Google Analytics account?

Just like everything else outlined here, you will also need to have control of your Google Analytics account. In case you don’t have any tracking on your site, Google Analytics is the popular service offered by Google that allows you to track site visits and a multitude of other metrics. The first rule of Google Analytics is once your historical data is gone, it’s gone forever. If you request Google Analytics to be added to your site for the first time, create the account yourself and then add other users as administrators to take care of the rest. Lunametrics gives a great run down of different views in Google Analytics. At the very least, you should have your own view with completely untouched data, and it should be labeled as such before any marketing company tinkers around with your views.

Even if you’re past the point of setup, all of these outlined items are necessary to maintain complete control of your website and your online branding. Without it, you could get locked out of your business’ entire online personality. It doesn’t even have to be anything malicious either. Your best friend who is a developer could go on vacation in the Appalachian Mountains and not have access to email. Your nephew who runs your Google Analytics account can get a new phone number and lose access to the Google account and have to wait however long Google decides to verify his identity before you can see the results of your latest paid search campaign.

If this seems like a huge undertaking, our talented experts at Search Influence have everything you need to get launched properly. In addition to our web development team that is dedicated to the technical performance of your website, every client at Search Influence is assigned a dedicated Account Manager to help you strategize, and even keep your website’s credentials in order. Contact us and request a free digital marketing analysis today.

Images:

Mark Wahlberg Computer Smash

December 12, 2017