Online Marketing For Heritage Operators

February 2012

Group – From Introductory to Tech-Savvy.(Might be difficult to nail the exact “depth” so just hit me up afterwards if you need explanation or expansion on any particular topic!).

Rob’s Background.

Background

Cut through the noise. Empower and inform. Share practical ideas on where to start. Leave with a high level plan.

Goals for Today

Marketers now have a hard time faking it.

True merit wins.

The web is accessible – you can find out how to do anything.

“Measurability” and transparency create great opportunities for those brave enough to be wrong!

Introductory Notes

Know who you’re trying to reach.

Find out how to get in front of them in relevant settings.

Get good at “conversion” of web visitors.

A Simple Formula

The act of getting someone to the next level of engagement:◦ Purchase.◦ Reservation.◦ Phone call.◦ Get directions to your business.◦ Sign up...

Critical to measure conversion elements through Google Analytics (free).

Cont...

Conversion

Every page on your site should be optimized to be as persuasive as possible in getting your visitor to take the next logical step.◦ Prioritize your visitors.◦ Consider the context – how did they get there/whey are

they there?◦ Remove any obstacles.◦ Build the necessary trust and credibility.◦ Invite the next step with a relevant call to action.

Small companies can beat large ones in this arena.

Conversion

Conversion:A web-centric sample.

Visitor Priorities

Trust and Credibility

Call to Action

VERY Focused!

ConversionPrioritization of 5 different offers while streamlining the selection process.

12 3

4 5

Trust and Credibility-building throughout.

Removal of obstacles

Call to Action

The A/B Test◦ Easier than ever.◦ Dramatically powerful.

Ads Landing Pages Calls to Action Email You name it!

Conversion

Email Example:

Conversion

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D

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Knowing your visitors means knowing their next logical step on your site/page – always invite them to take that step.

Conversion - Invite Visitors to Take Action!

Nobody will book with you or visit your location until you’ve built credibility and trust with them.

Look & feel, testimonials, photos, reviews are great “credibility indicators.”

Aside from simply getting a customer, folks will actually pay a premium for a place/service they trust more.

Conversion - Build Trust With Your Visitors

VISITORS: Visits, Unique Visitors, Pageview, Pages/Visit, Avg. Time On Site, Bounce Rate, % New Visits, Region...

Measuring Performance: Web Analytics:

Example of a Proactive step: look at Bounce Rate and identify ways to reduce it. What’s wrong?

TRAFFIC SOURCES: Search (right down to Keyword), Referral, Direct.

Which keywords are driving traffic (and which important ones aren’t)?

What’s driving referrals?

Web Analytics:

CONTENT: Time on Page, Bounce Rate, Exit %

Do any page have an Exit % which can be reduced?

Web Analytics:

IN PAGE: Relative % Clickthrough by Link.

Are your top invitations to action being clicked on?

Which choices are most popular? What can you kill?

Web Analytics:

Two types of currency on the web : Cash or Content.

The fuel that drives:◦ Search Engine Optimization (SEO).◦ Social Media.◦ Conversion.◦ Advertising (i.e. Adwords Quality Score).

The Power of Content

What works for Heritage?◦ Events.◦ History.◦ The Region.◦ Visitors.◦ Other attractions or organizations.◦ Etc, etc, etc...

The Power of Content

Shouting/Broadcasting instead of conversing.

Engaging without measuring.

Focusing on platforms or activities without first considering overall goals.

Social Media – The Sucky Part

Social Media = Networking3

Principles are the same, but...◦ Geography-Independent.◦ Time Efficient.◦ Can be highly leveraged (exposure to

connections’ connections).

Social Media – The Great Part

Social media is a way to communicate what you have to say (so you better have something to say).

Social Media works best when you use it as a platform to make your audience look good!

Pictures and Video (ideally tagged ones) reach your audiences extended circles.

Tracking is critical - i.e. Facebook reports & link tracking tools like Bit.ly

Basic Principles

Stakeholder/Customer Engagement:

Building Engagement - Photos and Video: People doing or

saying something they are proud of will send people to see it.

If tagged, this can happen automatically!

Having 10 photos from an event tagged on your Facebook page can mean 1500+ impressions to the Friends of your tagged subjects.

The Multiplier Effect of Tags:

Typical user has well over 150 friends.

But Does it Work?:

Facebook Page for your organization? Co-operative pages or multi-organization

destination strategies? (i.e. multi-site contest?).

Contests involving uploading and/or tagging photos? (i.e. upload a photo to your Page to be entered – winner is photo with most likes – KISS).

Brainstorming Engagement Ideas:

SEO can be likened to a 3 legged stool (we know what happens if one of the legs is missing). These legs are:

1. Site structure and coding.2. Great, relevant content.3. Links from related sites.

While some of the details have changed, this is a formula that’s always held true.

Cont...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Many see SEO as an awkward, artificial process.

To succeed in having a site that appeals to both users and search engines you need to get beyond that. We advocate that you:1. Use research to find the actual terms (keywords)

people are using to search for your type of product or service.

2. Incorporate these keywords into your site copy.3. Optimize the relevant pages on your site for the

relevant keywords.

Not so hard, but few people do it well!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

At a minimum, get basic Search Engine Optimization in place to get more visitors.

Page Titles, Page Descriptions, sufficient text, SEO-friendly copy.

Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide - Google

Learn at Least a Little About SEO!

Page Title

Page Description

Searchers know way less about your business than you do and may use different language than you do to search for your type of business.

Find what language they use and incorporate it on your site.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (see next page...)

Find Out What Terms “Real” People are Using To Search

The SEO Matrix

The Page Title in Action

Free opportunity to have one on every poster, flyer or brochure displayed in a public location (i.e. The Airport or Ferry) .

Keep in mind, however,it’s a MOBILE experience.

QR Codes

Most online advertising is based on a Pay Per Click (PPC) model.

This model means that you ONLY pay if someone clicks on your ad and comes to your site.

This also means that advertisers favour higher performing ads. If you do a better job than your competitors at creating compelling ads, you’ll get better placement at lower cost.

Google/Bing are easy to set up but have many hazards for the casual user (quite challenging for competitive areas).

Facebook/Linkedin ads are both ridiculously easy to set up!

Online Advertising

Google Adwords - Search:

Sponsored Links/Adsfor a rather “broad” search.

“whale watching Victoria BC” will be an expensive keyword to bid on as it’s so competitive.

Note that “premium” top positions are a result of those ads achieving great performance.

Also note that it’s not just the bid but Bid X Quality score that determines your placement.

Google

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Google Adwords - Search:A “narrower” search brings a results page with zero ads on it.

Lack of competition means a relevant ad (targeting at “whale watching sooke bc”) would be very cost effective.

The challenge is that this term will have low search volume

To get traffic you must create a “portfolio” of keywords.

As you learn to convert this less expensive traffic, you’ll learn to tackle more competitive keywords.

But how do I figure out which keywords have traffic?The Google Keyword Tool lets you conduct research on keyword search volumes by month. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

• Volume of search is shown by region for the keyword you selected as well as similar terms.

• Consider all “match types” (Google “Adwords match types” for more info).

• Bear in mind that figures may not be accurate for low volume keywords.

• You can download the results and see seasonal patterns.

Google Adwords – Display Network:

• Theme-targeted text and banner ads set to display only to visitors in specific geographic regions.

• Can be very low cost.

•Remarketing opportunities!

• Geo-targeting…

Theme/keyword driven text ad (Swimming Pools)

Remarketing Display Ad

Google Targeting (Search and Display):

Can target by:

• Radius around a point.

• Defined Geographic Region.

Picking very specific targets (geographic, demographic or keyword targets) is the way that small companies can beat larger organizations with bigger budgets.

Can make a meaningful, repetitive impression on select targets (get 10 people 100% of the way there instead of getting 100 people 10% of the way there).

Think in terms of a “portfolio” of niches.

Strength in Small Numbers:

Facebook Ads: Still a tiny fraction of the ad click volume of

Google.

Relatively crude reporting tools.

Fantastic demographic targeting.

Great opportunities for targeted engagement.

Facebook Ads: Think in terms of niches versus blanket

advertising.

Click-through rate (percentage of folks viewing the ad who click on it) is low, but this means you get tons of dirt cheap ad impressions.

Ad Creation - Easier to show than describe:

Ad aimed at 50+ Group in Sidney:

People in BC Who Like History:

People in Alberta Who Like BC:

Just about anything you can think of:

What’s the value of reaching your own portfolio of relevant niches for a few dollars a day vs paying $500+ on a one-time, untargeted print ad?

Getting your marketing channels working together – examples of “crossover” Google Analytics shows which keywords are

currently bringing people to your site and which ones are bringing “qualified” traffic.

This data give you direction on a broad group of keywords to experiment with in PPC advertising.

Your PPC results (which you can get quickly and cheaply) give you a good idea of which terms you should invest your resources in for SEO.

Cont...

Getting your marketing channels working together – examples of “crossover” Your email article:

◦ Can be used as a blog post.

◦ Your blog post gets optimized for SEO (both for itself and to give “juice” to another related page.

◦ Your blog post provides something to Tweet about or post in Facebook on.

◦ Your Tweets boost the SEO for your post page and related page.

◦ Each Tweeted link is tracked. Watching which links/posts are most popular tells you what content readers will be interested in for your email.

Done in isolation, the above activities have some value. Done together, over time, they are dramatically powerful and allow you to meaningfully improve each month.

Up to the Minute: What’s Hot Right Now Google Algorithm Changes.

◦ Fresh, relevant content more important than ever (plus fresh links to it).

◦ Review sites.◦ Links from other Google properties.◦ Links from Social Media, including Google +.

Google Places Optimization Last year just claiming your Google

Places Page was a big help – this year you want to optimize it!

Results in increased exposure in Google Maps, better/more placement in Google Search (for local businesses) and a great source of links for your site.

Get seen by potential visitors: Register and claim your listing on ALL review sites (Canpages,

FourSquare, Canada 411, etc, etc,). Print out most important URLs on cards for happy visitors.

Get Your Listings In Order!

Get Your Listings In Order!Get seen by Google: Google is factoring in more 3rd party data than ever. Notice below

how:◦ Google results are pulled from Urban Spoon.com.◦ The restaurant with the most and best reviews is at the top of the page!

There are dozens of review and listing sites for almost every business vertical. You should claim and optimize your listings on as many as possible!

Online PR – Exposure + Links Another great way that small companies can beat large

companies.

Still tons of value in traditional PR.

A practice we call “online PR” or “niche PR” has emerged which is very accessible to businesses of any size.

Much like picking the right level to compete at in other areas, you simply:◦ Do research to develop a list of relevant bloggers/writers of a size you’re

comfortable approaching.◦ Contact them respectfully, commenting specifically on something they’ve

written and explain why your launch/opening/etc is relevant and worth mention to their readers.

◦ Keep going! Over time you’ll build a great “house list” and grow to be comfortable approaching larger sites, blogs and publications.

“Advanced” Analytics – Source Tracking Google Analytics Source Tracking was updated last year.

Through a simple process you can create custom “hooks” for your posted links that let you know exactly which “campaign” a visitor came from (i.e. Email newsletter, Tweet, Facebook Wall post).

There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s well worth diving into.

Mobile! The majority of 25-34 and 18-24

year olds now own smartphones (64% and 53% respectively).

79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, to finding more product info, to locating a retailer.

70% use their smartphones while in a store.

77% have contacted a business via mobile, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business.

Mobile! Most importantly, while this shift is

happening before our eyes, few companies are acting on it, creating great opportunities for first-movers!

Important to keep in mind that:◦ Mobile searchers are typically looking to

find or contact your business (so make these things VERY clear on your mobile site.

◦ Mobile searchers take action on their searches at a dramatically higher rate then desktop searchers.

Mobile – Usability Traditional sites simply don’t translate to Mobile.

Mobile – Critical Actions Call. Get Directions. Book. Other?

Multiple Locations? “List view” or custom

display within one click of home page (might actually be on home page).

Ideally, have actions for each location presented right on their listing.

Other Mobile Considerations? Tablets? Not clear yet how long term usage patterns

will unfold. That said, even companies not currently concerned with Mobile (i.e. Traditional tech/software) will have to pay attention to how/where they are being used.

Overall, a best practice is to embrace “light” sites that will display quickly regardless of connection type (3G, 4G, WiFi, Public WiFi).

PPC Advertising already presents a HUGE advertising opportunity for some industries as you can target Mobile explicitly (and yet few people are).

Ad opportunities? e.g.18% of searches related to “car batteries” in Canada are from Mobile. 30% for “tow truck”

Conclusion – Your Path to Success Find a couple areas to experiment in.

Learn enough about them to make sure you’re making a meaningful effort.

Keep costs and effort as low as possible until you’ve established there’s potential in the areas you’re targeting.

Test and grow your efforts while building your own set of best practices.

Try new things.

Measure everything!

Shameless Plug Give me a call if you have any questions or are interested

in any of the areas we talked about!

Rob• Creation of web strategies

to match business goals.• Coffee.

Rian• Developmen

t (Mobile and WordPress).

• Technical SEO Expert.

Nevin• Content

Strategies.• Online PR• Social Media.

Justin• SEO• Link Building.

Cam• Conversion Analysis.• PPC Advertising.• Data Stuff.

Our Team

Mentor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnSJBpB_OKQ