VOLUME 4d. March 1st 2000. On-Line Marketing: Paying for it and getting it for Free:
Ian Clayton, AXSES SCI
Preview Travel launched itself on the Net with a massive Internet advertising campaign. Their contract with AOL and Excite totaled $55million. The deal gave Preview great advertising exposure to millions of travelers that visit these sites daily (38 million people visited in the week ending Feb 20, 2000, Neilson/Netratings). What visitors saw were Banner Ads that said something like: "Looking for Travel, Click Here". In addition there were links to Preview from travel related sections as well as detailed listing in the Excite and AOL Search Engine databases.
In just one year Preview became one of largest travel agents in the world . The bad news is that Preview is still losing money and will probably continue to lose money until on-line reservations really take off. But losing money on the Net is not all bad, so long as you have it to lose. Preview recently was bought by Sabre who also owns Travelocity and has lots of money to lose. Now Peview and Travelocity together account for 1 billion in annual sales, most of which are for airline bookings. If you believe in investing to build brand identity and market share, then it pays to advertise on this big a scale. Few of the major Travel portals are actually making a profit. Like Amazon.com they are buying market share.
Building market share may be a viable strategy for the big spenders, with deep pockets, but what about the tourism operator who just wants to fill a few rooms?. Does it pay to advertise with "Banners and impression" on the net or are there better ways?
This series of articles will examine various advertising and promotional options. It will explain what banners and impressions are. It will examine who is successful and why. It will look at what http://barbados.org has done with the BTA and others, and examine the effectiveness of these initiatives. But first it will look at what can be done for least cost or free.
Getting Exposure with http://barbados.org
After several years of strategic submitting and arranging partnerships and reciprocal deals with the major sites, http://barbados.org is now woven into the fabric of the web. It is high on the list of Search Engines and linked from over 1000 sites. It now has 4.5 million hits per month.
When you host with http://barbados,org, you are paying for exposure and hosting. You may have also noticed that the site is designed to showcase all major advertisers. That. s why it won the Netty business award for excellence. For example, Savannah hotel is linked from historic points, architecture, south coast beaches, weddings, open house and horse racing. As a rule of thumb each $1000 of hosting includes approx. $350 of internal marketing and an unfathomable amount of external marketing via the Search Engines and other links. It. s a great deal and it works.
Submit your own URL for free.
You can submit your own site to the Search Engines. We have created a very effective submit utility that is geared to getting travel sites listed. To use it you must have your own URL (like http://mybusiness.com). This submit utility can be found at http://axses.com/marketwatch/. It is FREE to all barbados.org clients. Please read all about Search engines and keywords etc in our Marketwatch Newsletter wich you will find at http://axses.com/marketwatch/ . Select Marketwatch then Select the Article (#3).
Only Submit if you have your own URL. Do not submit a http://barbados.org/yourwebsite.htm address. We already have many pages on the net and have to be strategic in what we submit. (email us if you would like to know more about these options at barbados@barbados.org)
OLRS and Travel Portals.
If you don. t mind paying the commissions (and in some cases a subscription fee) the On Line Reservations Systems (OLRS), like http://TravelNow.com, Preview and Travelocity, will get you additional exposure. Check out our list of sites at http://axses.com/marketwatch/olrssites.htm (OLRS) and read about them in the Marketwatch newsletter (#4).
Many of these OLRS and Internet travel Portals will list your site and provide a page of information at nominal costs. They cannot replace the value of your own site in maintaining a relationship with your customer, but they are expected to become more important as consumers go to them to comparison shop and book on-line. PhocusWrite estimates that Intermediaries will account for 50% of on-line bookings in the next few years, up from less than 18% today. Still the majority of travelers will continue to prefer to book by more conventional methods, including email. Travelers like to deal with the owners and your own site is where you will motivate them most.
Links from other sites
Be sure that your own site is linked from your wholesalers and travel partner sites. We will be providing a list of sites which you can contact to arrange such links. Some sites offer reciprocal links, which means you must link back to them. (Coming Soon: http://axses.com/marketwatch/. AXSES net will help you evaluate the worth of such links and add them to your page, if appropriate. It's a FREE service, another way we keep our clients on top of the net.
Press Releases
If you have something to say that is unique and newsworthy consider promoting it on the net with a press release. Look at our new initiative http://BarbadosBusinessPages.com and select Business Resources.
This site has lots of tips and resources to help you with your Press Release, including an option to send out releases with the click of a mouse. Most editors and travel journalists now subscribe to Internet PR services and receive news stories by emails. We are working with International newswire services to offer a complete solution for the travel trade. In addition we have developed a Barbados PR service that is FREE for your use. See http://BarbadosBusinessPages.com and select Business Resources
To get published, you must present your story in a style that appeals to the editors. This is not an easy task as editors are swamped with press releases. It is a subject we will talk about in the next issue.
Keep Tuned on how to get an angle and make your PR work on the Net.
We look forward to your feedback.
PREVIOUS:
INTERNET MARKETING NEWSLETTERS.http://axses.com/marketwatch
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Internet Travel
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Internet Marketing -Intro mch 8
vol 1. Travel on net mch 12
vol 2a. Promo on the net mch 21
vol 2b. Features of the net mch 29
vol 2c. The new marketing mix Apr 8
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Search Engines
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vol 3. iNet Advertising-SE Apr20
vol3a. Keywords May 2
vol3b. Popularity May 9
vol3c. Java & Scripts May16
vol3d. Final word May24
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On-Line Reservation Systems - OLRS
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vol4. OLRS-1 Intro. Dec20
vol4a. OLRS-Pegaus Jan5
vol4b. OLRS-DMS Jan15
vol4c. OLRS -Channels in Transition Jan24
vol4d- OLRS -Choices Galore Feb 8th
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On-Line Marketing
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vol5.- Netmarketing