Online marketing is forever evolving. Four years ago we would frequently give advice to accommodation providers on how to increase their bookings by optimising listings on online travel agents (OTAs) like Booking.com. These days our conversations revolve around how to increase direct bookings to their own websites, partly to avoid paying the OTAs commission.
Ultimately, the best way to do this is not by changing anything on your OTA listings, but by taking a look at everything else you are doing online. Here are five ways to help achieve this.
Take a good look at your website
Open up your website and imagine you are a first-time visitor who has never seen your business before. Ask yourself, can you immediately understand from your homepage what you are selling and why you...
We’re just a few short months away from professional virtual reality (VR) headsets to hit the consumer market in a storm of holiday promotions, and the future is here.
Google Cardboard - Free Consumer VR
Google Cardboard, an approximately $20 box frame with plastic lenses, went on sale this year as a proving ground for this new technology and it’s been a wild success. Google brings the concept to anyone who wants to explore the new tech, with free designs for the cardboard headset also available on their website. Reminiscent of the red plastic View-Masters of the late 1980’s, these cardboard boxes have a simple slot for a cell phone. All you have to do is download a VR app to a smartphone and the world of virtual reality is in your hands.
Today it’s easy to have your attention captured by noise and sparkly things – distractions surround us. It’s also easy to mistake that noise as representing frivolity. Yes, your neighbour posts funny cat photos and your nephew won’t stop checking the game stats during family dinners, but social media is a powerful tool reaching a global audience of billions and you CHOOSE how to wield it.
Sort through the noise and understand how to leverage this tool to support your business and build brand awareness. Otherwise your competitors will be out there making a better, more professional and exciting impression on the public.
“My kids are on Twitter, I should just have them run everything!”
Social media IS media, and marketing is a complex structure. Algorithms (programs)...
Yes, yes, we know: we are living at a time when 'things' are changing faster than ever. We are reminded of this every time we buy the latest phone, tablet or computer only to be told six months later (when we have finally learned how to use it!) that it is now “the old” model.
And the point is truly highlighted when considering the fact that 60% of the jobs available in ten years don’t even exist yet.
As individual tourism businesses, organisations and an industry as a whole, it is imperative that we are keeping up with changes, and not just surviving but actually thriving. Thinking differently is required by all of us, as what has worked in the past may not work in the future.
“Trendlines not Headlines”
Stealing a quote from Bill Clinton, “consider trendlines not...
Bella Vista Management Ltd and Tomahawk are pleased to announce that Tomahawk is to develop the new website and digital marketing strategy for the Bella Vista Motel Network.
The Tomahawk group was appointed following a rigorous selection process from a group of innovative digital leaders invited to respond to a detailed RFP.
“We were very pleased with the proposal from the Tomahawk Group and whilst it was a close decision, Tomahawk stood out for their overall digital strategising and for their understanding of the complex visitor economy,” according to Sales and Business Development General Manager, Hamish Saxton.
The development of the new website and digital strategy activation is underpinned by Bella Vista’s online booking and channel management provider Seekom, which...
The common myth that website users don’t like to scroll below “the fold” has persevered for nearly 20 years, and is still a debate I regularly participate in with clients and colleagues alike.
It was actually back in the internet dark ages (1998) when Jarrod Spool discovered that users will happily scroll. The simple fact remains that people would rather move down the page than click to go another page for further content. Which is good, because longer pages mean more words, which (usually) means better search engine optimisation.
If you need convincing, just watch a five year old with an iPad. They intuitively swipe the screen to scroll down. It is in our nature to do so.
The rise in small screens across all generations has heightened our scrolling education. Browsers and...
