MARKETING TIPS

Group Travel: The Riches Are In The Niches! 

Group travel…the elusive brass ring that promises big rewards but often times seems just out of reach for some. But it doesn't have to be, it just takes a bit of work, research and an understanding of the changing nature of the market. The bottom line is the riches are in the niches! At the Oct. 4th Marketing Committee meeting, Jeff Gayduk, president of Premier Tourism Marketing presented "The Future of the Motorcoach Market." His presentation covered the up-and-coming group travel trends facing the ever-changing motorcoach industry.

The motorcoach industry markets to a a diverse and broad range, representing the widest age gap of any demographic - 50 to 100.  It's two markets disguised as one with seniors on one end and boomers or matures on the another. Thus it needs two strategies to reach them. Although senior travel based on age will continue to exist, boomer travel, which is more interest or 'affinity' focused, is poised to take over the market.  Although harder to reach, it's also more lucrative. 

The senior market continues to grow as many seniors look to group tours for the convenience, value and camaraderie that group travel provides for them. In addition, group travel offers a sense of safety for a market that becomes more and more concerned with travel scams and electronic theft.

The up-and-coming mature market is rewriting the rules of how we market group travel. As a market, the matures stand to inherit nearly $10 trillion from their parent's generation and they believe travel is a right they are destined to explore more than ever before. With today's focus on health and maintaining youth, matures are physically active and want travel opportunities that aren't passive, but ones that offer the chance to do rather than just see. They value educational enrichment, adventure, flexibility and travel that is built around their choices and preferences.

This mature market has been the catalyst for growth in group travel based on common interests or 'affinity' travel. These specialized trips can provide convenience and fun that focuses on a special interest such as cooking, ethnic travel, social groups, garden tours, single/divorced travel, casino gaming and more. A perfect example of this kind of travel is the proliferation of  girlfriend getaways or red hat societies. Another successful tool has been the 'city pass' or 'go card,' like Chicago's City Pass, which provides the visitor with a variety of attractions and experiences to choose from.

So what's the answer? How do you market to interest-based group travel? Jeff suggests creating sample itineraries, painting a picture of what you have, and not just offering a laundry list.  Group tour operators also highly suggest creating online and traditional video presentations to showcase and sell your experiences to customers.  Be sure your web site is optimized, as this group is Internet savvy. 

Group tours continue to gain popularity with the growth of affinity travel and the continued success of age based travel. The marketing subcommittee of the Governor's Council on Tourism is currently evaluating a variety of programs, ideas and initiatives to further enhance our marketing strategies to reach this highly profitable leisure travel niche.

TECHNOLOGY TIPS

Pay For Play: Sponsored Results Verses Paid Inclusion

The question: How do I get my Web site noticed as competition continues to grow on the Internet?

The answer five years ago: Load your home page with keywords and meta tags and watch the audience pour in.

The answer today? Well unfortunately it's not that simple. In the early days it was relatively easy to optimize your Web site to make it search engine-friendly as few people clearly understood how the whole process worked. But as the number of total Web sites has continued to grow, and more and more designers have become savvy to the tried and true techniques, the Internet has gotten flooded with hundreds and thousands of Web sites selling products similar to yours with similar search terms. So how do you guarantee that a user finds your Web site before all the others?

Enter the world of paid inclusion and sponsored results. Each is a vastly different, and the latter has sustained much more momentum as a marketing tactic than the former.

Paid Inclusion 

In paid inclusion, a site owner pays a fee in order to have web pages included in a search engine's editorial listings. Does this mean that those in paid inclusion get to be ranked tops in editorial results? No. How well a site will rank for a particular search term still remains dependent on how well the site is optimized for search engine rankings, but it is guaranteed to be included independent of whether a web crawler finds it or not.

For example, someone with a brand new web site might submit their home page through a paid inclusion program in order to ensure that the page gets listed within a day or two, rather than the typical two-to-four weeks it might take for a crawler-based search engine to find the page "naturally."

Sponsored Results 

Marketers looking to guarantee top of list placement of their Web site are more and more turning to sponsored results - alternately known as keyword purchasing and search engine advertising. It's a hot marketing commodity that most major search engines carry and a strategy to which larger corporations devote entire bureaus. That fact, however, belies how easy it is to get involved at a small - but effective - level.

Paid placement listings, where advertisers are guaranteed a high ranking based on the amount of money they're willing to pay "per click", are typically set off from the pure editorial search results, but the exact position of the paid placement listings can vary. Sometimes, they appear above editorial links. Other times, they appear at the bottom of editorial content. "Sidebar" style generally runs ads in a column to the right of a search engine's editorial listings.

The key to participating in keyword purchasing is to know both your audience and your budget. If you have a very particular target in mind - based on activity or even geographic location - you can run an effective search engine advertising campaign for whatever your budget allows. As a general rule, the more broad the keyword, the higher the potential cost per click. This is because there will likely be more searches done with that word or phrase and the resulting competition for high placement in those search results will be more fierce.

If you're a Wisconsin resort that does great business attracting cross country skiers and couples looking for romantic getaways, a good strategy can be to bid on relatively targeted phrases like "Wisconsin ski trails", "resorts in Wisconsin", or "cross country skiing in Wisconsin". In each case, you're likely to find a much lower cost per click price than if you bid on broad terms like "romantic resorts" or "cross country skiing". Further, by using the word "Wisconsin" as a bit of a qualifier, you might have a better chance of converting that person to a visitor since they have demonstrated an existing interest in the state as a destination. Some search engines also allow you to set your ads to only appear for users who live in a particular city, DMA or state. This can also help to reduce the competition for a keyword, produce a potentially better lead, and ultimately raise your ROI.

Please contact John Kuehl, eBusiness Director, if you have specific questions about either of these programs.

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