April 2015 – Shoofly Copywriting

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world. And that’s just one social network. There’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and countless others. No wonder 93% of marketers use social media for business.

Thanks to social media, travelers do more than just research trips online. They actively share their photos, itineraries and experiences, which have a serious impact on how potential guests decide where to book.

Travel is largely seen as a luxury. Therefore, travelers tend to invest more time educating themselves before spending their vacation dollars and booking their trips. The two biggest factors in a traveler’s decision making process are destination and price. On the heels of that is a strong #3…REVIEWS.

Social media allows travelers to review previous guests’ experiences before they decide to book. Then during and after their stay, it creates a limitless path for word of mouth. This virtual sharing by your guests can have a tremendous impact not only on your company’s revenue but your reputation as well!

Here are a few ways savvy travel marketers use social media to increase revenue:

1. Announce news & offers and launch contests that can attract an enormous amount of interest and brand exposure at very little cost, all leading to additional revenue.

2. Implement a booking engine on outlets like a Facebook page to convert social media traffic into direct bookings.

3. Actively engage with guests before, during and after their stay. Social media has become a de facto customer service and is commonly a traveler’s first line of contact with a company. By monitoring those channels and getting involved you are in greater control of your online reputation and present yourself as authentic and trustworthy, showing your customers that you listen, and more importantly, that you care. This can result in more frequent, positive reviews.

Travel begins with research. Travelers spend an average of 40 hours researching their trips. If you aren’t prominently displayed on search engines, then it’s like you don’t exist. But gaining top rankings gives you a powerful competitive advantage. With high rankings in increasing demand, search engine marketing has become intensely competitive.

You may think your ranking is well beyond your control and have given up on trying to work the search engine system. But the science of search engine optimization (SEO) has evolved, and there are simple steps to take that will boost your rankings.

1. Add fresh, new content to your website through a blog. Continual and consistent updates drive traffic to your website. And when you provide interesting and compelling content, that traffic turns into bookings.

2. Utilize social media. Search engines now incorporate social media data on their results pages. And with the ability to search social media pages, people are likely to look for information on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (since they’re already there) rather than using the traditional search engines. If you aren’t on there, you won’t show up in their results.

3. Make your content shareable. When people like the information you offer, they link back to your site. Links indicate to search engines a certain amount of value and trust, which cause them to rank your site higher on their results pages. And don’t forget to add share and connect buttons to your site.

4. Save time and headache by hiring a professional to research keywords, create interesting articles, and develop a content marketing strategy that will boost your page to the top of search engine results.

Need help with your SEO strategy? Contact me today for a free consultation. jrtucker@shooflycopywriting.com

Monthly Archives: April 2015

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