Online Marketing 101: 10 Strategies

Home of NTA 2008 Presentation

Trent Blizzard — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:30:39 +0000

Online Marketing 101: Ten core online marketing strategies

Are you looking for help in prioritizing which online marketing strategies to implement in 2008? Are you worried your online marketing priorities are missing some key elements? With over 10 years experience designing and marketing hospitality websites, Trent has developed a list of the ten most important strategies that all tourism businesses should have implemented for 2008 and beyond. Trent will help you prioritize these strategies and focus on tactics that lead to success. He will share specific tactics, useful online tools and easy tips to successfully implement each strategy. Learn how to:

*Drive more qualified visitors to your website without breaking the bank.
*Increase the conversion rates of your website.
*Track your success and improve your productivity.

Strategy #1: Know Your Audience

Trent Blizzard — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:42:36 +0000

Know Your Audience and What they Want.

It is hard if not impossible to be all things to all people!
If you do have diverse audiences, practice separation. See www.glenwoodchamber.com for an example.
Use photos and text to “speak” to your audience.

Strategy # 2: Usability

Trent Blizzard — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:48:21 +0000

After defining your target audience, measure the “usability” of your web site

It is often easier and cheaper to make your website more effective than it is to drive new traffic to your website.
Monitor “bounce rate” and “conversion actions” to measure the effectiveness of your website.
Check out Google “website optimizer” to measure and improve your results

Strategy #3: Keyword Research

Trent Blizzard — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:44:03 +0000

Keyword Research is fun and easy. Make sure you do it BEFORE you start optimizing.

SEOdigger is great research tool. It shows you what your competitors come up for too
Google Keyword Suggestion Tool suggest keywords

Strategy #4: LongTail

Trent Blizzard — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:47:52 +0000

The majority of website searches enter your website on an “interior” or inside page of your website.LongTail refers to the longer keyword phrases that are typically more precise and send traffic to interior pages of your website.

Every page on your website has a “keyword vector”
Keyword vectors by focusing interior pages on specific keyword phrases and topics.

Use Yahoo Site Explorer to see how many pages are within your website… and if they each have a keyword vector.

Look at the Title, Description and Keyword within your Text

Strategy #5: Call to Action

Trent Blizzard — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:52:20 +0000

What is the purpose of your website?

Know what the purpose of your website is
Make call to actions, powerfully and regularly to achieve that purpose
Measure those call to actions to determine your effectiveness.

Watch out for too many call to actions… they lower your website’s effectiveness and are an indication you don’t know your audience and don’t know what you want your website visitors to do.

Watch how your call to actions work using Crazy Egg

Strategy #6: Analytics

Trent Blizzard — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:39:13 +0000

Use Analytics to track how you are doing. They are a MUST.

Make sure you have access to your analytics.
Make sure your analytics are YOUR analytics, not your webmaster’s
Recommended: Google Analytics.

Key reports to watch:

Bounce Rates by Pages
Bounce Rates by Traffic Sources
Conversion Activities

Strategy #7: Links

Trent Blizzard — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:01:50 +0000

Drive Qualified traffic to your website using high-quality linksDO NOT waste any time on getting links for links sake… because you think they will help you in Google.

Instead, focus your time on getting links from websites that will send qualified visitors.

Check out

Yahoo Site Explorer to measure how many links you have, and to research where your competitors get their links

SEOmoz Juicy Link Tool is one way to research potential good links.

Strategy #8: PPC

Trent Blizzard — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:13:23 +0000

Pay-Per-Click Traffic is sensible and stupid!Why it is sensible:

If visitors to your website aren’t worth something (and therefore worth paying for) why have you invested in a website?
PPC lets you drive highly qualified visitors and is easily scalable.
PPC lets you easily measure your results
PPC creates the ultimate benchmark against which to measure all activities

Why it is stupid:

PPC offers no long-term benefit… when you stop paying, you stop getting results
Many people throw money at PPC without managing it carefully.

Strategy #9: Email Marketing

Trent Blizzard — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:28:08 +0000

Email marketing is powerful, easy and inexpensive.

Take your email marketing seriously. Just because it is cheap and easy does not meant it shouldn’t be carefully managed.