Geography is Key...

Ok, you've probably heard this before, but in the travel business Geography is Key. Your ability to sell a destination is limited if you don't know the geography. Below find some links to some fun and challenging ways to test your geography skills :

Games at ArcadePod.com
Geography Game: Europe

How well do you know the countries of Europe. Test your knowledge here....


play game


Games at ArcadePod.com
Geography Game: South America

How well do you know the countries of South America. Test your knowledge here....


play game


Games at ArcadePod.com
Geography Game: Central America

How well do you know the provinces of Central America. Test your knowledge here....


play game



Games at ArcadePod.com
Geography Game: USA

Do you know all the states of the United States? Try this game and see....


play game



Games at ArcadePod.com
Geography Game: Canada

How well do you know the provinces of Canada. Test your knowledge here....


play game

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Who's In Charge in a Web 2.0 World?

Ask yourself this - "Who's in charge of my business?"

Today, the answer is The CLIENT. Here's a link to a recent conversation that really highlights how much the consumer influences others - and how the web has really changed the way business works.

Gone is the world of B to C (business to consumer) marketing. Web 2.0 is the era of C to C (consumer to consumer), where the business that's the most consumer friendly wins !
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Travelogs Take You There

At our National Conference we discussed using a blog to document your trips and travels as you're cruising. Here's a real world example :

http://www.cruisingwithamyanddebbie.blogspot.com/

CruiseOne's Debbie Rosenthal & Amy Slovis have done a great job of really sharing their travels with the readers of their blog. I'm willing to bet after reading this blog many of you will want to go on a river cruise. Beyond just sharing destination info - it really shares the experiences they had on their journey. If you're not already blogging - do so and share the experience with others via your blog.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Do you know your Online customer?

I'm just back from the PhocusWright Travel Technology conference. At the conference we had several industry experts evaluate our websites. Although there were a handful of suggestions, their feedback was very positive and led me to the conclusion that we're definitely ahead of many travel sites online in a great many ways. I'm currently scoping out some of the suggested changes, and none look to be very difficult so far.

Here are some interesting findings from the conference :
  • 2 out of every 3 minutes spent on Travel websites are spent by people in the 55+ age group.
  • Offline advertising is the genesis of 2/3 of all searches in the travel category.
  • 39% of those searching for travel actually convert to travel clients - this is much higher than any other category on the Internet (other categories avg is 12%).
  • Searching for travel online is a mainstream activity - 86% of all US internet users will conduct an online search using a travel keyword this year.
  • The global potential of the internet is where the future is - North America is only 25% of the potential audience for travel products.
  • 40% of all clicks to travel websites are from paid search results (Travel is the highest percentage - all other internet industries average 12% from paid results).
  • 88% of Travel Category conversions take 0-60 days - this is the longest purchase cycle of any online industry. (Cruises take the longest, while airline tickets take the least amount of time to convert online)
  • 30% of all internet users delete cookies (within the 60 day period) and evade most online conversion tracking used to measure Return On Investment.

I'll talk more later about findings from this conference, but with these stats we can once again show a strong tendency to really look at the internet as a mainstream way to generate qualified leads from qualified consumers in a quick and efficient manner.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Brand Yourself with a Blog

The concept of branding yourself isn't a new one - in fact Tom Peters introduced the full concept of personal branding in 1997. In a nutshell, Peters says that your image determines your level of success and your future in today's business world. Peters says the same image building principles that apply to major corporations like Nike and Coca Cola apply to the way people choose an accountant or other business professional.

What better way to craft your image as a cruise specialist than blogging? Writing authoritatively on a variety of cruise topics allows you to put your expertise on public display. Clients researching topics you're writing on will stumble across articles you've written and if properly done - your blog will lead that consumer to you and your cruise website.

As a bonus, you become a recognized authority by consumers and journalists alike. Journalists often quote bloggers as experts on various topics.

Blogging isn't difficult...anyone can build one by filling in some short online forms. What's standing between you and new and improved brand of you? Not much....Blogging takes minimal technical expertise. All that's really required is a time commitment of at least 20 minutes a week to write your blog. For more info on blogging see our Business Center presentation under Marketing > ECommerce > Blogging> Blogging 101.

A good blog will expose your talents and skills to your best clients, and all are sure to benefit from what they learn about you. Brand yourself with a blog and watch your business boom.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Are You LinkedIn ?

If you haven't heard of LinkedIn, it's definitely something you should look into. LinkedIn is a networking website where you place a profile and make online profile connections with other members you know.

Why network online? It's a great resource. For example when a vendor now calls me pitching his product I will often do a quick check via LinkedIn. If nobody recommends him, well chances are not even his own mother is proud of his work. On the other hand, if I find that many people call this guy an invaluable resource, then I tend to trust him a bit more. Even better, if I find that someone in my extended network knows this guy, I'll email my contact quick question about this guy's skill set.

How big is my network? Well I've made 21 Linked In connections over the past year or so and my 21 connections have created an extended network of 4100, and if you add in another level of contacts it extends out to 394,400. So you can see that my tiny little 21 connections quickly expand my reach quite well.

LinkedIn really facilitates in-person networking via an online search able interface. It's easy to use and IT'S FREE. As you collect business cards from chamber of commerce events, you rarely know anything more than an name and a title. In LinkedIn you can post your background and qualifications, even a work history. I often will type in names from business cards and find people with linked in profiles and usually learn much more about them quite quickly. People know as little or as much as you want them to know. During in person events you might be surprised to find out that if you ask people if they're LinkedIn how many will say yes.

In today's marketplace it's important to know who you're doing business with, and in the cruise business referrals are gold. Good online networking can overcome the credibility gap and help you build referrals like nothing else - so market yourself using a full and complete profile, and collect real world contacts that connect your online life with real people. If someone has provided you good service, recommend them - you'll find others within their network will also want to try your services.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

A Very Successfull National Conference

National Conference was great ! Preperation from conference caused me to miss some postings that I would have normally done to my blog, and I'm finally through most of the emails and phone messages....so once again I'm ready to focus.

Conference was an outstanding opportunity to meet many of our agents and franchisees, there were quite a few that I haven't met with in quite some time. The HQ staff had a great opportunity to discuss what's working and what isn't with all of our agents. I'm truly amazed at the diversity of our agent's marketing plans and the unique niches that they target.

The one theme I heard loud and clear from many different people was the increasing role that technology is playing in the sales process. Consumers have truly raised their expectations and now expect to read reviews, see virtual tours, be sent shore excursion info and perhaps even view videos prior to stepping aboard a cruise ship. The trick is integrating all of this technology in a relevant way that doesn't lose the personal touch. Blogs are a piece of this puzzle, but we'll be working on other innovative solutions as well... stay tuned.

Another key take-away from conference was the desire of our agents to learn more about the technology we use everyday. Agents want to become more tech savvy - even if they don't necessarily want to be Cruise Geeks. :-) We're working right now on increasing our tech training and have even proposed some advanced in-house training sessions to help our agents take their web & email skills to the next level....stay tuned for that as well.

Personally, One of my favorite parts of conference is the marketing panel. Many of our agents heard the Marketing Panel speak - and the ways each panel member grew their business was truly different. One of Marketing Panel's key points, and the one thing that the entire panel agreed upon was to focus on your marketing plan.

Now is the time to ask yourself, do you have a marketing plan ? A written plan will have goals, objectives, milestones and a media plan. Where do you want your business to go? Would you leave on a road trip without a map? Don't let your business get stuck driving in circles, let your marketing plan be your GPS.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Are You Collecting Email Addresses?

One of the first things I tell someone starting in the cruise business is to collect contact info (email and mailing address) of as many people who like to cruise as possible...especially those that don't currently buy from you.

That sounds odd to some....collect the addresses of people that don't choose to do business with you? I've had people tell me ....but they didn't book with me why would I bother? The greatest indicator that someone will cruise in the future is that they've cruised in the past. So even if they choose another agency over you, put them on your email and mailing list. Remember, cruises are like potato chips...nobody takes just one. If someone has booked previously with someone else don't write them off.... they are likely not loyal to anyone...yet. Loyalty is earned, and while a competitor may have won business from a client in the short term, in the long term you may end up winning more business from that client if you're persistent.

When I was at Royal Caribbean, I was privy to some amazing consumer research. My favorite study involved calling consumers 1 week following their cruise on a Royal Caribbean Ship and asking the client the following questions (answers were fill in the blank) :
  • What cruise line did you sail? ________________
  • What cruise ship were you on? ___________________
  • What agency did you book your cruise at?________________
  • What is your travel agent's name? ________________

An overwhelming percentage of consumers got the answers to each and every one of those questions WRONG, and the question with the lowest percentage of correct answers was "what is your travel agent's name?." The question with the highest percentage of correct answers was "what cruise line did you sail?", and below 50% got this question correct. The study found that people remember features, benefits and logos much better than names, and few people recall their agent experience.

This makes a strong case for cycle marketing to consumers before, during and AFTER the sale in order to keep a client. Those that aren't doing this are losing business to those that do. Make sure you're one who constantly markets to your clients via email (it's free) and via direct mail. The overall cost is tiny compared with the return on investment.

By the way....can I have your email address?

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Dialing Google

You can now pick up the phone and call google toll free for information and have the search category results read to you over the phone by an automated voice prompt system. After specifying a city and a state, you'll need to ask for either a category or a company name. Google then reads all listings to you....next if you select a result by number (either by saying it or pressing the appropriate key) you can then request "details" for specific listing info, following this you're read the phone number and if you remain on the line, you're connected to this business free of charge!

Try the system out by calling 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411).

If you've called 411 from your cell phone lately, I think you'll agree that a Free 411 service is going to be very popular , and such a service powered by Google is going to really be a boom to those in Google's Local Index (Google Maps).

All results that Google Free 411 is reading you come from Google Maps results (aka Google Local). If you're not in the results, you can be....FREE. Just go to the CruiseOne/Cruises Inc Business Center and from there select Marketing > ECommerce > Advertising > Free Listings > Google Local Business Center. Complete the required profile info, verify your location (by responding to a post card Google mails you), and you'll find that your listing should go up in a manner of a few weeks. Once your listing is up at Google Maps for your area, if you're in the top 8 results for your city, you'll be found on the Google Free 411 listings.

Please keep in mind that this is a new program from Google and they're clearly still working out some kinks. One error I ran into was that - I've been read result sets in an endless loop. I had other errors, but at the end of the day, if it's free I'm a pretty forgiving customer.

If you're not finding yourself in the top 8 results, here's a few things that may help you move on up in the local search results for your city :
  • Make sure you have your actual web address in your profile. (format must be exactly as it appears in the address bar ie : http://jdoe.cruiseone.com/travel/cruises/index.do) This insures that Google will spider your site and see your local address info and find you a valid and relevant listing.
  • Positive Reviews - clients who rate you positively will give your listing greater visibility...don't just have them just post reviews to Google, try Yahoo and even other review websites like judysbook.com
  • If you've not already done so, make sure you create other free local listings with Yahoo, Yellowpages.com. Superpages and JudysBook.com

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

Buying Online Advertising

I've had a few questions related to buying online advertising lately, and it's occured to me that many still buy blindly without knowing what type of results to expect from an online ad campaign. Here are 5 buying tips that may help :
  1. If you're buying on a Flat Fee basis, first find out how much traffic the advertiser gets to the website themselves. Some good tools to determine how much traffic a website gets are Alexa and Compete.com. While these tools are far from perfect, they do give you a general idea of how popular a website is. Flat fee advertising should only be done short term (no shorter than a month) until you determine your cost per lead and find it's successfull. Don't commit long term to flat fee agreements - things can change quickly on the web and you don't want to be locked in. Legitimate companies usually allow you to cancel for any reason - but get it in writing.
  2. If you're buying a banner ad on a cost per thousand basis, keep in mind the following : A well targeted banner ad will get a 0.25% -0.40% clickthrouh rate. That translates to somewhere between 2.5 to 4 clicks per thousand banner exposures....and that's if it's targeted very well. Figure your cost per click costs from your cost per thousand visits(CPM) : if you're paying a $15 CPM - that's $3.75 to $6 a click. Paying just a $10 CPM and those click costs are $2.50 - $4.00. Find an opportunity to advertise at a $4 CPM and you'll be paying between $1 and 1.60 per click. My advice find CPM's of $4 or less and change your banner monthly, and whenever possible buy "behaviorally targeted ads".
  3. Cost per click advertising is the easiest and most risk-free form of online advertising. Advertising on banner networks at a fixed Cost Per Click (CPC) (as found on the BC under Marketing > Advertising), or on keyword advertising such as Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing makes getting solid results more predictable.
  4. Text based ads work better than pretty pictures. A good text ad can have a 1% -4% click through rate, while a 0.4% click through rate on a banner ad is notable. So, if you're building a brand, use banners, if you want immediate ROI use a text ad. A banner ad consisting of several text ads (looking similar to Google AdWords) is also a very strong and proven strategy in banner advertising.
  5. Test your creative - most advertisers will allow you to submit multiple ads and have tools to help you find out which one works best. You might be surprised to find that an ad you thought wouldn't work is working quite nicely.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

It's About The Experience....

You've probably heard the marketing adage "don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle". When it comes to selling travel nothing is more important than selling the experience. Getting the consumer to visualize themselves in a particular port or on a particular cruise ship is key to getting that client to part with their hard earned dollars. Clients buy a dream long before they ever buy cabin 2112 on B deck.

Why do you think the FlowRider surf park aboard Freedom of the Seas is there? It sells youth and being cool using the dream of surfing, to far more than ever use it. Same goes for Royal Caribbean's rock walls, you can envision climbing to the top of the wall even if you're more likely to line up at the midnight buffet.

As an agent, it's easy to sometimes get stuck talking about the minutia of the cruise booking process - but remember clients want to know what restaurants are onboard, what excursions are the best and where to get the perfect margarita in Key West. Finding the balance of how to deliver the dream while communicating all the minor details that need to be discussed is an art that's mastered by seasoned cruise specialists. Seasoned specialists know that the key ingredients for the perfect conversation are strong listening skills, the ability to perceive when the client is in a hurry or when you've lost someone in a conversation and the flexibility to sometimes communicate details in writing, while preserving your voice for the more enthusiastic picture painting.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Comments

PhoCusWright's FYI

SearchEngineWatch Experts

WebProNews Video Blog

Followers