Milestone Internet Marketing

Milestone Pockets Multiple Awards for Hotel Website Design and Internet Marketing Strategies

teresa — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:38:00 +0000

Santa Clara, CA – July 22, 2010 – Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that it was the recipient of multiple awards for its creative hotel website designs and innovative Internet marketing strategies in three recent Internet marketing competitions. The honors came from the Interactive Media Awards, Summit International Awards, and Communicator Awards whose judges represent some of the best the Internet advertising community has to offer.

The Interactive Media Awards™ recognizes both individuals and organizations for the highest standards of excellence in website design and development. Entries are evaluated using five criteria: design, content, feature functionality, usability, and standards compliance. Four Milestone-designed websites won for Outstanding Achievement in the Hotel and Lodging category:

Nickelodeon Suites Resort (http://www.nickhotel.com/)
Marquis Los Cabos (http://www.marquisloscabos.com/)
InterContinental Los Angeles (http://www.intercontinentallosangeles.com/)
The Red Lion Denver Southeast Website (http://www.denverseredlion.com/)

The Summit International Awards recognizes and promotes exeptional marketing, advertising, and design/interactive pieces of communications. Entries were judged based on strengths and quality of objectives, execution, and persuasive communication. Three Milestone-designed hotel websites were honored:

InterContinental San Francisco (http://www.intercontinentalsanfrancisco.com/) – Silver Award)
Flatiron Hotel (http://www.flatironhotel.com/) – Silver Award
River Terrace Inn (http://www.riverterraceinn.com/) – Bronze Award

The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program that recognizes communications professionals for their creative excellence. The competition is stiff, as more than 7,000 entries are received from across the U.S. and around the world. Milestone-designed hotel websites took home two awards for Interactive Distinction:

InterContinental Los Angeles (http://www.intercontinentallosangeles.com/) – Silver Award
Hotel Urbano (http://www.hotelurbano.com/) – Silver Award

About Milestone
Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is an award-winning Website Design and SEO firm, and a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone’s portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Social Media Optimization initiatives such as Online Videos, Blogs, and RSS. Milestone currently works with over 850 hotels and drives over $250M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the U.S. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs Internet marketing workshops and book. For more information about our products and services, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com, email sales@milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396

Gain and Maintain Visibility with Your Search Marketing Campaigns

teresa — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:35:15 +0000

Session: Travel Industry Update

Event: SES San Francisco

Date: Thursday, August 19th

Time: 4:45-5:45 pm

Location:
Moscone West
4th St & Howard St
San Francisco, CA

Topics Covered:
•   How to find travel-related search, for both business and pleasure,
•   How to tackle highly competitive travel vertical and make sense of the latest Web marketing tools
•   How to find online travel trends, historical data and how travel providers can gain and maintain visibility with their search marketing campaigns
•   How to manage paid search campaigns, social media optimization, reputation management
•   Carving out a niche for specific travel services in an extremely dynamic marketplace.

Speakers:
• Benu Aggarwal, Founder & President, Milestone Internet Marketing
• Todd Sarouhan, President, GoVisitCostaRica.com

To Register for this event, click here.

Delving Deeper Into Your Analytics

Milestone Internet Marketing — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:00:25 +0000

The number of visitors a site gets is a great first step to determine where to spend marketing dollars, but it should not be the only metric a marketer looks at. Paying attention only to how many visitors your hotel’s site gets is like saying, “Wow my hotel lobby is full”, but not tracking how many of those people in the lobby actually stayed at the hotel. Any company can attempt to get more traffic to your hotel’s website. But are they driving the right kind of traffic?

Tracking your referral sources gives you a lot of insight into what is driving traffic and which of your marketing efforts are drawing visitors to the website. I recently reviewed data for a hotel in San Diego that increased its marketing efforts on a local directory. In the month of April, they had over 900 visitor referrals to the website and the directory was #3 in referrals to the site. That is an average of 30 visitors per day, which seems like a great number. In comparison, a directory geared towards the “pet friendly” niche drove fewer visitors to the site.

While the number of referred visitors is a great first step, it is important to review and determine how many of these referrals actually convert. To get a more complete picture, you can cross referrence referral sources with the visitors who actually went to the property’s booking engine to check rates.

The numbers were very interesting. Google was the top referring source and had a 36% conversion rate. Over one third of the visitors who came to the site from Google converted and checked rates. SanDiego.com on the other hand, only had 20 visitors from the referring traffic funnel go to the booking engine… a mere 2.2% of total visitor traffic from that directory. On the flip side, although dogfriendly.com had just 20 referrals that month, 9 people clicked through to the booking engine to check rates. That’s a 45% conversion rate! This indicates that visitors from the niche site were more targeted to the site’s offerings.

Each hotel can use this data to match up average conversions and make some calculations of total revenue based on their ADR (average daily rate) and ALOS (average length of stay). Even if one source has a lower conversion rate, it does not necessarily mean it is not the right strategy. Having as many facts as possible will help the hotel make the best determination as to which of their efforts are working best.

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Contributed by: Tammie Carlisle, Regional Business Development Manager (West Coast), Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Marketing

teresa — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:59:24 +0000

With the growing popularity of Social Media, it is critical for hotels and brands to establish presence in the major online channels. By engaging with customers in a manner that is comfortable and convenient for them, many hotels are seeing an increase in customer engagement and loyalty.

According to Forrester Research:

44% of the online travelers in America trust content from other travelers more than advertising or marketing
Top sites for travel research: Facebook (58%), YouTube (40%), Wikipedia (32%), MySpace (15%), Twitter (9%)

Social media efforts are most effective when used in conjunction with traditional marketing including SEO. While social media has grown significantly, not all consumers rely on it exclusively for interacting with brands. It is most effective when social media is provided as an option for those guests who prefer to interact in that manner when performing travel research. It is important to keep your emphasis on the efforts that have proven a solid ROI, while also beginning to test some of the newer social media initiatives.

The following are among several of the top things to consider when working towards achieving the best results from your social media initiatives:

Tie social media to your core business and integrate your social media efforts with other online and offline initiatives – it’s not a campaign, it’s a commitment.
Carefully plan a social media strategy for your core business and focus your efforts on the top Social Media channels. Determine your capacity and make sure to tackle only what you can handle.
Identify your specific goals to measure the success of your social media marketing efforts. Several of the top metrics include quality of traffic, engagement (intentions and actions), and outcomes of your core objectives.
Change consumer sentiment by reaching out to communities with the same interests.
Connect with established groups/communities and reach out to the most influential members/bloggers in the online community. With their huge following, their opinions can be very influential. Social media is a conversation. Genuinely listen to the feedback.

Source: Eye for Travel Social Media Strategies – Best Practices to get the Highest ROI on Your Social Media Initiatives Session

Panel:

Brian Boland, Manager, Direct Response Solutions, Facebook
Brandie Feuer, Director of Marketing, Tropicana Las Vegas
Fiona Ashley, Director of Marketing, Travelmuse
Henry Harteveldt, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Airline & Travel Research Forrester Research (Moderator)

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Contributed by: Kimberly Ercius, Director of Business Development, Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc.

Tips & Tricks for a Successful E-Mail Newsletter Blast

Milestone Internet Marketing — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:57:41 +0000

It’s All About the Reader, Not You
As you are creating your e-mail newsletter, ensure that the content is relevant and interesting to your audience. Avoid e-mail newsletters that are focused on the company, such as congratulations to a recently promoted employee, new hires, new clients, etc. as readers will not find this information interesting.

If company related information is included in the e-mail newsletter, it should be relegated to a short sidebar as opposed to the primary real-estate of the e-mail newsletter. However, if there is more to the story that may be of benefit to your readers/guests, then it may warrant a full-blown article in the heart of the e-mail newsletter.

Think About the Competition
Compare your e-mail newsletter against other newsletter in your inbox. Create a ‘subject line’ that will entice your customer to click on your e-mail newsletter as opposed to the other newsletters vying for your guests’ attention. Why would someone read your e-mail first? Why would they read it at all? If you can address these questions and come up with honest reasons justifying the readers’ interest in your e-mail, you’re on the right track.

Include a Table of Contents
Studies show that most people spend just a few seconds deciding whether to read an e-mail. By including a table of contents at the top, the reader can easily see everything your e-mail newsletter has to offer, and decide whether to read it. If the first story doesn’t engage/ appeal to them, the last one might, so ensure your table of contents is as descriptive as possible. More descriptive, benefit-oriented headlines work better than general ones with less to offer the reader.

Headlines Aren’t Enough
Include the headline and the first sentence or two from the article. This is better than a headline alone. A better strategy is to write some original copy about each article that entices the reader to click-through and read more. “Teaser” copy works very well here. Don’t give away the key points of the article, but let people know what they’ll learn if they read it.

Incorporate Video
This is a newer approach. A recent Forrester Research report stated that video in e-mail is increasing CTR’s significantly – in some cases, double or triple what the same e-mail received without video.

Have a Goal
E-mail marketing has proven to be an effective marketing channel, however, many companies still neglect to assign bottom line, quantitative goals to their e-mail marketing efforts. Many e-mail newsletters are primarily used for branding and to drive awareness, but that doesn’t mean you can’t develop quantitative goals.

Open and click-through rates are good, but the closer you can tie your goals to the business mission, the better. Think in terms of lead generation, sales, and other conversion metrics. Even metrics such as how much time people coming from e-mail newsletters spend on the site versus visitors from other sources can be useful and justify your efforts.

Overall, the success of your email newsletter depends on the content, format and delivery. When utilized effectively, these simple tips can significantly help to increase conversions.

Sources: Jeanne Jennings, ClickZ, Quick Tips for Successful E-mail Newsletters

Build Relevance and Increase Traffic to New Domains

teresa — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:52:27 +0000

As the Internet continues to be the most important distribution channel for hotels, how can new websites compete against older existing domains? The simple answer is aggressive link building, but rather than another article explaining links, I’ll suggest another proven method to get a new domain to hit the ground running with three easy steps:

Purchase domain early and setup a one page website
Create a handful of authoritative inbound local links
Build original content to boost traffic when the site goes live

Once you’ve acquired the hotel or decided to develop an independent website, purchase a keyword-rich URL and publish a one or two page brochure on that domain. This page should include your address, general information about your hotel, booking engine widget, and local attractions in your market. Since only a few consumers will be able to find this page, and will eventually be replaced by a full-blown website, save time and effort by creating a simple html page. Furthermore, since search engines don’t immediately reward websites with front page placement until they trust your content, verify your referrals (inbound links), and your site becomes more mature, developing this temporary page will start the clock on your domain age and begin gaining relevancy for your soon-to-be full blown website.

After your page is live, begin socializing your domain via links with other local businesses and Internet directories. This will allow search engine robots to find your new site naturally through relevant inbound links. In the example above, the directory is confirming that the business is a hotel, offering accommodations in a specific region, and the directory has a cached image of the temporary webpage. New websites with no history can gain prime visibility within the first six months for long tail local and attraction-based searches and should optimize accordingly. The more sought after and highly competitive [City Hotel] and [Hotel City State] keyword results take longer to achieve visibility in competitive markets, so focusing your optimization on these competitive terms will generate less revenue in the first year as compared to the long tail searches.

Whether you’re a year from breaking ground on a new hotel, or simply want to get ahead during the typical 60-90 days of development on a full website, a new URL can benefit from a temporary webpage. As you can see from the image below, the temporary page not only generated some traffic in January and February, but because the domain has gained relevancy, the full website very quickly started getting consistent, relevant traffic when it launched in March.

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Contributed by: Brad Brewer, Regional Business Development Manager (Central US), Milestone Internet Marketing

Are You Ready for Mobile?

teresa — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:50:13 +0000

iPhones have revolutionized mobile web surfing and continue to drive more consumers to use mobile devices for browsing the Internet. With the launch of Google’s Nexus One, and several Android-based phones such as Droid from Motorola, mobile browsing is on track to become a significant new opportunity for advertisers and businesses. Mobile search and display revenue is projected to increase from $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion by 2013 (source: The Kelsey Group’s Annual Forecast: Mobile Local Media, Feb. 2009). Since most mobile web searches are local in nature, mobile technology will have a significant impact on the travel industry. Mobile websites, mobile applications (apps), short message service (SMS), mobile ads, and mobile coupons are very effective ways to reach consumers using mobile web.

According to a study by Neilson, mobile Internet usage is growing 30 percent every year. By 2013, it is expected that there will be 134 million mobile web users in the United States alone, up from 73.7 million mobile web users in 2009. Figure 1 shows growth of mobile and Internet users.

In terms of browsing platforms, the Apple iPhone continues to dominate the web surfing realm with almost 65 percent market share. Android seems positioned as the upcoming platform for web surfing. Figure 2 shows mobile web browsing usage stats.

These trends and predictions identify the next big wave of opportunity for hotels to target consumers. To capitalize on this opportunity, it is important to develop a quick-to-download, mobile-friendly website that gives consumers the information they seek with just one or two clicks on their mobile phone browsers.

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Contributed by:

Benu Aggarwal, President and Founder, Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc.
Anil Aggarwal, CEO, Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc.

Milestone Internet Marketing Discusses Social Media and Internet Marketing Strategies for Hotels at HITEC, HSMAI, and AAHOA Conferences

teresa — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:00:53 +0000

Santa Clara, CA – June 8, 2010 – Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that its experts will be discussing its popular social media strategies at the upcoming major hospitality industry conferences – AAHOA, HSMAI Conference, and HITEC. The focus in these educational sessions is to provide concrete ideas and case studies for hoteliers to implement social media and internet marketing strategies at their hotels.

Internet Marketing and Social Media – AAHOA, Chicago, June 17, 2010. Benu Aggarwal, founder and president of Milestone Internet Marketing and a well recognized expert in internet marketing strategies for the travel industry, will share creative internet marketing strategies including Social Media, SEO, SEM, for the hospitality industry at the AAHOA Women’s Conference. In addition, she will speak about the fine art of balancing personal life with high-energy and busy work life. To register for this event, click here.

Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day – HSMAI Revenue Management and Internet Marketing Strategy Conference, Orlando, FL – June 21. Kimberly Ercius, Director of Business Development of Mileston, is a recognized speaker in Social Media and Internet Marketing Strategies. In this session, she will introduce the audience to proven social media tools and best practices managing social media if given only 30 minutes a day. She will focus on how to manage the most important social media channels and review tactics for engaging with customers on these channels. For more information or to register, click here.

Social Media Strategies for the Lodging Industry – HITEC, Orlando, FL – June 23. Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone and a well recognized speaker and co-author of “From Hotels to HTMLs: A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry”, will discuss how hoteliers can effectively use social media tools and strategies to boost customer engagement, loyalty, and online revenue. To register for this event, click here.

For more information about Milestone’s Hotels to HTMLs workshops, send an email to info@milestoneinternet.com.

Easily Integrating Social Media into Your Marketing Mix

Milestone — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:30:48 +0000

There are numerous ways to integrate social media into a marketing mix, but in order to make it work in the most beneficial way possible, you need to incorporate many key elements. Here are a few.
Post content that is valuable to audience.

Example: Using informative videos.
Instead of posting regular “commercials” about a product or service, post informative videos that show how to choose the services for their needs or what special features are available.
For instance:
- A bartender making his signature (only-available-at-this-place) drink.
- A video outlining one or more of the special travel packages – show families going snorkeling, etc. “Which one is right for you?”

Drive online audience to your offline presence and vice versa.

Example: Using “Like us on Facebook” stickers in hotel.
Facebook now sends out window stickers to some local businesses. The sticker instructs customers to text a given number in order to “Like” the hotel on Facebook. Hotels, for instance, could put one up at their front desk or front door.

Treat contacts as people, not as outlets.

Example: Respond to contacts’ posts and post back.
Make sure there is time taken to respond to people who post on your social media pages. There will always be something to learn from the exchange and it makes the contact feel special. Also, it leaves a path of comments for other potential contacts to read.
Don’t exclusively contribute to personal domains and conversations related to the brand. Chip in where your presence is valuable.

Conclusion: There are many other creative ways to make your social media marketing story a success. Keep up to date with what’s happening in the social media world and continue to update your strategies in order to keep your approach fresh.

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Contributed by: Bradyn Blower, Milestone Internet Marketing

Social Media Strategies for the Lodging Industry – Educational Session

teresa — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:01:57 +0000

Session: Social Media Strategies for the Lodging Industry

Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Time: 12:45 pm – 1:15 pm

Location:
HITEC – The Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference
Orange County Convention Center
9800 International Drive
Orlando, FL 32819

This educational session will cover the growth of search and technology, social media, and best practices. The audience will learn about social media’s amazing potential and how to effectively use social media tools to boost customer engagement, loyalty, and online revenue for their hotel and business.

Speaker: Anil Aggarwal, CEO, Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc.

To register for the event, click here.