Cyber Monday: Is Your Hotel Taking Advantage of the Largest Online Shopping Day of the Year ...

As hoteliers prepare for the Holiday Season and Q4 occupancy needs, there’s a one-day event that has become a holiday all on its own that hoteliers simply can no longer ignore: Cyber Monday. This year Cyber Monday falls on November 30, which is perfect for generating last-minute holiday bookings, but most importantly, secure business for the dreadful Q1 2016.

Is your Holiday Season strategy ready?

In 2014, Cyber Monday sales exceeded $2 billion, making it the biggest online shopping day of the year. So what does this mean for hotel brands? According to Google, an astounding 40% of these online shoppers are interested in travel deals and Cyber Monday related searches grew 29% year-over-year with smartphone queries up during Cyber Week by 18% year-over-year, making it no secret that shoppers are online and ready to book travel during Cyber Monday.

But how can hoteliers prepare? The time between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday is critical with travel deal research starting before Thanksgiving and seeing its first peak of the season on Cyber Monday. Google also states that even after Cyber Monday, New Year’s travel planning is already top of mind, especially for top cities such as New York, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. This reveals just how vital it is for hotel marketers to capitalize on post-Cyber Monday traction and buzz to answer any last-minute business needs or low occupancy.

In light of this, hoteliers should consider building a robust multi-channel campaign plan including three phases: Pre-Sale, Cyber Monday, and Extended Sale.

 

Pre-Sale Phase

This Pre-Sale phase is crucial to tap into user search traffic of potential guests already researching Cyber Monday travel deals. In this phase, potential guests should be prompted to sign-up to gain pre-access to the sale or to receive an alert reminder as soon as the sale goes live. This is also a great way to build your email marketing list for future campaigns. 

Another reason this phase is the foundation of campaign success is to allow the marketing initiatives to ramp up and build traction. Most importantly, you want to utilize a large cookie pool to retarget users on Cyber Monday. 

Cyber Monday Phase

When the big day arrives, you want to ensure that your marketing initiatives have been fully ramped up and increase impressions and share of voice of all marketing initiatives to generate the greatest impact and ROI for the next 24 hours of the sale. Email alerts and email marketing to the brand email list is essential in getting qualified traffic, leads, and bookings. Sending an email reminder four hours before the sale is about to end is also a great way to boost bookings and to give the campaign a last minute push for revenue. 

Extended Sale Phase

To capitalize on Cyber Monday traction and search traffic surrounding New Year’s travel planning, hotel brands should extend the Cyber Monday sale at a lesser discount. This is a great way to capture those last-minute bookings and ensure occupancy is up throughout the entire fourth quarter and the beginning of Q1.

Once you build your three phase plan, it’s important to develop an enticing offer that will break through the Cyber Monday noise, create exciting campaign creative that elicits a sense of urgency, and build a digital marketing plan that utilizes the right marketing initiatives throughout each phase of the campaign.  To make the strongest impact on consumers, start by developing an irresistible offer and campaign creative that stands out from competitors.

Cyber Monday Special Offer

As the demand for Cyber Monday travel deals continues to grow, so does the competition. Be sure to offer at least a 30-40% discount on hotel stays and any added value that will give your hotel brand a competitive edge, such as free parking, free breakfast, free wifi, and more. 

 If you are a luxury hotel brand, focus more on value-driven packages instead of discounts. Experiential packages such as a two-night stay including a $50 dining credit and a $50 spa credit or shopping gift card can go a long way, as well as personalized touches such as car service, in-room chef experiences, and so on.    

Campaign Technology and Creative

Since Cyber Monday is a one-day sale, you need to choose the right digital technology and creative to help you engage travel consumers and build a sense of urgency for potential guests. 

HeBS Digital’s award-winning Interactive Limited Time Offer Application is one example of such digital technology application capable of maximizing revenue from the Cyber Monday promotion. Serving as the central hub for the promotion, this highly visual fully responsive application features a prominently displayed countdown clock, booking functionality with embedded promo code, large, rich imagery of the hotel, social and viral sharing features, email sign up widget to expand your email marketing list or loyalty program, as well key information to potential guests about the sale, benefits, and rules. 

In the Pre-Sale Phase, the countdown clock counts down the days and hours until the beginning of the Cyber Monday sale. Upon signing up, the user receives a confirmation email with the Cyber Monday booking code and limited timeframe to book the deal.

During the 24-hour Cyber Monday Phase, the application “opens” the reservation widget with the embedded promo code to the general public and the countdown clock starts counting down the hours and minutes until the end of the promotion.

In the Extended Sale Phase, the countdown clock counts down the days and hours until the end of the extended Cyber Monday sale.

And finally, once a strong foundation is built through a competitive special offer and rich, interactive creative, hotel brands must ensure they have adequate budget, the right marketing initiatives, and the right targeting and strategy.

Budget & Initiatives

Due to competitiveness, core budget initiatives such as SEM, Google Display Network, and ongoing Display Media should be increased by at least 50% to ensure adequate share of voice with top competitors. Also, a multi-channel marketing plan should be developed in addition to these core initiatives and fully integrated. These initiatives include: email marketing, press release, social media advertising, additional supplementary media such as TripAdvisor display and top travel ad networks such as Sojern and ADARA. Any owned media should be updated as well including TripAdvisor Business Listing Special Offers and Announcements, brand social media presence, the hotel website, and so on. 

Targeting & Strategy

On Cyber Monday, the right targeting can help you hone in on highly qualified traffic at a more affordable cost. Consider targeting strategies such as remarketing, GDN similar users, Facebook look-a-like audiences, and Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA). First-party data from top travel ad networks such as Sojern and ADARA will also allow you to target users during the travel planning process to your hotel’s destination. Smart targeting capabilities such as these will not only drive qualified traffic, but will reach users lower in the purchase funnel to increase conversions. 

How well does this Cyber Monday strategy work? 

In 2014, a boutique multi-property brand launched a 30% discount Cyber Monday campaign that resulted in a return on ad spend of 3,171% and a 51% increase in year over year bookings, showcasing just how powerful a strategic campaign can be on Cyber Monday. 

At the same time, Hotel Mahekal, a boutique property in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, launched a Cyber Monday campaign to generate brand awareness after a re-brand, announce the resort’s reopening post-renovations, and generate revenue. The sale resulted in a return on ad spend of 1,891% and 3,035 unique customer engagements. 

If you’re inspired to get started and dramatically increase ROI for upcoming quarters, don’t just capitalize on one of the largest online shopping days of the year,  seize the opportunity to build an exciting, strategic multi-channel campaign that customers will love as much as their stay.

About the Author and HeBS Digital

Margaret Mastrogiacomo is Director, Creative Strategy at HeBS Digital, the hospitality industry’s leading digital technology + website design, full-service digital marketing and website revenue optimization consulting firm, based in New York City (www.HeBSdigital.com). 

HeBS Digital has pioneered many of the best practices in hospitality digital technology and full-service digital marketing, social and mobile marketing, and direct online channel distribution. The firm has won over 300 prestigious industry awards for its digital marketing and website design services, including numerous Adrian Awards, Stevie Awards, Davey Awards, W3 Awards, WebAwards, Magellan Awards, Summit International Awards, Interactive Media Awards, IAC Awards, etc. 

A diverse client portfolio of top-tier major hotel brands, luxury and boutique hotel brands, resorts and casinos, hotel management companies, franchisees and independents, and CVBs are benefiting from HeBS Digital’s direct online channel strategy and digital marketing expertise. Contact HeBS Digital’s consultants at (212) 752-8186 or success@hebsdigital.com.

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Cyber Monday: Is Your Hotel Taking Advantage of the Largest Online Shopping Day of the Year ...

Why Visa opted for social videos over new year

Visa’s Facebook video campaign featuring Korean actress Park Shin-hye unveiled for Christmas and the new year is approaching an end next week.

The credit card giant’s decision to use video on social media platforms as a core medium for its mass marketing campaign is part of a growing trend.

According to statistics released by Facebook yesterday, videos uploaded by users and brands showed up in the News Feed 3.6 times more last year compared to 2013.  On a global scale, the number of video posts per person went up by 75%.

Tom Tobin, country manager at Visa Hong Kong and Macau, said Visa’s Facebook video campaign focused on eCommerce.

“The campaign addresses consumers’ feelings of unease during online shopping where many hesitate when making purchases.  In the video, with just a few clicks, Shin-Hye has bought an evening gown for her red carpet event,” Tobin said.

“The video helps make a memorable and human connection with viewers,” Tobin said.

Complementing the Facebook video are video ads and display banners placed on online portals such as YouTube, Yahoo, Apple Daily and myTV.

Tobin added that Park was chosen as the brand’s ambassador in the campaign because she appeals to online shoppers in Asia and has a broad social media fan base.

A series of Facebook posts sharing tips about online shopping and security were also part of the campaign.

“This approach encourages customers to actively share the information in the posts with their friends,” Tobin said.

Jayne Leung, head of Greater China at Facebook believes the prevalence of videos on social media platforms marks the beginning of a larger shift in marketing towards personalisation on a mass scale.

“Business used to be personal. Then, we developed mass media, which was wonderful for scaling brands but this also made brands less personal,” she said.

“Digital and mobile give us the opportunity to make marketing more relevant and rewarding for people because we understand so much more about them.”

Video Credits:

Creative lead: Danny Searle

Creative director: Mark Wiggins

Associate creative director: Kogi Ko

Account managers: Joy Ng and Tune Lau

TV producer: Jackie They

Media agency: OMD

Why Visa opted for social videos over new year

5 SEO Tactics To Kick-Start The New Year

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably already checked out for the year. Clients are out of the office, you’re on vacation, and 2015 contracts have already been signed. There’s nothing left to do but close that computer, put on your slippers, throw a log on the fire, and hibernate until January 2nd.

Or…keep that laptop open, give your site a good scrub, and get a jump-start on your competition going into next year!

After all, they key to a solid SEO strategy is continuous improvement. As a recent article, “you don’t always get your SEO perfect the first time out.” We have to use our learnings and data to adjust our strategies and make the site better.

So, as we head into the New Year and everyone else is busy resting, give your business a leg up by revisiting, revising, and readying your site for 2015.

1. Give The Site A Technical Once Over

When you started your SEO program, you probably got a killer technical audit. You knew the details of every page. You knew where all the errors and redirects were coming from, where all the broken images were, where your site was lagging, and much, much more. And you fixed it.

But what has been done to the site since?

Pages have likely been added or removed, tags modified, images removed. Perhaps URLs changed, the site was redesigned, new sections were added, etc. Do you know where the site stands at this exact moment?

Make sure the site is technically sound going into the New Year by taking these steps:

Use Screaming Frog

Run a Screaming Frog report to identify any existing errors, redirects, duplicate URLs, and/or canonical errors.

You can also make sure you have the correct Google Analytics code on every page. How? Check out this great post from SEER Interactive.

Once you have all your information gathered, you can begin fixing any and all issues.

Check Webmaster Tools

Webmaster Tools is another good place to identify any errors occurring on the site. Aside from the standard 404 errors you might see, you can also check for robots issues, server issues, and sitemap errors.

If you’ve implemented Schema markup or Hreflang tags, Webmaster Tools will also provide information on both of those, showcasing any errors that may be occurring within those tags.

Update Google Analytics Goals

While it (thankfully) doesn’t happen too often, I’ve certainly seen cases in which goal URLs are changed or new forms are added and the proper tracking is not put into place.

One of the nice things Google Analytics (GA) now does is provide information on goal tracking. It will alert you if there are any drastic changes to your goal numbers or if it sees any irregularities within your account.

Make sure to take a look at your GA goals to ensure the URLs are correct, are tracking properly, and you aren’t missing any important information.

As I noted above, use Screaming Frog to ensure GA tracking code is on all pages.

2. Identify A Few Quick Wins

As the year progresses and we focus on our campaigns, it’s easy to get caught up in the big picture and overlook some of the small stuff.

Revisit The Basics

The basics — like title tags, meta descriptions, and ALT text — may not be high up on your list of strategies, but you shouldn’t forget them.

Using your Screaming Frog report, Export the HTML list and take a fresh look at your tagging. Make sure there are no missing titles or descriptions and no duplicate tags, and ensure that your brand is contained in all titles.

You can also export the list of missing ALT tags to identify opportunities for image tagging.

While these things may seem insignificant in themselves, they can go a long way in helping with that big picture we discussed above.

Repurpose Content

One of my favorite things to do at the end of each year is to sit down and evaluate the content from the past 12 months. How did it perform? Which content did the best? How can we use this information going forward?

Another avenue to this is, “What can we repurpose?”

Companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars creating content, only for it be posted and never thought of again. It’s really quite sad.

How To Repurpose Content Without Looking Like A Total Jerk,” that showed how to repurpose both blog content and social updates. I also wrote a post on how to turn old content into new links, which breaks down both the content audit portion and the link building portion.

If you’re interested in repurposing some of that wonderful content you created this year, give them both a read. It’ll give you some easy and valuable content ideas heading into next year.

3. Scope Out Editorial Opportunities

As publications get ready to kick off the year, their editorial calendars are updated and they are already starting to generate their stories. Get a jump on the year by identifying any opportunities for your business or clients.

As I outlined in a past article, editorial calendars are pretty common and can be found through simple site searches, Google searches, or by using a tool like EdCals.

If you’ve found an editorial calendar that isn’t updated or is only partially updated, start tracking it with TrackedContent or ChangeDetection.

Both of these tools will alert you when the content on a selected page is changed, giving you the jump on fresh press opportunities.

 4. Clean Up Your Business Listings 

Did your office move this year? Did you lose or gain any team members? Were there any significant changes that happened within the business? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” it’s important that your online presence reflects those changes.

The first place to start is your contact info. I can’t tell you how many people call the KoMarketing office thinking we are at our address from 9 years ago. Where are they getting that information?!?

As it turns out, tools like Moz Local will actually give me that answer:

See where incomplete, inconsistent, and duplicate listings reside. It even includes your social networks like G+, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Bonus: If you need to update your site, Moz Local will adjust the listings for you, ensuring a consistent presence across the web.

Don’t forget about places like Wikipedia or Crunchbase, where consistently changing information like revenue, employees, and stock prices resides.

We can’t control everything on the web that’s said about us, but we can at least try to control our business information.

5. Perform A Quick Competitive Analysis 

Last but not least, we can’t get a leg up on our competitors without actually looking at them!

While you probably don’t need to go “full-fledged stalker” in your competitive analysis, giving your existing analysis a quick refresh could certainly be beneficial.

Revisit Links 

Using Majestic, Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs, or your other favorite link-checking tool, scan competitor sites to see what new links they’ve acquired recently.

Look at what press mentions they’ve received over the past few months, and identify any potential blogs that also fit your business. Also, take a look to see what their top linked content is.

If you’ve performed a competitive analysis in the past, you likely already have a pretty good idea of what their link building strategy (if any) is, but you may find a few new media targets or influencers to add to your list.

Validate Content Ideas

I’m not a huge fan of looking at a competitor’s site and just stealing their content ideas. I am, however, a huge fan of looking at a competitor’s site, evaluating how their content is performing, and using that data to inform my own content strategy.

With budgets being one of the biggest hurdles to content marketing, understanding where to put those dollars is invaluable.

Use the link data mentioned above to find the top linked pages, or plug your competitor’s site into BuzzSumo to see what their most shared content is. Both of these can provide you with insights into what your audience likes and wants, helping you figure out where you may want to spend your dollars next year.

Identify Strategic Changes 

One of the biggest benefits to a competitive analysis refresh is you get a look inside their strategy going into the next year and a better understanding of where they see the future of the business.

Do they have any “coming soon” or new product pages? Did they rename a product or any part of their company?

These types of things can indicate a fundamental shift in how a competitor views the industry, the market, and their product/service. While this is not something you are necessarily going to use in your own strategy, it can help show you some new places to look.

For example, if a competitor is suddenly calling out HR professionals, that may be an audience you want to look at if you haven’t already. If they are using new terminology to describe the industry or their products, you may want to take a look to see if this impacts you. Check Google Trends and search volume data for any additional information.

Knowing what your competitors are doing can help you better understand the landscape, the target market, and inform your own online marketing strategy.

So before you leave the office or throw on those PJs, think about doing these five small things to help give your business a leg up in 2015. Happy holidays!

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

Learn to Effectively Integrate Marketing Technology At MarTech: The Marketing Tech Conference, we’ll connect the dots between technical possibilities and strategic opportunities reshaping of modern marketing. Making those connections will be a roster of innovative thinkers and doers ­- industry-defining executives and analysts who will help you understand marketing technology and its impact on your organization. See the agenda!

About The Author

Casie Gillette is the Director of Online Marketing at KoMarketing Associates, a B2B Internet marketing firm based in Boston, MA. She has been in the search industry for eight years and loves all things Internet-related.

(Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)

5 SEO Tactics To Kick-Start The New Year