|
|
|
Can Your Customers Pay By Electronic Check?
What's the Real Story About Electronic Checks? Accepting electronic checks is essential to any business, and should not be overlooked. As many as 20% of America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe users pay for their internet access by electronic...
How To Use Database Marketing To Skyrocket Your Online Profits
Database Marketing is the gathering and storing of specific information about your prospects or customers. This information is usually stored in a database program on your computer. You would then use the information to market and...
Pay-Per-Clicks . . . One Way to Boost Traffic to Your Web Site
One of the ways to boost traffic to your Web site is by purchasing keywords from one of the pay-per-click search engines or directories. But with literally hundreds of choices, how do you pick the pay- per-click engine with the best visibility...
Quadruple Your Online Sales in Just 4 Months
Quadruple Your Online Sales in Just 4 Months Judy Cullins ©2003 All Rights Reserved If you want a quick and simple way to create regular income online, follow my lead. I am a non-techie book coach who has been in business for 20 years, but only...
The Fatal Attraction of Online Marketers
Suppose you were offered 263 links coming into your website from 263 other websites all in one fell swoop. Everybody knows that the more inbound links you have, the higher you will rise in the search engine rankings.
Suppose further that...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marketing Tourism Online, part one: The Basics
This is part one of an article series which will introduce some basic strategies, considerations, elements, and techniques for marketing tourism products online. We plan to update and refine these articles as situations change and when we have new knowledge to present. You can request to be notified when a new article in the series is available.
Opportunities and room to improve
While most tourism organizations are by now familiar with the Internet, far fewer have really gained an understanding of the technologies, new resources, new communication opportunities, and the requirements that they represent. These tips and explanations should prove a useful introduction.
While new technologies provide new opportunities, they don't change the basics of marketing: people, product, price, promotion, and distribution. Know your target markets, understand their purchase decision processes, and offer them the right product, at the right time, for the right price—and correct your course continually.
Shaping the purchase decision process and the tourism experience
Your online communication with customers can be used to shape outcomes in the following circumstances and stages, in relation to a potential tourist's purchase decision and tourism experience. Good communication can:
Build awareness of a product or destination, and reshape existing perceptions;
Generate interest;
Provide information to turn interest into desire;
Transact the actual
purchase or series of purchases;
Provide reassurance of a good purchase and offer preparatory information for the actual tourism experience;
Continue to provide information, shape perception, and improve the experience during the tourist's journey;
Aid and deepen memories after the tourism experience;
Build upon your relationship to your customer, to add value for both you and the tourist; and
Encourage referrals and generate repeat business.
There are different goals to achieve and appropriate methods of communication for each of these circumstances. Adding further complexity is the fact that different people (family members, friends, co-workers, etc.) may be involved and have varying importance at different stages of one purchase decision!
In conclusion
Despite these complexities, there are some basic guidelines which will help you communicate and market effectively online. The next in this series of articles presents advice for attracting visitors to your website.
(Seattle, USA; August 2004)
About the Author
Bryan Wilson is a travel marketing consultant and partner in Leave Home Productions
Leave Home Productions (http://www.leave-home.com) provides marketing services and tools to tourism-related businesses and organizations. Our clients benefit from strategies, tools, and creative concepts developed to clarify their needs, make use of their resources, and help them achieve their goals.
|
|
|
|
|
|