Using the Internet to promote your products

Alfred Williams 5:02 AM 0

The 2005 Neilsen Net Ratings indicate that Australia currently has 9.5 million active users and, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 66% of Australian households access the Internet. The Internet offers tourism operators an additional way to promote their product, provide information to potential travellers and, increasingly, sell their product, according to Roy Morgan Research, in 2004, 24.6% of Australians 14 years and over (approx 4 million), purchased online. Increasingly, travellers are using the Internet in preference to other information tools such as brochures and travel agents to research and plan their travel. The growth in online travel bookings has outpaced other online sales for many reasons including: • Access to extensive information to aid selection • Perceived availability of choice • Convenience of booking online (from home and out of business hours) • And, in some cases, the perception of price advantage The Internet has been a continually emerging communication and distribution channel since it took off in 1994. The Computer Industry Almanac estimates the Internet will have 1.2 billion Users worldwide by 2006. The 2005 Neilsen Net Ratings indicate that Australia currently has 9.5 million active users and, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 66% of Australian households access the Internet. The Internet offers tourism operators an additional way to promote their product, provide information to potential travellers and, increasingly, sell their product, according to Roy Morgan Research, in 2004, 24.6% of Australians 14 years and over (approx 4 million), purchased online. Increasingly, travellers are using the Internet in preference to other information tools such as brochures and travel agents to research and plan their travel. The growth in online travel bookings has outpaced other online sales for many reasons including: • Access to extensive information to aid selection • Perceived availability of choice • Convenience of booking online (from home and out of business hours) • And, in some cases, the perception of price advantage The Internet has been a continually emerging communication and distribution channel since it took off in 1994. The Computer Industry Almanac estimates the Internet will have 1.2 billion users worldwide by 2006. Tourism on the Internet Research and Planning The Internet has rapidly increased its influence in the choices consumers are making regarding their holiday. The following chart shows changes in the influences on consumers in choosing their last holiday destination over the last four years. The Internet appears to have overtaken many established resources utilised in the tourism industry and is now second only to recommendations by friends or family. The Internet presents some great opportunities for tourism operators to promote their product, but before developing an online presence, there are some things you will need to consider: • How will your target audience find you? • Who will provide design advice and programming skills to develop and maintain a website? • How will you manage the ongoing accuracy and relevancy of your website? • How will you enhance your presence, including third party online travel providers? In fact, doing business online is no different to traditional methods and hence the same level of focus and effort will be required. There are three key potential uses for the Internet, presenting significant opportunities and challenges that will need to be addressed: As a marketing tool The Internet offers the travel industry opportunities to market destinations, products and services but the challenge lies in reaching a specific target market when there are 1.2 billion worldwide users and more than 30 million websites. As an information tool The Internet is an excellent tool for travel research, planning and decision-making but it is vital to maintain compelling, up-to-date, accurate and relevant content on your website and any other sites that include your business information. As a purchasing tool If you choose to make transaction facilities available on your site you gain an advantage by providing an additional distribution channel for consumers to book or purchase travel product. You must then also develop competitive product, pricing, promotional and distribution strategies to meet market needs and service consumers in a timely and professional capacity. Getting started on the Internet A simple way to start using the Internet is to provide an email address for enquiries regarding your product. As with telephone or mail enquiries, you must respond to these enquiries in a timely fashion. Check your emails at least daily and ensure you respond within 24 hours to all enquiries. A more involved way to use the Internet is to showcase your product through a website. You can do this in two ways: • Develop your own website, and/or • Include your information on other tourism websites. Firstly you will need to decide whether you need a website or if including your information on an existing tourism website may be more appropriate. Do a cost benefit analysis and don’t forget to include the cost of keeping your website up-to-date. Developing your own website Work with an experienced and/or professional website developer • Ensure they deliver an easy to navigate website that is best value for your needs and budget. • Balance text and images. Online consumers are reluctant to read large amounts of text but while images can be very effective, too many images will slow down the time it takes for the consumer to see the page on the screen. • Ensure your site is accessible to all types of users – some people have slow computers, slow Internet access, and small monitors or could be visually impaired. • Similarly, minimise fancy ‘plug-ins’ such as movie players and Flash graphics. • Highlight your contact details and maintain pricing … and make sure you reply to any enquiries within 24 hours! Promote your website • A majority of website traffic is delivered via search engines. Ensure your site has been built by a reputable developer who can also ensure it is search-engine friendly. Ask your developer about search engine optimisation. • Ensure all collateral refers to your website address (URL). • Consider expanding the reach of your product online through community, government, and commercial website partners. • Consider advertising and other promotional methods, both offline and online. Maintain your website • Ensure that technically your site is ‘available’ to Internet users all or close to all of the time. • Ensure your content is accurate, current, relevant and compelling – this is probably a traveller’s first (and hopefully not last) experience of you, your professionalism and your product. • Ensure all links work. Consider developing a mailing list • Explore the ability to capture visitor contact details, both from your website and from customers, and develop a strategy and plan for ongoing communication. • Ensure you adhere to privacy and anti-SPAM guidelines. • Always listen to your customers. Ask them to provide feedback and seek their advice on how often it is appropriate to communicate to them with marketing related messages. On-line bookings and payments • Develop arrangements to ensure bookings and payments made on-line are secure. • Decide which payment options you will accept and make this clear on the website booking form. You may also consider including your information on other websites such as Local Tourism Association, Regional Tourism Organization or Tourism New South Wales sites. You may also consider marketing through advertising on non-travel-specific websites and similarly you may consider commercial travel sites. Whichever you consider, ensure you ask: • Do they invest in promoting their website to maximize the opportunity presented to you? • Do they target and attract Internet users who are actively planning a holiday? • Will your business be highlighted on the site or will it be buried amongst a range of other businesses and promotional opportunities? • What responsibilities do you have for maintaining the accuracy and currency of this information? • How much will it cost you to participate and will you receive a return on this investment? Tourism New south Wales Marketing Demand and Supply The Internet is a substantial part of Tourism New South Wales’ marketing, information distribution and conversion process. Tourism New South Wales provides tourism operators with many opportunities to ‘go to market’ including destination-focused cooperative marketing campaigns and printed brochures. Tourism New South Wales invests many millions of dollars a year through a range of media. www.visitnsw.com.au is the primary call to action in all of our marketing activities. Tourism New South Wales’ campaigns drive consumers to information stored on the website about tourism products, services and destinations. www.visitnsw.com.au receives in excess of 1.6 million visitors each year. How you can get involved And at no cost? Get Connected! Tourism New South Wales, Regional Tourism Organizations, Visitor Information Centres and tourist associations all input information about NSW destinations into a database system called the STDW (State Tourism Data Warehouse). This database distributes the information to: • visitnsw.com.au • More than 80 Visitor Information Centres • Many Regional Tourism Organization and local government websites • www.australia.com (Tourism Australia) • The ATDW (Australian Tourism Data Warehouse) distributes to a variety of national and international websites. see http://udonnaanigbo.blogspot.com