Bill Schlosser, vice president -marketing at NAVIS, is the producer, director, assistant director, gaffer, and janitor for Bill's Blog. With an unabashed focus on marketing, especially as it relates to the vacation rental and resort markets, Bill's Blog will attempt to inform, provoke discussion, entertain, enlighten, and generally make you a smarter marketer.
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Added: May 08, 2008
The Tray Table Effect
I’m just back from a vacation to the beautiful South to visit my daughter (thus the blog break). While sitting on the airplane for endless hours, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the branding problem that airlines have and how vacation rental companies and resorts face similar challenges. I call it… The Tray Table Effect
Airlines struggle with this all the time. It’s when you sit down in your seat on the airplane and your tray table doesn’t fully lock, or the hinge is wobbly, or it’s chipped – some sort of problem that you notice. When that occurs, you can’t help but wonder to yourself, “If they can’t fix the small stuff, how can they take care of the big stuff, like the engines?” Our industry suffers “the tray table affect” just like the airlines. When we don’t take care of the little things, guests can’t help but wonder about the big things. Here’s some examples: When a guest visits your website and sees a lot of typos When a guest visits your website and can’t easily find the information they need like availability, amenities, photos, etc. When a guest receives an email from you that is poorly designed When a guest receives an email from you with a link that is broken When a guest receives a mailing from you with his name misspelled When a guest receives different quotes when calling in more than once When a guest calls in and isn’t treated professionally When these types of things happen, the guest will suspect that the properties aren’t good enough. That’s the conclusion they will come to. You will not only lose the revenue from their first stay, but also lose future revenue from additional visits. The bottom line? Pay attention to your tray tables – the little stuff. It can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Airlines struggle with this all the time. It’s when you sit down in your seat on the airplane and your tray table doesn’t fully lock, or the hinge is wobbly, or it’s chipped – some sort of problem that you notice. When that occurs, you can’t help but wonder to yourself,
“If they can’t fix the small stuff, how can they take care of the big stuff, like the engines?”
Our industry suffers “the tray table affect” just like the airlines. When we don’t take care of the little things, guests can’t help but wonder about the big things. Here’s some examples:
When these types of things happen, the guest will suspect that the properties aren’t good enough. That’s the conclusion they will come to. You will not only lose the revenue from their first stay, but also lose future revenue from additional visits.
The bottom line? Pay attention to your tray tables – the little stuff. It can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Added: April 27, 2008
Your Data Mine
The secret to effective marketing is segmenting. The key to effective segmenting is data mining. Slicing and dicing your guest and prospect data is where you will find incremental revenue – even in a down economy.
We’re hearing it over and over; competing clients in the same market – one up, one down. The one that is fully utilizing the NAVIS System is up, the one not fully utilizing our System is down. The revenue power that we bring to the vacation rental and resort market is truly remarkable. A key aspect of that full utilization is leveraging the extensive caller data that the NAVIS System provides. Whether that data is automatically collected by our System, or by your agents during the course of their phone conversation, you should take advantage of the data and use it in your marketing wherever possible. With the sorting and exporting features of the NAVIS Narrowcast System, you can: Determine the geographical locations of your guests and prospects and focus on those specific areas Identify the dates that someone calls, and the dates of their previous stays and target your direct marketing around those dates. Tie in the caller’s primary reason for their stay (skiing, boating, car show, Disney, etc.) and focus your message on that interest – even providing some sort of incentive. Identify the primary demographics for your guests and focus on those same groups in your prospect database. Once you’ve mined your data into the segments that matter the most, you should make sure to market to your guests pre-stay and post-stay. Send them a postcard and/or an email a few weeks prior to their stay, a week prior, a week after, and then on a regular basis – once a month would be ideal. The key is to build share of mind so that when that person is ready to book their vacation, they think of you. Data mining – it’s where you’ll find the gold.
We’re hearing it over and over; competing clients in the same market – one up, one down. The one that is fully utilizing the NAVIS System is up, the one not fully utilizing our System is down. The revenue power that we bring to the vacation rental and resort market is truly remarkable.
A key aspect of that full utilization is leveraging the extensive caller data that the NAVIS System provides. Whether that data is automatically collected by our System, or by your agents during the course of their phone conversation, you should take advantage of the data and use it in your marketing wherever possible.
With the sorting and exporting features of the NAVIS Narrowcast System, you can:
Once you’ve mined your data into the segments that matter the most, you should make sure to market to your guests pre-stay and post-stay. Send them a postcard and/or an email a few weeks prior to their stay, a week prior, a week after, and then on a regular basis – once a month would be ideal. The key is to build share of mind so that when that person is ready to book their vacation, they think of you.
Data mining – it’s where you’ll find the gold.
Added: April 21, 2008
Favorite Marketing Sites
We all have our favorite internet links for marketing. I thought I would share some of mine.
The Marketing Sherpa site is full of great case studies and marketing research. Know This has a very good compilation of news and tutorials. NetMechanic offers some free tools to evaluate your website. I’m a little biased here because I helped them with their marketing in their early days. Direct is a great site that focuses on, guess what…direct marketing. ExpressCopy is a NAVIS partner and the best direct mail site on the internet. SEOMoz is one of the best sites I’ve found for search engine optimization information. SearchEngineWatch is another great site for search engine optimization information. CrazyEgg offers some very unique tools for analyzing the click patterns on your website. MarketLeap is a terrific tool for quantifying the popularity of your site. TrafficEstimate is another internet tool for guesstimates of site traffic. Blizzard Internet Marketing is a great site for web design services and internet marketing information. 1to1, started by Peppers and Rogers, focuses on customer-centric strategies. Of course, my very best favorite site is NAVIS, since it’s my baby. What are some of your favorite marketing sites?
Of course, my very best favorite site is NAVIS, since it’s my baby.
What are some of your favorite marketing sites?