The Big Wave Blog

At Evision, we have a certain affinity for hotel clients. Collectively, we have a lot of experience with hotel management, revenue management, PPC and SEO. So we can run an online hotel marketing campaign like no one you’ve ever seen. This we know for sure. And the money we pull in for our hotel clients bears this out.

But lately, I’ve become a bit disillusioned with the hotel sector. In other industries—like retail, education, real estate—clients want only two things from us: a dedicated team they like and trust, and results that excite them. They are able to appreciate ROI. If we bring in $5k more in monthly revenue compared with a previous vendor, we are well worth an extra $500 in monthly fees. Hotels, by contrast, don’t seem to connect the dots between monthly marketing fees and monthly bookings. They are devoted to keeping “costs” down with no regard for returns. This seems unthinkable to those of us who truly appreciate the wonderfully trackable nature of PPC. Yet, there it is.

Size isn’t everything. Search marketing is young. It’s an industry that only becomes more powerful and effective as new, passionate agencies enter the scene. I’m not going to say that more established companies with larger payrolls don’t have quality work to offer. And I’m not saying go with the guy that incorporated 6 weeks ago in his basement. I am just saying that smaller, nimbler groups are often the ones trying new strategies, working day by day to fine-tune client campaigns. We are not automating bids or letting campaigns run on auto-pilot. We like the trenches and we are getting the best results. And in our case, out of sheer love of the game, we are giving spectacular customer service because the more we talk to our clients, the better we can refine their campaigns.

Basically, I think that Evision and its counterparts in the industry have a lot to offer. Is it a leap of faith for some clients to hire companies with less than 100 employees? Yes, apparently so. But I say it is well worth the risk.

For years we have stressed the importance of watching your website closely and using analytics to gather and analyze data. What happened to the former governor of NY Eliot Spitzer is a great example of how well the banks make use of analytic software to track every transaction. The US treasury department regularly receives SARs (suspicious activities reports) from banks nationwide. Mr. Spitzer was tracked by one of these auto-generated reports. Imagine how much he hates analytics and reports!Do you still think analytics are not crucial to your business? They have the power to topple governments (and Governors).I always say to our clients….”Data is a cruel mistress.” (no pun intended)

The headline is inspired by Stephen Colbert’s book title “I Am America (And So Can You!).” Check this out! Click on the image to enlarge it.

This picture says a thousand words! Even with the world’s brightest minds, money, lawyers, rocket scientists, evangelists, millionaire janitors (per Guy Kawasaki), 767’s, space program sponsors, and economists on your team…Sometimes you just forget to renew your SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate.

Comedy aside, who knows how many sales were lost due to this issue? People using Google Checkout surely lost some business due to this oversight. One of our clients using conversion tracking scripts for AdWords noticed this error and reported it to us. (Thanks, Tracy!)

“Have no fear of perfection - you’ll never reach it.”
Salvador Dali

Yahoo announced with much fanfare at the SMX Santa Clara the launch of their “Search Monkey.” It is an open source of tools that can be used by searchers and website publishers to enhance search results.

Wait a minute….where did I hear this one before… was it May 2006?
…aaah! Google Co-op.

So what does the Yahoo Search Monkey do for you? Click on the image below to view an example.

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Website Publishers: You can subscribe to this new service, but Yahoo decides when to display your content in this format on the search results page. With Google Co-op, you pick the keywords that will result in this enhanced listing.

Searchers: This feature will allow you to “opt in” to see the enhanced results. Whereas Google Co-op displays enhanced results based on your search queries, you will only see the enhanced listings on Yahoo when Yahoo wants you to see them.

What are the odds of Yahoo making good on a failed Google product? I would say slim to none. Seasoned search marketers see this primarily as an attempt by Yahoo to gather search behavior data for their own purposes.