The Big Wave Blog

Attention all hotels!! The holiday season is upon us, and retail marketers are not the only one’s that should be fine-tuning their search marketing campaigns. Seasonal keywords for the travel industry are often overlooked during keyword research, but they can be a crucial and powerful tool in your online marketing strategy.

Let’s take a look at some examples from one of the most competitive markets in online marketing: New York City Travel.

Typically, to run a paid search campaign in NYC would take a healthy budget. Broad competitive keywords can be costly due to high search volume and heavy competition from major brands. However, take a look at these seasonal searches:

My first observation is that there is only 1 independent hotel advertising on this set of keyword phrases. No major brands, no other independent hotels, not even the discount sites Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity are bidding on these seasonal terms.

For an independent hotel, this is huge. As you can see from the stats below, provided by the Google Keyword Tool, there are over 11,100 searches just for those 3 terms, with the majority of those searches happening during late October, November and December.

Not only that, but the average cost per click for these terms is only $0.44. These are unbelievable numbers for such a competitive vertical!Pair this style of seasonal search marketing with a solid revenue management program that actively creates seasonal packages and discounts, and you will have a rock star search marketing program.

For those of you following Vikram’s travel schedule, he’s heading back to the west coast this week to deliver two more search marketing seminars for the California Hotel & Lodging Association.  I’m posting details below for any of our readers who may wish to attend. The two sessions will be very similar, and are entitled, “Leading Practices in Search Engine Marketing.”

San Diego: October 21, 2008
9:00 am – 12:30 pm
Handlery Hotel & Resort
Print and Fax to Register Now

Santa Barbara: October 22, 2008
9:00 am – 12:30 pm
Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort
Print and Fax to Register Now

I know attendees at these sessions are in for a real treat. Vikram has some great new information to share, and plenty of real-world advice you won’t hear anywhere else. In today’s economy, I think this aspect of Vikram’s presentation is especially useful: he is very happy to give away money-saving and revenue-boosting tips in the name of education!

So please join us if you can. As always, we can guarantee that you will leave the session with information you can use, and no mention of our agency or our services.

Currently in beta and open for comments is the first search engine exclusively for video content.  Introduced on September 10th of this year at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco, the founders of VideoSurf wowed the audience with the first public demonstration of their product, which has been in development since August of 2006.

VideoSurf is different from anything else available today because the technology is actually able to understand, analyze and essentially “see” the video content itself, where current search engines rely on reading the text and tags surrounding a video to deliver results.  The videos are pulled from popular websites such as YouTube and Revver, and also from networks like ESPN, and the results are displayed to the user in a list of screenshots with accompanying segments.

“Video publishing on the Web is exploding, making it frustrating and difficult for consumers to find and discover what they want”, said Lior Delgo, CEO of VideoSurf.  “VideoSurf uses propietary, cutting-edge computer vision technology to deliver a vastly improved video search and discovery experience.”

The technology behind VideoSurf will change the face of search as we know it, and makes leaps and bounds on the progress of universal search.  By creating a better way for surfers to discover and watch videos, VideoSurf wants to position themselves as the “go to” place on the web for video search.  From the looks of things so far, they are on the right track.  Below is an overview of the company, followed by their presentation at TechCrunch 50:

CrunchBase Information

VideoSurf

Lior Delgo

A big thank you to Paulo Coelho for inspiring the title of this blog post. For anyone not living in an isolation bunker,  the past few weeks have been some of the most tremulous times for the financial sector in America. Several clients and friends have asked me what they should do about search marketing, now that budgets are shrinking.

Every industry reacts differently in tough economic times, but there are a few points that are crucial to almost everyone.

1. DON’T PULL BACK.

I usually don’t use all caps in my writing, but this is a place where it is warranted in a big way. Any business that pulls out of Search Engine Marketing in this economy is being suicidal. Why the strong words, you say? Well, every product and service is going to be searched for on the web. People are not spending on the magazines and other publications you have been thinking of investing in. If someone wants to buy your product or service, they will be looking for it on the web.

2. Make it easy to buy.

All ecommerce aspects of your website need scrutiny. Stop all leaks in your shopping cart; find out what makes people leave your website. If someone is willing to spend on you in this economy, the last thing you need is a shopping cart or booking engine that doesn’t work properly.

3. Give incentives, don’t discount.

Let’s talk Retail, since the 2008 holiday season is upon us. This year is going to be different as people are cinching their belts tighter than ever. Give them a reason to choose you over the 10,000 other companies that are selling in your industry vertical.  There is a big difference between offering an incentive versus a discount. In my opinion, discounting has never worked in favor of any business. “Create value, incentivize and sell” should be your motto during these tough times.

4. Clean up your act.

All the website-related projects that you have postponed during the boom times need to come back to life. Invest in developing your website so that it stands out from the competition. Get the redesign you never got around to because you were too busy; get a better shopping cart; write new content. Don’t let sales slip through the cracks in your website: now it the time to control your bounce rate and abandonment rate!

5. It’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) crunch time.

So basically, the words you are looking for are “Thank You.” Downturn is a great time for businesses to connect with their customers. Let them know you appreciate their business. Taking  time to write an extra thank you note goes a long way.

Nothing lasts forever; the markets will rise again. But for now, there is no escaping the market conditions. The businesses that stay resilient and build their brand during these rough times will be poised to really flourish during boom times. So wipe away the gloom and start positioning yourself as a market leader.