Email Marketing Belize

There is so much emphasis on social networking and email marketing in Caribbean web marketing that one of the most important tools is often left out of the picture: Trip Advisor. This user friendly tool has come to play a pivotal role in a guest's choice of Belize hotel reservation that those who aren't using the tool, or aren't using the tool properly, are missing out on potential customers. Here are some simple tips and tricks to using Trip Advisor.

Use it!
This likely seems silly, but there are still resorts that aren't using Trip Advisor to help promote themselves. Guests take other traveler's reviews and opinions very seriously, and you want to have as many channels open as possible to support that feedback, both good and bad. Trip Advisor is a great way to respond to those guests who had some sort of negative experience with your resort and show that you genuinely care about your guests.

Be Honest
Put yourself in the shoes of the guest. You read a resort description that said "Olympic sized swimming pool and breathtaking views." Upon arrival, you are shocked to see that the "Olympic sized pool" is actually no bigger than your bathtub and the "breathtaking view" is of the hotel parking lot. No one likes to be lied to, especially when there's money involved. 

Be Unique
In the description for your Belize resort, focus on what sets you apart. Do you offer special tours? Packages for wedding parties or newlyweds? Have a great restaurant? Focus on these unique assets. Guests will be much more interested in these perks than the fact that your room comes with an AM/FM alarm clock.

Keep it Up
As your resort grows and changes, so should your Trip Advisor page. This is not a tool that you should create and then forget about; it should get as much attention as your social networking sites (which we hope are getting lots of attention). Post pictures of new features, update rates, and respond to comments on a regular basis to get the most from your page. On that same note, Trip Advisor is constantly coming out with new tools and features to improve their site (click here to read about their new direct email tool), so make sure you are staying up to date on all that is available to you through your business account.

What's your best kept secret about Trip Advisor? Share a comment below and help your fellow resort owners!

Trip Advisor is working hard to make their resort marketing site more user friendly for both the guest and the Belize resort owner. 

Recent updates to their system make it even easier for your guests to redeem special offers that you have posted on your TripAdvisor page. Now customers will be able to email you directly from the website; a feature never available before. 

For online travel shoppers, this means convenience. It means not having to search or call for any additional information. For you, the resort owner, this means another opportunity to engage and convert them to guests and the potential for additional email marketing (Click here to read more about successful email marketing).

Using this new TripAdvisor tool is easy:
1) Go into your "Management Center" of your Business Account.
2) Under the Business Listings status window, click the link next to Special Offer.
3) Select “Create a Special Offer” and fill in the details in Step 1.
4) In Step 2, select the email redemption option and provide an email address.
5) Set the dates for the offer then preview and post it.

It's that simple! You've now set up an email offer for your potential guests. Here are some additional suggestions from Trip Advisor to make the most out of email redemption and special offers:

-   Make booking easy: Provide your travelers with as many redemption options as possible, including email.

-   Provide a unique email address: To see how successful your offer is, use a dedicated address for each offer, then track the emails you receive to each one.

-   Respond promptly: Travelers consider an average of seven Belize hotels before booking. To rise above the competition, respond as quickly as possibly to the traveler’s email. Also, include the original inquiry with your response.

Got more ideas on how to use this new tool to land more Belize hotel reservations or tips on resort marketing? Leave a comment below to share your expertise!

 

 

It is rare that a customer will choose their Belize travel destination in one day. Often guests will browse for days, weeks, or even months before making such a big decision. Hotel booking is a big deal! This is why this next step is so important. In fact, according to Google Travel Research the average online travel shopper will look at 17 different hotel websites before deciding which one to book.

Step 2: Courting the guest through email

When the customer is on your site (which should be fully optimized as we discussed in our last post), you should give them plenty of opportunities to give you their email address. Having a guest’s email address gives you an opportunity to remind them of you throughout their resort shopping.

There are many ways to collect a guest’s email address. The days of the just enter your email “newsletter signup” are numbered. As a consumer, I sign up for email when I get something in return only.  You can capture more email addresses in more creative ways by offering an incentive to the guest: Things like 10% off, exclusive packages, more details about special savings or add-ons are all valid ideas that provide a good value exchange between your hotel and that consumer shopper. By personalizing these messages, the guest will be more likely to open your emails.

Once you’ve got an email list, what’s next? Here are a few simple rules to remember for this initial email activity:

1. Don’t flood their inbox. It’s great to send a few emails to keep your resort fresh in the guest’s mind, but send to0 often and the guest will get annoyed. We suggest an immediate first email and then 2 or 3 more emails sent over a 30 day period.
2. The most important part of an email is the subject line. Without an interesting subject line, your guest will not open the email.
3. Don't ask for too much. Asking for too much information from a customer right off the bat will turn them off. Asking for simple information such as email address, travel plan date and name should be sufficient in the beginning. 
4. Give all of the options from inside the email. You never want your guest to have to look for anything. Give them the links to everything you think the customer might be interested in: your blog, your homepage, your rates page, and your booking page.
5. Offer incentives. As I mentioned above, guests love a deal. If you can offer the guest an incentive, do. Maybe you offer it after a week or so of their initial site interaction, in hopes of winning them back, or maybe you provide a special discount code right off the bat. The goal is to get guests to book with you, so approach in whatever way you think will best reach that goal.

Ultimately, you'll have the best results if you can just put yourself in the guest's sandals: What information would be most valuable to you? How often would you want to be reached? What sets you apart from other Belize hotels?

Follow this rule of thumb and you're well on your way to wowing guests through email.

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Guest Caye Resort Marketing helps hotels and resorts to improve online marketing and guest experiences to increase bookings and drive higher profitability. Give us a call or send us an email....we would be happy to show you how our proven system builds your business one booking at a time.

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When American and Canadian travelers start planning their Belize vacation, the vast majority start by searching for Belize hotel website using Google, Bing, Yahoo or other search engines. They visit hotel websites looking for the right place at the right price. According to research conducted by Google, the average online travel shopper will visit 17 different hotel websites trying to decide which one will get their online reservation business.

You can improve your odds of gaining this business by offering your web visitors with the option to request information from you by email. Your "Contact Us" form should be clear and easy to use asking for only basic contact information like Name, Email Address and perhaps when they expect to travel. Don't make them fill out a long form asking for every detail of their interests. Make it easy to fill out and provide a big button to submit their request.

In addition, many Guest Caye clients provide an email sign up form right on the home page offering to send information and perhaps special email savings offers in exchange for filling out the simple form. We call this granting email permission to the hotel and this behavior provides an outstanding opportunity to turn that hotel looker into a lucrative hotel booker for your business.

Client Table Rock Jungle Lodge in Cayo, Belize has been using this technique for a few years now with outstanding results. In fact, Table Rock captured an average of two website leads every day in 2012. 15% of these captured travel shoppers leads decided to book their vacation with the eco-resort located along the Macal River near San Ignacio. The result was hundreds of room nights sold generating significant incremental business for the resort.

Guest Caye Resort Marketing provides an automated way to capture traveler leads on your website and automatically send them informative emails to help set your resort apart from their many other choices. Hotels that communicate best win the most online business. If you want to make online lead capture and email nurturing part of your Belize Hote; Marketing program, contact Dan at Guest Caye for a free demonstration.

Every effective hotel website must engage online travel shoppers in about 7 seconds or less, so the quality of your Belize hotel website really matters. Each month, over 50 million people visit TripAdvisor to consider where to take their next trip and thousands every day could be considering your Belize resort hotel.

The question is: Is your website ready to engage travel shoppers and convince them to give you email permission or make their booking reservation immediately?

Here are 3 important requirements that your website should address to increase your odds of winning online bookings at a higher rate:

1. Summarize your location, unique appeal and visual hook at the top of your page. If you fail to pass the 7-second test, you fail to win the attention you need to convince the online travel shopper to put your hotel on their "short list." Crystalize what your hotel resort is about and don't try to be everything to everybody. Carve your niche and communicate it with flair as the most important impression on your home page.

2. Present all the details of your rooms and rates in the same section. Don't make people work to understand what your hotel can offer. Be clear and concise and use attractive photography to showcase the experience your rooms offer to skeptical travelers. Your pricing and booking requirements should be prominently displayed and clearly stated so the shoppers knows the deal with little effort.

3. Take direct online bookings with a modern online booking engine. Too many Belize Resort Hotels make their travel shoppers fill out long and intrusive forms just to find out if the hotel even has availability! STOP. Serve the shopper and she will reward you with booking your hotel directly without the expense of 20-30% commissions charged by the online travel agents.

Every hotel that delivers a remarkable experience can expect to grow their business better with a fully functional, well designed and online booking enabled website. The whole world is your market, so invest in your Internet front door and delight your guests every time. This is the strategy to build your business to higher profitability.

If your hotel or resort in Belize is looking to improve your Internet Marketing Results, contact Guest Caye Resort Marketing for a free consultation. We have helped resorts double their annual occupancy rates with smart Belize hotel marketing that increases revenue and profits.

Belize Hotels offer adventurous travelers with so many opportunities to interact with the natural beauty of the Belize Barrier Reef. Here you can scuba dive, snorkle, or try one of the new technologies available to let you experience the wonder of the reef.

No matter how you decide to experience the underwater world off the coast of Belize, you will never forget the amazing colors and sea life that dazzle your senses. If you want to book a hotel in Belize, check out the Belize Hotel Reservation opportunities you will find at www.BelizeHotels.org, the official site of the Belize Hotel Association. You can search hotel booking options and plan your Belize vacation with ease. Sign up for free emails too!

If you are a resort owner wanting to grow your business, contact Dan at Guest Caye Resort Marketing at dan@guestcaye.com. 

Thanks to our friends and new clients from La Perla del Caribe Villas, Caribbean Villas Hotel and Playa Blanca. Special shout out to DESEO and Rob Ackerley.

More Amazing Videos from Discover Belize Now right here: http://www.youtube.com/user/DiscoverBelizeNow

Smart hotel and resort marketers in Belize and other developing tourism markets have discovered how powerful adding Social Marketing, such as Facebook and Twitter, can be to increasing hotel bookings, driving higher revenue per guest, and prompting higher levels of word of mouth recommendations.

According to a recent industry survey by eMarketer, online travel shoppers who are exposed to messages across multiple channels such as online advertising, email, and social media SPEND MORE on average than travel shoppers only exposed to one communication channel.

To quote the article, "The study found that when consumers were exposed to social media in addition to other online ad formats or marketing channels, such as search, email and display, the average revenue per order for US advertisers was $280.71—more than double the order size compared to the average of all digital channels.

This has important implications for Caribbean travel and tourism marketers. Aligning messages in social media with campaigns running on search engines, travel portal websites or email marketing campaigns can be made more effective by lining up all messages to reinforce one another. The one-two punch of cross channel marketing gives consumers added reasons to choose your hotel and to spend more money once they do so.

Have you coordinated your web marketing and social media marketing so that all messages are reinforcing one another? If not, there is good opportunity to improve the results from your online marketing by doing just that.

Contact us at Guest Caye Resort Marketing in Belize or at our home office in Loveland, Ohio USA and we would be happy to assist you making your Hotel Marketing Strategy work harder to build your sales and profits. Call us at +513 444 4000 or email dan@guestcaye.com. 

According to Forrester Research on Travel Trends, over 60% of travel shoppers use a general search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo when planning travel. Globally, organic search is the most influential marketing channel for online resort marketing followed by paid search, then good old email marketing, social media, meta search and lastly mobile marketing. So what’s a resort or small hotel owner to do?

The Internet was used by approximately 90 million American adults to plan travel during the past year with 76 percent of online travelers planning leisure trips online. Most online travel planners are somewhat or extremely satisfied with their experiences in using the Internet to plan their trips. Importantly, most see the Internet as a very useful or essential tool for planning most aspects of a trip including where to stay overnight, planning travel routes, potential places to visit, attractions to visit, as well as learning about what to do.

Is your hotel software reservation system set up to handle incoming search traffic to maximize booking conversions?

The primary tools online travel shoppers use for travel planning are online travel agency websites (like Expedia and Hotels.com), search engines, hotel websites and destination area websites. Airline tickets, overnight lodging accommodations and car rentals are the dominant travel products and services purchased online by travel planners. (Source: Travelers’ Use of the Internet, 2009)

Google recently reported that 64% of leisure travellers and 65% of business travellers use search engines to begin their travel planning, exemplifying just how key search marketing is. (tnooz - talking travel tech, September 2010)

To be found on the Internet, every independent belize hotel and small resort must define the precise keywords that identify it to the search engines, then make sure your website and inbound links use these keywords, sometimes called “metatags.” Search Engine Optimization has become a billion dollar business, but the core ideas for effective search engine marketing are simple and easy to implement. Don’t fall into the trap of paying thousands of dollars for SEO services that promise top search ranks and can rarely deliver the hype.

Instead, know who you are and what keywords people will use to find YOU. To discover the right keywords for your business, you must begin by thinking like your guest and what they care about most. What words or phrases would they enter into a search engine to find “exactly your hotel?” How would you start a web search to find a similar property to yours located on a different continent?

Need help driving more guests to your website and converting them into newly registered guests? Contact Guest Caye for a free initial consultation at dan@guestcaye.com.

Unfortunately, many online consumers are disappointed by what they find at hotel and resort websites which generally look good but many fall short in providing the modern travel shopper what she expects most: a secure online booking engine with real-time pricing and availability.

Guest Caye experts surfed dozens of Belize hotel websites to better understand the various reservation systems and online sales approaches used by hotel owners to win business directly from travel shoppers. We found a wide variety ranging from "Send Us An Email" to "Book and Pay Widgets."  While hiding the names to protect the innocent, here are several examples of how hotel booking is handled on Belize hotel websites.

The Good
Resort owners that understand what online travel shoppers want have added online technology and email communications to their website. This allows motivated site visitors to book directly with their credit card, recieve an instant and detailed reservation confirmation, and enable the choice of extras and add-on services such as transportation and tours. There are several good systems being used in Belize, though some have weaknesses that may cause some consumers to think twice before completing their online booking.

While many Belize hotels have online reservation systems, there is a lot of room for improvement in the way that online booking is presented to consumers. For example, one site had only one button on their site that takes a visitor to the reservation widget.  Why not place "Book Now" buttons on the rates page and near content about making a reservation.

Once your website visitor actually books a reservation, what happens next? Sending an auto-generated email that is not customized to your business is a mistake. Nearly every online booker will anticipate, open and read your booking confirmation email. Have you taken the time to write an email that reflects your resort's personality? What opportunities for upselling tours or other services are you missing with this all-important guest email?


The Bad
Far too many resort marketing programs fail at the most important stage of the purchase cycle: actual booking of the reservation. Thousands of dollars are spent trying to bring potential guests to a website, but then when the customer is most ready to buy, they find they must fill out a long form or place an international call to a reservation service.

In one case, we called the reservation number only to hear "We are sorry but the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected." Ouch! Even if the reservation service had answered and taken my booking, how much commission do they get for doing something most consumers would rather do directly with you. Don't give your profit margin away to third parties if you don't have to.

We saw many sites displaying large BOOK NOW buttons on their home pages. This is good, but what happens after you click is button is bad in most cases. Instead of seeing the rooms a visitor might book or a calendar to select dates, instead its a big ugly form to fill out. Yuck! These visitors must be thinking, "I wanted to book now like the button said and now I have to do work. I am out of here!" Guide your web visitors to a booking process that includes NO PAIN, NO HASSLE, NO WAITING and NO CONFUSING DEADENDS.

The Ugly
Some resorts seem to think that the World Wide Web is just a fad. They must have decided that the 114,000,000 Americans that go online to plan travel each year are not good prospects. These resort owners have failed to keep their website current which may cause visitors to click to see empty pages or worse, incorrect information. To be competitive, every resort website must have all of the basics covered with a good looking and complete presentation of the property, rooms and prices.

We hear from many hotel owners that it takes a personal touch by phone or email to convince travel shoppers to book at their resort. "People want to ask questions and negotiate for a better deal," one owner told us. That may be true for some guests. However, giving people the tools and information they need to put your resort on the short list should NOT involve needing to contact you by phone or through your contact form. Here is a clip from one unfortunate website....this literally drives online buyers away.


Resorts that take reservations by phone or email only are missing a huge segment of the travel market that prefers the convenience and flexibility of shopping online.

Guest Caye is an innovative online marketing and booking platform that enables small independent resorts, hotels and lodges to gain increased bookings and higher income per guest through web reservations, automated email marketing and superior guest communications.

Interactive marketing technology has come a very long way in the last few years bringing it within reach for small businesses, including Belize hotels, resorts and other Caribbean destinations wanting to improve business results using the Internet.

This video presented by ExactTarget.com, the world's leading email marketing platform, features Guest Caye founder, Dan Heimbrock discussing how ExactTarget technology enables clients to grow sales, attract more new customers, and stay in contact with people to boost word of mouth referrals.




Key points to take away and apply to your resort marketing program.

1. Smart businesses can craft a one-to-one relationship with their customers.
   
2. It can be difficult for business owners to grasp what is working and not working in thier interactive marketing campaigns. You need to see and understand your data in real time.
3. The best thing you can do to improve email and social media results is to know your winners and losers and adjust accordingly.
4. Everything about online marketing can be improved, if you know what is working.
5. Hotels and resorts can create game changing results by applying knowledge and online marketing tools based on ExactTarget technology.

Caribbean web marketing including social media, email marketing, hotel reservation systems and website booking engines are just a few of the important online marketing tools you need to be a successful Belize hotel or resort.

Guest Caye is an innovative online marketing and booking platform that enables small independent resorts, hotels and lodges to gain increased bookings and higher income per guest through web reservations, automated email marketing and superior guest communications.

1. Create Brand Synergy. Utilize your current brand elements to create a cohesive online brand experience. You should reflect the look and feel of your website.
2. Watch your Image and Text ratio. Images may look really good, but too many divert attention from your message and may cause your email to be too large for and blocked from some email inboxes. Images should balance and complement your text content. And every image should contain alt-text because some email clients default to NOT showing your images unless the reader clicks to display them.
3. Use Tables. For consistent display and better control of your email layout, use tables when writing your HTML or when formatting your content within Guest Caye's Email Editor. Check out these resources on Coding HTML for email vs. websites.
4. Format Your Images Well. Use photo editing programs to edit images to proper size and save the edited images in your email images portfolio. For best rendering results use JPEG or GIF file types.  Most images should not be larger than 300 pixels by 500 pixels....the ideal size may be 250x250.
5. Use Plain Text and Web-Safe Fonts. Text from websites or word processors include formatting that cause rendering issues when pasted into your email. Copy your text into a Plain Text Editor such as Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac) and format your text using web-safe fonts.
6. Send Clear Messages. Before you begin writing, think about what goal you have for the reader's behavior. Use a Call-to-Action to encourage a response from your subscribers.
7. Optimize Your Content. Adding background colors to images and including styled "alt" tags will allow your subscribers to experience your content when images are blocked.
   
8. Design for the Subscriber Experience. Organize your content so readers can grasp your message and take action. If your copy doesn't add to building strong reasons for taking action, cut it and write it again.
9. Be CAN-SPAM Compliant. Laws are in effect in the United States and Canada that govern what you can and cannot do with email marketing. Read up on these important rules here.
10. Test Every Email Before You Click Send. Errors can reduce your message's effectiveness and your brand's credibility. Here's a testing checklist.

BONUS TIP: Get Social. Integrate social media into your email design.

Thank you to our business partners at ExactTarget for this excellent information.