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......for tour operators |
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| For UK-based tour operators, hypertrails offers web publishing, on-line marketing support , email broadcasts, and site audits. | |
| Web Publishing
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Specialist tour operators usually trade heavily on their 'domain knowledge' - they know a lot about their particular destinations or specialisations. The Internet works very well for these companies, both in
communicating with their existing customers and for acquiring new clients. For existing clients, the web, perhaps combined with an e-mail newsletter, gives a way of alerting customers to new tour programmes, special offers and privileged information. It also provides a cost-effective way, for the first time, for small to medium size companies to market internationally. Overseas clients will take side trips from the UK or fly into the UK to get better prices, or products that are unavailable in their own countries. For some specialist operators more than 50% of their Internet business comes from outside the UK. Many operators in this group do not want to close out sales online. They want to generate high quality, qualified sales leads that they can close over the phone or perhaps by email. The sales dialogue gives them a chance to show their deep product knowledge, without 'giving away the shop' by trying to put all their domain knowledge on-line. This balance of information is a critical success factor in creating an effective web site. |
| On-line Marketing |
Creating a web site is only half the battle. Measures need to be taken to get visitors, and the right sort of visitors, to your site. On-line consumers find sites in a variety of ways. The most common is word of mouth - being referred to the site by a relative or friend. Next is signposting through a search engine or directory. The major search engines are well known to most Internet users. Sites can be listed with them individually, but as usual there are tricks of the trade. ABTAnet has a free listing service, keyword based, for ABTA members' web sites. An operator's specialisation may also give an indication of sites or directories which should be targetted for a listing. A good web site developer should have the industry knowledge to provide this sort of online marketing for its clients. |
| Email broadcasts | Some tour operator products are
not repeat booking products. For these there are limitations to the
efficacy of email broadcasting. For all other operators it should be a
central part of their online marketing.
Broadcasts can be used for sales promotions to previous clients (targeted by interest), or to qualify email addresses collected through untargeted methods. They can be used to trigger 'MGM' (member-get-member) campaigns or for other forms of viral marketing. Responses can be used to guide the organisation of web site content. The key issues are personalisation/ targetting and permission. |
