Online search is powerful because you do not hunt for customers, they hunt for you. You choose the keywords and the e-traveller chooses you. So you not only sell what your customers want but you also sell it when your target market is really actively looking for it. Stop spending thousands on brochures that have a very low conversion rate. The Internet is the way to go with tourism marketing - one in three tourists book their trip online.
You can also spend money advertising your website on popular tourism websites - it is one solution but it will not promise more traffic nor conversion. You want to be where consumers are looking for you - and in their search, at least 50% start with Google. This is why you need to be promoting your website within search engines.
You might have been recommended to conduct electronic direct mail campaigns (blasting your email database with special offers). The downturn with this method is that it only reaches your existing customers who might not be looking for your tourism product since they have already experienced it. Moreover, these emails are often considered as spam and are not even read. In 2007, paid search (aka Pay Per Click) outperformed email marketing tactics. Why? Paid search targets people who are hunting for you there and then as your ad is a response to their search query.
The first thing that springs to our clients' mind when we mention the e-marketing word is online booking platforms such as Wotif.com as well as their own booking engine on their website. However, online booking platforms are just one division of the online marketing possibilities in the tourism industry.
Search engine Marketing means paying for promoting your website. The most effective way to sell these last few rooms available is through Pay Per Click which simply is the online version of the advertising campaign. The concept is simple: when a user searches for a keyword that you would have pre-defined, a paid ad will appear (yours).
Vertical search engines - specific to one industry - in this case travel and tourism are also starting to emerge. Imagine how targeted this approach would be for your business.
Google's Australian headquarters in Sydney have a department specialised in tourism that looks after search engine marketing only. Google's search engine marketing program is called Google Adwords.
If your business is in need of new leads or if you follow the "I want it now" mantra then we highly recommend you consider search engine marketing as a complement to your search engine optimisation program.