Online Marketing

International travellers, travel professionals and travel trade are increasingly using the web to do their travel research, demanding current information that is innovative and motivational. The internet is a global platform for communication which allows cheap, fast and cost-effective marketing worldwide.

Having a presence on the internet is not only beneficial, it is essential.

To assist in your online marketing efforts, Tourism New Zealand has invaluable online resources which are easily accessible and free. These online resources act independently of one another, but all combine as an effective marketing tool, suitable for anyone involved in the New Zealand tourism industry.

Tourism New Zealand’s consumer website

Tourism New Zealand’s consumer website www.newzealand.com receives more than 300,000 user sessions per year. By registering for free on the site you will be connecting with thousands of potential visitors.

Through www.newzealand.com we aim to:

• influence where visitors choose to take holidays

• aid holiday planning

• assist decision making.

We do this by connecting consumers directly with tourism businesses through the operator listings. These roles have been enhanced by the new travel planner tool.

Travel planner

The travel planner increases the profile of individual operator listings even further by allowing www.newzealand.com users (consumers) to collect each individual operator listing they wish to experience.

The travel planner allows users to collect activities, transport, accommodation and event listings from across the website, displaying a calendar and map. It also gives them the ability to share their collection with friends and family.

Listing your business or event

By listing a business or event on www.newzealand.com you have the opportunity to become part of Tourism New Zealand’s global marketing campaign, providing potential visitors with your business details and linking them to your website.

Visit www.register.nztb.co.nz and complete the online registration form today. Listings take about ten days to be approved, and there is no cost involved.

Listed operators are required to log in and check their details once every 12 months. Creating a listing is free, but an email and contact phone number which are answered regularly are essential.

If you don’t have a website you can still list on www.newzealand.com with details such as: description of service, contact details, a map, photo, Qualmark© rating and Tourism Award (if applicable).

Tourism New Zealand’s travel trade website

The trade-specific database is the ultimate resource for all travel professionals based overseas and involved with promoting, planning or booking travel to New Zealand.

This tool allows travel professionals to gain a more accurate view of products provided in New Zealand, with detailed information specifying interests, facilities offered, language support, and months of operation, special requirements, latest updates and newest products.

www.newzealand.com/travel/trade

Trade listings

Trade listings provide the advantage of being regularly used and extremely beneficial to international and domestic travel trade, thus giving operator listings further exposure.

Trade listings can be created at the same site as consumer listings, www.register.nztb.co.nz . After creating a consumer listing simply select ‘add new trade focused information’ to create a trade listing.

Developing a website

Developing a website will require some upfront and ongoing costs. These generally fall into the following areas:

• Purchasing your domain name - visit www.yourbusiness.co.nz . As with your email address, it’s a good idea to keep the name as short and simple as possible

• Site hosting costs. These are generally paid monthly to the company that keeps your website online. They are known as the internet service provider (ISP)

• Web design and development

• Ongoing maintenance - you can choose to do some of this internally

• Software to manage your website, ie. financial, sales, customer relations.

Security

If you take bookings through your website it is vital that you have a ‘Secure Server Certificate’. This will protect consumers’ credit card details when they book online through your site. Your web design company will be able to organise this for you.

Content

Your website should be recognisable as coming from the same business as your print marketing material. It should be part of the same brand family in terms of its visual appearance, tone and content.

Try to write in short, simple sentences. In general, people scan information when looking at websites rather than reading in-depth. Keep paragraphs short and highlight key points to make them stand out.

The website should be laid out logically from the point of view of the user. A simple website layout could contain the following web pages:

• Homepage - a high-impact image and brief comment about the business

• About Us - brief information about you and your business

• Product details - different products on offer

• Prices

• Contact Us - details of how to book and pay for your product and how to get more information if required.

Content needs to be accurate and updated regularly.

Linking to other websites

Getting your website and business details listed on other relevant websites is a good way to gain exposure for your operation and draw people to your website. As well as Tourism New Zealand’s consumer website and travel trade website, other relevant sites you could consider linking your website to are:

• Regional Tourism Operators - most RTOs have their own websites which you can list on. Some will charge for this service

• Qualmark© - if you are a member they will list your details on their website www.qualmark.co.nz

• Tourism Industry Association - if you are a member they will list your details on their website www.tianz.org.nz

• Complementary businesses - ask that they add your website and business details into their related links section; if you have your own website you can reciprocate

• Commercial tourism websites - there is a range of commercial tourism websites which list businesses. Many will charge for this.

When choosing which commercial tourism websites you list on use the same criteria you use when making other advertising decisions. You can also assess:

• How many users the site gets each month (go by ‘user sessions’ - the number of times people have visited the site or ‘unique users’, the number of different people who have visited the site, rather than ‘hits’)

• Which markets or regions the site’s visitors come from - does this match your target market?

• Other listings on the site - do these fit with your business and branding?

• How the site is promoted.

Promoting your website

A website is only as good as its promotion. Include your website address on all your other communication tools, ie. business cards, letterhead, print advertisements. Link to other relevant websites, as discussed above, and submit your site to search engines.

Search engines

Search engines are the most common way that people will search for information on the internet.

Some of the top search engines which send traffic to www.newzealand.com are:

www.google.com

www.google.co.nz

search.yahoo.com

www.google.co.uk

www.google.com.au

www.search.msn.com

You can do a lot to improve the chances of your website coming up first in the list when a web user searches for a specific term. This is known as search engine optimisation.

For more information on search engines and search engine optimisation see www.bruceclay.com

e-Marketing

As your business grows you can build a database of your customers. Consider giving your customers a feedback form to fill in as they leave. This will give you valuable feedback and contact details.

You could also email your visitors a ‘thank you for visiting’ message. This is a good way of reminding them how fantastic their experience with you was, so they will recommend you to friends and family.

Once you have a reasonable list, consider doing some proactive email marketing. Since these people have already visited you once, they are a good target for a second visit.

Only email people who have agreed to receive further company information from you as unsolicited email is likely to be viewed as unwanted spam. Include media contacts, Regional Tourism Organisations and local i-SITEs on your mailing list so you can keep them up-to-date with your product.

It’s a good idea to develop a simple template you can use for a newsletter or update. Keep the look and tone consistent with your other marketing material.

Technically, the following are some good guidelines for email marketing:

• Keep email contacts private by entering them in the BCC (blind carbon copy) line

• Put a pertinent subject in the subject line - don’t leave it blank

• Always give an option to withdraw from your email list

• Focus on something new or different or include a special offer only for email recipients

• Don’t email too frequently

• Ensure the file size is small and the design isn’t too busy so it will download quickly

• Keep the content short and punchy and remember to get someone else to proof read it before sending.