Internet Marketing – Regaldive
A large travel business acquired a small, independent tour operator to add to their portfolio of diverse travel brands. Despite 15 years’ growth and many loyal customers, this specialist operator now needed to accelerate the recruitment of new customers and expand sales profitably. The website was a key medium in need of redevelopment.
A key reason for initiating this website development was the evidence that more people now research their travel options online prior to booking. The objectives for the new site were to hook in new customers and encourage frequent visits from both new and existing customers. My strategy was to increase the quality and quantity of content for readers and to optimise natural search engine rankings. This included introducing a relational database that was quick and easy to search for all holiday options. The quality of the copy and images was improved and updated, making the style and language relevant to the specific target audience. I drafted the copy, selected images and completed the final edit.
The enhanced content included an online web magazine provided topical news and articles, as well as competitions and offers for holidays and related products. Interaction was encouraged with a bulletin board to create a community for like-minded travelers. A password protected area for the loyalty club facilitated special offers. We actively recruited more names to the email database and sent monthly email alerts for the web magazine and last minute offers. A Content Management System allowed immediate posting of late availability. Affiliate links provided even more products and services such as airport hotels and car parking.
By using relevant keywords in the copy and meta text, plus tactical domain name purchases, we achieved top five rankings in the key search engine listings. I was astonished to see the website traffic increased by 400%, from a monthly average of around 4000 Unique Users to over 20,000. This continued over a period of 12 months largely due to the successful web magazine, Web Diver. Over 90% of the traffic came from direct navigation and web links, making it a very cost effective way to find new customers. Despite periods of generally poor travel sales, due to terrorism and military activity, the traffic remained high. We made use of the site to keep customers informed about travel guidelines and safety issues.
Such immediate commercial success was a clear demonstration of the power of the internet as a tactic for acquiring new potential customers. It also proved to be a cost-effective means of building trust and maintaining a relationship especially through turbulent times when terrorism deflated the public’s confidence to travel abroad. I was impressed when The Sunday Times voted the website in their Top 50 Travel Websites, being up against some industry heavyweights with far bigger brands and budgets than ours.
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