This episode is based on a vertical trends report produced by Google as well as Revinate’s latest email marketing trends study.
Also see our notes on last year’s study: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-98-takeaways-revinates-2018-global-hotel-email-marketing-report/">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-98-takeaways-revinates-2018-global-hotel-email-marketing-report/</a>
DOWNLOAD THE  2019 LEISURE TRAVEL STUDY: <a title="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/2019-leisure-travel-trends-study/" href="https://gate.sc?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffueltravelstg.wpengine.com%2F2019-leisure-travel-trends-study%2F&amp;token=db645d-1-1562683814389" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.fueltravel.com/2019-leisure-tr…l-trends-study/</a>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/657708953%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-Ec3dN&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
SHOW NOTES:
Google’s Vertical Trends
Google’s trend report is for Q1 of 2019 for hotel, motel and resort paid keywords.
&nbsp;
Devices:
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Overall, the number of search queries was down 1% compared to last year, with 60% of searches performed on a mobile phone.</li>
<li>Mobile queries have increased 15% YoY, and CTR increased 3% to 9.5%. Ad Depth is up 3% to 2.8 (why is this a red indicator??). CPC remained even, at $0.95</li>
<li>Desktop queries are down 19%, however CTR increased 8% to 8.1%. Ad Depth is up 46% to 2.4 (also red). CPC up 10% to $1.81</li>
<li>Tablet queries are down 8%, CTR increased 9% to 8.1%. Ad depth is down 3% to 3.2 (this is green). CPC up marginally, at 2% for $1.15</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Takeaway: Mobile traffic continues to increase, is well over the majority of traffic, has the highest CTR, and is currently cheaper CPC than other devices.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Seasonality:
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Q1 saw a slight dip in both queries and impressions vs. 2018, but was slightly above that of 2017</li>
<li>Clicks were higher than both 2017 and 2018, with traffic peaking in March</li>
<li>CPC steadily rose throughout the first quarter, passing over the CPC of 2018 in March. CPC remained below 2017 for all three months</li>
<li>CTR steadily rose throughout the quarter, and was above 2018 and 2017 for all three months</li>
<li>Ad Depth had a very slight decline from January to March. It was well above 2018 for all 3 months, but slightly below 2017</li>
<li>In the last 4 years, CPCs were in the range of $1.13-$1.26 and peaked in May.</li>
<li>Category searches have consistently peaked in July.</li>
<li>Google’s forecast for the next 2 months shows an expected high for queries during the week of 7/23 and high for CPC the week of 9/10 based on last year’s trends.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Takeaway: In spite of increased ad depth, CTR is up vs. last year, however, volume is down </li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Revinate’s 2019 Hotel Email Marketing Benchmark Report
&nbsp;
Why email?
<ul>
<li>Measureable</li>
<li>Personalized</li>
<li>Highest ROI (4X higher than other channels)</li>
<li>Millennials (will be 50% of world’s hotel guests, and lead the way in making purchasing decisions based on email)</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Segmentation:
<ul>
<li>Open rate of emails sent to &lt;5,000 recipients was 24% vs. 10% for &gt;50K</li>
<li>CTR was 3% vs. 1%</li>
<li>Conversion rate was 0.3% vs. 0.07%</li>
</ul>
Sample math:
Hotel sends 1 email to 50K people with 0.07% CR = 3,500 reservations
Hotel sends 10 segmented emails to 5K people each with a 0.37% CR = 18,500 reservations
Takeaway: Don’t be overly concerned with the vanity metric of open rate, but DO be aware of the engagement/conversion rate of these segmented send. Highly engaged subscribers due to segmentation can send positive signals to Gmail, etc. that will help keep your messages out of the spam folders.
&nbsp;
Automated Messages:
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Automated booking modification and confirmation emails had a 72% open rate and 26% CTR</li>
<li>Welcome emails had a 50% open rate and 16% CTR</li>
<li>Pre-arrival emails had a 61% open rate and 30% CTR</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>OTA win back messages had a 34% open rate, 7% CTR, and 0.59% CR</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Takeaway: Automation for confirmation, pre-arrival post-stays is a no-brainer. HOWEVER, these are not set it and forget it messages. They need to be audited, tested and updated as needed, especially pre-arrival messages that can be used to upsell and cross-sell based on inventory.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
When to Send:
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Study analyzed 32 million global reservations</li>
<li>30% of reservations were made 0-6 days out</li>
<li>Day of week: In the US and Canada, Monday had best conversion rate, but Fridays had the best open rate (with next to last place for CR).</li>
<li>Time of day: 6PM for US and Canada with 23% open rate and 0.42% CR</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Takeaway: Use your own data, and use <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/ai-powered-crm/">Fuel eCRM</a> to send to subscribers based on their individual habits.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Devices:
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>41% of emails opened on a phone</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>21 % via Webmail</li>
<li>18% desktop</li>
<li>11% tablet</li>
<li>10% other (what else is there??)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Takeaway: Do we even need to say anything about this?</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Find Revinate’s study here: <a href="https://www.revinate.com/benchmark/marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.revinate.com/benchmark/marketing/</a>
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>Microsoft Ads Rolls Out Experiments For A/B Testing 
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-advertising-rolling-out-experiments-a-b-testing-tool-globally-319725" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-advertising-rolling-out-experiments-a-b-testing-tool-globally-319725</a></li>
<li>Google Short Names bug 
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-shortnames-bug-persists-despite-google-insisting-its-fixed-319900" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/google-shortnames-bug-persists-despite-google-insisting-its-fixed-319900</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 118 – Breaking Down PPC And Email Trends From Google And Revinate

If you tuned in to last week’s episode where we reviewed the 2019 Leisure Travel Study you’ll know we talked a lot about the ever-changing habits of our guests. However, not everything a guest does is constantly changing. In this episode, we look at a famous quote from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and discuss what it means for hotel marketers.
DOWNLOAD THE  2019 LEISURE TRAVEL STUDY: <a title="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/2019-leisure-travel-trends-study/" href="https://gate.sc?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffueltravelstg.wpengine.com%2F2019-leisure-travel-trends-study%2F&amp;token=db645d-1-1562683814389" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.fueltravel.com/2019-leisure-tr…l-trends-study/</a>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/652061258&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
SHOW NOTES:
Full article can be found at <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/jeff-bezos-secret-to-hotel-marketing-success/">fueltravel.com/blog/jeff-bezos-secret-to-hotel-marketing-success/</a>
Jeff Bezos’ famous quote on the success of Amazon is “The secret to that is to focus on the things that don’t change in your business.”  The example he specifically used was, “So people today want fast shipping. And they’re going to want faster and faster shipping in 10 years… so that’s going to matter today and tomorrow.”
<h3>1: Guests Will Continue To Follow The Path of Least Resistance</h3>
Your hotel guests are not necessarily lazy, but just like the rest of the world, they are going to take the easiest path to a decision (aka trip).  The good news is we humans have been this way for millennia and we don’t see that changing anytime soon.
<h3>2: Guest Will Always Want To Feel Like They Got A Fair Deal</h3>
Offer your guest the best deal going, always.  This is a non-negotiable rule in any service business.  You may not always have the best price (OTAs can be tricky), but your “deal” should always be the best.
<h3>3: Guests Will Continue To Tell Their Friends And Family About Their Vacation</h3>
We’re social creatures and we love to share good and exciting news with our friends.  While the means we share is always changing, the fact that we share does not. This means as hoteliers we need to make it easy on the guest (see #1) to share the story we want.
<h3>4: Guests Are Creatures Of Habit</h3>
People will always be creatures of habit and return to what they feel already works.  The great news is that means every guest at your property is very likely to return, all you need to do is not screw it up!
<h3>5: As A Hotelier, Your Job Is Always Going To Be To Serve Your Guest</h3>
Just like the hotelier that offered Mary and Joseph room in a barn a few thousand years ago, today’s hotel operator’s job is to serve the guest needs.  You will need to get creative, caring, attentive, and proactive in making sure your guests feel so welcome that they can’t help by want to stay and return for years to come.
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 117 – What Hotel Marketers Can Learn From Amazon’s Secret To Success

Each year, Fuel publishes a comprehensive leisure travel study that takes a look into why people travel and how they make their purchase decisions. The data revealed by the study offers incredible value to the hospitality industry as it provides a clear picture of what people are looking for when they are performing their travel research.
In this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, the Fueligans breakdown the most surprising and the most important stats from the 2019 study and discuss the biggest opportunities that exist for hoteliers who want to take advantage of this information.
DOWNLOAD THE STUDY: <a title="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/2019-leisure-travel-trends-study/" href="https://gate.sc?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffueltravelstg.wpengine.com%2F2019-leisure-travel-trends-study%2F&amp;token=db645d-1-1562683814389" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.fueltravel.com/2019-leisure-tr…l-trends-study/</a>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/648622082&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
SHOW NOTES:
Here are each of the Fueligan&#8217;s top 8 lists:
Phil’s list:
<ol>
<li>86.7% Of respondents said they visit the hotel’s website prior to booking. This is much higher than anticipated. To me this means hotels with high percentages of OTA bookings need to evaluate their website and booking engine experience and determine why someone would rather book on an OTA rather than book direct. If it’s not price, it’s almost certainly something off-putting with he experience</li>
<li>almost 44% of respondents said they start their journey on a search engine. This is why you need SEO/PPC. You should also be running on non-brand keywords and use an attribution model that will allow you to see how many of your ads someone views before booking.</li>
<li>I was surprised that people started their decision making process on OTAs and not TripAdvisor. (18.3% on OTAs compared to 4.9% on TripAdvisor)</li>
<li>Between 40-50% of people are checking the hotel’s facebook page prior to booking. How are you managing your facebook page as a hotelier? Are you trying to use it as a tool to drive direct bookings</li>
<li>I expected to see desktop higher than mobile for booking but I expected mobile to be higher than desktop for research and it wasn’t. I was also shocked at the percentage of people who say they use a tablet. That just doesn’t line up with what we see in our data, but it just goes to show that you need a good experience on all devices because people are using them</li>
<li>Reasons people travel? 31% say because they “simply needed a vacation” this was much higher than I thought. We did see write in responses for wedding, anniversary, family reunion. We should include those types of answers next time but I expected those type of answers to be higher than simply needed a vacation. Maybe this is something you can test in your email and adcopy messaging.</li>
<li>86% of under 35s are booking online compared to 72% overall. This makes me think we will continue to see the percentage of phone bookings continue to drop</li>
<li>only 38% base their travel dates around price. I thought this would be much higher.</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
Melissa’s List:
<ol>
<li>87% of people visited the hotel website</li>
<li>How many sites do they look at? 42% said 3-5 &#8211; way lower than what Google says. But also, is this really true? Probably at least 1 OTA, TripAdvisor (62% looked at some type of 3rd party site from another question’s stats), hotel website…but shouldn’t there be more than 1 hotel website?</li>
<li>Mobile apps &#8211; Would you use them to…biggest difference in Millennials vs. avg. &#8211; a 15-20 point spread across each item</li>
<li>95.1% believe hotel website reviews</li>
<li>79% will not book without reading reviews&#8230;BUT that’s 4% down from last year</li>
<li>Where do they start research? 44% with search engines &#8211; only 5% with TripAdvisor, but most influential more evenly spread</li>
<li>Where are reviews used in process? 37% throughout process</li>
<li>Smart speakers/voice assistant: just not important for hotels right now.</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
Stuarts List:
<ol>
<li>6.7% of all travelers visit the hotel’s website prior to making a booking.</li>
<li>68.6% do not want a smart speaker in their hotel room.</li>
<li>81% of under 35s would use a mobile app to check in.</li>
<li>95.1% trust reviews on the hotel’s own website.</li>
<li>The average number of different websites visited prior to booking is 5.2.</li>
<li>The average time spent planning a leisure vacation is 26 days.</li>
<li>79% will read reviews prior to booking</li>
<li>35% will visit a hotel’s Facebook page prior to booking vs. instagram at 12%</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
Pete’s List:  (he decided to do it in reverse order for some reason) 

8 &#8211; The number 1 stat on the report is 2019
7 &#8211; No one really cares about smart speakers
6 &#8211; 50.1% of users are inspired to travel by friends
5 &#8211; 66% of all planning is done within 90 days
4 &#8211; You only have 26 days to close the sale
3 &#8211; 81% want to check in with an app
2 &#8211; 51.4% look at your FB profile
1 &#8211; 86.7% visit your site before booking
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>TripAdvisor: Only Pay for Sponsored Ads if the user reaches the booking engine. Hotel pays for the sponsored ad click based on # of available rooms, market, competition. If the user hits the TripAdvisor property page the Official Site is guaranteed 1st slot. The hotel would then pay for that click also. The cost of that click is based on whatever their set bid is.</li>
<li>Expedia Alerting Hotels When Guest Flights Are Delayed: 
<a href="https://skift.com/2019/06/27/expedia-to-connect-travelers-with-hotels-when-their-flights-are-delayed/">https://skift.com/2019/06/27/expedia-to-connect-travelers-with-hotels-when-their-flights-are-delayed/</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 116 – You’ll Be Shocked By These Insights From The 2019 Leisure Travel Study

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON TO START LISTENING.
We recently published an article on HotelExecutive.com where we made the argument that over-reliance on OTAs could become an existential problem for hotels if the economy were to take a downturn. Not that OTAs are bad, but many have become comfortable letting the OTAs drive a significant percentage of their demand. In this episode, we dive into the article and discuss its wider implications.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/641313741&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
SHOW NOTES:
READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE: <a href="https://www.hotelexecutive.com/business_review/6165/top-10-ways-to-drive-direct-bookings-in-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">10 ways to drive direct bookings in 2019</a>
Below is a summary:
<ol>
<li>
<h3> Have a Super-Fast Mobile-Friendly Website</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Make Sure Your <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/booking-engine/">Booking Engine</a> Doesn&#8217;t Let You Down</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Use Psychology to &#8220;Nudge&#8221; the Guest to Book</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Offer Incentives to Book Direct and Make Sure They are Visible</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Answer ALL of the Questions the Guest May Have</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Develop an Email Strategy that Doesn&#8217;t Rely on Spray-and-Pray</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Push the OTAs Out of the Way on the Channels They are Hijacking</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Limit What You Give the OTAs Based on Seasonality</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Train Your Staff So That They Can Be Soldiers in the Fight</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Nurture the Relationship with Every Guest</h3>
</li>
</ol>
In conclusion
Everything is going well for the hospitality industry, and has been for more than a decade. This unprecedented period of growth will eventually come to an end and when it does, you have to be self-reliant. Act now by reducing your reliance on third-parties. Spend that little extra time and make that little extra investment to gain more direct bookings and build up your owned assets. When the sword of Damocles does finally fall, you’ll be glad you did and you can sit back and watch your competition struggle to survive.
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>No Newsaroos this week but Jeremy did sing the jingle</li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 115 – Top 10 Ways To Drive Direct Bookings Before OTAs Put You Out Of Business

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON TO START LISTENING.
This week’s episode is a breakdown of an article from Adobe that was recently published on CMO.com. The article takes a look at several travel-related trends that have been aggregated from numerous sources. The fueligans discuss the merits of each stat and provide insight into the impact they may have on hotel marketers.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/636261141&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
SHOW NOTES:
Original article from cmo.com: <a href="https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2017/5/5/15-mind-blowing-stats-about-digital-trends-in-travel-hospitality-tlp-ddm.html#gs.guwjf4">https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2017/5/5/15-mind-blowing-stats-about-digital-trends-in-travel-hospitality-tlp-ddm.html#gs.guwjf4</a>
Planning/Booking Process:
<ol>
<li>In 2018 digital travel sales worldwide increased 10.4% to $694.41 billion. (Source: <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/global-digital-travel-sales-2018">eMarketer</a>) &#8211; Study does not cite how this compares to offline sales</li>
<li>48% of U.S. smartphone users are comfortable researching, booking and planning their entire trip to a new travel destination using only a mobile device. (Source: <a href="https://www.trekksoft.com/en/blog/65-travel-tourism-statistics-for-2019">TrekkSoft</a>)</li>
<li>82% of travel bookings in 2018 were completed via a website or mobile app, without human interaction. (Source: <a href="https://www.trekksoft.com/en/blog/65-travel-tourism-statistics-for-2019">TrekkSoft</a>) &#8211; 51% of revenue generated with no human interaction (directly from study)</li>
<li>Search plays a big role early on in the travel booking journey. In 2018, 31% of accommodation searches started on search engines, up from 23% in 2017. (Source: <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-transport-and-logistics/our-insights/how-to-serve-todays-digital-traveler">McKinsey</a>) &#8211; The travel-shopping journeys that began with search led to purchases more quickly than those that began on the sites of suppliers and intermediaries (directly from study).</li>
<li>69% of travelers said they have used voice search while planning a trip. (Source: <a href="https://marketing.cloud.travelport.com/Global-Digital-Traveler-Research-2018">Travelport</a>)</li>
<li>In North America, 26% of travel searches in the fourth quarter of 2018 occurred on a mobile device. (Source: Sojern) &#8211; Believe this to refer to room searches, not search engine queries</li>
<li>84% of consumers said they book travel through bundling sites like Expedia.com or Kayak vs. going directly to an airline and/or hotel. (Source: <a href="https://www.hotelbusiness.com/study-travelers-want-chatbots-to-assist-with-online-travel-experience/">Humley</a>)</li>
</ol>
On-Site Experience
<ol start="8">
<li>Cosmopolitan Las Vegas found that hotel guests who text its chatbot, Rose, spend up to 30% more money than those who don&#8217;t. (Source: <a href="https://skift.com/wp-content/themes/skift/img/megatrends-2019//Skift-Megatrends-2019.pdf">Skift</a>)</li>
<li>90% of travelers worldwide say they expect a personalized experience when they book their travel. (Source: <a href="https://medium.com/swlh/top-10-travel-industry-trends-in-2019-d43d157de7b9">Medium</a>)</li>
<li>Experience is the name of the game in travel today. In fact, 67% of high-income travelers said they would rather spend their money on activities than a nicer hotel room. (Source: <a href="https://skift.com/wp-content/themes/skift/img/megatrends-2019//Skift-Megatrends-2019.pdf">Skift</a>)</li>
<li>Almost two-thirds of guests (62%) with complaints said unfriendly staff are the most frustrating part of their stay. (Source: <a href="https://www.hotelbusiness.com/study-hotel-guests-rank-unfriendly-staff-as-most-frustrating-part-of-stay/">ALICE</a>)</li>
<li>Nearly one-third (32%) of consumers said they prefer communicating with a hotel by walking up to the concierge, front desk, or other staff member directly. As for how different generations prefer to make special requests, nearly one in every seven (15%) Millennials said they want to text message with hotels, almost one in five (17%) of 35- to 54-year-olds want an email survey from the hotel before they arrive, and roughly two-thirds (66%) of those 55 and older prefer to call hotels directly. (Source: <a href="https://www.hotelbusiness.com/study-hotel-guests-rank-unfriendly-staff-as-most-frustrating-part-of-stay/">ALICE</a>)</li>
<li>77% of airports and 71% of airlines said they are planning major programs or R&amp;D in biometric ID management over the next five years. (Source: <a href="https://www.sita.aero/resources/type/surveys-reports/air-transport-it-insights-2018">SITA</a>)</li>
</ol>
Post-Stay
<ol start="14">
<li>As competition heats up in the travel industry, hotels are increasingly focusing their strategies on building loyalty. In fact, the loyalty efforts of the top five hospitality enterprises grew from 30% to 47% last year. (Source: <a href="https://www.hotel-online.com/press_releases/release/luxury-hotels-whats-their-digital-iq">L2</a>)</li>
<li>More than half of travel apps are deleted after a month. (Source: <a href="https://clevertap.com/blog/2018-benchmarks-for-travel-apps/">CleverTap</a>)</li>
</ol>
Listener Feedback 

Greetings from Sofia, Bulgaria. I am a fan of your podcast – thank you for being so up to date and competent, it is a pleasure to listen to you on the way to work  :).
<ul>
<li>Martina</li>
</ul>
&#8212;&#8212;-
Dear Fueligens, Dear Stuart, Melissa, Pete and Phil,
I discovered your podcast about 4 months ago and I have been catching up with all 113 Episodes since.
The Apple podcast app for some reason plays them based on when the podcast was added.
It was very interesting to hear your story backwards.
Having the Bees being resurrected and figuring out why buttons / goats have to be burned, was really a lot of fun.
I love the great content and appreciate the entertainment. Keep up the amazing work, I’m looking forward to the next shows.
You have really helped me for our Marketing and to understand my Customers (Hotels) better.
Kind Regards and thank you for keeping me informed and entertained on my commute for 4 month.
Elisha
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>Favicons for natural search on mobile 
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-rolling-out-mobile-search-redesign-with-black-ad-label-favicons-for-organic-results-317328" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/google-rolling-out-mobile-search-redesign-with-black-ad-label-favicons-for-organic-results-317328</a></li>
<li>Have App, Will Travel. Like A Local… Hopefully 
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/travel/have-app-will-travel-like-a-local-hopefully.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/travel/have-app-will-travel-like-a-local-hopefully.html</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 114 – 15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Digital Trends In Travel

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON TO START LISTENING.
This is the second episode in our hotel marketing 101 series. In this show, we dig into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and give practical advice about how hotels can drive more direct revenue from organic search.
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Stat Of The Week:
As a percentage of traffic, we see anywhere from 30%-45% from natural search. Varies by property depending on how much PPC they are doing, email marketing, etc. This percentages have remained about the same over the years.
SHOW NOTES:
<h2>What Is SEO?</h2>
In short, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of driving a higher quantity and a higher quality of natural search traffic to your website.
You try to achieve higher quality traffic by targeting keywords that people typically search before booking a hotel. You achieve a higher quantity of that traffic by improving your rank for those target keywords.
<h2>I thought that SEO was dead. Why should I care about SEO?</h2>
Google is always changing and every time an update is announced the industry will cry that SEO is dead. It’s not dead. It likely will never die. But tactics will inevitably change.
Why should you care about SEO? Because if you become complacent, your competition will surpass you in rankings because they will be paying attention to the new tactics and ever changing ranking factors.
<h2>How has Google improved their algorithm over the past 5 years, and how has the SERP changed?</h2>
As we mentioned, Google is constantly tweaking the algorithm to provide what they consider to be more relevant results to searchers. They are also constantly changing how they display search results to searchers. Over the past 5 years Google has:
<ul>
<li>Taken a mobile first approach:
<ul>
<li>Values fast sites that are easy to use on mobile devices.</li>
<li>They’re devaluing sites that include intrusive interstitials on mobile devices</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>They have put an emphasis on security by giving secure sites higher value.</li>
<li>They have become better at evaluating content and give more value to unique, high quality content</li>
<li>They have cleaned up local search packs and map results by removing spammy and duplicate listings and giving value to high quality, accurate listings.</li>
<li>They devalue sites that are trying to game their algorithm by using blackhat tactics such as keyword stuffing and backlink schemes</li>
<li>Google will never tell us exactly what they’re changing in their algorithm because they don’t want to give away their secret sauce, but we do know that both major and minor updates happen on a regular basis.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The SERP, or Search Engine Results Page, is also an ever-changing landscape. This is especially true in the hotel space.</h2>
<ul>
<li>Years ago, Google removed Ads from the right rail of the SERP and shifted from 3 ads to 4 on the top of the SERP, pushing organic listings further down.</li>
<li>They increased the number of headlines, descriptions and extensions which make ads much more prominent</li>
<li>They have increased the size and functionality of maps and hotel listings which also pushed organic listings down further.</li>
<li>They have added featured snippets which answer commonly asked questions within an answer box at the top of the page so users don’t even need to visit a site to get the information they’re looking for</li>
<li>If you pogo-stick back to SERP the listing you just clicked on will have a “related searches” box below it</li>
<li>They have increased the amount of “related searches” at the bottom of SERPs</li>
<li>They’ve added aggregate rating next to organic hotel listings</li>
<li>We’re now seeing Google test out a box that shows rates by night for hotels</li>
<li>And per our newsaroo&#8230; favicons are showing next to organic listings on mobile</li>
</ul>
<h2>What’s Next For SEO?</h2>
<ul>
<li>Mobile experience will likely become an increasingly important ranking factor</li>
<li>We should expect Google to continue testing new SERP features that will make their ads more prominent and push organic listings further down the SERP</li>
<li>Google will be keeping more searchers within their funnel (like GHA) and organic traffic will likely continue to decline</li>
<li>More SERP features and results will be driven by schema markup, including voice searches</li>
<li>We will see an increase in question based queries due to voice search.</li>
<li>Page speed will continue to be an important ranking factor</li>
<li>Quality, relevant links will continue to be an important ranking factor</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/services/hotel-seo/">Hotel SEO</a> &#8211; Beginner’s Guide</h2>
<h3>Crawling &amp; Indexing</h3>
<ul>
<li>Crawlers are used by search engines to comb through the code and content on websites and understand what kind of information the site is providing.</li>
<li>They visit new pages via internal links. For instance they will hit the homepage, they will see the links in the main nav, they will visit those pages linked to from the homepage. Once on the main nav pages they will visit and crawl pages linked to from those main nav pages, etc.</li>
<li>Once the search engines understand the content, they may add it to their index. Once a page is indexed it has the ability to rank for queries. The more relevant your content is to the query, the more likely you are to rank.</li>
</ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3>The Algorithm</h3>
<ul>
<li>Google constantly runs tests on the algorithm.</li>
<li>They also personalize results to individuals</li>
<li>The big 3: Content, Links, RankBrain</li>
<li>Hundreds of other factors.</li>
<li>Hotels should not chase the algorithm, they should focus on providing the best online experience.</li>
</ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3>On-Page SEO</h3>
<ul>
<li>Title tags &amp; meta descriptions</li>
<li>Header hierarchy</li>
<li>10x content</li>
<li>Content freshness</li>
</ul>
<h2></h2>
<h3>XML Sitemap</h3>
<ul>
<li>An xml sitemap is a map of all the important pages on your website.</li>
<li>This is not necessarily available to the average site visitor. Instead it is a list of pages you submit to search engines that you want to be crawled.</li>
<li>Another way to guide crawlers through your site is through robots.txt. You can use your robots.txt file to tell crawlers which pages they should crawl and which pages they should skip.</li>
</ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Keyword Research</h3>
<ul>
<li>One of the most important pieces of SEO is knowing what terms you’re trying to rank for</li>
<li>Your brand is obvious, but think of other differentiators your hotel offers that you could include in your content
<ul>
<li>Things like pet friendly, glamping, indoor pools, weddings, proximity to sports/concert venue, etc</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Once you have a list of keywords you want to rank for you should look at the other sites competing in search results for those keywords. Find other variations of your target keyword they are using so you know what you need to include in your content. Find out if many of them are including lots of images or videos that you should also have. Basically you’re trying to understand how to make your content better than theirs. Make sure your content is answering the query you want to answer to the best of your ability.</li>
<li>You should be including those keywords from your research in you page title, meta description, header tags, on page content, alt tags (if it makes sense), URL (if possible)
<ul>
<li>It is important not to go overboard with this. If it feels like you’re including your target keyword too many times, you probably are</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Schema Markup</h3>
<ul>
<li>Schema markup is a way to structure the data about your hotel so it’s easy for search engines to understand</li>
<li>This is not visitor facing so users will not see it directly but it’s extremely helpful in letting crawlers get the most out your site.</li>
<li>You can provide basically all of the information about your property through the hotel schema from the name of the business, address, checkin/out times, handicap accessibility, amenities, affiliations, and the list goes on and on.</li>
<li>If your hotel has an on-site restaurant, you can also use the restaurant schema to give more info about the restaurant and draw an association between the two businesses.</li>
<li>If you have a blog you can mark that up with blog and blog post schema to give more detailed information about that additional site content</li>
<li>Another benefit to fully utilizing schema markup is to show your hotel’s aggregate rating and use review stars within Google search results</li>
<li>It also allows voice assistants to answer questions quickly for queries like “Hey Google, What is the checkout time for X-Hotel”</li>
</ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Local Citations</h3>
<ul>
<li>This is the process of getting your business name, address, phone number and URL consistent across the authoritative listing sites on the web.
<ul>
<li>Your website should match what you see on Google My Business, Bing places, Yelp, TripAdvisor, OTAs, Acxiom, Infogroup, Localeze, Best Of The Web, Superpages, HotFrog</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Linking</h3>
<ul>
<li>We mentioned above that internal links are important for crawlers to navigate through your site, but they’re also important for users to click around and absorb all of the relevant information they may need to complete a booking.</li>
<li>While internal links are important, Backlinks are even more important.</li>
<li>Search Engines view links pointing to your site as another site giving you a virtual vote. If site A is linking to Site B, Site A is essentially saying “here. This site can solve your problem.”</li>
<li>The more links/votes your site is getting from outside sources, the more authoritative your site is in the eyes of search engines and therefore more likely to rank</li>
</ul>
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>AirBnB Integrating HotelTonight Partners Into Listings: 
<a href="https://skift.com/2019/05/29/airbnb-starts-adding-some-hoteltonight-partners-in-next-move-into-the-hotel-business/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://skift.com/2019/05/29/airbnb-starts-adding-some-hoteltonight-partners-in-next-move-into-the-hotel-business/</a></li>
<li>Google Rolls Out Mobile 1st Indexing As The Default 
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/28/google-makes-mobile-first-indexing-the-default-for-all-new-domains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/28/google-makes-mobile-first-indexing-the-default-for-all-new-domains/</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 113 –  Hotel Marketing 101: A Beginner’s Guide to SEO

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For many, they think of the annual HITEC Expo and Conference as the “Super Bowl” of hotel technology events. For us, the Super Bowl is the “HITEC” of football games. HITEC is simply that darn great. If you’re in the market for new technology or if you just want to see what cutting-edge trends are going to be the next big thing, you should plan on attending HITEC.
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SHOW NOTES:
<h2>What is HITEC?</h2>
The Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) is the world&#8217;s largest and oldest hospitality technology exposition and conference brand. Produced by <a href="https://www.hftp.org/">Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®)</a>, a global nonprofit hospitality association that is headquartered in Austin, Texas USA, HITEC offers a unique combination of top-notch education, and brings together the brightest minds and hottest technologies from across the globe to one place. The unparalleled event offers attendees essential education, access to top hospitality technology industry experts and the resources to find cost-effective ways to improve company bottom lines. Combined with the intimate opportunities to connect with fellow professionals, HITEC has everything to enhance your career.
Learn more at <a href="https://www.hftp.org/hitec/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.hftp.org/hitec/</a>
&nbsp;
<h2>When Is HITEC 2019?</h2>
June 17-June 20, 2019
&nbsp;
<h2>Where is HITEC 2019?</h2>
Minneapolis Convention Center 
Minneapolis, Minnesota
&nbsp;
<h2>Who should attend HITEC?</h2>
While the primary attendees are hotel executives who have an influence on the technology investments their company makes, HITEC is for anyone interested in taking their property to the next level.
&nbsp;
<h2>What trends will we see at HITEC 2019?</h2>
<ol>
<li>Legacy PMS companies opening up to third-parties</li>
<li>Data integration startups trying to solve the industries problems</li>
<li>AI getting thrown around willy-nilly but not really being used properly (mostly)</li>
<li>Guest experience technology that has promise but has to be deployed with the appropriate strategy</li>
<li>Voice-Enabled everything that doesn’t really solve a real problem</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
Here’s what the experts had to say:
<a href="https://rockcheetah.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rock Cheetah</a> 

1) Voice controlled smart speakers for guest rooms (following Volara)
2) Data bus platforms to interface various systems (following Happy)
3) Analytics/BI platforms to integrate data from multiple sources.
Not expecting to see much disruptive stuff…
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.naviscrm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Navis</a>
<ul>
<li>What technology trends do you expect to see at this year’s HITEC?
<ul>
<li>More and more guests expect personalization from marketers and hoteliers. Personalization can also be really difficult to scale, and if a company scales in the wrong way, it can be ugly. Hoteliers rely on companies like NAVIS to help them personalize effectively, and I’m looking forward to seeing (and sharing) some advancements in marketing technology to meet guests where they are at in the booking journey. I’m also expecting to see some early advancements in data management and predictive analytics unfold this year. The magic here will be in taking a single source of truth on a hotel’s guest and lead data, and leveraging automation to identify trends, preferences and communication needs to get out of having a reactive approach to demand.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Of all the innovations you&#8217;re hoping to see, what do you think will be the biggest disrupters?
<ul>
<li>From what I’m seeing, the biggest disruptors are going to be the tech companies that play nice with others. Although this is not a disruptive principle, for some time now the tech company trend in the marketplace has been ‘dog eat dog’, but we’re seeing that those companies who think about, and act on, the ‘greater good’ approach to business relations in hospitality technology are finding more opportunities to thrive and collaborate. Trying to find new ways to partner and provide Integrations and APIs with hotels’ needs in mind, is what’s disrupting the marketplace in a positive way. The companies who are less focused on competition and acquisition, and instead take this alternative approach are not common in hotel tech, but the collaborative and transparent companies are also ones who can innovate faster, integrate faster, and make a bigger impact for their clients. Which in the end is the goal, right?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.flip.to/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Flip.to</a>
What technology trends do you expect to see at this year’s HITEC?
Not sure if anyone is tackling this, but I think there’s a ton of untapped potential out there to bring more disparate data sources together and apply AI to drive more informed marketing behavior.  There’s been headway on the revenue management and distribution side of things with the advances made in AI tech over the last several years, but the industry needs to address the lack of data integrations as it relates to better marketing practices.  I think if someone can address either or both ends of that equation and demonstrate the effectiveness of such an approach, there would be massive upside both for those companies and for the industry as a whole.
Of all the innovations you’re hoping to see, what do you think will be the biggest disruptors?
I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for disruption coming out of HITEC.  Vendors tend to show off “new” products and services that aren’t much more than a new wrapper on an already proven concept.  If you go back to my comment above, something like that would upend marketing as the industry knows it but it takes finding vendors and senior leaders willing to let their guard down a bit and allow information to flow seamlessly between systems.  There’s so much unnecessary siloing of data out of misplaced paranoia that vendors and customers alike would rather lag behind the technical curve than indulge in what they perceive as risky endeavors. Meanwhile, other industries and the public at large are embracing these concepts and putting them to work in their daily lives in new and innovative ways.
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.trustyou.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TrustYou</a>
<ol>
<li>What technology trends do you expect to see at this years HITEC? I predict that there is a big theme around automation, whether that be through IoT technology, AI, or just simply, scaled processes through technology. Hotel demand is rising, budgets often are not, so automation is the key to success in a more digital driven world.</li>
<li>Of all the innovations you&#8217;re hoping to see, what do you think will be the biggest disrupters? AI will be a big disrupter, simply because there is a lot to consider when it comes to using this type of technology in a service-driven industry. There is a lot to discuss regarding how we can ensure this will impact the hospitality industry for the better, rather than just simply changing to make a change.</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
<h2>What Will Fuel Be Showing At HITEC 2019?</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/booking-engine/">Booking Engine</a> &#8211; Mobile, Mobile, Mobile</li>
<li><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/ai-powered-crm/">CRM</a> &#8211; AI actually being used right</li>
<li><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/mobile-app-digital-key/">Mobile App</a> &#8211; Keyless Entry now available with Assa Abloy</li>
<li>2019 Travel Study &#8211; key insight 80% of people visit the hotel website prior to booking</li>
<li>Live Interviews &#8211; with Loren Gray from Hospitality Digital Marketing</li>
</ul>
&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-
Listener Feedback:
From Cheshire Boutique Barns via Twitter, “BTW &#8211; LOVE your podcast!  I listen when running so I am now super skinny as well as a genius marketeer!! Not! Ha!! Xxx
<ul>
<li>Question: You mention Freeto or something similar lots of times in context with reviews? What is this please? I am looking for a way to pull all our reviews from different places together onto our website. Can you help?</li>
</ul>
From Hotelitarian on Apple, “Invaluable!  Excellent resource for hoteliers!”
&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>Self Service Kiosks Becoming More Popular: 
<a href="http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/295208/Self-serve-kiosks-becoming-more-popular-at-hotels">http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/295208/Self-serve-kiosks-becoming-more-popular-at-hotels</a></li>
<li>Google announces major revamp of its travel planning tools 
<a href="https://www.blog.google/products/flights-hotels/planning-trip-google-can-help/">https://www.blog.google/products/flights-hotels/planning-trip-google-can-help/</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 112 – Shocking Predictions For HITEC 2019

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In this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, the Fueligans give 10 simple rules that every hotel marketer should follow.
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<h2>1. Thou Shalt Treat Guests Like Individuals:For Building One-to-One Relationships Is The Key To Success.</h2>
Don’t ever lose sight of the guest as an individual. If what you’re doing isn’t helping them or building a stronger bond between them and you, you’re probably doing it wrong. The most successful marketing campaigns begin with the guest in mind. Avoid the “spray and pray” mentality that so many lazy marketers have adopted. It will erode your relationships and will hand your guests to your competition,
RELATED: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-60-easily-improve-guest-satisfaction-communicating-right-way/">Easily Improve Your Guest Satisfaction by Communicating The Right Way</a>
<h2>2. Thou Shalt Not Worship Shiny Objects, Or Any Marketing Initiative That Is Unworthy Of Your Investment: For They Are Distractions From Those Marketing Investments That Yield You Success.</h2>
You should always have a healthy contingency budget with which to experiment and test new things but it should never come at the expense of the tried and true marketing initiatives that you know work. They key is to develop an attribution model for all of your advertising investments and to hold them all accountable to the same metrics. Then, it becomes easy to determine where you should invest and where you should pull back. It’s tempting to jump on the latest fad, but ask yourself whether or not it’s going to take you away from something else that is more effective.
RELATED: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-81-top-10-ways-drive-direct-bookings-2018/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 81 &#8211; Top 10 Ways To Drive Direct Bookings In 2018</a>
<h2>3. Thou Shalt Not Take The Opinion Of The Guest In Vain: For Online Reviews and Social Comments Provide Valuable Information That Can Improve Your Property.</h2>
Ignore guest feedback at your peril. It’s easy to dismiss negative comments, but stop and think about the opportunity this presents. Not only can you glean new information from online reviews, but you also have an opportunity to turn a disgruntled guest back into a loyal advocate. Allocate the appropriate resources to monitoring and responding to reviews, and make sure that the content of online feedback is discussed frequently with your internal staff.
RELATED: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-102-how-to-respond-to-bad-hotel-reviews/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 102 &#8211; How to Respond to Bad Hotel Reviews</a>
<h2>4. Remember The Staff and The Investment In Upkeep: For No Amount Of Marketing Can Help You If You Have A Grumpy Front Desk Person, Dirty Rooms, Or A Run Down Hotel.</h2>
The thing about marketing is that it is an amplifier of the truth. If your product is not up to par and you spend your marketing budget to attract more guests and to gain more attention, you’re simply throwing away money. Make sure that the property and the staff are the best they can possibly be. Invest in upkeep, invest in training, enforce brand standards, and hold everyone accountable. If you do the fundamentals right, your marketing will go further and will yield greater ROI.
<h2>5. Honor Thy Metrics And Track Everything To The Penny: For Spending Money Blindly is Foolish.</h2>
I can’t believe there are still people out there in 2019 who don’t have complete visibility into their data. The tools are out there and freely available. It may require a little effort from you and your website or booking engine team, but you HAVE to make sure that everything you’re doing is being tracked correctly and that you’re paying attention to the right metrics in order to gain the maximum insight.
RELATED: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-22-hotel-marketing-metrics-actually-matter/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 22 &#8211; Hotel Marketing Metrics That Actually Matter</a>
<h2>6. Thou Shall Not Kill Thy Conversion Rate By Having An Ineffective Website and Booking Engine</h2>
Every penny you spend is driving people to your website. Having a website or booking engine that creates friction for the guest loses you thousands of dollars over the course of a year. It’s like pouring water into a bucket that has a hole in it. Invest appropriately in your website and ensure that you’re using a booking engine provider who maximizes conversion rate. If you’re not happy with your current booking engine software, reach out to Fuel. We have a product that you may be interested in checking out.
RELATED: 
<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-81-top-10-ways-drive-direct-bookings-2018/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 81 &#8211; Top 10 Ways To Drive Direct Bookings In 2018</a><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-30-hotel-making-top-10-website-mistakes/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 30 &#8211; Is Your Hotel Making These Top 10 Website Mistakes?</a> 
<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-65-hotel-right-booking-engine/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 65 &#8211; Does Your Hotel Have The Right Booking Engine?</a>
<h2>7. Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery On Rate Parity Between Thine Own Site and The OTAs And Thou Shalt Ensure Thine Presence On All Channels To Protect Thy Brand</h2>
This is one of the fundamental building blocks of a good marketing strategy. Not having parity and not maximizing your presence everywhere that the OTAs have a footprint is what Expedia and Booking.com count on. You can effectively reduce your OTA reliance by offering parity of rate, exclusive incentives, and by making sure that people can find you.
RELATED:<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-81-top-10-ways-drive-direct-bookings-2018/"> Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 81 &#8211; Top 10 Ways To Drive Direct Bookings In 2018</a>
<h2>8. Thou Shall Not Steal From The Marketing Budget When Times Are Tough: For Doing So Will Increase Reliance On OTAs</h2>
When times are tough, it’s tempting to look through your budget and start slashing the marketing line items. Yes, it may positively impact your financials in the short-term, but it’s going to cost you in the long run and make a bad situation worse. As a marketer, you should know exactly how much revenue you’re likely to generate from all of your marketing initiatives. If they aren’t yielding a positive return, you should have cut them already.  Stand up for your marketing budget and be willing to fight the owner or manager by showing them the real revenue impact that a decrease in marketing spend will have.
RELATED: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-58-market-hotel-shoestring-budget/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 58 &#8211; How to Market Your Hotel on a Shoestring Budget</a>
<h2>9.Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness By Putting Thine Own Convenience Above The Guest’s Needs: For Saving Time Or Money In The Short-Term Will Cost You in The Long-Term.</h2>
Another go-to when times are tough is to start cutting back on operational costs. Be prepared to be creative when you have to, but keep in mind that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. By saving money on your linens, you’re probably sacrificing guest comfort. Be willing to look at every decision from the perspective of how it’s going to impact the guest. If you’re unsure, either go experience the stay as your guest would, or ask your guest flat-out what they would think if you made the cost-saving change.
RELATED: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-66-hotels-marketing-sit-throne-lies/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 66 &#8211; Does Your Hotel’s Marketing Sit On A Throne Of Lies?</a>
<h2>10. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Property and Thou Shalt Always Be Testing Thine Own Marketing Efforts</h2>
There’s always a lot of noise in the industry and it’s always tempting to want to keep up with the Joneses, but remember that you and your property are unique and that the relationship you can nurture between you and your guests is equally unique. If you see a neighboring property, or the industry at large, doing something cool, first ask yourself whether or not it’s right for your guest. If it is, be sure to test it and see how things pan out. Sometimes a change can have unforeseen trade-offs. Before you go investing in the latest trends and making that change the cornerstone of your marketing efforts, spend some time thinking through the strategy and gauging its potential before jumping in with two feet.
RELATED:<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-49-user-testing-hotel-website/"> Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 49 &#8211; Why You Should Be User Testing Your Hotel Website</a>
BONUS COMMANDMENT FOR PHIL:
Thou Shalt Use Ad Extensions, For They Are Thine Friend
========================
<h2>In The Newsrooms:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>BingAds Rebrands to Microsoft 
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/bing-ads-rebrands-to-microsoft-advertising-316090" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/bing-ads-rebrands-to-microsoft-advertising-316090</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 111 – The 10 Commandments of Hotel Marketing

Still trying to figure out this whole “influencer” phenomena that’s getting more than its fair share of coverage in hospitality blogs? In this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we solicit the help of our friends at Navis and Flip.to to discuss the difference between macro and micro influencers, and we look at a case study that illustrates the potential that exists from tapping into the influence of your existing guest.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES
STATS OF THE WEEK
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Authenticity is crucial when it comes to influencer marketing</li>
<li>90% of micro-influencer use Instagram to post their original content</li>
<li>97% of micro-influencers say they charge less than $500 for Instagram posts</li>
<li>Influencers on Instagram with fewer than 1k followers will see about 8% of their audience like their posts</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
MICRO-INFLUENCER DATA &amp; DEFINITIONS
<ul>
<li>Definition samples &#8211; very wide ranging with little consensus on the high and low ends
<ul>
<li>2k &#8211; 50k on one platform (<a href="https://blog.scrunch.com/what-is-a-micro-influencer">Source</a>)</li>
<li>3k+ (<a href="https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/what-is-a-micro-influencer?">Source</a>)</li>
<li>1k &#8211; 10k (<a href="https://www.snapapp.com/blog/what-are-micro-influencers-how-marketing/">Source</a>)</li>
<li>10k &#8211; 500k (<a href="https://www.snapapp.com/blog/what-are-micro-influencers-how-marketing/">Source</a>)</li>
<li>&lt;10k (<a href="https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/micro-influencers-vs-macro-influencers/516896/">Source</a>)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Typically connected with a specific niche, unlike larger influencers who may chase trends because relevancy is their currency</li>
<li>The tides are turning a bit. The concept of influencer marketing was really only coined 2 years ago or so. And many of the macro influencers are having to find a niche to bring in sponsorship money. The broader influencers are losing their sponsors because it’s not driving return. Regardless of micro or macro, the most important part of influencer selection begins with the brand. You certainly want an outside in approach, but you can’t know where to begin looking and what content to request until you know your personas.</li>
</ul>
MACRO vs. MICRO
Macro defined
<ul>
<li>Focus on follower count to demonstrate value</li>
<li>Reaches a broad, typically diverse audience (may vary)</li>
<li>Usually multi-platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram as primaries)</li>
<li>Often their job</li>
<li>Incentive driven &#8211; they make money by doing this, a lot of money in some cases</li>
<li>Moderate sized consumer brands (around the same annual revenue of many hotels) pay $30-50k on average for athletes. Major consumer brands like Pepsi, etc. pay much more. But they also find many up and coming influencers for cheaper, or trade. Must be alignment with passion.</li>
<li>This concept in ads isn’t going away. Word of mouth is the most trusted form of marketing, period. And always will be &#8211; it’s human nature. How it’s executed on, invested in and presented in market will evolve… but it’s definitely worth exploring</li>
</ul>
Micro defined
<ul>
<li>Often no clue they’re an influencer</li>
<li>Has a small, highly engaged, niche audience</li>
<li>Strong on a single platform (usually Facebook)</li>
<li>Experience has deep meaning</li>
<li>The types of micro-influencers we’ll be discussing aren’t monetizing their status, so value has a different definition to them
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Yes! It’s taking the guest relationship a step further with the ones that have a high social impact… and showcasing that with their peers. It’s leveraging their talent and perspective.</li>
<li>Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs &#8211; social status is there, you can impact that for micro influencers and the viral connection will want to join the party</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
MYRTLE BEACH MICRO INFLUENCER CASE STUDY
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Overview
<ul>
<li>Myrtle Beach market (DMO, approx. 30 accommodation providers)</li>
<li>1.5 years worth of data</li>
<li>Approx. 59,000 advocates in this data set</li>
<li>Define “micro” in this case as 100 &#8211; 1,000 followers (we can do this because we have access to other data to validate their relative influence)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Notable findings &amp; data
<ul>
<li>24 people from this sample had 10k+ followers across platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn only)
<ul>
<li>Only 2 had &gt; 100k</li>
<li>Most were between 10 &#8211; 50k (88%) &#8211; likely a sweet spot worth exploring a bit more deeply</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>29k had 100 &#8211; 1,000 followers; where we’ll be focusing</li>
<li>1,800+ converted at least 5% of their audience into a lead for a hotel or for the market (DMO)
<ul>
<li>Half of these converted at 10% or more</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Lead defined as:  name, email address, opt-in, captured intent (i.e. you know who these people are, how to reach them, and what interests them)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Resulted in just over 90,000 warm leads for the destination (potential future travelers)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
SINGLE PROPERTY COMPARISON
<ul>
<li>Daytona example
<ul>
<li>1 year of advocacy</li>
<li>Same “micro” definition</li>
<li>Notable findings &amp; data
<ul>
<li>No advocates with 10k+ followers</li>
<li>~ 240 potential micro-influencers
<ul>
<li>8 converted 5% or more of their audience
<ul>
<li>Average follower count of these was 475</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Half converted at 10% or more</li>
<li>These guests only stayed 1.5 nights on average (helpful to know if approaching for a future stay to encourage further engagement)</li>
<li>532 warm leads from only 8 people</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Memphis example
<ul>
<li>1 year of advocacy</li>
<li>Notable findings &amp; data
<ul>
<li>1 advocate with 10k+ followers</li>
<li>~ 200 potential micro-influencers
<ul>
<li>10 converted 5% or more of their audience
<ul>
<li>Average follower count of these was 433</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Half converted at 10% or more</li>
<li>These guests only stayed 2.1 nights on average</li>
<li>433 warm leads from only 10 people</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Finger Lakes, NY
<ul>
<li>1 year of advocacy</li>
<li>Notable findings &amp; data
<ul>
<li>Zero advocates with 10k+ followers</li>
<li>100 potential micro-influencers
<ul>
<li>6 converted 5% or more of their audience
<ul>
<li>Average follower count of these was 404</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Half converted at 10% or more</li>
<li>These guests stayed 5.2 nights on average (VR property &#8211; so this is normal)</li>
<li>273 leads from only 6 people</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
TANGIBLE ADVICE AND TAKEAWAYS
<ul>
<li>Balance your influencer squad &#8211; both macro and micro</li>
<li>Start with personas</li>
<li>Either way, put agreements in place when you’re asking for or using assets. Seen this go wrong at a hotel… royalties, eugh.</li>
<li>Set measurable goals of your program. Why the heck are you doing this? What do you want to achieve?
<ul>
<li>3 good areas to focus (average a score across these 3 to get an index of your squad. It levels the playing field on investment vs impact for your macro and micro investment):
<ul>
<li>Compliance</li>
<li>Brand Fit</li>
<li>Impact</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Always start with micro &#8211; more authentic, less risk</li>
<li>Don’t put money or trade on the line until you know it works. Prove it to leadership.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Leverage the program for user content generation &#8211; there’s a cost savings here for your own time and money spent on photographers. Next step is to show simple media metrics like CPM Impressions. How does that compare to your media buys and digital ads?</li>
<li>Start with a single platform. It’s easier to track.</li>
</ul>
RELATED ARTICLES:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-96-influencer-marketing-right-hotel/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 96 – What Is Influencer Marketing And Is It Right For My Hotel?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://learn.naviscrm.com/blog/webinar-do-influencer-programs-actually-drive-revenue" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CHECK OUT THE ORIGINAL WEBINAR THAT FLIP..TO AND NAVIS PRESENTED ON THIS TOPIC:</a> 
*When you watch the recording you’ll gain access to the influencer performance audit template, and a sample influencer agreement</li>
<li>Learn more about<a href="https://www.flip.to/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> flip.to</a> and <a href="https://www.naviscrm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Navis</a></li>
</ul>
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>Hotels Are Grappling with ADA Compliance: 
<a href="http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/294673/Hotels-are-grappling-with-accessibility-on-websites" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/294673/Hotels-are-grappling-with-accessibility-on-websites</a>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-</li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 110 – The Real Value of Hotel Micro Influencers (with Flip.to and Navis)

We’re kicking off an awesome new series in 2019 to introduce our audience, clients, and colleagues to the core best-practices in hotel marketing. The idea being if you have just been thrown in to the hotel marketing business, or you’re looking to brush up on what you should have already been doing, you’ll be able to listen to each episode in the Hotel 101 series to make your marketing rock.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES
Stat Of The Week: 
Airbnb just checked in its 500 millionth guest
This 101 series for email marketing will just hit on the basics of getting an effective send out the door to your audience.  We’ll be making making a few assumptions in that you already have an opt-in email strategy and have selected your send platform, know your audience and have an overall marketing strategy in place.
<h3>Step #1: Determine Your Goals</h3>
Every email should have a measurable goal.  Typically for a hotelier this means direct bookings, however it can also encompass guest relations, sharing information, or driving social engagement.  Regardless of your goal, you should understand what you are trying to accomplish and have a plan to measure if you succeed. For a typical monthly newsletter type send the goals may be a mix of driving bookings and maintaining awareness with your list.
<ul>
<li>Revenue KPIs: Bookings, Revenue, Calls</li>
<li>Engagement/Awareness KPIs: Opens, Clicks</li>
</ul>
<h3>Step #2: Decide Upon Or Create Your Content:</h3>
Building a sound email marketing strategy largely depends on your ability to send the right message to the right guests at the right time.  While it goes beyond the scope of our 101 series, we do recommend you have an annual email calendar to help you identify what you need to promote.  Though typically for a general newsletter-type send we would have the following:
<ul>
<li>Main offer/promotion: typically a money saving deal</li>
<li>Secondary offer/promotion: news, seasonal content, etc</li>
<li>Site main conversion points: items such as amenity feature, area, static “offers” area, etc</li>
<li>Other content that works great include:
<ul>
<li>Video promotions</li>
<li>Area or seasonal guide</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Step #3: Build Your Email:</h3>
Now that your content outline is complete it’s time to start putting pen to paper, or in this case content into system.  We recommend developing a standard template that is in your email platform to allow you to quickly swap out images, headlines, copy, and links. In most platforms, be it MailChimp, ConstantContact, ExactTarget, or our preference of Fuel Mail, you will have a content editor that makes HTML knowledge unnecessary.  Regardless of your platform, here are a few tips to make your content easier to develop, but also better for your recipients:
<ul>
<li>Image size matters:
<ul>
<li>Typical email widths are 600-700px, your images should never be larger.</li>
<li>Inset images would typically be about half this size, however we recommend using larger images since it will typically span the width of a mobile device</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>People don’t read: get to the point with a catchy headline and brief, bulleted copy.</li>
<li>Subject lines rule: spend the time coming up with a great one</li>
<li>Personalization is amazing: if you have the opportunity to insert personalization, do it.  If you don’t start building your list attributes to be able to do so.</li>
<li>Keep in mind that many of your recipients may not be ready to take a vacation, so connecting with everyone is important with destination and travel news/content.</li>
<li>Everyone loves contests.  Give stuff away!</li>
</ul>
<h3>Step #4: Test Your Email Across Multiple Platforms</h3>
Testing is one of the single most important aspects of building and sending your message.
<ul>
<li>Microsoft Outlook is not your friend.  It’s more like family, you have to put up with it whether you like it or not.  Always test your send on the most common versions of Outlook.</li>
<li>Test your links and your tracking.  Each and EVERY link should be clicked from an actual proof of your email.</li>
<li>We have passed the mobile tipping point, look at your email on common mobile devices.</li>
<li>Run your email against spam checkers, it’s no good if you send a message and no one sees it.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Step #5: Check Your List:</h3>
Good for you, you’re past the hard parts of creating content, building the email and testing.  Now you want to ensure the message you are sending is going to go to the right people. This is also a perfect time to audit your systems to ensure emails from your site are getting into the list.
<ul>
<li>Confirm all the emails you have collected since your last send are in the list</li>
<li>Ensure all guest history emails from your PMS are added (depending on opt-in)</li>
<li>For a marketing/promotion send we recommend you suppress current upcoming reservations</li>
<li>If your message is geographic or interest based, segment the list as needed</li>
</ul>
<h3>Step #6: Send &amp; Monitor:</h3>
So now you are ready to pull the trigger on your message, before doing so you’ll want to review and confirm the following:
<ul>
<li>Does your platform allow for testing? If so, at a minimum test your subject line. We have found that we typically see a 15-18% improvement in open rates by testing two subject lines to a portion of the list and then sending the winner to the remaining audience.</li>
<li>If you have a track record of past sends, is there a time/day that works best for your send?</li>
<li>Are you sure you checked your links, mobile view, and spam scores?</li>
<li>Lastly, monitor during your send to ensure everything goes according to plan.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Step #7: Review Analytics:</h3>
Congratulations! Your send is complete, but you’re not done just yet.  Now is the time to review the send and see what worked and what didn’t work so well.  We recommend giving the email about a week to collect as much data as possible (although 90% of activity will happen with in the 1st 24 hours) and then reviewing the campaign.  This should include:
<ul>
<li>Review of overall open rate as it compares to other sends</li>
<li>What articles/links were most effective</li>
<li>Bookings and revenue generated</li>
</ul>
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>Google Boosts Vacation Rentals on Hotel Search 
<a href="https://www.blog.google/products/flights-hotels/find-and-book-vacation-rentals-on-google/">https://www.blog.google/products/flights-hotels/find-and-book-vacation-rentals-on-google/</a></li>
<li>EU Passes Big Copyright Changes 
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellekaminsky/2019/03/26/eus-copyright-directive-passes-despite-widespread-protestsbut-its-not-law-yet/#4a030ae02493">https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellekaminsky/2019/03/26/eus-copyright-directive-passes-despite-widespread-protestsbut-its-not-law-yet/#4a030ae02493</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 109 – Hotel 101: Sending An Amazing Marketing Email

This episode was inspired by our own older <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-67-6-common-analytics-mistakes-may-making/">podcast episodes</a> that helps you diagnose anomalies in your analytics data. We get questions from our clients on a regular basis when something in their data doesn’t feel right, has had a sudden change, or just doesn’t make sense. Here are some common issues:
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES
<h3>1. Drop in Organic Search Traffic </h3>
We get this scenario A LOT. To help diagnose the cause in a year to year decrease in organic search, we need to look at more than just the overall traffic numbers.
First, take a look at the landing pages. Is there one particular landing page that is losing most of the traffic, or is the loss site-wide? Is there a blog post that had been getting traffic for some reason that has now stopped? This can happen when a page shows up in an answer box in Google and then stops.
Use this information in conjunction with Search Console. Look at Google Trends for keywords for those pages to see if demand has decreased. If you are in a vacation destination, ask your CVB, or even friendly competitors in your market, if they have seen the same trend.
Don’t overlook the technical side of SEO. If you’ve recently launched a new site, are 301s correctly in place? Is the robots.txt correct? Canonical tags? No follow tags accidentally carried over from the staging site?
<h3>2. Very High or Very Low Bounce Rate</h3>
I’ve said this a lot on this podcast&#8230;bounce rate is not a metric to live and die by. However, there is some merit to it, when used correctly, and if it’s artificially high or low, that’s not going to do you any good. A typical hotel website will have an overall bounce rate of 20%-40% (again&#8230;use this data with caution, and <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/10-hotel-marketing-metrics-matter/">break it down appropriately</a>).
If you see a bounce rate of 1%-3%, there is almost guaranteed something wrong with your analytics tracking. There are two likely tracking issues that will cause this. The first is that the analytics code is triggering multiple times when the site loads. This could be an old version and a new version of Google Analytics; it could be a Google Tag Manager script triggering analytics along with a hard-coded version of the script; it could also be that the script is in the header and hard-coded on each page.
The second possibility for low bounce rate is some other element on the site besides a page load that is causing the analytics script to run. A common example is a popup. Sometimes code is getting added to a popup getting served when the site loads, even if the consumer has not interacted with it. This should be avoided whenever possible. A popup should never be seen as a page view in your analytics reports. It makes a mess of any kind of pathing data. It is 100% acceptable to track an interaction with a popup, but you’ll also want to figure out if you are tracking the close button, if that should really count as an interaction that would affect bounce rate, or if you just want to see that people closed it.
On the flipside, is a very high bounce rate. Assuming you are looking at this data by landing page, some pages might be OK or understandable to have a high bounce rate, like some types of blog posts, or your directions page. However, if we are talking about a rooms page or your home page, we would definitely want to investigate further. Could you have a cross-domain tracking issue? Check out our instructions on fixing that: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/google-analytics-cross-domain-tracking-hotels/">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/google-analytics-cross-domain-tracking-hotels/</a>
If cross-domain tracking is not the issue, what is the source of traffic? Did this change?
<h3>3. Analytics Revenue Doesn’t Match Booking Engine Revenue</h3>
This is another issue that pops up very frequently. It’s important to understand EXACTLY what is and ISN’T reported in your analytics data. Theoretically, it should only report revenue and traffic from real consumers that have visited your hotel website. Your booking engine revenue may show other sources of revenue other than that. A giant culprit of agita for us is call center revenue.
<h3>4. Paid Search Traffic Increases/Decreases</h3>
Paid search can be one of those wildcard sources of traffic. If you are not thoroughly involved in the PPC strategy, you may be surprised when traffic suddenly increases or decreases.
Budget: Budget changes in either direction can drastically affect traffic to the site.
CPC: If your budget has remained the same, but CPC has had large shifts in either direction, that can greatly affect the amount of traffic.
Ad Copy: Are you running different ad copy, maybe a special that is affecting traffic?
Analytics Linking/tracking: Maybe this should be first on the list. Are your AdWords auto-tagged? If not, GA will see this traffic as natural search instead of paid. A BIG no-no. Is your AdWords account linked to your GA account? Without this, you cannot see the cost data, etc. that comes from AdWords in your GA data.
<h3>5, Email Traffic and/or Conversions</h3>
Email can be another wildcard source of traffic that fluctuates dramatically. We’ve said many times on this podcast that a content calendar for email is highly recommended. If you’ve got that, then you should easily be able to compare what email content was sent last year vs. this year. Of course, your emails should be tagged in a way that you can also see that data easily in your analytics tool.
Keep in mind that it’s not just the number of emails sent that can affect traffic and bookings, but the content of the message as well.
<h3>6. Your Domain Shows as a Referral</h3>
Oof. I hate this one. It’s a very common ailment, causing yet more agita. The most common source of this problem is some combination of cross-domain tracking issues and your referral exclusion list not set correctly in Google Analytics.
The latter is easier to diagnose. Look at the property section of the admin console in GA. Go the referral exclusion list. Make sure your domain and your booking engine domain are listed there. We recommend JUST the domain (no www or http, etc.).
If you’ve fixed that, but now your revenue is 90% attributed to “direct” traffic, go back to our <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/google-analytics-cross-domain-tracking-hotels/">cross-domain tracking check list</a> and do all of those things.
Conclusion 
Always, always, always remember that traffic doesn’t make you money. CONVERTING traffic makes you money. Be careful not to get trapped by vanity metrics. When you look at traffic changes, be sure to look at the revenue changes with it. If you’ve lost unqualified traffic that didn’t convert, that’s OK!
Always check your technical tracking of things before going off the deep end. Sometimes, a simple analytics fix is the issue and isn’t a traffic issue at all.
RELATED ARTICLE: 
<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-22-hotel-marketing-metrics-actually-matter/">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-22-hotel-marketing-metrics-actually-matter/</a>
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>UK bed and breakfast association petitioning government to make brand bidding by OTAs illegal. 
<a href="https://www.phocuswire.com/hijacking-online-travel-accommodation">https://www.phocuswire.com/hijacking-online-travel-accommodation</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 108 – These 6 Analytics Anomalies Give Hotels Agita

In this episode, we have a special guest, Neil Howe, and we discuss ways in which a hotel GM or Owner can leverage their authority to drive more bookings. Neil is a best selling author and entrepreneur, known as ‘The Authority Architect’ and he helps professionals leverage their knowledge to drive more business.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
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SHOW NOTES
First, the GM has to make sure the staff know this is important by being involved himself/herself making the time to share the story of the hotel and what makes it unique. Although the GM will get a lot of authority in media. The staff are the unsung heroes whose stories need to be told. Think of Undercover Boss &#8211; each staff member has a story and brings something to make the hotel unique.
Can you give 5 or 10 tips for GMs to establish their authority in their market
<ol>
<li>Be known for something &#8211; guests want to know what the hotel is all about, how is it unique, how do you contribute to the community, environment,</li>
<li>Be known for service &#8211; people want experiences. Promote what you do great, better than anyone else</li>
<li>Highlight staff &#8211; Do you have a top chef, SPA, Personal Trainer, Front desk manager, Mascot/Greeter</li>
<li>Multi author book &#8211; Highlight all that is great about the hotel and the staff. Leave it in each room. Guests always need something to read! Enclose value within the book that invites them back or offers referrals. $2-3/book Print on demand.</li>
<li>Create a campaign around The Official Hotel of [City] Staycations</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>The Official Hotel of Thinking About Nothing</li>
<li>The Official Hotel of Being Good To Yourself</li>
<li>The Official Hotel of Breakfast Lovers</li>
</ul>
<ol start="6">
<li>Tell the story…..   Tell other people’s stories. Guest experiences, Famous Guests,</li>
<li>Collaborate with the local community and create events</li>
<li>Start a podcast &#8211; talk about upcoming events, things to do around the city, send it out via email correspondence. Interview staff, random guests, get testimonials/reviews.</li>
<li>Package experience deals midweek (Chateau Elan)</li>
<li>Travel Bloggers</li>
</ol>
How to share their message with the public
<ul>
<li>With all the ideas above, share via authority platforms, Press releases, local TV, Local Radio, Social Media Campaigns, etc</li>
</ul>
What do you feel are the best platforms to share that message
<ul>
<li>Share on Authority platforms with audiences Local News Social Accounts</li>
<li>Press releases to local and national online news sites: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox (instantly recognizable trust triggers)</li>
<li>Local magazines, foodie magazines, travel magazines, blogs, local organizations</li>
<li>Books via Amazon (best seller) Kindle and Printable (print and ship on demand)</li>
</ul>
How using their intimate knowledge of the property and their authority could help lift hotel occupancy?
<ul>
<li>All these ideas are about positioning your hotel for SOMETHING. Take a stance and stand for something that is going to differentiate you from all the others and then market it.</li>
<li>Branding on different authority platforms shows you are always being talked about. People want to check out what’s hot and different and willing to pay more money for an experience</li>
</ul>
To learn more about Neil:
<ul>
<li>Web: <a href="http://theauthorityarchitect.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://TheAuthorityArchitect.com</a></li>
<li>Phone: (404) 428-1399</li>
</ul>
========================
<h2>In The Newsaroos:     </h2>
<ul>
<li>Airbnb to acquire online travel agency HotelTonight 
<a href="https://www.phocuswire.com/Airbnb-acquires-HotelTonight" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.phocuswire.com/Airbnb-acquires-HotelTonight</a></li>
<li>Hotels Piloting Translation Mode On Google Assistants 
<a href="https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/lost-translation-try-interpreter-mode-google-assistant/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/lost-translation-try-interpreter-mode-google-assistant</a></li>
</ul>
========================
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.

Hotel Marketing Podcast