A colleague told me today that although she is doing everything she can to optimise her website, and is getting lots of site visitors, very few of them are interacting with her via her website.

This set me thinking about what takes people that extra step from reading your stories to responding to your stories by commenting or making contact with you.

My colleague felt that trust might be an issue. As soon as someone clicks, responds, signs up, asks a question, they reckon you’re going to zoom in on them with the hard sell.

Another colleague recently mentioned the issue of confidentiality - many in his profession don’t want to lay themselves open to others and are reluctant to ‘trust’ the web medium, such as blog comments and forum posts.

We already know that building trust is an essential objective for all small businesses, and that this can be done by blogging your story to the world, by being authentically you and conveying your experience, expertise, track record and authority.

Then I came across this Smart Company blog post: Sell Like a Woman. If you’re male, don’t let the post title put you off! There’s an interesting point made here.

You can tell your story in two essentially different ways, and getting your head around this is important if you are going to market your tourism business effectively.

When you tell me a story, it can be all about you … or all about me. Yes, of course all your posts are going to be about you in some way - but the point is to look at what you are essentially conveying.

Are you saying to your readers “We do this” or “We offer that” or “We are great because”, or are you looking at your business from their point of view and enabling them to engage with you from their starting point? Are you essentially saying “You can do this” or “You can have this experience” or even “Look at these guys - they did it and so can you”?

For example, have a look at this blog post: Planning Your Great Ocean Road Drive Holiday.

Yvonne Hunter is a great blogger who understands how to give people what they want in order to build trust. The effect is to get you thinking, this looks interesting, I’d like to do that, I CAN do that. The post is about the reader, not about Yvonne, although it is based on her experience and she includes a link to the most relevant page on the website.

You will rarely, if ever, find a blog post by Yvonne that talks about her accommodation and how great it is. And yet, as her partner, Tim Kottek, told me recently:

“The site is now getting about 1000 visitors per month. The blog as well as the authority pages have helped the home page to a Google Ranking of 4 out of 10, with internal pages ranking at 2 and 3 out of 10. Three of the 10 most viewed pages are from the blog. And it is those popular blog pages that have lead to e-mail requests.”

So it is possible to build trust through your site content, which leads to enquiries, especially by blogging.

For some businesses, this takes longer than for others - and I suspect this is the case with my colleague - but persistence invariably pays off. In tourism, our experience is that it doesn’t take long at all to see a significant improvement in traffic and enquiries - but only if you are blogging effectively, keeping site content up to date, and giving people plenty of opportunities to click and contact you.

You don’t have to create a whole new website to get better at online marketing.

Live History is an example of a site that we have converted to our platform, giving the business owners, Judith and Chris Cornish, more opportunities to get their story out to their target audience.

The new site has the same look and feel of the old one, and the content has been transferred to the new structure. So why is this one better?

Because it has all the online marketing tools that are vital for positioning the business, bringing in traffic, encouraging conversation, increasing conversion and boosting bookings. For example:

• Keyword analysis told us to put Hobart into the domain name to attract more searchers wanting things to do when they visit the city, helping to put Live History on the Internet highway instead of the backstreets.
• Like all OM4Tourism sites, this one is designed to be highly visible to search engines, bringing more traffic to Judith and Chris’s door.
• A blog with email subscription enables Judith and Chris to post regular news and updates to keep visitors engaged and enrich their site content.
• Clearer testimonials and accreditation are important conversion tools - they tell site visitors that this is a good quality experience.
• Easy access to booking and travel information with a prominent contact form helps visitors to incorporate the tour into their holiday and encourages them to enquire and book online.

In addition, Judith and Chris now have access to Google Analytics to help them track where their site visitors are coming from and what terms they key into Google to get to the site. They can then incorporate these search terms into their content to attract even more attention.

Here’s Judith’s response to the site set-up process:

Thank you so much to both you and Glenn for getting us set up with this new site. I know that it won’t be long before I am blogging with the best of them and our testimonials are flowing in from satisfied clients!

As Live History develops, Judith and Chris will be blogging their news regularly and uploading more images and testimonials. As they develop new performances, they can add new pages to the site very easily - if you can manage Word, you can create a page in an OM4Tourism website. And as the content builds over time, so will the authority and PageRank of the site, turning it into an online magnet for Hobart visitors.

Many tourism operators fall into the trap of thinking they don’t need to be marketing online if the bulk of their clientele are over 50. They continue to focus resources on brochures, direct mail and advertising, believing these are the only ways to reach their prospects.

Yet, according to an eMarketer report, 75% of baby boomers (over 50s) were active online in 2006. This figure is projected to reach 83% by 2011.

More recent Australian statistics tell us that more than 87% of our baby boomers go online at least once a month - a sizable chunk of your market.

And Roy Morgan Research found that 10% of Australian baby boomers booked their holidays entirely online in 2005. This is a significant figure, given that across the board, travellers tend to research online and book offline.

“Baby boomers are diverse, notoriously difficult to pigeonhole and sometimes overlooked by marketers, who are generally more interested in catering to younger and more active consumers,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer Senior Analyst.

Even if you’re not targeting over 50s, you might want to consider whether your product can adapt to this age group, as they are also among the most affluent market segments. Many remain active well into retirement and retain the sense of adventure that infused the 1960s and 70s.

“Boomers wield enormous economic clout and are increasingly turning to online and mobile channels for a wide variety of needs, including e-commerce, financial services, travel, entertainment, health and wellness information, news and user-generated content,” said Verna.

As for the over-60s, who retired before web surfing had the chance to enter their vocabulary, many are nevertheless enjoying the convenience of researching travel without leaving the house.

“Silver surfers - also known as ‘the silent generation’ - are also typically passed over by online marketers,” said Verna.

“Nevertheless, their spending power and growing presence online should serve as a wake-up call to marketers who might have their sights set elsewhere.”

eMarketer puts the percentage of online silver surfers at 35% in 2006, projected to reach 46% by 2011.

This is also a group who responds to personality, expertise and specialist knowledge - something that a blog facility provides in spades - and appreciates the ability to communicate directly with a real person before booking. Again, small operators can offer this online more easily than large ones.

Over the next few weeks I will be writing profiles on a dozen small tourism operators dotted around the country - all of whom have contributed valuable information to OM4Tourism on international marketing issues.

The operators featured have all agreed to share their marketing experiences, and you are equally free to comment, add advice or ask questions.

The first operator is attracting an international clientele to its small-group customised tours with some impressive online marketing.

Rich + Lingering offers luxury food & wine tours and customised tours, all for very small groups (no more than six), in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale premium wine regions.

After less than two years in operation, the business has just become the SA Great 2007 Regional Award Winner for Tourism Services, and taken home the SA Tourism Commission New Business bronze medal.

Targeting a Niche Market

According to Rich + Lingering’s Jason Miller, the business depends on clear and targeted branding to overcome the general perception that wine tours involve large buses and little specialist knowledge.

“There are a number of low to mid-priced mass market operators who basically provide a transport service for which there is a big market,” he told me.

“We are at the other end of the scale – private, small group, high levels of international wine knowledge, personalised service. It does take time to break these misconceptions, which is mainly done by developing relationships and having a strong brand.”

International guests make up 35% of Rich + Lingering’s total visitation. They are aged 30-60, professional/white collar, high net worth individuals, looking to develop themselves with food and wine activities and education. Most come from the UK and northern Europe, North America, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Jason reaches this market online (his website and others), as well as via agents, ITOs and magazine advertising - all carefully chosen for synergy with the business’s brand. To capture unplanned visits after arrival, he also works with Visitor Information Centres and has a presence in regional guides.

Online Marketing Insights

Jason puts great emphasis on web content, as 43% of guests find Rich + Lingering online, with most coming directly to the R+L website. He shared some valuable insights:

“Our key online strategy is to drive traffic to our site by achieving high Google rankings for specific searches (e.g. ‘private/luxury wine tour south australia’), but also a broad range of links and other good relevant content, such as travel tips, on other sites.

“Having good content on your website which isn’t too sales focused shows you ‘know your stuff’, is of value to the reader, and helps SEO [search engine optimisation].

“We also produce a seasonal newsletter which people subscribe to and can distribute themselves to their friends etc. This has been a great way to broaden the net. A number of our newsletter articles are further used in blogs.”

All great strategies. Interestingly, Jason finds that most guests use the site for research rather than bookings, and only a small proportion are booked completely online.

He believes this is due to the nature of the business. Offering customised, high-end tours means personal communication with guests to ensure all their needs are met. This is hard to do via a booking engine, so guests are encouraged to contact Rich + Lingering directly with their requirements.

My previous post went on a journey to find out where travellers are likely to end up when they research travel experiences online.

One of my searches - for an interactive dolphin experience in Western Australia - took me to 2 specialist operators: Naturaliste Charters and Rockingham Dolphins.

So why did these operators get my attention?

1. Relevant content, optimised for search

Well, for one thing, they appeared high in Google’s ‘organic’ search list.

These are the links that appear through a process of natural selection on the left-hand side, as opposed to the sponsored links listed on the right and sometimes at the top.

Their position in the organic links tells us that Naturaliste Charters and Rockingham Dolphins carry authority in the eyes of Google. To achieve this, the sites are search-optimised and contain relevant content (i.e. the content matches my search intentions).

2. Inbound links

It’s also likely that both sites are getting some quality inbound links, as this is another way the search engines decide on a site’s overall authority.

The best way to achieve this is to link to other high-ranking sites and encourage them to link to yours. Google checks where the links are coming from and only gives you brownie points for authentic links from relevant sites.

Naturaliste Charters has some excellent links at the foot of its home page, which are a useful resource for site visitors and will serve to encourage back links from those sites.

But while a high ranking will bring you traffic, it won’t necessarily hold the attention of your visitors or convert them to bookings.

There are certain features of a site that help to keep your prospects’ interested enough to have a good rummage around. Both Naturaliste Charters and Rockingham Dolphins held my interest for different reasons, but I’m going to focus on Rockingham Dolphins because they kept me onsite for longer.

3. The travel experience

First, I could immediately read not just about the tours available but about what it’s like to swim with wild dolphins. And the good quality images help to tell the story visually. This all confirms for me that I want to share this amazing experience - I want to “be there, doing that”.

Tourism Australia research tells us that inbound visitors to Australia are “experience-seekers” first and foremost. So the experience needs to be paramount in your online content.

4. Personality and passion

It’s easy to get to know the crew through their profiles, which communicate their personality and humour in just the right measures. There’s also some interesting information on the history of the company that conveys the passion that led Terry to set up the business.

A conversational style with lots of personality is something that Tourism Australia also encourages in marketing material, since research shows that this is what visitors find most engaging.

5. Awards and affiliations

There’s also plenty of credibility in evidence on the Rockingham site, with awards and environmental affiliations. They now have my trust.

So don’t be afraid to blow your own trumpet - this is a vital part of the conversion process.

6. The booking process

In practical terms, if I want more detail I can download a brochure (quickly) and the information on booking and getting there is easy to find and clear.

If site visitors have to work hard to find out what their options are and how to make a booking, you could well lose them.

7. The all-important blog

There’s only one thing missing for me from these sites: a stream of news and stories that I can read and maybe even subscribe to. Naturaliste Charters does have a newsletter that visitors can subscribe to, but having news on the site is more immediately engaging and likely to lead to more subscriptions.

Blogging is vital for tourism operators in today’s online travel environment, and is an easy way to post regular updates and news. Site visitors can subscribe to a blog by email, or via an RSS feed which means they can receive your news stream without giving their email address - some visitors will prefer this.

Blogging also helps your search ranking, attracts online browsers through blog search engines (such as Technorati), engages visitors who are used to a more informal, newsy style of content, gives you more opportunities to link to other sites, builds a more comprehensive portfolio of content on your site, adds personality, and encourages interaction through comments.

The world of the web is a bewildering place for a small tourism operator. There are so many huge travel sites out there that it’s easy to feel like a very small fly caught in a vast web waiting to be eaten alive by the search engine spiders.

How on earth do you get attention amongst all the noise and flash?

First, have faith in the search engines.
Second, be authentic.
Third, be brave.

Search engine spiders don’t look for glossy, flashy websites. They don’t care how big your business is. They look for rich, relevant content. How great is that? This means you being authentic - talking online about your expertise, the experiences offered by you and your destination, and the people involved.

Make sure you optimise your site too, which simply means making it easy for the spiders to read the content. If you’re nervous about how to do it, this article demystifies the process.

Another important factor is inbound links. If there are other authoritative, high-ranking sites pointing to you, Google will take this to mean that you must know what you’re talking about.

Our travel sites zoomed straight to a 4/10 PageRank after just a few months of going live simply by paying attention to these factors: content, SEO and links.

What’s great about search engines is that they’re constantly onto those who try to fake it. So if a site tries to buy or sell links, they get penalised. Inbound links need to be genuine links prompted by excellent content on your site. And an inbound link is worth a lot more than a reciprocal link (i.e. you link to me and I’ll link to you).

Here are two of the best ways to get inbound links:
1. Have useful, relevant content on your site AND use your blog to link to useful content on other sites. Not only does this add value for your readers, but you’ll attract the attention of those other sites, and if they like what they see, they’ll add value for their readers by linking to you.
2. This is where being brave comes in - write articles about the travel experiences you offer and post them on article syndication sites, such as ezinearticles.com. Getting an article published on a site like this will automatically get you up to 3 inbound links from a high-ranking (6/10) authoritative site.

So the secret to getting search ranking comes down to:
Having faith that Google will rank you for the right reasons without bias (not forgetting SEO).
Being authentic in your content and your intentions when you manage links.
And being brave enough to publish your content beyond your own site.

The recent Tourism Directions & Distribution Conference in Sydney brought to light some important changes taking place in the tourism industry, which put you as a small tourism operator in much bigger shoes.

Giving the keynote address was Anna Pollock of Desticorp, whose views caught my attention and led me to read the white papers published on her site.

In describing the rapidly disintegrating travel distribution model of the 20th century, she lists three groups of providers:

1. Large global and national distributors, including wholesalers, ITOs, airlines and hotel chains
2. Systems providers and intermediaries, such as Galileo and Sabre, which include only the larger corporate suppliers in their databases, and
3. “The rest! Hundreds of thousands of small to medium-sized enterprises [SMEs] located throughout the globe that offer both direct travel-related services (accommodation, dining, transport, recreation and entertainment) and ancillary services (insurance, software, content, finance, weather, news, maps etc).”

I put the last point in quotes because these are Anna’s words, and it’s this large group of providers who are putting together the new model of distribution, which functions primarily online.

Anna goes on to say that this group is “waiting and ready for affordable, flexible, practical solutions that can connect them to a global market of demanding, capricious and valuable consumers hungry for the new, the unusual, the unique and boutique” (my emphasis).

If you sat up and said to yourself - that’s me - you’d be right. Small tourism enterprises have a huge amount to gain from the new distribution model that’s emerging across the world.

Says Anna: “There’s a revolution brewing that threatens to crumble the edifices of the corporate world.” (Don’t we all love to hear that?)

She’s talking about the same revolution described by Chris Anderson in “The Long Tail”. Chris explains that the ability you now have as a niche business to sell directly to prospects across the globe via the Internet means you can siphon off your corner of the market from larger businesses without depending on centralised distribution channels.

The problem for wholesalers translating a top-down model onto the Internet is that large, faceless sites, which are little more than a directory-cum-booking-engine, can’t interact, respond quickly to change or engage users with their personality and depth.

The threat to wholesalers comes from you - and others like you - the more focused sites and distribution systems (the brokers described by Anna Pollock), which are able to:

• beat the generic sites in the search rankings through authoritative content in a niche area,
• build trust and engage users through strategic blogging,
• maintain a personal conversation through targeted email marketing, and
• provide a fuller service through partnership with industry affiliates.