As we attempt to navigate the complexity of Google Analytics to better understand our website, there are a few data points we should look at before creating our marketing strategy. The rich data we discover will enable us to create a custom user journey path and help personalize our website, ads, and content to improve all aspects of our 2020 digital marketing plan.

Target Markets

If you haven’t identified your geographical target markets, or you’re looking to fine tune your current strategy, consider using the Audience > Geo-Location report to identify who is coming to your site compared to who brings in the most revenue. You may think Arizona is your best market with the largest amount of traffic and transactions, but take a closer look and you’ll find that California brings in more revenue! With this data, you can decide if you want to introduce new CA users to your funnel, or work on improving your conversion rates for AZ.

*Tip – If you’re looking to implement a plan for Q1, ensure you’re analyzing January-March of the previous year to see who is likely to book again this year.

Website Engagement

Once you discover California as the bulk of your revenue, you may want to break that down further to see how these users interact on your website. Segments, which are about the most simplistic yet complex aspect of Google Analytics, will allow you to view multiple custom audiences on ALL pages of Google Analytics, at the same time. As you look at your favorite views in GA, change from the default “All Users” to view to only show a specific audience, user location, device, common user page paths, etc. For example, by using the geolocation view, you can create segments for users in San Francisco compared to all other Californians and compare acquisition, revenue, bounce rate, etc.

*Tip – try using segments in your E-Commerce product reports to see if different users book different packages and room types!

Personalized Ads

Once you’ve identified the locations you want to prioritize, sending the same ad won’t benefit them if they are looking at different seasons for their travel. When you create new audiences, you can publish them to your Google Ads account for remarketing. Consider adding custom dimensions with booking engine data to identify which month the user is looking to book. With that data, you can create ads for users searching for stay dates in March, and send them personalized offers such as spring break escapes.

*Tip – Once you have custom dimension data, use it to analyze the booking windows and seasonality for different geo locations. For example, publish content for spring break activities and send them to local Texans during their 14 day booking window.

Packages & Promotions

Whether your goal is revenue, bookings, or a higher share of direct bookings, understanding what guests are booking will play a huge part in your website and ad content. For the data lovers out there, Pivot Tables are an extremely valuable function when looking to add a 3rd dimension to your data set. You can utilize this table in your e-commerce report to identify which room types and packages are contributing to the most bookings and room nights.

Taking a closer look, I’d try to sell more SeaWorld Packages in that Luxury Presidential Suite…

*Tip – try adding a Google Analytics segment to your pivot table to get a FOURTH dimension!

Landing Page

With the right targeting settings, personalized content and appropriate offer selection, you’re well on your way to a successful ad campaign. As an advertiser, you won’t want to stop there to assume the transaction is also on it’s way. A compelling landing page with appropriate content is key to driving the user to complete the action you’re hoping for. Through experimental solutions such as Google Optimize, you can A/B test different variants of your page such as call to actions, page paths, content and more. The Behavior > Experiments portion of Google Analytics will enable you to analyze your variants and decide which page exceeded your KPIs!

*Tip – Create an experiment for users coming from a specific location or ads campaign with a unique and personalized landing page experience.

Once you grasp the image of your ideal consumer and comprehend how and why they convert, you’ll reveal your secret weapon to grow your revenue in 2020! Your user journey approach will be personalized to as many audiences as you choose, and you’ll be that much closer to increasing your annual KPIs. For help on analyzing and creating a data incentivized customer journey, contact Screen Pilot to get started on your enhanced marketing plan.

By Meredith Rauch

Paid Search Strategy Manager, Screen Pilot

In my never ending quest to help salespeople automate whatever they can (because used wisely, it is always a friend), I thought I should bring up the concept of lead nurturing.

Prospecting emails is one of the most popular topics in my training class, Influencer Sales.  I cover some key points around how influencers prospect and I think people like it so much because first, everyone hates making telephone prospecting calls and this seems much easier.  But second, this is much more prospect friendly.  People prefer emails to phone calls today and crafted correctly, you can get a pretty good response rate – higher generally than phone calls.

But there is a science to it.  As with everything that touches our prospects or customers, there needs to be some value added.  Each prospecting email needs to have a strong and compelling headline/subject line, a few short sentences that quickly explain why you are writing and what results you can get for them.  It closes with a simple call to action – most often just asking, are you the right person for me to be contacting?  And then the value add – here is an article/video/how to that will likely be of interest to you.

As effective as a single prospecting email can be, think of lead nurturing as prospecting on steroids.

On average, you need to reach out to a prospect between 7 – 12 times.  Seriously.  Who has time for that?  And – this is often true even for customers who reach out to you first.  How many times have you gotten an inquiry, responded back pretty quickly and then never heard back again?  If you are like most salespeople, you probably give up after one or two follow ups.  However, the research is pretty clear – if you follow up more frequently, you increase your odds of getting a response.  The magic number seems to be 5 for the customer who has reached out to you.  Again, who has the time for that?

Lead nurturing is your solution.  While there are several kinds of nurturing campaigns, the type I am talking about here is for your cold prospects, or a similar campaign can also be set up for those who reach out to you.

You have to do a little bit of upfront work.  I have created a checklist that helps me think through the series of information pieces I want to share with prospects, and then I spend about 45 minutes filling in the blanks and crafting 5-7 emails.

I think about my buyer persona – the unique needs of my potential prospect.  What is it about my product or service that might be appealing to them?  The beginning of my checklist looks like this:

In this example, let’s say that I want to target small meeting planners.  I will use my own list of prospects that work in offices within a five mile radius of my property.  The typical title of this list includes office managers, HR managers, Executive assistants.  I think through what their challenges might be, how my property/hotel might help and what digital resources I have to share.

Next I map out the touch points.  Since this is a fairly cold outreach, I want to plan for 7 touch points.  One habit I have gotten into is to look at the prospect’s LinkedIn profile and ask to connect as my first touchpoint.  That gives me a little name recognition as everyone likes to see who is looking at their profile.

My subject lines for prospecting nurturing campaigns typically follow a similar process.  I start out with a curiosity – inspired subject line.  My first call to action is always – are you the right person?  If not can you tell me who is.  After that, my second email is usually a FOMO – appealing to everyone’s fear of missing out on something.  Three, Four and Five are usually around a typical pain point my prospects might have – things like no more boring meetings, a hassle free experience, an event that promises to engage, etc.  Finally, I will do a social proof subject line – something like, TripAdvisor says we are the best choice for X, or some other indicator that we are the preferred choice.  The 7^th email is always the same – the goodbye.

My next step is to think about the value adds and what my existing digital assets include.  What do I mean by this?  What great articles or videos do you have to share with your target audience?  Infographics?  Quizzes?  Checklists?  What tools or information do you have access to that will make it easier for this target audience to do business with you?  Then I try to match those assets with one of the emails.

I write each of the subject lines first, then the value add, then the call to action.  Once you have those sketched out, all you are really missing is the one or two lines about a single result – or benefit that your prospect will get from working with you.

The last step is to put everything together and craft all 7 emails.  It sounds much more time consuming than it actually is!  The first time will be a challenge and can take you 45 minutes to an hour if you can focus!   But once you put the first one together, the rest are a piece a cake.  Here is a sample of a typical first email:

All of the emails are brief, and follow the same pattern.  Strong subject – all about them, just one result or benefit of your property, call to action, value add.

The key now is to schedule these emails to go our automatically, with no ongoing effort on your part.  You have put in the work, you wrote the emails, now let the system do the heavy lifting.

Today, workflow automations are available in most CRMs.  And if your CRM doesn’t have one, there are only about 100 apps that can help you.

One of my favorites is Snov.io  This is an app that allows you to try it for free, but then the cost is around $29 a month.  The reason I like it so much is that it allows me to continually add people to my campaign.  As people sign up on my website, or meet me at a trade show, I can just add them in and within a day or two, the first email will go out and they will go through the whole series with no more effort from me.

You can schedule your emails based on time or activity.  For time, you can say, every 3 days, send out the next email.  For activity – this is my preferred method – you can tell the system, if my prospect opens this email, wait 3 days and send the next one.  If they don’t open my email (or click on the link), then you can send them down a different path.   Here is a sample of what one of my campaign looks like in Snov.io.

In the end, you will have a few different buckets.  One bucket will be the prospects who never opened any of your emails (I will usually only send 2-3 if they don’t open).  These people probably don’t have a need for you.

The second bucket will be those who opened some of your emails.  Those people have a mild interest and I will try to learn what appealed to them (by looking at what emails they opened) and set them up on another campaign.

The third bucket will be the people who reach out to you directly after receiving one, two, three or maybe five emails.  Those are my favorites because they are usually ready to book now.

The final bucket will be the people who opened most or all of your emails, but never reached out to you.  If these people are opening your emails, they likely have an interest in your product, but don’t have a current need.  I will usually pick up the phone and call those people to find out timing.  Or sometimes I might just add them into another series.

And that is lead nurturing!  If it sounds a little overwhelming and you would like some additional help, I offer a webinar on this topic a few times a year.   I share my whole checklist and mapping with you, as well as seven sample emails to get you started.

Click here for more information and to register: bit.ly/leadnurturer/

Once you get it down, you will discover all sorts of campaigns you can create – beyond just prospecting.  Again, invest a little time up front and then let the system bring the business to you!  Past customers, lost business, new neighbors, new markets.  Honestly, automation can be your friend!

By Holly Zoba

Owner of Influencer Sales

December 26, 2019

Original Article:

https://influencer-sales.com/sales/automation-salesperson-friend-or-foe/

The 5 Rs of Revenue Management

Most hotels are seasonal, but each market has very different needs in each quarter. For example, Minneapolis is not busy in Q1, while Phoenix is in high season. However, it is crucial for Revenue Managers to look at the 5 Rs of Revenue Management regardless of the season.

When was the last time you as a Revenue Manager looked at these components for your hotel? How often are you looking at these components? Ideally, this information should be analyzed at least semi-annually – _even better, quarterly.

With asset managers and management companies focused on profits, this might be the best time to take a look and make sure your strategy is attracting the RIGHT guest.

RevPAR projections for 2020

• Asian Hospitality predicts that RevPAR will remain flat.
• Hotel News Now reports that both STR and CBRE show occupancy falling slightly and ADR showing a slight increase.

4 Expert Tips for profitable gains in 2020

1. Evaluate your Channel management/distribution

With so many ways for a customer to book your hotel, it is important to understand the cost of each distribution channel. Not all guests book the same way, and the cost of each channel can vary.

Most popular channels

• Hotel Direct
• GDS (Global Distribution Solutions)
• OTAs (Online Travel Agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com)

If most of your business comes from the OTA channel, but has a cost of 20% associated with it, it might be beneficial to try gaining more direct bookings with lower cost acquisition.

A Profit Launch Assessment can evaluate how your business is booking and the cost associated with this business. This helps you determine your most profitable channels.

2. Target the right audience

Determine who the ideal customer is for your hotel. This will help direct your marketing funds and price your hotel accordingly.

What types of customers stay at your hotel? What demographics define the types of customers you attract? Families? Couples? Multi-generational guests?

This is important because if, for example, your hotel is not popular with the more mature clientele, it might not make a difference that your AARP discount is 5% or 25%. Having this information available will help you accurately define your target market.

Where do your customers come from? Review your feeder cities to determine where you should be marketing. If most of your travelers are within a 5-hour driving radius of your hotel, it would be wise to target guests in that area. Perhaps offering a special rate for guests in the tri-state area or a specific zip code would be effective. If your hotel attracts guests from certain countries, you could have a few amenities that they would find beneficial.

Booking windows also vary based on clientele and feeder cities. Knowing when each type of business books can help determine the most profitable business to attract and the best time to promote different types of business.

On your website, increase conversion by highlighting the attributes of your hotel that will appeal to your ideal customer. If your hotel attracts families that are in the drive-in market, you could promote parking, family activities in the area, breakfast or other options that would appeal to families when they stay with you.

3. Create an unconstrained demand forecast

Unconstrained Demand forecast looks at how many rooms you could sell if you had unlimited inventory. This is different from a monthly operational forecast.

To create an unconstrained demand forecast, consider how many rooms you have sold on a specific date, and how many rooms you could sell for that date. Creating a demand forecast for the year will help determine a marketing calendar to maximize the return on marketing dollars spent. This also helps synergize revenue management and marketing so they are working together to create a unified plan.

How to use the information in your unconstrained demand forecast

• Determine when you have opportunity to increase rate or eliminate discounts.
• Find dates that may need more assistance and possibly target specials to help increase demand.

4. Shop your competition

When was the last time you shopped your competition? If you haven’t evaluated this in the past 6 months, you might be losing out on revenue opportunities. Looking at each of your competitors on their brand sites, the OTA sites and Trip Advisor will help you understand what they are doing, and how guests are reacting to them.

Each hotel should have a list of the following regarding their competitors:

• what amenities they have at the hotel
• what specials they have in place each day
• who their top accounts are

This should be updated regularly, at least twice a year or as you notice a shift in your business.

Reading your competitors’ guest reviews will help you determine how to sell against them as well as provide insight to what is happening at that particular hotel. what is happening at that particular hotel.

Who, How, Where, When & Why of 2020

Whether 2020 proves to be a challenging year or smooth sailing, properties need to utilize every tool available. If used properly and frequently, your hotel will stand above the rest. Narrowing down who your customer is, how they are booking at your hotel, where are they coming from, when are they coming and why they should choose your hotel are great steps in helping your hotel gain share over the competitors.

By Jennifer Koll

Brand Systems Manager, Total Customized Revenue Management, LLC.