aaron dalrymple dot com

Here is an interesting piece on a company creating mp3 walking tours of major cities. They’re doing it with the “iPod Generation” in mind (complete with a “motley crew of punk rockers, exotic dancers, tribal leaders, and FBI agents” as narrators, which strikes me as a generalization of the so-called iPod generation). But, a number of other young companies are beginning to do this for other types of self-guided tours and different demographics too, I’m sure.

I don’t believe that this technology is only useful to the young and tech-savvy. People of all ages seem to be able to use the audio guide devices at art museums. That’s really all the more complex it needs to be.

Imagine taking a walking tour of a city like Santa Fe, NM. You order your walking guide ahead of time or buy it at a kiosk downtown or at the chamber office. It comes in multiple languages and with various content choices (art galleries, architecture, culture, etc.). Then, you can choose from audio only - loaded to your mp3 player - or a preloaded device that is a simple mp3 player and headphones. In fact the device could be a simple flash device that the user could keep and plug in via USB to their computer at home to put their own music on later, or simply throw away. The amount of flash memory needed for a tour is nearing disposable prices now; after all, we do have disposable cell phones. Maybe a drop box at the airport would allow them to get a small deposit back…

Who knows exactly… But, my point is that this will not be limited to the young iPod carrying crowd, and the company that’s most successful will appeal to all ages and all demographics.

iPod, therefore I travel

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Tagged as: Travel Marketing, travel, audio tours, iPod, mp3

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Since we’re going into a long weekend, I thought I would post on a couple of things that I’ve been following and thinking about since I won’t get a chance to post much over the next few days.

Kayak.com gets $11.5M in financing for marketing, expansion - I heard someone say at a conference last year, meta travel search engines are an answer to a question no one asked. And based on the JupiterReaserch data that I posted about earlier today, only 4% of travelers are using them. I guess you could look at this two different ways: 1) HUGE growth opportunity; 2) No real value to the costumer using one of these engines. I’m going with number 2. In Kayak’s case, though, there’s $30 million saying I’m wrong. Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Sequoia Capital and American Online have all invested in Kayak, which is using the new funds to expand into the U.K., Germany and France.

Google AdsBot Now Coming To Assess Your Landing Pages – Google just keeps getting smarter. In case you don’t already know, when you buy pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google, your position is not only based on how much you’re willing to pay, but also what the click through rate (CTR) is on your ads. So you can bid $100 for a click, but if after a short amount of time (measured in impressions) your ad doesn’t receive any clicks, you’ll see your ad drop in the rankings. This ensures maximum revenues for Google and, in my opinion, seems to be fair to everyone. Now, they’re taking it a step further and are going to inspect the landing pages you’re pointing your ad to to help establish your ranking. It makes a case for targeted landing pages; which is something we already know helps conversions. This should be beneficial for everyone from Google down to the consumer.
Google AdsBot Now Coming To Assess Your Landing Pages, Will Impact Your AdRank

What do you think of this:
Is Google Dropping Conservative Sites They Disagree With?

Have a Great Weekend!

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Tagged as: Google, Travel Marketing, Search Engines, SEM, Online Marketing, Google AdsBot, AdsBot, Kayak.com, meta search engines, PPC, landing pages

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If you look at the number of vacation packages being offered on sites like Expedia and Travelocity, you would think that this is what the consumer wants, this is what they are buying. Especially for destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean.

Most of my clients are in the travel industry and from what I’ve seen this simply hasn’t been the case. I think we’ve all thought about the simplicity of buying a perfectly packaged vacation and flying away, stress-free, with ease. Unfortunately finding that perfect package with the right dates, hotels, and most of all, the right PRICE doesn’t seem to go as smoothly as we would like. So, we put together our own vacation package - buying separate air, hotel, excursions, etc.

I think a lot of it stems from the fact that the advertised “from” price is usually impossible to find, or it’s for restrictive dates, in a less-than-desirable hotel, doesn’t include some major component or amenity, etc. One of these experiences, of not being able to actually find the lead-in price, usually frustrates us enough to look past those offers and dig in ourselves.

Of course the agencies would rather sell you a package because they make more margin on their packages, which is why they slap them all over their home pages.

Well, all of this may be finally starting to change. The JupiterResearch report, “US Travel Consumer Survey, 2006” finds that consumers are beginning to book packages. In fact, they show that it’s climbed to 41% (from 29% in 2005) this year for travelers requiring multiple components. This could indicate a pretty major shift in online travel and the way we market and sell online.

My initial thought is, though, is it just temporary? Is it this year’s higher air rates that are making package prices more appealing? Or some other shift that may change again in six months or a year?

Here is a piece with more numbers from the report, including data on search engine behavior among consumers looking for travel and data on travel meta search engines.

Online travelers shift to package deals - Hotelmarketing.com

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Tagged as: Travel Marketing, online travel, jupiter research, US Travel Consumer Survey, hotel marketing, vacation packages

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Well - that may be a bit of a stretch. But, while playing with the new Google Blog Search tool today, I did discover something interesting about Jeremy’s blog platform and Google’s new Blog Search tool. Jeremy is a long time blogger and Yahoo employee who I’ve seen several times at conferences on panels about blogging and search. In fact, he was part of one of my favorite sessions at this year’s PubCon in Boston.

Anyhow, it appears that Google Blog Search is some how exposing the email addresses of the people leaving comments on his blog posts. I’m not sure how or why, but I know that Jeremy isn’t letting it happen intentionally, it must be from the feed that Google is using?? Jeremy states on his site: I do not share or publish the email addresses or IP addresses of anyone posting a comment here without consent.

Here is the post I just left for him with the details:

Jeremy - Hope you’re having a great vacation. I was trying out the new Google Blog Search and discovered something scary about your blog and Google’s new search tool… It’s exposing the email addresses of your commenters. I did a search for my name and came up with a comment that I had left in one of your posts. Even though my email isn’t exposed on your site as intended, it’s showing up in the Google Blog Search result.

So I tested plugging in a few random strings from comments on your site on various posts and sure enough, I can see the email address of any comment poster on your site, if that comment has been indexed… I assume it has something to do with your feed?? Not sure if it’s just your blog or a certain platform…

Here is an actual screen shot:

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Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, Blogging, Jeremy Zawodny, Google Blog Search

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Here is a job posting for a company in the Denver area that I am familiar with. It’s Internet, it’s marketing, it’s travel - so I thought it would be a good fit for this blog:

Group Travel Company Seeks Direct Marketer

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Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing, internet marketing, job posting, travel jobs, group travel, direct marketing

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The fact that review sites are important to independent properties, as well as larger resorts, is no surprise. What may come as a surprise though is that, according to this article, some independent hotels say as much as 75 percent of their business comes from their referrals on consumer review sites such as tripadvisor.com and igougo.com. Wow.

Several weeks ago I was talking in a hotel bar with a woman who owns and runs a small bed and breakfast in Napa, CA and she indicated that between 60 and 75 percent of her business comes from Tripadvisor referrals; so I believe it. She also said that she personally reads every review and professionally replies to all negative comments, which is a nice touch.

This speaks to the power of review sites and word of mouth marketing. Not the intentional word of mouth that marketers try to create, but the natural community oriented buzz that comes from a good product and great costumer service. I would imagine that savvy property owners and managers could use these sites to find weaknesses and make it a goal to improve those as well. I’m sure that their customers are much more candid in this forum than they would be to the managers themselves or even in a survey.

Online reviews get hotels’ attention - DailyBreeze.com

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Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing, Hotel Marketing, TripAdvisor, IgoUgo, consumer reviews

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Because I’m currently going through a redesign with a client from the ground up, and have gone through numerous last minute optimizations for new sites, and many campaigns long after the site design was finished, I found a lot of good tips in this post from Lee Odden quoting a post from Yahoo SEO Program Manager, Laura Lippay.

A lot of times SEO is an after thought for a new site.  Too often it is viewed as a pure marketing function - more like taking out a magazine ad - as opposed to a part of design, development AND marketing.  I believe that a really great site does everything well and includes SEO at each step of the way.

Here is Lee’s post at Online Marketing Blog:

SEO Before or After 

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Tagged as: Search Engines, Marketing, SEO, Online Marketing, web design, Lee Odden, search engine optimization

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I’m often discouraged by the negative view that a lot of individuals have on the SEO industry.  I’ve had a number of clients, potential clients or just folks that I talk with who say things like, “oh, we don’t want a thousand links on every page and lots of copy that that doesn’t make sense.” Or, “search engine pages are ugly.”

I suppose it’s not their fault, the industry has had a lot of these problems in the past.  Even today there are many SEOs who are so focused on nothing but rankings that they consistently “chase the algorithm” and produce content that is utterly useless from a user’s perspective.

What I like to tell clients is that having a top placement is only one third of the battle.  The rest is converting that top placement to a click and then that click into a customer.  This includes everything from securing a top placement to having the right title tags (this is what displays in the search engine’s results page)  to having a page that converts visitors into buyers.

It is interesting to think about how this attitude has shifted though.  It wasn’t very long ago when online companies were telling us to drive traffic, lots of traffic, and fast…  Quality was second to quantity.  That may be why the profession looks as it does today.

A great SEO is like an m&m; a perfect mix of crunchy tech know-how with a soft marketing middle.  Maybe that was a stretch…

Here is a great article on SEOs who are still running wild and some good tips on making sure you, or your optimizer, is wearing a white hat…

Curbing SEOs Who’ve Gone Wild

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Tagged as: Search Engines, SEO, Online Marketing, Optimization Tips, search eninge marketing,

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Well I took a leap and ended the reign that PCs and Windows have had on my home and office. I’ve been thinking about getting a new laptop for a while and have thought about getting some sort of Mac on and off for a few years. When the new Intel Macs came out I knew it would be a matter of time. When the MacBook came out a couple of days ago, I had to see it. I went to the Apple store and came home with a shiny white one, which now sits on my dinning room table waiting to be powered up for the first time. But alas - I have tons of work to do first. )-:

Not only is Apple a great brand (in the marketing sense), but Apples hold a special place in the hearts of many computer folks my age. PCs didn’t really come on the scene in any meaningful way (for me) until I was well into high school. I took a Lotus 123 class on a PC my junior or senior year (DOS version) and that was really the first PC I had ever spent time with. I have fond memories of the Apple, Apple II and IIe, the first Macs and hours of playing the Oregon Trail in school.

PCs just don’t bring me any warm fuzzies. I suppose warm fuzzies aren’t exactly a great reason to buy a computer, but there it sits… waiting for me…

I suppose that’s one big reason Apple IS such a great brand - they’ve never overlooked the user experience. That includes everything from styling to materials to reliable software. Oh, and putting them in front of millions of impressionable children…

I’m looking forward to playing and learning something new too. Plus, next time I go to a conference I’ll be one of the cool kids with a Mac looking down their nose at all those stuffy PC users. I might just buy some expensive jeans too. (-;

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Tagged as: Gadgets, MacBook, Apple

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For the low price of your contact information (or a hotmail account you haven’t touched since 1996) you can grab a copy of Omniture’s industry guide for one of five industry segments. The guides are a decent little source of current info, trends and research from one of the top web analytics companies. They’re 10-15 pages of info that is sure to look great on PowerPoint presentations everywhere! Of course they’re a little sales pitchy, but it’s free. The segments include:

• Retail & Commerce
• Media & Content
• Financial Services
• Travel & Hospitality
• B2B & Lead Generation

Get yours here:
Industry Guides

I also see that the Omniture home page is now displaying a new download:
7 Steps to Increase Conversion Engagement - Applying Relevancy

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Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing, Analytics, omniture, marketing trends, industry guides, Retail, Media, Financial Services, Travel, Hospitality, B2B, Lead Generation

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