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Trip Advisor is listing more and more of our articles

We’ve always liked Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor.com) for its unbiased travel advice and its willingness to gather destination information from any place it thinks has an interesting take on things. We have to be honest that another reason we like them is that Trip Advisor has been picking up articles from our online newsletter, The Cultured Traveler, for some time now. Its collection of articles published by us currently stands at over 20 - accessing over one-half of our total archived issues. What does that mean for our advertisers? With our current fixed rates for newsletter ads, the residual value you receive is incalculable! Any ad can be valuable and viable for years. For companies contributing articles, a Web Page Ad will increase your exposure and provide immediate gratification to a traveler looking for more information. Did we mention we offer special rates for contributors?  We'll repeat what we’ve been saying for over three years: We’re serious about doing the best job we can to lead online visitors to businesses like yours.

7 things consumers want you to keep in mind about your web site

Masha Geller at MediaPost reminded her readers recently of seven qualities consumers want to see on your web site before they’ll trust it: 1. Convenience – If it takes too long to find information or order things on your site, kiss your would-be customers goodbye. 2. Speed – Don’t make people wait. If that means sacrificing fancy graphics or applets, do it. 3. Detailed information – Behind the ad or marketing copy, show some substance. Give visitors a very good idea of what you offer. 4. Easy navigation – Let people return to the previous page without a hassle. Arrange and name things the way normal human beings would. 5. Use enhancements like product zoom – Let people get a bigger picture of what you’re selling. 6. Offer promotional opportunities – Give your best clients private discount offers or “sneak peek” looks at upcoming tours. 7. Call people by the name they give you – Some want to be called “Mr.” Others by their first name. Trust them to know how they want to be addressed. 

Yes, online research does generate offline shopping

The data keeps mounting that Internet marketing is becoming both a branding and a direct-response medium, according to The Dieringer Research Group. While shoppers last year bought $93.1 billion in goods and services online, an additional $137.6 billion in offline sales was directly affected by what consumers saw on the Web. In other words, a huge consumer market first went to the Internet to do research and get a sense of the different brands available before heading off downtown or to the mall to make an actual purchase. Dieringer says its survey of 2,000 U.S. adults also disclosed that one out of four consumers say that online information changed their brand perceptions during the year. At the tour operator level, this means that sales may not show up as a “right here, right now” response to a client’s visit to your web site. It’s important to ask clients how much your web site influenced their buying decision.

Spam isn’t killing e-mail, it’s just changing its approach

Although spam has mightily tested the patience of Internet users, it hasn’t overcome their ability to distinguish between legitimate and bogus e-mail. A study by DoubleClick shows that e-mail recipients have become very good at recognizing legitimate senders with whom they have a relationship and want to do business. Ironically, that ability has increased mail opening and click-through rates, two actions that many feared spam would dissuade people from doing. Click-throughs (clicking from the e-mail to a web site) rose from 7.5% to 8.3% from the second quarter of 2002 to the second quarter of 2003, and open rates rose slightly over the same period, from 37.6% to 38.8%. The good news here is that e-mail marketers who are taking the time to clearly label the source and content of their messages are doing an effective job of getting through.

Increase business by spreading a friendly virus? Here’s how:

 “Viral marketing” describes a phenomenon that inspires people to pass its message along to others, thereby “marketing” it. Think of the recent “Star Wars Kid” or the dancing baby that’s been on the Internet for several years. On a smaller scale, viral marketing happens each time people e-mail jokes, or essays or articles to others. You can do your own modest form of viral marketing by having interesting travel stories or related material that you send to your clients and other people you routinely deal with. If they’re good, recipients will pass them on to their friends and contacts of their own accord. If you have a great story or insight, but haven’t polished it, we can help: We can help you edit and format an article that you can send to others and we can link it to your listing for extra exposure. You keep full ownership and take full credit – our job is done once you OK our work on it. Contact Sheri Leigh at sheri@culturaltravels.com for more details.

Google is the favorite search engine – in more ways than one

The current darling of Internet observers is the quickly growing search engine ad market. More and more clients are paying Google, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves and others to have their names ranked high in search engine returns. The reasoning is simple: People searching for specific information are probably already in the market for goods or services – putting your message before them when they’re in a buying mood makes sense. But what doesn’t get talked about is how dependent some search engines are on other search engines’ technology – as a result often publishing other engine’s paid rankings without saying so. For example, according to Search Engine Watch, paid listings from Google (the most popular search engine at 33% of all users worldwide – Yahoo is second at 24% ) may appear on AOL, Ask Jeeves and sometimes even Yahoo because they use Google’s search technology. Smaller companies looking to pay for search result listings should keep in mind that a dollar spent in one place can show up in several others.

Our Monthly Factoids 

• Research company eMarketer says 56.5 million US households will have digital TV by 2005, up from 38.9 million at the beginning of 2003 – a penetration rate of 50%. In comparison, only 30% of US households will have broadband Internet by 2005. This statistic will bear on how you, a travel provider, will be able to present such services as on-demand video to would-be clients. 
   

• While Internet penetration nationwide averages 59%, says the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the East and West Coasts (Pacific Northwest at 68%; California and New England at 66%) have substantially higher rates than the Midwest (55%) and the South (48%). For now this means the far ends of the country are the most lucrative Internet markets. But a glass-half-full attitude says the South and Midwest are the next major growth areas for Internet commerce. 
   

• This is out of left field, but it may be an early indicator of a general economic recovery: Harris Interactive YouthPulse reports that the 8-to-21-year-old U.S. youth market controls $172 billion in spending money. Even taking into account their profligate ways, the study says that youths sense the economy is going well enough to let them worry about saving for another day. Since kids are often the cutting edge of the consumer economy, this one little datum could be an important one.