Hotel Digital Marketing Snapshot and How to Budget for 2016 Webinar
1. HOW TO BUDGET FOR
2016 DIGITAL
MARKETING
Attendees are muted, for any
questions please type in the chat
box. There will be time at the end to
review questions!
2. Milestone Confidential
Panel
• Sara Linton
Product Marketing Specialist
• Julie Chapman
Sr. Director of Business Development
• Mike Supple
Director of Products & Social Media
• Benu Aggarwal
Founder & President
3. Milestone Confidential
Agenda
1 Search trends
2 Factors that directly impact ROI
• Organic presence
• Content
• Website technology
• Social marketing
3 2016 budgeting checklist
8. Milestone Confidential
Digital Marketing Must Have
Website
Technology
Website Content
& Design
Organic and
SEO Promotion
Mobile
Friendliness
Digital Media
Advertising
Social Media
Presence
12. Milestone Confidential
Is Organic/Natural Search Still Relevant?
28% 29%
18%
45%
54% 54%
-3%
1%
-7%
3%
13% 14%
2013-Q4 2014-Q1 2014-Q2 2014-Q3 2014-Q4 2015-Q1
Y/Y Growth in Organic Search Visits
Mobile Overall
Source: RKG Quarterly Digital Marketing Report
13. Milestone Confidential
Build Relevancy: Optimize Quality Listings
Local Search Engine
& Hyper Local Listings
Data Aggregators Internet Yellow Pages
Business, Local,
Industry and Niche
Maps
17. Milestone Confidential
Create Content Based on Searcher Intent
3 types of queries
• Navigational: branded or specific website
• Informational: long-tail and research and questions
• Transactional: ready to make a purchase
18. Milestone Confidential
Content Starts on the SERP
Does the
title match
what the
searcher
wants?
Is the URL
trustworthy?
Does the description
create curiosity & lead
to a click?
Is it easy for
the
searcher to
contact
you?
Can the
searcher’s
NEXT question
be answered
from this
result?
20. Milestone Confidential
Convert Holiday Season Information Queries!
Holiday pages with
fresh local content &
specials
104 Sessions with
very high engagement
25. Milestone Confidential
Mobile First Design
Menu is
placed top
right for
optimal
position
Navigation
buttons have a
recommended
target size of
44px tall
Booking
icon is
position
adjacent
with full
screen
dropdown
26. Milestone Confidential
Continued Evolution of the Scroll
Conduct usability
testing to see how
your design is
working
Limit the use of too
many screens,
such as infinite
scrolls
Create sticky navigation
Differentiate scrolling
navigation controls for
other calls-to-actions and
links
Include visual cues to orient
users (scroll up/down)
27. Milestone Confidential
Building Interactive Story
Interactivity is
the best way
to reach your
user
It persuades
your user,
because they
are having
more fun
browsing the
website
Expansion of
HTML5, CSS,
Javascript, jQuery
allows greater
creativity with less
strain on
implementation
30. Milestone Confidential
Website Technology – Platform SEO Audit
Critical message
Crawls
Robots.txt tester
Server
Sitemap issue
Index status
Structured data errors
International targeting
Mobile usability
Search analytics
31. Milestone Confidential
Gtmetrix – Awesome tool build on Yslow and
Pagespeed (Yahoo and Google API)
• A and B = Good
Score
• Highlight areas to
fix
• Build on 2 critical
API
32. Milestone Confidential
Search Today - Voice and Conversational
Past
• Open Google maps
• Type address
• Get directions
Present & Future
• Based on structured
data
• Geo-targeted
• Socially Relevant
35. Milestone Confidential
Usability Studies Help Increase Conversions
Heatmap
Study &
Analysis
Multi Device
Monitoring
Visitor
Conversion
Funnel
Accessibility
Advanced
Browser
testing
Mobile
Usability
Changes
36. Milestone Confidential
A/B Testing on Content Position
Accommodations
A
Accommodations
B
Removed Hero
Image to push
content to top
20%
improvement in
conversions
38. Milestone Confidential
What Is Social Content Marketing?
Brand messaging
• Image &
reputation
Community
management /
CSR
• Customer
support &
engagement
Content marketing
• Reach new
audience
• Create SEO
relevance
39. Milestone Confidential
How Social Content Marketing Impacts SEO
• Brand awareness
• Link potential
• Personalized search results
• Increased domain rankings
• Social sites rank well
• Google+ impacts local
search
• Relevant keywords
• Faster indexing
SEO
Social
Media
Source: http://www.semrush.com/blog/8-ways-social-media-can-impact-your-seo
Sweet spot – overlooked
by many businesses
40. Milestone Confidential
High Social Sharing Correlates to High Rank
#1 result has no backlinks, but
thousands of social shares
#7 result has hundreds of
backlinks, but no social shares
Tools used: SEO Quake plugin for link data, and Buzzsumo for social sharing
41. Milestone Confidential
How to Use Social to Connect to Search
Transactional
search
Informational
search
Opportunity to influence
purchase decisions. Blog,
Facebook, Instagram,
etc.
42. Milestone Confidential
Why do Visitors Spend Money?
Arts
Festivals
Marketing
Tasks
Sporting
Events
Conventions
& Meetings
Concerts
43. Milestone Confidential
What do YOUR Guests Care About?
“stayed here for our
Honeymoon”
“a romantic setting”
“an arcade and two
huge pools”